Wonder Never (The Fairytale Diaries #2) (3 page)

Next to the plate was an assortment of small, colored glass bottles. In front of them, a slip of paper instructed, "drink me."

In no way did Josh want to eat or drink anything found in a creepy tree in the middle of a swampy forest. It seemed like a fundamentally terrible idea. Particularly since Alice had obviously ate and then drank something before apparently disintegrating.

Yet, something told Josh, if he didn't do it, he would never find her. Even if he couldn't save her, he had to at least know what became of her.

He snatched a candy and a bottle. He pulled the cork from the bottle with his teeth then spat the thing out. He took one deep, shuddering breath, then popped the candy into his mouth and washed it down with a shot of the sour juice from the bottle.

***

It was the most fearsome sensation Josh had ever known.

And considering the level of fearsome things he'd known in his life that was saying a lot. First, he felt the uncanny feeling of shrinking. As though every fiber of his being imploded in an instant. But he couldn't gage if this was true by looking at objects around him because the world as he knew it had disappeared. Everything was black. Josh was blind.

He opened his mouth to scream, but if anything came out he did not hear or feel it. But then, he felt a new terrible sensation. This time it was a feeling of growing. He felt as though his body was being savagely stretched and pulled in every direction. In a matter of mere seconds, Josh went from feeling tiny, to feeling giant.

His sight returned but all remnants of the tree and the clearing were gone. Instead there were nothing but swirling and flashing colors, and he felt as though he was spinning. Doing a succession of fast cartwheels enough to turn his stomach and confuse his mind.

The sense of shrinking returned once more; not as extreme yet terrifying none the less. All went dark once more and Josh wanted to cry. Yet it seemed he no longer had eyes a mouth or a voice with which to weep in the inky blackness.

Then, there was a splash, and a wash of cool refreshment. To his utter amazement, Josh found himself floating in a slow moving river, under a cloudy black moonlit sky.

Chapter 4

H
e flailed for a moment of confusion, splashing the refreshing water over himself. Kicking his feet to stay afloat, Josh felt his own face and investigated all of his body that he could immediately see. He no longer felt the assault of bizarre sensations nor did he appear to be either gigantic or miniscule. He appeared to have returned to normal…

Ish.

His heart rate began to slow somewhat and he allowed himself to drift onto his back in the water. He stretched out spread eagle, turning his face to the sky.

It was unlike any sky he'd ever seen in a waking moment. It contained dozens of shades and patterns of grey, black, and purple. Each section of sky was pieced together by big uneven stitches, as though sewn by a child. Wispy clouds moved slowly across a huge full moon.

And that moon peered down with dark leering eyes and a toothy black grin from where it hung in the center of the sky.

The scene he stared up at was like a dream or fanciful painting come to life.

Josh shifted again in the water and began to swim. A lush green riverbed was only a few strokes away and he hauled himself out onto the bank.

He stood and stared down at himself. Josh took a sharp shocked intake of breath and startled when he found himself instantly clean and dry. His boots and clothing were restored to crisp, clear freshness as though he'd never trampled through the swampy wood or swam in the river that flowed right behind him.

He snuck another glance up at the grinning moon, thinking nothing more could surprise him.

Josh looked up and down the river bank. It seemed to wind on forever in either direction. About thirty feet of neatly trimmed grass in front of him, a tall brick wall topped by black wrought iron spikes rose and also seemed to sprawl endlessly. Beyond the wall, Josh could just barely make out distant roof tops but mostly he could just see trees.

After another silent moment of pondering, Josh began to walk up the bank toward a gate he could see just ahead and to the right. He took slow hesitant steps at first, picking up speed as he got closer. He came upon a tall black gate with an ornate, strangely lettered iron side spanning the opening far overhead.

"Wondernever," Josh murmured, reading the sign.

The gate stood slightly ajar. Just inside, a winding footpath began, made of black and white checkers and lined on either side by thick colorful bushels of flowers. Beyond the flowers were dozens of varieties of trees rising into the strange night sky. Mist snaked out of the forest and rolled across the path.

Josh squinted and strained to see far ahead. His heart sped once again as he caught sight of Ansel and Alice hurrying down the footpath beneath the eerie moonlight, displacing puffs of mist as they glided along.

With no hesitation this time, Josh slid through the slight opening where the gate had been left open. He stepped off the path, through the flowers, and into the trees. There he raced among the gnarled roots to catch up to Alice while remaining hidden from view.

***

They came upon a crossroads at a place which, from what Josh could see from his hiding spot, appeared to lead into village. It was comprised of small colorful buildings and cottages, connected by checkered foot paths, huge flowers, and situated at the bottom of a hill. The path and the forest wandered up the hill, and Josh couldn't make out much more.

Ansel and Alice exchanged words Josh couldn't hear and then parted ways. Ansel hurried away in one direction while Alice dejectedly took the opposite. Josh took inventory of the other people traveling the strange winding sidewalks. Everyone was oddly dressed in old fashioned garments that were far more colorful than anything he recalled from history books.

But then, he supposed this place wasn't anyplace that could be found in any books.

They also all wore strange wild hairdos, many of which were ghastly unnatural colors. Some seemed in a frantic rush but with no particular destination in mind. Others ambled slowly and seemed confused. None of them looked like anyone Josh couldn't handle. He decided he'd confront Alice on the foot path before he lost sight of her. He placed his foot outside the cover of the forest.

"You there!"

Josh nearly leapt out of his skin at the sound of a musical sounding male voice. He looked in the direction of the voice squinting into the darkness. He thought he could make out a figure deeper into the woods, but he wasn't certain. He shrugged and turned back to proceed onto the path.

"You!" the voice yelled again. "Yes, I'm talking to you in the blue jeans."

Josh groaned in frustration as he watched Alice walk further away. He glanced again into the woods but again ignored the voice and moved to step forward.

There came a laugh that sounded like eight notes moving up a clef. "I wouldn't. If I were you. If I were you, I wouldn't."

Josh turned and began stomping toward the voice, deeper into the forest, temporarily abandoning his plan to chase Alice. As he approached, he was annoyed to find a young man, sitting on top of a huge neon multi colored toad stool, and smoking. And it wasn't a cigarette either. In fact, it was a tube which fastened to a colorful glass pipe which contained bubbling water in the bottom. Fragrant smoke seeped out the top, where the guy had just had his lips.

Josh had seen a hookah before. The other carnival performers sometimes shared them and he'd even known people to use them in Faraway. But drugs didn't appeal to Josh in the slightest. And he certainly had no interest in chatting with some drugged out loser in the middle of the night in the strangest forest on Earth.

"Who. Are you?" said the boy. Speaking the word "who" sent a puff of smoke into Josh's face. He grimaced disgustedly.

"Who are
you
?" Josh spat, mindful of his crummy attitude and not caring.

The boy narrowed his eyes. "
YOU
are not Emerson Heart.
I
am Emerson Heart."

Josh arched one eyebrow and glared at the boy. He gave an annoyed shake of the head. "Sooo, your name is Emerson Heart?"

"That's what I said isn't it?"

Josh groaned again and began to spin on his heel to walk away, but Emerson spoke again.

"What are you doing here?"

Josh paused and stared into Emerson's glassy darting eyes.

"I really have no idea," Josh said honestly. "I have no idea even where here is or how I got here. I followed my friend."

Emerson shook his head with a tsk tsk tsk. "Oh I can assure you, you have no friends here." He punctuated his last phrase with a childish giggle.

"Well, can you tell me where I am?" Josh asked nervously, this time checking his tone. Anxiety began to creep in again.

"I can tell you to keep your temper," Emerson explained as though it made perfect sense.

"Huh?"

"And of course, if you want to shrink and grown, just cast yourself in like a stone!"

"What are you TALKING about?" Josh demanded. That only provoked another titter from Emerson Heart. Josh waved him off and turned to stomp away, angry he'd allowed himself to be distracted from Alice.

"Don't say I didn't warn you!" Emerson called before taking another long gurgling drag on the hookah.

Josh cast one more angry glance over his shoulder. "Alright I won't!" he said smartly. "Because you didn’t," he added under his breath.

Josh dashed into the mist and trees.

Chapter 5

J
osh attracted attention from a spattering of folks as he crawled through the trees and flowers and onto the footpath leading into Wondernever. A woman with glossy blue curls, piled messily beneath a pill box hat paused her quick, short steps to give him an alarmed look. A man in a lime green tuxedo with bright purple hair carefully styled with pomade looked at him with annoyance. The emotion on each face that noticed him ranged from confusion to outright anger. Josh found Wondernever a frustrating and unfriendly place, despite its bright clean colors and gorgeous flowers and forestry. It didn’t escape his attention that he hadn't seen a single smile.

For that reason he decided not to ask passersby about Alice. Instead, he walked along the main path looking here there and everywhere for any trace of her. It was when he passed beneath the window of a bright orange cottage with purple shutters, and a flower box in every window that he heard her voice.

Josh stopped short and stepped back to the window. The house stood on a tall foundation of pristine white bricks so he had to crane on his toes to catch a glimpse inside. He parted a gathering of tulips and found himself looking inside a small room. Alice stood speaking with a tall, stately woman.

"I… I've so much to do today already, Cadence!" Alice said weakly. It was hard to hear her though, over the racket. The woman clutched a squirming bundle to her bosom. And that bundle omitted the worst baby cry he'd ever heard. It was a shrill squeal that pained the ears and sounded like an angry pig.

On top of the infant's awful squalling, a man in a puffy white chef's hat stood before a huge pot which was suspended in a massive fireplace. The fire blazed beneath it and the man used a giant spoon to stir vigorously while dumping alarming quantities of black powder into the pot. The powder caused the man violent fits of uproarious sneezing. Josh rolled his eye and strained to focus on Alice.

"Duchess!" exclaimed the woman who paced the small room erratically rocking the baby in her arms. Her movement was fast and jerky; he couldn't imagine her to be comforting at all. She seemed wound awfully tight. "How many times must I remind you to call me DUCHESS!"

Alice groaned. "Um, that's not your name, and you are not a duchess sooo… It's the twenty first century, is there eve such a thing as duchess anymore?"

"ALICE!" the woman shrieked. She shoved the baby toward Alice. "Take the baby!"

"No!"

Cadence shoved again. "Yes! Take it, it's your day!" she demanded captiously.

Alice giggled. "No! It's not my day! It's never my day!"

The woman shoved the baby toward Alice again, this time withdrawing her arms quickly. Alice gasped and Josh's heart nearly stopped as he watched the squirming blanket clad thing begin to fall.

But soon it fussed in Alice's arms as she snatched it out of the air. Josh breathed a sigh of relief.

The small sound drew Alice's eyes out the window where she spotted him. Her jaw dropped, but she quickly recovered her composure. To the room's other bizarre occupants he remained unnoticed what with the roaring sneezes and Cadence's obnoxious cackling.

"Go!" Cadence said, placing her hands on Alice's shoulders and guiding her toward the exit. "Go now then! Take it and go!" she chirped in a strange puckish voice. Alice allowed herself to be tossed out and the door slammed shut behind her.

In seconds she rounded the corner and met Josh beneath the window.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered urgently. The baby thrashed wildly beneath its blanket. It made it difficult to concentrate.

"I know you need my help. I came to get you!"

Alice shook her head. "I need no such thing. Now go! Get out of here!" Anger sparked in her sorrowful blue eyes.

Josh shook his head too. "I can't do that! Not without you."

Alice leaned closer so she could speak even quieter. "Josh, you're not safe here."

His eyes widened. "It IS you! I knew it!"

"It doesn't matter," she insisted. "You can't save me, and if she finds you, she'll kill you."

"What? Who?" he asked, his heart beginning to pound.

"It doesn't matter," she pleaded again. "You must go. Right now! Go back just as you came!" She used one arm to shove him while awkwardly clinging to the baby in the other. "NOW! GO!"

He glanced down as the blanket slid off the squealing thing in Alice's arms.

It was certainly no baby.

Nor could it be called a pig even with its red beady eyes, gnashing yellow teeth, bulbous bald head, and blood dripping from its snout.

Josh took one glimpse of the writhing monster as Alice thrust it out from her body to avoid its exposed teeth. Then he turned and took his leave at a dead run.

***

In a matter of seconds, Josh took to the trees. He trampled the flowers, causing a flurry of white petals like snow in the summertime, and then crashed into the forest. His foot prints remained in the soft mossy earth from his arrival, and he followed them exactly back.

His chest burned but he did not slow down. Limbs whipped his face and he felt ringlets of blood on his cheeks. But on he flew.

It wasn't until the woman stepped out from behind a tree that he paused.

In fact, she leapt out directly into his path and screamed, "BOO!" Josh stopped so abruptly, he crashed to the ground in lieu of crashing into her.

Josh clutched his chest, laboriously attempting to catch his breath. He peered up at the woman who was dressed in a lavender pinstriped suit with a lime green vest and bow tie. Shocks of shortish wiry red hair emerged every which way from beneath a tall purple top hat. Her wide eyes were a paler shad of lime green to accent her tie and she wore a crimson lipped smile, fully exposing rows of big white teeth.

She could've been pretty, if she didn't look so stark raving mad. Josh didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Why… Did you DO that?" Josh panted as he hauled himself off the forest floor.

The woman laughed. "Why not?"

Josh growled. "YOU'RE ALL INSANE HERE!" he yelled, the tenuous grasp he still had on his patience slipping.

She placed her fingertips together in a sort of prayer. "Oh?" she remarked. "I've not noticed a problem. Perhaps the insane one is you?" Her conversational tone chilled him.

"Leave me alone," he muttered. He shoved by her to take off running.

"MAYBE THE INSANE ONE IS YOOOOUUU!" she called after him, her spooky unhinged voice drifting up into the tattered night sky.

The moon seemed to laugh at him. He ran faster.

***

It wasn't long until he returned to the riverbank. He stood, chest heaving, staring down into the water. The reflection of the grinning golden moon shimmered on the surface of the river as it ever so slightly moved.

Josh raked his fingers through his hair. He had no idea what to do next, consider he had no idea exactly how he'd gotten there. He'd done what Alice said; returned just how he'd come. Except there was no creepy willow tree with candy and soda to send him back to reality.

Reality. That was just it. Somehow by following Aspen, or Alice, or whatever her name was, he'd left reality behind. He'd begun to think he was dreaming. Wondernever certainly had a dreamlike quality, but somehow he thought it was real. The smell of the flowers was rich. The feel of the river water had been cool and refreshing. When smoke got in his eyes, and when he fell… Those things had hurt him physically. It had to be real. But he hoped beyond measure that it wasn't. Because if he didn't wake up, he didn't know if he'd ever get back to Enchantica and the carnival.

And then it hit him. He recalled something Emerson Heart had said. "If you want to shrink and grow, just cast yourself in like a stone."

He stared down into the water a moment longer. Taking several deep breaths to summon courage and brace himself, he said a silent prayer. Then into the water he plunged.

The strange myriad of sensations wasn't nearly so terrible that time. And in seconds, he found himself standing beneath the willow tree, as though not a second had passed.