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“Go!” Fi
Fi
He felt a sharp pain flood through him. His knees went weak. That dreaded sense of cold overcame him.
Jez smiled at her success, got to her feet, and stepped toward him. Fi
A woman in the crowd gasped, “Oh, my gosh! Look who it is!”
Fi
He mentally pushed against Jez. The harder he pushed, the more of his body turned to light—a hologram.
The next spell she tried to cast passed right through him and turned a small tree just behind him to solid ice.
The crowd applauded and cheered, children shouting, “More! More!”
Jez lunged at Fi
Again, the crowd cheered.
She dared to try again. This time, Fi
She spun in circles, trying to rid herself of him. They were a single entity now: spi
Fi
The crowd roared their approval; a spi
Fi
“I can’t believe it.” As her eyes met Fi
Free from what? Fi
“You did it!” Jez said to Fi
With that, the most startling thing happened. Jez changed, she transformed, before Fi
Fi
It couldn’t be….
But it was.
They were sisters, twins perhaps, not identical, but close to it.
Only then did he understand Amanda’s efforts, her never giving up. Only then did he come to wonder if Amanda wasn’t some kind of witch herself—a good witch.
The crowd exploded into celebration.
Maleficent’s green form streaked toward them.
As Fi
“You weren’t ready,” she said.
Amanda stood in front of a large yellow cylinder sticking out of the ground, with a thick, circular, steel trapdoor on top. A number of warning posters instructed proper use.
“The others went ahead,” Amanda said. “Go!”
Fi
“Go! Feet first.” She opened it. “Quickly! Jump!” She seemed distracted.
Fi
Fi
“Jess, not Jez, not any more. How can we ever thank you?” The tears spilled from her eyes.
“We couldn’t break the spell ourselves.”
“Then she is—Then you are—” Fi
But he stopped himself as Maleficent raised her hand to cast a spell.
Seeing this, Fi
From high overhead he heard Amanda’s gleefull voice echo as he fell. “I’ll never forget what you did!”
As he was sucked down the foul-smelling tube, Fi
The tube reeked of rotting trash. Gooey bits and sticky globs of rancid food and soggy litter stuck to him like leeches, licked his face and slopped into his hair and clothing. Again, he felt himself gag.
In the distance, far down the tube, echoing through the metal, Fi
The suction spit trash into his face. He slammed into some kind of mesh gate, an intersection of converging trash-evacuation tubes. On the other side, black garbage bags and trash raced past. Then the gate opened and it was his turn. He tumbled down and rolled into the next tube, picked up speed, and headed off again, upside down and backward.
Wind roared all around him. A garbage bag smashed into him. It broke open, its trash freed.
Awful stuff raced around him and stuck to him. He braced himself just in time for another intersection. But this gate was open and he moved into a third, larger tube.
Aluminum cans peppered his head. Cellophane and cotton candy stuck to him. Diapers, orange peels, sticky popsicle sticks. He somersaulted to avoid this stuff, and there, behind him, came a dull green light. It grew ever larger. It moved quickly.
He was thrown into a back somersault. As he came around, he found himself facing Maleficent. Arms at her side, head forward, legs outstretched behind her, she flew effortlessly through the garbage tube, apparently unaffected by the suction.
“Miss me?” she wheezed.
She lunged. Her ice-cold hand grabbed for the scroll. Fi
Her wide eyes narrowed in hatred. She lunged again.
Fi
Through the roar, he heard her mumble: “Anima transformatur!” Fi
Maleficent closed the gap. Fi
He heard a clank of metal not far ahead: yet another gate.
The rat scrambled and scratched at Fi
She wound up to deliver yet another spell, the two of them racing through the slimy tube. Fi
He saw a small white circle grow larger and wider. The end of the tu
Trying to buy himself time, he shouted at her, “You forgot something: evil never wins in the Magic Kingdom.”
She called back, “That depends on whose magic it is.”
Propelled out the end of the trash tube, Fi
“Hurry!” Wayne shouted.
Fi