Disney at Dawn

Fi

People complained, but no one physically stopped him. He pushed to the very front of the line, putting a good distance between himself and the brooms. What did they want? he wondered. Would they possibly try to hurt him with all these people as witnesses?

The doors swung open. Fi

The theater filled quickly. The brooms appeared at the end of the line. They spread out and moved along the wall to the back of the auditorium.

Before he had time to think, the lights dimmed and the theater went dark. Very dark. As an artificial rain began to fall, Fi

The song was the co

Flashes of color drenched the auditorium. He stole a look to the back: only one broom.

He fought off a sense of panic. There! Midway down the auditorium, a broom on each side. To his relief, they still appeared focused on the show, not the audience. To play it safe, he lowered his head and pulled the brim of his cap down farther. How long until they spotted him? And then what?

The crowd laughed, but not Fi

A cell phone rang in the audience. Several heads turned in his direction. His father’s BlackBerry was ringing in his pocket. He’d forgotten all about it. He fumbled with it and shut it off, but by the time he had, it seemed as if half the theater were looking at him.

Including the two brooms on either side.

The music grew louder. The auditorium darkened once again.

Fi

Fi

He ran straight for the broom and pushed it over.

Hitting the blinding sunlight, he took off at a full run, unwilling to look back to see if a crow was following, or a broom chasing him. It seemed to him he’d picked up nothing of value. A waste of time.

Or maybe not, he thought. Had the Overtakers been following him? Why had the brooms seemed more interested in the stage show than in finding him? Maleficent’s powers clearly extended throughout all of the Disney Parks—the existence of the brooms confirmed that much.

On his way back to Animal Kingdom, he sent a text warning to the others.

Four members checked in on D-Gamer: Philby, Maybeck, Charlene, and Amanada. All but Willa.

Fi

But it didn’t make sense. There was free Wi-Fi all over the Parks.

So why wasn’t she answering?

29

WILLA TRIED TO USE HER ID to jump the line for Mickey’s PhilharMagic, but to no use. So she joined a long line that moved in waves, as a group of three hundred guests was admitted into the auditorium.

With each surge in the line, she passed more posters—all with a fu

A plaque on the bottom of the frame read: ARIEL BROUGHT PART OF HER WORLD INTO OUR WORLD.…

Willa knew this was somehow significant. She sat down to make a note of it, to copy it out exactly as it was written.

Some of the smaller kids were also waiting out the line by sitting on the floor.

Jez had brought a part of her world into our world, as well, Willa thought. She’d brought her dreams about the future. She had foreseen things happening in the world that had now taken place: the lightning striking the castle, for one. Fi

Willa wrote the note and put it in her pocket. Then she leaned her head back—just for a minute, she told herself—and tried to think of what else the message might mean. The more she concentrated, the heavier her head became. Her eyes began to blink away the stinging fatigue.

She fell asleep.

The rest was a dream. She saw herself being helped to her feet by—of all things—two bears from the Country Bear Jamboree. The kids around her, bored with waiting, were thrilled to see the bears. As she was taken out of the line and through a Cast Member door, she felt her entire body tingle. Not a nice tingle, but like when a foot falls asleep—the same kind of tingle she’d experienced on the nights when, falling asleep, she’d crossed over as a DHI.

Where the bears were taking her she couldn’t tell, but there were voices and the sound of an engine. A few minutes later came the sounds of car doors and more voices. A friendly voice welcoming people. She heard the Animal Kingdom mentioned. It wasn’t long until she felt incredibly comfortable, and it was quiet again. Beautifully quiet. Wonderfully quiet.

Far, far in the distance she heard the calls of exotic animals—as if someone had Animal Planet playing on their television.

Wherever she was, it felt like she could sleep there forever.

30

PHILBY APPROACHED THE Disney Vacation kiosk in Camp Mi

Wayne? he typed. But as Fi

As he circled back around to the benches, a speech bubble appeared above an avatar with unusually white hair. Philby couldn’t remember having seen hair that color inside VMK before.

[ ]: were you looking for someone? appeared above the white head.

philitup: uncle wait’s pen. fi

[ ]: follow me

As Fi

[ ]: we can talk here, anything typed is encrypted.

philitup: okay.

[ ]: do you have a message from fi