The Last Fairy Tale (7 page)

She was standing on a hill and before her was an immense gray landscape. Miles and miles of black desolation reached as far as she could see. What once appeared to be a vast and elaborate city, full of buildings that seemed to touch the sky and cars and hoverpods that zoomed around the busy streets, was now an empty, dark, and crumbled wasteland. She eyed what must have been the orphanage—a steel building barricaded by row after row of coiled barbed wire near the bottom of the hill. She scrambled to her feet, frightened. With every second, fear built up inside of her. She put a shaking hand to her mouth.
This is a nightmare
...

 She clutched her father’s journal more tightly as she gazed at the vast wasteland. She turned her large eyes toward the sky and saw that it was filled with a smoke so thick that it blocked all light from the sun. Suddenly she heard the siren again. This time, it was followed by words.

 “Today-ay-ay is TTTTTuesday,” said a loud robotic voice. It was skipping as though it were having trouble forming the words. “DDDDDDon’t forget to schedule your physical exam-am-am with GenetiCore Incorporated-ed-ed, the world leader in computer aaaaaided genetics. We can offer yyyyyyou the finest-est-est genetic enhancements-ents in th-th-the world.” The siren then wailed again.

Olivia began to shake uncontrollably. Tears filled her eyes, and she looked around frantically for a place to hide.
How did I get out here? I don’t know what to do
... She looked to her right and saw an enormous machine walking on long, spindly rails. It seemed to be patrolling the city below. She noticed a few more machines on the far side of the city, rising above the crumbled skyline. The siren sounded again, but this time it started at its normal pitch and then gradually grew deeper. Then came the words in the same deep pitch:

 “Today-ay-ay is TTTTTuesday.” After a brief pause, it resumed. “The spotlight-ight-ight SPACE user of the ddddday is xX.hl3fan4LIFE.Xx chosen-en-en for hiiiiiis extensive collection of hats. Waaaaaaay to go!”

Olivia suddenly heard the sound of coughing coming from the area around the orphanage. She turned toward the building and saw the silhouette of a figure next to the barbed wire fences, crouched behind what looked like a car. She strained to see what it was. It kept coughing, louder and louder until it began gurgling. One word came to her mind as she remembered a segment from her father’s journal:
Hacker
... she gasped aloud at the thought.

 The coughing thing heard Olivia gasp and turned toward her, its shining eyes peering at her through the darkness before it started to climb up the hill. Olivia yelped. She could clearly see it now. It was a humanoid creature crouched on all fours, its eyes glazed over and opaque. It had wispy blond hair on its head, although most of it had been torn out in patches. Its body was bare, and Olivia saw that its skin was sickly pale and stretched tightly over its misshapen bones.

Olivia frantically looked around for a place to run and then looked back at the creature. Three more creatures appeared behind the first one. They all looked similar, but some had growths protruding off their bodies or what looked like inverted joints. Olivia turned and began to run as fast as she could.

All she saw in front of her was a dead, black patch of land with burnt, twisted shapes jutting from its scorched soil.
A forest
! she thought. In the distance, she noticed one enormous black tree that was still standing. She remembered her dream with Ink and his instructions to find the old tree. In her desperation, she ran for the tree, not allowing herself to think how ridiculous it was to believe that those creatures were chasing her or that the tree in the distance could be a doorway to another world. She heard the siren sounding again, its pitch still low, which only made her run faster. She didn’t look back and kept her focus on the tree.
The key lies in your veins
, she remembered.
The only thing in my veins is blood
, she thought.

 As she neared the tree, she saw that it twisted out of the ground like a giant black spike, with dead limbs shooting off of it. The tree’s base was larger than Olivia’s room. When she finally reached the tree, a sharp pain shot through her side and she had trouble catching her breath. Olivia now wished that Mr. Schafer’s physical education exercises were a bit more rigorous. Her body still shook, but not just from the cold. She tried her best to steady herself and focus. She ran her finger down the tree’s surface, which was rough like sandpaper, looking for the keyhole Ink had mentioned, but she couldn’t find it.

She quickly glanced over her shoulder to see that the creatures had topped the hill and were advancing toward her. One of them walked at a brisk pace, while the others crawled in lurching motions. Olivia shuddered and turned her attention back to the tree where she noticed a knot in the trunk and bent down to look at it more closely. To her disbelief, the knot was shaped like a perfect keyhole.
Now to unlock it
...

 She looked around frantically for something sharp and then remembered the clasp on her father’s journal. The clasp had a small rough barb that sometimes nicked her finger when she carelessly opened the journal. She quickly twisted the clasp and pressed her finger against the barb, wincing as a large drop of warm blood welled up on her finger. She took a deep breath and pressed her finger to the knot in the tree.

 Olivia’s heart stopped beating. The moment she pressed her finger to the keyhole, she felt a swift pain in her chest and she couldn’t take in a breath. She tried to move but couldn’t, as if her finger had become part of the knot. She felt as if she would suffocate. Her eyes began to roll as she struggled to stay conscious. The tree started to buzz with energy, its branches cracking and twisting in different ways. Olivia felt another sharp pain in her chest and suddenly inhaled deeply. Her finger was released from the knot, and she stumbled backward. She backed away from the tree, feeling weaker and dizzier. The sound of coughing was behind her and growing louder by the second.

Suddenly, the rough outline of a door began to etch itself into the trunk of the tree. When the outline was complete, a rough wooden knob sprouted from the tree above the keyhole. Olivia laughed weakly. She was certain that she had finally gone insane.
Well, what have I got to lose
? The world around her was swimming. With the last of her strength, she grabbed the knob and turned it. The door opened, and Olivia fell through.

  Warm air hit her as she fell to the ground and the door behind her closed. Olivia’s vision was blurring. Just before her eyes closed, she glimpsed small flecks of purple and blue light dancing about a forest of tall, bright trees.

Interlude

 “I wondered when you’d show up,” said a man’s voice. The words echoed through the large hall. Orbs of dim light drifted slowly around the room, making the dark shadows move eerily. A white crow was flying down the hall toward the man, its tail and wings leaving a trail of white fog behind it. When it neared the throne on which the man was sitting, it slowed its flight and disappeared into a cloud of white fog. The man waited in silence. Suddenly the creature reappeared, this time taking the form of a white wolf. It stood on its hind legs, crossing its front paws across its chest as it stared at the man. Its tail consisted of the same white fog into which it had previously transformed.

 “They told me you had something I’d be interested in,” said the wolf in a raspy voice. It sounded as if it was speaking through ancient and dusty pipes rather than vocal cords. “So, here I am.”

 “Not really into decorum, are you?” The man stated it rather than asked. “Supposedly celestial, yet surprisingly dimwitted. Awesome.” The man abruptly laughed. He leaned over, placed his elbow on the arm of his throne, and rested his bearded chin on his fist. The man was wearing a hooded pullover, so the wolf couldn’t make out the man’s expression.

 “There is no need to be formal with you. My curiosity is what drives me,” the creature said. “I am here to explore. To learn. To take notes about this world.”

“Yeah,” said the hooded man, “I know.” He leaned back in his throne, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. “Anyway, here’s the deal. You travel someplace far away for me,
take notes
 on what you find, and report back. Simple as that.”

 “Where?” asked the creature. “Can you not go yourself?”

 “I could…” replied the man. “But then I’d get to keep all the secrets to myself.” He smiled under his black hood, his white teeth gleaming in the darkness.

 “Very well, tell me where,” said the creature. Its curiosity was growing with every moment that went by.

 “It’s in the Earth realm,” the man said. The wolf’s ears pricked up at the words. The man noticed this, and his smile grew wider.

Chapter Five

Locke

 In a vast and endless void, a single tiny light appeared. There was no sound, no smell, no feeling—only the emptiness and the tiny light. After a few moments, the light began to dance and sway left and right before it smeared across the void and left more light in its wake. Soon the light filled the void, becoming almost too bright to bear. Then sound flooded the emptiness and things began to have meaning once again. Olivia was suddenly jerked back into consciousness.

 She heard music. At least, that’s what she thought, because she had never actually heard music before; she had only read about it. She had no words to describe it. It was the most beautiful sound that Olivia had ever heard in her entire life. From her brief study on the subject of music, she presumed that the notes came from a stringed instrument, each one blending into the next with such beauty that she felt as though interrupting the song would shatter all sound for good. She lay there for hours, maybe days, months, or years, and listened to it.

Thoughts slowly found their way into Olivia’s mind.
I must be dead
…
I’m cold
… She continued to listen to the beautiful song that was sad, yet peaceful.
If I’m dead, then I’m glad that it’s this way
…

 Suddenly Olivia could feel her forehead—a small pain was shooting through it until the pain grew so rapidly that her head was pounding. She reached up to touch it, and the memories of what had happened to her came flooding back. She remembered the tree and the door and falling through it and hitting the ground. Mustering her strength, she opened her eyes.

Olivia was looking at the ground, which was covered in yellow and green leaves. She reached out to grab one and held it close to her face, examining the delicate pattern of its veins. Things were gradually becoming clearer due to the incredible amount of light around her. Peering up through the trees, she saw a giant orange light in the sky.
The sun
… she thought. She had to turn away, though, because her eyes were sensitive to the light.

 As her other senses returned, she caught a few more pleasant details. The air around her smelled sweet and fresh like the scent of flowers carried for a distance over the crisp water of a calm river. She inhaled the scent of the earthy ground below her. The atmosphere of this place felt wonderful, so warm and spacious, unlike the enclosed feeling that she was so used to.

 She spent a few moments enjoying it all, unsure of when the music had stopped. She suddenly felt more alert and began to get to her feet. As she did, she noticed that she had been lying on her father’s journal. She picked it up, brushing the dirt gently off its cover and then looked around for the source of the music, but only saw beautiful, enormous trees. She began to wonder if the music had only been in her head when she heard a voice from behind her.

 “Oh, hello.” It sounded like a young man’s voice. Olivia spun around, not sure what to expect after recent events. She looked, but she saw only the trees. Then the voice continued, “I thought you’d never wake up. I saw you fall through. After you didn’t move for a while, I went and checked on you. You were breathing, so I let you rest. You looked very tired. I never feared the worst though, just so you know!” The voice let out a weak chuckle. After a short pause it said, “Sorry if I’m awkward.”

 Olivia stared at the trees in front of her. She was certain the voice was coming from one of them. She took a deep breath to calm herself and asked, “Where are you?”

 “Oh, I’m sorry,” replied the voice. Then, on the base of the tree in front of Olivia, a shape quickly appeared in the bark. The shape was vaguely human, but much thinner and spindlier. It looked to be slightly taller than Olivia. When the etched outline was complete, the shape stepped out of the tree.

 Olivia screamed. She put a hand to her mouth and started to back away.

 The creature screamed back.

 In response, Olivia screamed again.

 The creature returned the scream and threw its arms in the air and ran behind the tree. After a moment, it slowly peered around the tree at Olivia, who had dropped the journal and was covering her eyes with both hands.