“We are going out with her and her shifter friend tonight for dinner,” Werelion says brimming with excitement.
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“You may both come if you wish,” says Ardie.
“On your date? No thanks. But maybe Nick will go if she has a friend for him too, a living girl.”
“No, I will stay with Dorothy,” Nick says.
“Good. Someone should,” Ardie says.
“I don’t need a babysitter. Besides, I have Toto to protect me.”
“We can see the city,” Nick says.
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “I’m pretty depressed. All I want to do is lie here and cry.”
“I will not allow you to wallow in this room,” Nick says.
“But that’s what I want to do,” I pout.
“Nick is right. You should enjoy your time here. Perhaps there will be something you see that will help us on our journey,” Ardie says.
“So what if I do? I have no money from your realm to buy it with,” I remind him.
“I do,” Nick says.
“You need to save your money.”
“Why don’t you let me worry about how I spend my money, Dorothy,” he warns with a raised brow.
“But—”
“Enough arguing. You will do as I say.”
“You’re not my dad,” I scoff.
“I know it. But you are not my mother either and if I want to spend my money on you, I will.”
“All right, fine,” I shrug with a dismissive wave of my hand. If he wants to waste his money on me, I guess I won’t stop him, but I have no need for anything at the moment. I may let him buy me dinner though.
“It will be all right, Dorothy. We will kill the Vampire Witch together. We will all get what we desire,” Ardie tries to reassure me.
This is all because of me and now they have to put their lives on the line. I can’t let them do that. I need to go alone. Maybe I can talk to the wizard about letting them stay here while I go. He said he didn’t want to see me again until she dies though. But I can try to get a message to him. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. They might be mad once they’ve realized I’ve left, but they’ll get over it. Soon enough, they’ll see it was best for me to take responsibility for my own actions, inadvertent or not. I killed the Vampire Witch of the East, not them. He would never ask this of them if it weren’t for me, and I can’t imagine everyone who lives in this city paid such a steep price for entry.
“The Wizard has the cure for zombiism?” Nick asks Ardie.
“Yes, of course he does,” Ardie says.
“He has courage for me too… If we make it back,” Werelion says as worry etches lines in his face.
“Let us meet again tomorrow for breakfast, and afterward, if you agree, I would love to bring Toto along with me for the afternoon,” Ardie says.
“He’d love to go with you tomorrow,” I say and Ardie smiles, scratches Toto’s head, we say goodbye, and he leaves with Werelion.
“Would you like to spend the day with me, Dorothy?” Nick asks.
“Um…” I say and hesitate. I like the idea of wallowing in my self-pity alone in this room.
“Allow me to rephrase. We will spend the day seeing the sights of the city. I will go change into less formal attire. Perhaps you might like to do the same.”
“Fine,” I say as I sigh, feeling so pathetic.
“Good. I will return soon,” he says, kisses my cheek, pets Toto, and goes.
Once he’s gone, I press my palm to the wall and ask aloud, “Is there a way for me to send a message to the Wizard?”
Magical mist swirls inside the emerald wall and I lift my hand away as it forms what looks like a piece of parchment paper with a feather quill beside it.
“Um…”
Does this work like a tablet? Do I need to drag the quill to the page to write? As I reach out to try it, the quill emerges from the wall in light and floats into my hand.
“Thank you,” I say, and step forward to write a letter to the Wizard. Simple and straightforward should be enough—I doubt he wants me to waste his time—so I’ll make my request and hope he agrees.
To the Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz,
* * *
I would like to request permission to represent Nick Chopper, Millard Vorona, and the Werelion in the Vampire Witch of the West’s assassination. Because I am the only one who killed the Vampire Witch of the East and the only one with the silver boots, I am the only one needed on this mission. Please allow me to make this journey for the four of us and kindly permit them to stay in your city until I return. They are all talented men who would be great assets to your community. Their only mistake was traveling here with me. Please do not punish them for my actions. Thank you for considering my request.
* * *
Yours truly,
Dorothy Gale
I step back and reread the note, but then I realize I don’t know how to deliver it, so I say, “Can you send it straight to him?” After a short moment, the message disappears and so does the quill in my hand.
I give this magic helper thing another go and say, “I need something to wear to walk around the city and see the sights. Any suggestions?”
A pair of dark green shorts and a green blouse appear before me midair. I’m surprised to see something I’d wear back home in front of me. As I reach out to take them, magic lifts the dress I’m wearing over my head and whips it off my body.
I reach out and take the blouse and shorts and put them on, only struggling a bit with getting my boots through the leg holes. As I go to the nearest mirror to see how I look, the thick mist engulfs me again and sets me at the full-length infinity mirror in the bathroom. When the mist disperses, I check myself out—I’m surprised by how much I like this outfit. It may not be on-trend here, but I am far more comfortable in this than a silk dress. Then I notice my face and it’s obvious I’ve been crying—my cheeks are red, my eyes are bloodshot and puffy, and my nose is bright pink.
“Can you help me with this?” I ask the magic of the room as I point to my face and a misty hand emerges to wave me over to the makeup station. When I head over, the misty hand motions for me to sit in the emerald chair, so I do. After a few moments of glittery mist and powder and brushes painting my face, I’m as good as new and still not overdone. It’s too bad I can’t bring this built-in stylist slash makeup artist back to Kansas with me. Although I may never get back to Kansas. But if that’s the case, I couldn’t live in this city anyhow. The Wizard’s made that clear.
The emerald goggles they gave me when I arrived appear midair before me, so I take them and put them on as a chime sounds. It must be Nick. I head out into the living room area right as the door opens for him. When he steps inside, Toto greets him at the door by jumping up on his leg for a head scratch. When he notices me, his eyes widen before he turns around as if he’s caught me naked.
“I apologize. The door opened and I—”
“I’m dressed, Nick.”
He turns to face me with a goggle-eyed expression. His eyes are even wider and his brows are knit in confusion. When I roll my eyes at him and my self-consciousness, a slow grin appears on his lips and his eyes darken, making my cheeks blush.
“They’re shorts. I wear them almost every day at home.”
“They are short,” he says as his brow arches and I roll my eyes at him.
“Should I change? Is it too revealing?”
“No. Nothing but your legs show. Your very long, perfectly shaped legs,” he smolders.
“Ugh. Am I going to get accosted by pervs in this?”
“Pervs?”
“Perverts. Smarmy guys trying to make it with me.”
“I will be with you, so no,” he says and the look that takes over his eyes is deadly. I giggle at him and he smiles.
“You look beautiful, Dorothy. Let us go. Are you ready?”
“Yeah.”
“Toto, are you ready?” Nick asks Toto who stands a
t his feet wagging his tail, very ready to get outside. Toto barks his answer, Nick proffers his arm for me to take, and we head out of my suite for a day of sightseeing where I will do my best to enjoy myself and not ruminate on my unanswered request to the Wizard.
18
The Enchanted Hollow
We go out into the city and so many people are out and about. Humans, shifters, and zombies wear fine emerald colored clothing, walk on the green marble streets. Some of them are shopping or dining at restaurants while others work. It’s as packed as Times Square during the holidays. Toto stays close to my feet, and people startle when they see him and stare, then they stare at my outfit. Why the magic of Oz suggested this outfit is beyond me. It’s not as though it’s too revealing, it’s that it’s so unlike anything anyone here is wearing. The fashion here is like the fashion of the Victorian era with high collars and corsets and ruffles. Some men have the fairytale prince look with the fine tailcoats, ruffled shirts, and capris pants over stockings, while others look like pirates with worn leather pants and loose shirts. Then there are the shifters—while some wear at least an article or two of clothing to cover their goodies, others let it all hang out. My eyes are bugging out of my head, and my reaction tickles Nick a bit too much.
“You want to stop laughing at me?” I say, giving him the side eye.
“The look on your face,” he says, cracking up. “When you saw her…” he says and stops because he’s laughing too hard.
“She was a baboon shifter in heat. Give me a damn break,” I say, and he laughs so hard tears come to his eyes, and I can’t help but laugh along with him.
We come upon a pretty bistro for humans that smells divine, so he offers to take me to lunch and I accept. They seat us on a charming garden patio covered in dancing flowers. It’s the pinnacle of romantic and even though I know this setting for our lunch was not intentional, I only fall harder. He’s sweet to me, even holding my hand across the table, and it makes my heart race. Over and over, he tells me I’m his best friend, and even though I see him as so much more, I am still honored to be his best friend. He is mine too, but I also feel far more than friendship for him. Head over heels is what I am, and it’s a good thing I am alone in it because I wouldn’t leave if he reciprocated my feelings.
Part of me has a hope that he is lying, that he has stronger feelings for me and is only saying he doesn’t because he wants me to go back home to stay safe, but that’s not it. If he felt that way about me, he would ask me to stay here in the vampire free zone with him. We would be safe here. If he felt for me the way I feel for him, he would want to have that life with me, not have hopes of finding a girl to love in the vampire free zone. So, I know he just sees me as a close friend, even his best friend. Even though he cares for me, likes me plenty, I’m just not the one for him, and even though I wish I was, he should be so in love with the woman he marries, not see her as a best friend type. What I wish for him is that he feels for her the way I feel for him.
“What are you thinking of, Dorothy?” he asks me as we finish our dessert of green ice-cream, delicious deep green berries, and a piece of green cake, and I suppose I have been silent for a while.
“How much I will miss you,” I tell him—I will always wonder what he’s up to, what his wife will be like, his children, how he is doing—I will think of him always.
“However much I will miss you, it will make me happy to know you are safe in your realm, wherever you may go in it, and I will think of you traveling in flying machines to all the places you want to go with pink sands and clear blue waters or red rocks and deep blue rivers, big cities with high towers, and people speaking many languages, and all your dreams coming true.”
“Do you think there’s a way for us to keep in touch? I’d love to know what you are up to after I’ve gone.”
“No, I do not think there is a way to do that. There will be nothing to tell on my end for it will be very much the same as it is now.”
“How so? In the vampire free zone, you’ll be safe for the first time in a long time. If you’re here, you’ll meet a girl you’ll fall in love with and start a family free of vampires.”
With a deep sigh he says, “This city will become infected by the plague soon enough. It is only a matter of time.”
“Why do you say that? The gate is solid.”
“There is one soldier at the gate. One. A few soldiers on the rampart who have never seen a day of battle in their lives. Many of these people were born and raised here, especially the ones who work at the palace. I’ve asked. There is no military presence. A few soldiers at the palace and a guardian at the gate. That is it. Vampires can fly. They can just fly over the city walls. Right now, they respect the rule because of the treaty the Wizard has with the Vampire Witch, but when the last Vampire Witch is dead, the vampires will not honor the treaty.”
“So why are you doing this with me?”
“Because you are my best friend and you need me to return to Kansas. For as long as they keep it vampire free, I can stay here, but I do not expect that will be very long.”
“If we don’t kill the Vampire Witch the treaty will stay in place,” I say, alarmed and overcome with worry.
“That may be true, but she keeps creating more and more vampires. If you consider it, take all into account, for the sake of the rest of the realm it is better for her to die. This is only one city.”
“But don’t vampires turn people?”
“They do, but the Witch turns more. She enslaves entire towns, turns them all in one spell.”
“Oh my,” I gasp, horrified to hear it although I do not know why after being here for these past weeks.
“Let us not talk about it for we have only two more days of each other’s company without worry or dread.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“I am glad to hear you say it and not argue with me,” he smirks.
“Don’t get used to it,” I say, and his laugh lights up his handsome face. “Let’s get out of here,” I suggest, and a winsome grin crosses his perfect lips.
Nick calls the waiter over and pays with coins of various metals before we go back out into the city.
“Thank you for lunch,” I say as we stroll down a busy avenue looking at all the shifter and zombie themed storefronts, and I want to be paying attention, taking it all in, but all I can think of is what Nick said about what it means for this city when the Vampire Witch of the West dies.
Is it selfish of me to see this mission through? None of us can live here if we don’t do as the Wizard commands. None of us get our wish. But is that enough of a reason to kill someone in cold blood, even if that someone is a cold-blooded, undead, wicked vampire witch? Nick thinks it’s better to kill her because this is just one city, but is it the best idea to destroy the one safe place in the realm? Werelion can find courage another way or move into the tunnels with the other friendly shifters outside the city. Ardie could still find his cure without the Wizard. Fine, so he can’t live here, but there are other nice places I’d bet. Nick may have to keep murdering night creatures, but his idea that he’s heartless is total bull. Soon enough, he’ll find the perfect woman for him and nothing but her will matter. For her, he’ll do anything including love her and marry her and have kids with her. He doesn’t need to be in this city to do that. And my life in Kansas is gray in every way. If I’m being honest, I don’t expect more out of life there—it’s like I’ve always known somehow that my life there would always lack the colors I long for.
If I kill the last Vampire Witch and get to go home, I know I’ll end up with someone like Billy—a good looking enough, nice enough guy who likes me and doesn’t expect or need passion or fireworks. I may even end up with Billy. In two years, he’ll come home and we’ll start seeing each other again because there’s no one else around. I’ll be in community college nearby and I’ll move to his farm next to mine and live a boring but very similar life to the one I had before I left Kansas on a cyclone. Or maybe I
could find someone like Nick when I go somewhere new. Maybe he’d like me back. Maybe I can have the life I dream of. Or maybe I’ll always be the friend to a guy like him and never graduate to the status of a girlfriend or a wife—I’ll have all these deep feelings and he’ll just see me as his friend and nothing more. But maybe I can find a guy I love who will love me back. That is my hope, my dream now—I want to find someone like Nick, but who will love me too, and not just as a dear friend. Though I wish it could be him, that he could come with me, but it might be hard for him in my realm.
“What are you thinking about right now?”
“How I wish you could come with me back to Kansas but that my realm is not a place you would enjoy living in.”
“Why would I not enjoy it?”
“Life there is very different. For one, machines do your trade now. People operate the machines but I doubt you would enjoy that job. Maybe you could go to college, get a GED, a high school equivalency diploma, and study to do something else, but you don’t have a social security number or anything like it.”
“What is that?”
“A number assigned to you at birth to identify you as a citizen of a country. Numbers, licenses, all very important in my realm. There’s no certificate of birth for you—it’d be like you didn’t exist. That would make things difficult. Maybe we could handle it, get you a false identity somehow, but it’d be hard to do. And my world is hard. These days, it’s hard to get a job. For most people, it’s hard to make money, and if you’re not a legal citizen, it’s almost impossible. When I’m out of school, I could support you, but you couldn’t go to school until you were a legal citizen or had a student visa. And it’s not colorful where I am. Like I said, it’s gray and boring compared to here with such vibrant colors in every possible shade everywhere you look. I think you might hate my realm. Even though I want you to come, it would be selfish of me to bring you along.”
Dorothy In the Land of Monsters Page 27