Dorothy In the Land of Monsters

by Garten Gevedon

  I think about what the Wizard said about what I needed to win, to beat her, and I still have no clue what that is. The only thing that has worked consistently is praying to some force outside myself that gives me rainbow magic, begging for help, but since she took over my body, that rainbow magic has taken a vacation, and I do not know what to do.

  All I have is this scrub brush and this bucket of dirty, sudsy water, so I try one last time to pray as fast as I can to the rainbow magic giver, to the universe, and the powers that made the realms to cleanse this water, make it holy, and then, in an act of desperation I speak the only prayer I remember my father say that I think has something to do with water. My dad was Jewish, and although he wasn’t religious in a traditional sense, he prayed sometimes before or after he ate something specific or if he saw a person who looked interesting or different—he’d thank the powers above for creating such unique and colorful individuals. I don’t know what the prayer means because it’s in Hebrew, but I say it anyway and hope to God it helps.

  As I whisper the words, my armor moves away from my hands and I plunge them into the bucket. Like a miracle, I regain control of my body, but it looks like it’s too late because she is about to sink her teeth into Nick’s neck and I don’t have time to do anything but toss the bucket at her and hope it startles her enough to jump back. So I pick up the bucket of water and douse her in it. She gasps a scream, stunned, then she gives a loud, screeching cry as steam rises from her skin before it bubbles and fizzles, disintegrating away.

  “What have you done?” she screams at me in her shrill voice.

  “You needed a bath!”

  “First you kill my sister to steal her boots! Now you melt me to steal my castle and my cap and my love! You are a very wicked witch! A very wicked, wicked witch! Wicked! Wicked!” she shouts in shrill screeches as she melts, crying and screaming to her very disgusting death.

  Nick regains control of his body and the Winkie Guard does too, shaking his head and moving around on his own. He laughs with joy as the Vampire Witch completes her fall into a brown, melted, shapeless mass that spreads over the clean boards of the dungeon floor.

  The Winkie Guard, now free, says, “The Vampire Witch of the West has ended. We are no longer prisoners. Thank you, Dorothy! Thank you!”

  22

  The Liberation of the Winkie Slaves

  With the help of the Winkie Guard, Nick calls all the Winkies in the castle together in the courtyard to announce they are no longer slaves. Since my friends killed most of the Vampire Soldiers, the remaining Vampires fled when I melted the Vampire Witch.

  “Hello Winkies of Winkie Land,” he says standing at the top of the steps to the palace, and they all wave to him. He smiles and waves back.

  Golden bloodstained outfits adorn their drained, pale, tired bodies, and I know just how they feel, although they have been under Ezdalina’s spell for who knows how long, and I’ve only been here a week.

  “We have broken the spell enslaving you to the Vampire Witch. Across all of Winkie Land you are free. The Vampire Witch is dead!” he says and they all cheer and rejoice.

  “What about the soldiers?” one of the Winkies asks.

  “Those who remain alive fled Winkie Land,” Nick tells them when another Winkie steps forward.

  “The Axeman slayed at least forty himself while the Zombie and the Werelion slayed as many between them. The others were so afraid they ran from the castle and flew out of Winkie Land! With my own eyes, I saw it!” the Winkie says.

  “As did I!” shouts another.

  “As did I!” shouts another, and another, when the Winkies cheer in happiness.

  “On this day of your liberation, I declare that Winkie Land is and will always be a Vampire Free Zone!” Nick announces. Another set of loud cheers burst from the crowd, and it quickly turns into a party with dancing and music, and I just don’t have it in me to go to a party right now.

  When Nick turns and kisses me, I throw my arms around him and kiss him back, but I have no strength.

  “Time for you to eat and sleep,” he says.

  “Yeah, I’m spent.”

  “Come,” he says and leads me back into the castle.

  The Winkies prepare a grand room with fresh linens then draw me a bath and dress me in clean clothes afterward. Nick brings my food to my chamber and takes off his armor.

  “How are you alive?”

  “The man who made the armor prepared it for such things. Vampires fly, so the silversmith who fashioned it, a man named Ku-Klip, added elements that lessen the impact of a fall from great heights. Also, I landed in the great river below. Although I am bruised, it’s nothing too painful. Lost a few axes in the river though, but I will replace them. All I have done for the last week is climb mountains to get to you. First, I found Ardie, or Toto found me. Toto found Ardie first and when they were on their way to you, we came together. Toto led us right to you. He is quite an animal.”

  “Yeah, he is,” I say getting emotional thinking of him, and as I do, he comes right over to me. Since we reunited, he doesn’t want to leave my side, and I don’t want him to either. When I kneel and hug him tight, he licks my cheek, and I kiss his nose as he cuddles into me.

  “Dorothy, I was so worried, unable to sleep a wink knowing you were here and in danger. Let us go to bed,” he says. “First though, you must eat something,” he says handing me a plate of food prepared by the Winkies of roast turkey, potatoes, vegetables, and a roll with butter.

  Without having eaten for so long, I make it a point to eat slow even though I want to just swallow my plate with everything on it. Nick watches me the entire time, having already eaten himself while I was bathing. After I eat, we get into bed and Toto curls up on the floor at my side. A fire burns to keep us warm, and as we lay there looking at each other, gratitude he isn’t dead overwhelms me and tears well in my eyes. A sad, pained expression claims his beautiful face, and I know it’s because I confessed feelings he does not return.

  “Oh Nick, I am so happy you are alive—I was a wreck thinking you were dead.”

  “The entire time we were apart, all I did was worry they had turned you,” he says, with a harrowed sigh.

  “If it weren’t for these boots, I’d either be a vampire or dead. Although the boots wouldn’t let me attack her and I think it’s because they belonged to her sister. All I could do was defend myself, nothing more,” I tell him.

  “Thank the realms you are alive.”

  “Ditto.”

  “Dorothy… about what you said—”

  “Look, I don’t want you to feel obligated or concerned or anything. When I thought you were dead, I regretted not telling you so much because I wanted you to know that someone loved you, that I was in love with you, but I know you don’t have the same feelings. Before I was afraid to tell you because of that, but I regretted allowing my pride to stop me from telling you the truth because I want you to know how wonderful I think you are. There is no one more wonderful than you to me. Everything about you I love. Even when you’re annoying, I love you,” I say and he chuckles.

  “Corny, I know, but it’s true. I love you and the way you protect me and care for me, even when it gets on my nerves. But please know I expect nothing at all. The only reason I told you is that I know you see yourself as heartless because of all the murdering night creatures you have to do, but I don’t see you that way.

  “When I look at you I see the person I admire most, the person I like more than any other person in existence. Yes, I am also more attracted to you than I have ever been to anyone. There’s no denying how gorgeous you are, but I would love you like this no matter what you looked like. For some reason, I need you to know that. I really do love you in a way I’ve never experienced before. Like no matter what, even if you were a zombie or a shifter or even a vampire, I would love you the same.

  “No, Dorothy, if I turn into any of those things, promise me you’ll kill me. Do not hesitate.”

  “No, I can
’t make that promise.”

  “Please, Dorothy, I need you to. If I turn into a vampire, I do not want to continue. Once I lose my soul, I won’t be me anymore.”

  “Fine, if you turn into a vampire, but not if you turn into a zombie or a shifter. That’s over the top.”

  “You say you love me—”

  “Oh, I do, and I know you don’t reciprocate my feelings, and I’m all right with that. Now that you know how I feel, no matter what happens, you’ll know someone fell head over heels in love with you once, wanted to spend as much time with you as they could for as long as you’d let them, and that they loved everything about you. That’s all. Please, don’t shy away from me if I’ve made you uncomfortable. Things don’t have to change.”

  “As long as vampires exist, you will not be safe here in Oz. Evil night creatures are a pestilence that infest this realm. Not all zombies and werebeasts are as good and kind as Ardie and the Werelion. Not all are bad, but many are. Even good people cannot control themselves when they take the spice.

  “You take a chance when you take the spice or when you enter the company of a zombie. One bite, one drop of their black blood, and it spreads in minutes. One moment of weakened resolve and they rip out your throat and feast on your brains.

  “The same happens with shifters. They drink the tincture and their imprint appears. Then when they shift for the first time, they either go wild or remain civilized, but it’s always a gamble.

  “If I am bitten by a shifter or a zombie or a vampire, it’s not worth the risk to your safety not to kill me, and I know if the time comes, you will do the right thing. Just as you will do the right thing and return to Kansas because your realm is safe for you. Promise me you will return to your realm.”

  “There’s no place for me here, I know, and I know that I have to go back, that I need to tell my aunt and uncle I’m alive, and I know you have plans for your life that I don’t fit into,” I say as tears fill my eyes, “but I will miss you, always, for the rest of my life.”

  He pulls me to him and hugs me tight and I hug him back, so happy he’s alive and so sad I will leave him soon. Now that we’ve killed the Vampire Witch, I will return to Kansas, he will live in Emerald City and start a new life. Ardie will get his cure and the Werelion, his courage.

  “Dorothy, I love you,” he says, and I want him to mean he is in love with me, but that is not what he means. The way he means it is as a best friend. “With everything I am, I love you. That is why you must promise me you will go back to Kansas. Because I would rather lose you forever and know you are safe than have you stay here with me and be at risk.”

  “With you? Do you mean that you love me, like as a close friend, or that you love me the way I love you?”

  “Dorothy, I am in love with you. If I could make you my wife, be that selfish, I would, but I love you far too much to do that. Even though we feel this way for each other, you must keep your promise and return to Kansas,” he says as my heart bursts in my chest.

  “Wait, you love me too?” I repeat, and he laughs.

  “Yes, Dorothy, you know I do,” he says with a sweet smile.

  “Come with me,” I blurt and he sighs.

  “Remember, I do not exist in your realm,” he reminds me, and it’s true—he has no social security number, no school transcripts, no existence on record. He couldn’t get a legal job, it would be hellish for him to survive there, and I have no money at all. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry wouldn’t let me live with a boy in my room either.

  “What if I moved out, left home? If we got an apartment somewhere, all I’d have to do is get a GED, a job, and support us both until you could take the identity of a dead person and become them. I’ve seen it in movies,” I say, and he smiles.

  “Do you know how many years I have spent fighting day and night to avoid turning into a living dead person?”

  “Or I could stay,” I mutter, knowing he’ll say no.

  “No, you cannot. How much could I love you if I were to allow you to make such a sacrifice when you can have a life in a realm free of monsters? In your realm, you can fulfill your dreams. Travel to colorful places. Do not settle for Billy. Someday you will find a man worthy of you, one who loves you as much as I do. I know you will, Dorothy, because not only are you exquisitely beautiful, but you are the most remarkable woman I have ever known,” he says, tears filling his eyes and I kiss him with all the desperation and love in my heart.

  As he kisses me back, it feels as though my heart is breaking and filling up all at once—I am in love for the first time in my life, and I am so grateful he is alive, and that he loves me back—that means everything to me. Even though I know I can’t, I want to stay here and be with him more than I want safety or any of the dreams I once had.

  I know I’m too young to make life decisions based on these sorts of feelings. If this were the civilized realm, it wouldn’t even occur to me to think about a forever kind of love, no matter how in love I was, but sometimes an opportunity presents itself and you can either snatch it up or let it pass you by and wonder what it might have been if you’d taken a different path. This feels like one of those things. Now that I’ve been here, felt magic and power, seen a world of colors I’ve coveted for so long, it’s hard for me not to feel like maybe I do belong here. Maybe I’m meant to stay.

  What he wants for me is far more practical. I’m only seventeen, he’s only nineteen, and we will both move on someday. That’s how it works, right? Your first love is almost never your last. If I stay though, it could be my last because we could die at any moment with vampires and zombies and werebeasts everywhere.

  What Nick wants is what’s best for me, and I want what’s best for him. The way he is, he wouldn’t like my realm, having to rely on me, and for me to think I can live under constant threat of vampire and zombie attacks is not practical at all. Nick and I are from two different worlds, so even though I love him, even though we will be realms apart, it will end soon. And if I never love again, I will be okay because I am pretty sure I will always love him and carry him in my heart forever.

  We fall asleep entangled in each other and I rest so well. I needed to sleep like I never have, and I sleep, and sleep more, only waking to eat and bathe, but more than anything else, I sleep for three days straight, and Werelion did the same.

  When Nick comes in to sleep beside me after being out all day, he tells me how he’s been helping the Winkies train to protect themselves from returning vampires, and they want him to return and run the castle, build an army, and help them protect Winkie Land. I want him to go to Emerald City and stop fighting, but he doesn’t believe Emerald City will remain vampire free for long now that the Vampire Witches are dead. There is no treaty to honor any longer, which means the vampires will be there any day now to feed.

  Throughout the realm, it will be a free for all, and now that Quelala will take the place of the Vampire Witches in ruling over them, they will be ruthless. If he believed Emerald City would remain vampire free, he would ask me to marry him, but he knows it won’t, and they have no army to protect their borders. Only a single old zombie to guard the gate and a few guards at the palace. When I return to Kansas, he will return to Winkie Land, where his mother was from, and live here at the palace. Distant relatives still live here, and if he lives here, he won’t be alone.

  Even though I hate it, I want him to find someone just like he does me, and these Winkie girls are better suited to him, looking more like normal humans than the population of Emerald City. Winkie Land is right on the beach where glittering golden sands line a clear blue ocean while tall, tropical fruit-bearing trees sway in the warm breeze. This part of Oz is the most beautiful place I have ever been, including Emerald City.

  Winkie City is not monochrome. Yes, it’s very gold, but it’s also white, and vivid aqua, and green, and blue—it’s gorgeous here—and the palace is sparkling and beautiful since I scrubbed all the bloodstains out of almost everything including the dungeon. Now, the palace r
adiates shining golden light—it’s lavish and luxurious here.

  If anyone deserves a little luxury, it’s Nick—he gives everything he’s got in a relentless battle against evil and asks for nothing in return—he deserves all the best things this realm has to offer and more.

  “What is going through your mind, my love?” Nick asks me as we walk through a garden of golden yellow flowers on the palace grounds holding hands.

  “I’m thinking of you making a life here when I’m gone—you deserve to live in such a wonderful place—and I think it’s better for you than Emerald City.”

  “What has made you change your mind?”

  “I was thinking about you falling in love. It’s hard to fall in love with someone with those goggles everyone wears. You can’t look into their eyes,” I say, and he chuckles.

  “Dorothy, I am already in love.”

  “When I’m gone.”

  “I do not foresee myself falling in love again. Why would I want to? You are my love, and you always will be,” he says, and it makes me happy and sad all at once.

  “Even though I feel the same way, just as you want me to find someone, I want the same for you. I do not want you to be alone.”

  “In this land, I have a family, and it’s not as if I will have no female companionship again,” he smirks.

  “Ah, you just plan on sleeping with lots of women and never falling in love with any of them?” I ask with a knowing raised brow.

  “That is the plan,” he says with a sly smile and I laugh at him.

  “Ugh, I hate the thought of that,” I admit. The thought of him with other women is a thought I despise, but I also hate the thought of him loving anyone else.

  “I know just how you feel because I feel the same about you.”

  “Don’t make me leave,” I beg.

  “You must. You promised me.”