by Braxton Husk
“Ahhhh!” Exton screamed as Alana just laughed at him.
A blue swirl started to surround the cart as it progressed down the tracks, until it finally engulfed it. The swirl was shades of dark blue, light blue, and light purple. The train seemed to slow down while in this worm hole.
It felt safe enough in the cart to stand up and walk around. Exton stood up and walked towards the front of the cart, and looked out the window. As it was coming to a stop, a giant gold stopwatch with a train on its cover appeared in front of the train. When the stopwatch opened, its chain grabbed the train and started pulling it closer. Exton began to step back. Alana was completely still, just watching Exton.
The train stopped once again, as the chain unraveled. The numbers on the watch began to fade, as it became another sort of worm hole with flashes of illuminating lights, and one tiny speck of light aglow at the end of the tunnel.
“Might wanna hold on for this one …” Alana said.
Before Exton could find a safe place to hold onto, the cart accelerated to the highest of speeds, faster than the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando Florida.
He was launched to the back of the caboose. Exton’s scream echoed through the worm hole. As the light came closer and closer, it became brilliant. Everything around them became nothing but white light.
Chapter 7
When the bright light dimmed, the car was moving slowly and safely on what looked like the Disneyland railroad track.
“Wait … Are we back where we started?” Exton asked.
“No, look around. What do you see?”
Exton walked over to the window. When he looked out, all he could see was construction of what seemed to be Disneyland. The Sleeping Beauty Castle was all gray and had no color. The ground was mostly dirt. Crushed limestone was being installed, leveled, and compacted for the asphalt to be laid.
The Main Street buildings were just now starting to be built, with multiple pieces of wood laying around. To the left, you could see an orange grove being cleared. A man was standing in the middle of the street, talking to construction workers.
This man had slicked back hair and wore a fancy suit.
“No … way!” Exton said, as he turned his head towards Alana.
Alana nodded her head at Exton.
“Walt Disney!” Exton jumped with enthusiasm.
“Are we going to meet him?” “No, unfortunately!” Alana said.
“Why not? He’s literally right there!”
“Well, if we get off, we won’t have a way back through the portal,” Alana said to Exton, as his happiness turned to sadness.
“Well, I guess that makes sense,” Exton said, as he looked back out the window with a somber face, as if they had just passed the ice cream shop.
Alana stood up and walked over to Exton.
“We should get going now …” All at once, the caboose began to shake and rattle. They both looked out the window at the same time.
The construction of the park began to grow more rapidly.
“What the?” he whispered under his breath.
Everything was now in fast-forward. The park seemed to be completed, as people flooded through the gates. Then all of a sudden, it was the 10th Anniversary of Disneyland. Then the 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, and finally, the 60th Anniversary of Disneyland.
Exton and Alana were mesmerized, with what they had just witnessed. They were right back to where they had started. The entire existence of the Disneyland Resort had just flashed in front of Exton’s eyes.
“Come on, I have something else to show you.”
A few minutes later, Exton found himself at Club 33 in New Orleans Square.
“Come on!” Alana said, as she darted into the building.
When Exton entered, he was dazzled with the magnificent staircase and elevator.
“Follow me!” Alana said, as she ran into the elevator.
When the doors closed, she began to type in a code on the keypad. As she did so, a slot opened up behind the buttons.
“I found this not too long ago, and I still have no clue what it is,” Alana remarked, pointing to the clover-shaped slot in the elevator.
“Wait … That’s the shape of my necklace,” Exton said excitedly.
Exton pulled the necklace over his head and placed it in the slot. A green light flashed behind the necklace, as the elevator “dinged.” When the elevator doors opened, they were in some sort of peculiar office. On each side of the walls were windows, yet something was strange about them. They had no view, just dirt behind them. One window had a hole in it due to a tree root barging its way through. In the middle of the room was a custom-built dark wood table. At the end of the table was the tallest chair. This chair had the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head on the very top. In fact, on this Mickey Mouse head, was a very bold “W” sitting over the top of it.
Just as they stepped out of the elevator, Alana heard footsteps coming from somewhere in the room, but she couldn’t figure out from where.
“Wait … Exton! I hear footsteps!
Hide!”
They each hid behind a chair. Exton was having an anxiety attack, while Alana honestly wasn’t frightened of the woman. When they peered around the sides of the chairs, the footsteps suddenly stopped.
As Exton looked around, he spotted Scarlet guarding the elevator. Exton gasped, as Alana turned to see what the fuss was all about.
“Who are you?” Alana asked.
“I think the real question here, girl… is who are…” Scarlet started to reply, but Exton cut her off.
“Scarlet, Scarlet Jones.” Exton smiled, as the lady became enraged.
“Shut it, kid! Scarlet smirked. “You’re all coming with me.”
“No, we’re not,” Alana barked.
“It seems like Alana is taking more control now, if you ask me,” Exton said in his head.
“You know I can still hear you, right?” Alana pointed out, as she turned towards Exton.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but get up and come with me. NOW!” Scarlet shouted.
Exton and Alana both stood up and walked towards Scarlet. Scarlet pulled out her phone and began to speak to someone again.
“I finally got them. Meet me at Club 33.”
As she began to walk towards the elevator with Exton and Alana, Alana yelled, “NOW!”, as she pushed Scarlet away from them.
“Oh, you’re gonna regret that, kid!” Scarlet said, as she walked towards Exton.
He stuck out his hands and pushed her into the elevator with his powers. Alana quickly ran up to the elevator, closed the iron gate on it, and used her magic to lock it.
“Let me out now!” Scarlet demanded.
“Come on, we gotta find a way out!” He began to wildly look around.
“Found something!”
Alana started pulling a painting away from a wall that was attached with hinges.
Exton ran over to the painting. It led to a small hall. At the end of this hall was a door that had green light glowing through it.
“Come on!”
Alana leapt through the doorway, with Exton following her.
“Don’t go in there! Something bad will happen!” Scarlet cried.
Exton opened the door for Alana, and as she entered, he followed.
“Whoa … Where are we?” Exton asked.
“To be completely honest, I really have no clue.”
They were standing in a room that had glass display cases with wood edges. Inside these cases were what seemed to be magic wands.
“Are these what I think they are?” Exton asked.
“I think they are …”
As they kept looking around, Exton stumbled upon one case that was attached to the wall. Inside this case was a wand that was completely black, except for a brown leather handle near the bottom. At the bottom was a bright green crystal, and above the case was a brass plaque labeled: “Malefison.”
Exton was very co
nfused, but he knew that this wand was meant for him.
“Hey, Alana, come over here. Look what I found.”
“Whoa! Did you just get your own magic wand?” Alana marveled. “So jealous!” Alana said laughing.
Exton opened the case up and took the wand out of the velvet holder. He began to wave it around.
“Hey! Be careful with that thing. We don’t know what it does!”
Just then, a green bolt of energy instantaneously shot out of the wand. As it did so, the green crystal lit up. The energy bounced around the room, as Exton and Alana jumped and ducked, so it would not hit them. The energy finally calmed down.
“We should get going before you destroy something, like your school again,” Alana said, as she walked towards the door at the other end of the room.
“Wait, how did you even know about that?”
“Do I have to say it again Exton? I’m a Gypsy.”
Alana pulled a small crystal ball out of her pocket.
“Wait, Exton, look!”
As he looked into the small crystal ball, two grown men were entering the building of Club 33.
“Come on! We have to go!” Alana said, as she put the ball back into her pocket.
Alana opened the door in shock.
“What the heck!” Alana said astonished.
The door led to absolutely nothing at all. All that was there was a wall of dirt with pebbles and roots.
“Exton, see if your wand does anything!”
Exton waved his wand, then pointed it at the door. Alana closed her eyes tight and plugged her ears. The crystal glowed bright green once again, as a gateway appeared.
“Come on!” Alana cried, as she scampered through.
Exton was not so sure about this, but he followed. Soon, Exton and Alana were on the pirate ship in the lake surrounding Tom Sawyer’s Island, which occasionally hosted “Fantasmic.”
“Come on! We need to hide before they find us again.”
“Oh, in here!” Exton said, walking towards the captain’s quarters.
Exton opened the old pirate door, only to be surprised by a room full of beautiful gems, gold, silver, and reales.
He placed his wand in his back pocket, to have an extra hand to look at all the loot. He began to move his hand towards the pile of gold coins. As he stuck his hand in, he was surprised that it was all artificial, just simply plastic.
“Ow,” Exton said, as he rubbed his hand from the pain of punching solid plastic.
“Did you seriously not know that was fake? Come on, Exton, seriously,” Alana said mockingly.
“Oooh! Look at this!”
Exton went over to a plastic skeleton sitting in the chair behind the desk. When he went to touch the too real looking skeleton, Alana reacted.
“Okay, that might just be real … Don’t touch that …”
Exton immediately took his hand away from the prop.
“Just kidding!” Alana started laughing hysterically.
“Hey! We need to be quiet. We are the only ones left in the park. They might just hear us!”
Exton took the skeleton off the chair and placed his backpack on the floor. He sat in the custom-built leather chair with wooden edges designed to look like waves. At the top of the headrest was a skull and crossbones.
“Hey, can I see that wand for a second? I wanna check it out.” Alana was clearly enjoying herself.
“Wait, I found something weird …”
The green crystal seemed to be a bit loose. When Exton tugged on it, the crystal popped right out of the slot.
“I might’ve broken it,” Exton said, sheepishly, handing Alana the two pieces.
“What? No, let me see …”
All of a sudden, the small crystal ball inside Alana’s pocket began to blink. Alana barely noticed the light out of the corner of her eye. She took the ball out and placed it on the desk to examine it. The ball rolled right into the slot on the wand and snapped in place.
“Hmm, that’s weird,” Exton observed. “Wait, let me see that.”
As Alana handed the wand back to Exton, he tried to pull the ball out but failed.
“Hey, let me try.”
Exton handed the wand back to Alana, who was able to pull the crystal ball out right away.
“Maybe only I can pull my source of power out of the wand and place it in there,” Exton said in awe.
“That might just be it!” Alana placed the crystal ball back in.
“Can I go try this outside?” Alana asked.
“Sure, why not? But we need to be super careful not to get caught.”
Exton got up from the chair and walked with Alana to the door.
“Okay, shh …” Alana whispered as she opened the door to darkness, and felt a cold breeze on her skin.
Alana stepped out towards the edge of the ship and delicately waved the magic wand. As the crystal ball glowed a bright brilliant blue, the water in the lake began to rise. Alana waved the wand like a conductor, as the water shot in different directions and even changed colors.
Back on the other side of the lake, Scarlet and her goons had escaped. “Hey, I see them! Let’s go!” one of the goons said.
“Wait, wait, wait! Let them get their hopes up. Then, we will get them when they least expect it,” Scarlet said, as she chuckled with pure evilness.
“Hey, watch this!” Alana said, as a fountain of water shot out of the lake and launched towards Exton, but he managed to dodge it.
“Hey, don’t do that!” Exton said laughing.
“Fine.”
Alana waved the wand just one more time.
Multiple fountains of water shot towards Exton once again.
Exton dodged almost every single one, but was hit by the last. He looked at Alana with a startled face, trying not to laugh.
“Oh, I see how it is!”
Exton stuck his hand out towards the lake and launched a huge ball of water towards Alana. She quickly swung into action, waved the wand, and then directed it at Exton.
“Okay, time!” Exton said, as Alana stopped the ball of water hurdling towards Exton.
“Ha! ha! I win!” Alana boasted and they both laughed.
“Okay, I think it’s time you learn where you came from,” Alana said.
“Okay, now I’m not having that talk again.”
“What? No, no, no, I mean where your POWERS are from!”
“Oh, okay, good!” Exton felt relieved and laughed as well.
As Exton and Alana walked back inside, she told him to sit in the chair.
Exton did so, and Alana sat on the table.
“First of all, do you know how you got your magic?” Alana asked.
“Yes, I was born inside Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, as the Wishing Star passed over,” Exton said proudly.
“Yes, but that’s not all. Your mom was a descendant.”
“Of whom?” Exton looked bewildered.
Alana spoke the words slowly, “Walter Elias Disney.”
Chapter 8
“Did I just hear that right?”
“I don’t know, did you?”
“So, you’re telling me that I’m related to Walt Disney?” Exton seemed shocked.
“Yes.”
Exton exerted joy, as he spun himself around in the chair.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. If you had magic like me, it wouldn’t be as enhanced. But you came from a line of Disneys! You have the same bloodline as the most imaginative man in history!” Alana boasted proudly.
“But this comes with big responsibilities. You have to learn how to control your powers.”
Exton heard a loud clank, coming from further down in the ship.
“Did you just hear that?” Exton looked puzzled. He pulled out his wand and stood up.
“No.”
Exton heard another loud clank.
“Okay, I heard that one,” Alana confirmed.
“Shh! Stay behind me.” Exton quietly tiptoed towards the door.
The door c
reaked, as Exton opened it very slowly. Exton peeked around the corner and looked around the ship to make sure no one had followed them.
“Coast is clear on deck.”
“Okay, I’m gonna go down to the cargo area. You stay here,” Exton advised Alana.
“No! I’m coming with you.”
“To be completely honest, I was hoping you were gonna say that.”
As they made it through the ship, it was quiet, almost too quiet. The sound of a few barrels falling over, startled them, as they walked through the cold dark room. The wooden planks creaked with every step. Exton got as far as he could with no light. Then, he began to wave the wand to light up the room. All of a sudden, two red lights lit up in the darkness, then two more.
“What are those?” Alana asked.
“I don’t know. Get behind me!”
The first figure began to walk towards Exton. It soon stopped in its tracks. It got quiet too fast. Then all of a sudden, the figure launched into action. Baring its teeth at Exton, it began to attack him. The figure was an old rusted pirate animatronic. It had ripped clothes that showed its rusted, broken endoskeleton. The head of the animatronic was a rusted metal skull, with gleaming metal teeth. One side of the skull had a hole in it that exposed the red and yellow wires. Bizarrely, this animatronic wasn’t connected to anything; it was controlling itself! Then two more animatronics appeared that were very similar to the first one.
When Exton began to wave his wand, one of the animatronics knocked it right out of his hand. As he bent to pick it up, the pirate skeleton let out a loud ear-piercing scream.
All of a sudden, the clanking of more animatronic footsteps came from behind them. When they spun around, to their surprise, a weathered Jack Sparrow walked out into the light.
His hair was much more tangled than in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Jack seemed to have lost his hat, but the bandana was still resting on his cold metal skull, with a layer of silicone skin. His white shirt had a large tear in the middle, and so did the skin, revealing his thin robot-like skeleton, much like the skeleton pirates. His blue vest seemed to be just fine, except for a few spotty stains from an unknown substance. Jack Sparrow reached for his sword and unsheathed it with flair, as it shimmered in the weak blue moonlight.