One signaled them to sit down at a table. “Read. Now.”
“Where do I start?” Sarah asked, setting the book down.
“Any place,” One grunted.
Sarah flipped through the pages and stopped at a random page. She pressed her library card against the book and began reading softly while Jon and the guides readied themselves.
Sarah hadn’t read far into the story when the enchantment started to take hold. She glanced up at the guides as she read, they grinned coyly. The vibration started in her hand and then spread throughout her body. A ghostly white ripple began in her fingers, creeping up her arm. A blue rift opened in front of her, slowly revealing a lush green meadow on the other side.
She continued reading and the portal opened wider. Sarah felt her body tingling. Jon was beside her, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. The two of them stepped through the portal, followed by the golem guardsmen.
Sarah closed the book and, behind them, the portal spun shut and then everything was dark. There was a rush of cool air and the smell of sweet corn hung in the air.
Suddenly, the group was pulled toward a pinpoint of light at hyper speed. Sarah’s stomach churned as the story unfolded in reverse. It grew larger and larger until she could see that it was sunlight pouring through a hole.
Two cartoon-like voices hailed them. It was the young pig and his father from the story. They stood paralyzed, looking at each other in confusion.
They were yanked forward again, the world a blur and the story flashing forward scene after scene. The bitter taste of bile rose in the back of her throat and she felt sick to her stomach.
They came to a grinding halt and everything came back into focus. Sarah felt faint. They were standing outside the fence of a large pigsty, overlooking a valley of sweeping green grass. Both Sarah and Jon’s knees buckled at the same time. Jon stumbled, retching on one of the bodyguard’s shiny shoes. Sarah threw up in the grass beside them and then collapsed. Moments later, she awoke to see Jon and a bodyguard hovering over her. She smacked her lips. “What are you guys doing in my bedroom?”
“Does this look like your bedroom?” Jon asked, hooking a thumb over his shoulder.
Sarah glanced around in panic and then reached out to touch the soft grass that surrounded them. She could feel the warm sunlight on her face and inhaled deeply. An old, rusty windmill squeaked as it sluggishly turned in the breeze.
“Where are we?” Sarah muttered, trying to stand up on her wobbly legs.
“Inside the story, of course!” Jon cheered. “It worked!”
“What happened?”
“Ya’ fainted,” Number Three answered. “Normal first time.”
“And we both chucked!” Jon added.
“Brain shut down,” Three grunted. “This new reality.”
“Yeah,” Jon said. “We short circuited, blew a fuse.”
Four grunted, “Will get used to.”
“I hope so,” Sarah said, scanning the horizon. “Something is wrong with my eyes I think.”
“Book written this way,” One grunted. “No depth. Simple.”
“Don’t you get it Sarah?” Jon asked, grabbing her shoulders and pointing her around. “Look! The grass is not as green. The trees are not so woody. The sky is not true blue. The pigs are—ah—still stinky.”
“Okay! Okay! I get it,” Sarah said, holding her hands up to stop him. “Different and cartoonish.”
Number Four pointed. “Electric fence. Razor wire. Dangerous.”
Sarah ignored him, taking a closer look at the pigsty and spotting a specific pig watching them. “Look! The one with the big blue eyes is Corky!” Sarah cheered, smiling and waving to him. “Hi, Corky!”
The pig hesitantly raised a hoof and waved back. The other pigs romped and splashed around in the mud excitedly.
“Awesome,” Jon said. “He waved back.”
“Rules,” Number Two said. “Witness. Do not participate.”
Jon pointed across the field. “Look, Sarah. It’s the woods where Francis and his coyote pack are lurking. Remember, they’re trying to eat the pigs.”
Sarah looked. “You’re right. He’s probably watching us now.”
“Not in TwoSpells anymore, Dorothy,” Number Two said.
“Huh?” Sarah said. “Oh! I didn’t know you number guys had a sense of humor.”
“You funny,” One grunted, grinning. “I like.”
“Check that out,” Jon said, pointing past the pig pen. “It’s the slaughter house.”
“Disgusting,” Sarah said. She plugged her nose. “That’s that awful smell.”
The pigs squealed and splashed in the mud, watching them.
“Why are they so excited?” Sarah asked.
“Because there are no humans in this story. We’re aliens to them I guess,” Jon said, making antennae gestures on his head.
Sarah slumped back down in the grass. “It seems so real.”
Number One stepped in front of Sarah. “Is danger?”
Sarah pointed to the pigs. “It’s just a children’s story.”
“Is danger here?” he grunted sternly, nervously examining the distance. “Wolves?”
Sarah jumped back to her feet, looking in the same direction. A large pack of brawny, gray wolves were crouched just on the next hilltop.
“We go,” One insisted. “Not safe.”
The pack of wolves began to creep towards them.
“O-o-okay,” Sarah stammered. “We need to go.”
“Read backwards,” One instructed.
“Hey!” Sarah exclaimed, looking around in panic. “Where’s Jon?”
“There!” grunted number Two. “On hilltop.”
“Jon!” Sarah yelled.
Jon looked back as the security team pointed at the approaching wolves. Jon turned, his face went ash gray and he began running towards Sarah and the team. The wolves immediately pursued him.
“Not make,” One said. “We run.”
“Oh, no!” Sarah cried out. She charged toward Jon as the team lumbered behind.
The wolf pack picked up speed, attempting to cut Jon off. They snarled and yelped viciously, their ears flapping in the wind with each powerful stride. Their mouths frothed as they snapped their jaws in anticipation of a tasty meal.
Just before they reached Jon, the bodyguards leapt between the charging wolves and the children.
“They move really fast for cartoons,” Jon wheezed.
“How do we get out?” Sarah asked.
“Read backwards!” One roared.
Sarah fumbled with the book. “I’m trying! I’m trying!”
The pack was nearly upon them.
“Use card,” One grunted. “Touch book.”
Sarah rifled through her pockets, searching for the card. She finally found it in her rear pocket and quickly touched it to the book, activating the enchantment.
“Hungry. Was. Pack. Wolf. The. Food. Of. Source. Strange. A. Spotted. They,” Sarah read.
The hungry wolves were almost on them just as Sarah saw her body begin to vibrate and transform, converting into pure energy. The portal opened behind her.
“Go,” One grunted.
As they jumped through, the wolves pounced, passing harmlessly through the place they’d been. The last thing that Sarah saw as she looked back was the wolves toppling over one another in a massive heap of flying fur and gnashing teeth. Everything went black again as a rush of cool air washed over them and Sarah was suddenly back in TwoSpells on her hands and knees, retching.
CHAPTER 21
SARAH AND JON WERE HELPED to their feet by two of the bodyguards. One of them frantically shouted into his headset. A siren blared throughout the library.
A few moments later, a neon orange paddywagon painted with strange symbols and flashing blue lights on its rooftop slid to a screeching stop alongside them. Four tiny creatures scrambled out of the van. They wore green hazmat suits and chattered a curious, warbling language into their tiny headsets.
They had giant, golden eyes that sparkled against their pale green faces and long pointed noses.
Each carried a small black medical bag. They opened them, retrieving breathing masks and yellow oxygen tanks linked by twisted rubber tubing. They stretched them over their heads and flipped tiny red switches that puffed them to life. Next, they drew out tiny weapons, hooking them to their belts as they formed a single line and waited for orders.
Two of the bodyguards greeted them, muttering in the same peculiar warbling language. One of the creatures took the book, flipped it to the first page and began reading. He flickered, the portal opened, and the group leapt inside, fading into the darkness before the portal closed.
“Awesome!” Jon cheered, staggering a few steps. “Head rush!”
Sarah stumbled, but number One grabbed her by the shoulders and steadied her.
“Careful, Miss Sarah,” he grunted. “First time. Equilibrium shaky.”
Sarah put her hands to her face and shook her head a couple of times, trying to refocus her eyes.
“Yeah,” Sarah mumbled, patting One softly on the hand. “Thanks, Mr. One.”
“That was cool wasn’t it, Sarah?” Jon asked.
“Yeah. Real cool,” Sarah said. She noticed a couple of the bodyguards were wounded. “I thought we passed safely.”
“Not all of us,” One grunted. “Built tough.”
“Are they going to be all right?” Sarah asked.
“Story changed,” One grunted. “Too much. Cleaners fix.”
“Are we in trouble?” Jon asked.
One looked him up and down. “First time offense. One chance.”
“What are they cleaning?” Sarah asked.
“Your mess.”
Sarah looked up at them. “I’m sorry. We’ve been a nuisance.”
“No nuisance,” One grunted. “Continue tour. Lead way.”
Jon ran ahead, leading the group of them through the library until they reached a group of children acting strangely. They were playing a game of some kind.
As Sarah and Jon approached, a massive translucent portal opened directly in their path. They shielded their eyes from a brilliant glare. Suddenly, a stampede of enormous war elephants charged directly toward them. They were adorned with steel battle armor with stout iron horns attached to the shoulders and forehead. Samurai warriors stood atop them, brandishing long thin bladed swords.
Sarah and Jon panicked, dodging around and between their monstrous legs to avoid being trampled to death. The elephants lowered their heads and swung their mighty tusks about, shattering fixtures and smashing library shelves. One of them tumbled to the ground, crashing across the floor and spilling several samurai into the library. Others slammed head first into towering bookshelves, turning thousands of books into lethal projectiles. The bewildered Samurai thrust their swords into the air, slashing at falling books and creating literary confetti.
The innocent children who released the army stood motionless in dismay as the dangerous scene unfolded around them. The reader held the ruptured text, liquefied words spilling across the floor.
Warlords shouted wildly from the backs of the trumpeting war elephants, signaling to attack, their eyes fixed on Sarah and Jon. The army bore down on them.
Number One knocked the children to the ground, covering them with his massive, hulking frame. The first few marauding elephants stepped over and around them.
One lifted them back to their feet and darted between the remaining beasts, narrowly escaping a gruesome death by the weighty elephants and slashing swords.
The air exploded with light, sizzling and crackling as blistering plasma arced above their heads. The smell of burning ozone wafted over them. Agonizing roars of pain from man and beast filled the library as a tremendous crash of elephant flesh splintered several tables. Bodies and debris tumbled to the floor around her. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of burning flesh.
“Jon,” Sarah yelled, helping Jon to his feet. “Jon! Get up!”
Sarah looked at One, a smoking weapon in hand, overlooking the smoldering remains of a war elephant. The sirens blared across the library again. Within moments, a large maintenance crew arrived with heavy equipment to remove the smoldering bodies as new library security teams arrived. The traumatized children who accidentally released the army were swiftly escorted away by security officers while investigators parlayed the book and swept the faltering written words strewn about the area into evidence bags.
Several samurai warriors were cornered by the bodyguards, crouched and ready for an assault. One swordsman twirled his weapon in a display of unbelievably rhythmic martial arts maneuvers.
“Awesome!” Jon said. “Bruce Lee warriors!”
The samurai shouted and charged the bodyguards, some launching deadly throwing stars and firing colorful arrows. The bodyguards couldn’t avoid all of the projectiles but managed to draw their weapons and fire. The area glowed with white hot plasma, as the samurai fell to the floor in a clatter of metal armor and steel swords.
Sarah looked at the heap of smoldering warriors. “Did you kill them?”
One gazed down at her. “Stun.”
Within minutes, several old-fashioned ambulance wagons screeched up beside the fallen warriors. Medical staff unloaded and quickly administered emergency medical assistance to the wounded golems as well as the injured samurai. They removed the embedded weapons from their thick hides and cauterized the wounds with specialized medical devices. Some were carried away in stretchers.
Jon reached down and scooped up one of the swords that was left behind. Two grabbed it from him and snapped it in two. “Not for children!”
“Hey! I’m old enough!” Jon argued.
There were brisk footsteps behind them and they turned to see that Liam had arrived. He surveyed the mayhem while pulling the kids aside. “Do you see why I need that book back? This could be—the beginning of the end.”
“The end of what?” Jon asked.
Liam lowered his eyes. “TwoSpells first. After that, who knows?”
Sarah reached down and picked up a beautiful book about rainbows lying in a heap of splintered shelving. Something was leaking from the book’s spine. She opened it and words tumbled from the pages, followed by images of colorful rainbows pouring onto the blood stained floor and splashing her shoes.
“Is this the virus?” She asked Liam.
Liam squatted beside a pile of damaged books, fumbling through them. He looked around the library and shook his head in disbelief, his eyes beginning to well up. “Where’s the book?”
“What book?” Sarah asked.
“The portal is still open!” Liam shouted suddenly. He jumped up, pointing to the spinning rift across the library.
Before anyone could move, several hulking figures charged from the opening.
“Run!” Liam shouted, guiding the children away.
A half dozen gargantuan battle Trolls burst forth, their skin heavily scarred and draped with animal skins. They had bulbous noses with large flared nostrils, two curved tusks protruding from their mouths, and shaggy beards that curled around their broad skulls. All were armed with knobby wooden clubs the size of small oak trees, tipped with iron spikes.
They staggered and bounced off of the bookshelves as they adjusted to their new reality. The shelves cracked, buckled and swayed. The Trolls smelled like open sewers on a sweltering summer day. They swung their battle clubs blindly at anything that moved, including each other. Two fell victim to the wild swings immediately. The other four ominously circled each other for a few moments, sniffing the air and squinting through bloodshot eyes. The incoming sirens momentarily attracted their attention. The Cleaners were approaching.
Liam wielded his new wooden walking stick and began chanting. The four trolls sniffed in his direction and growled deeply. Liam aimed the walking stick and a mighty blast of emerald plasma emerged. All four instantly crashed to the ground in a massive, moaning heap of sweating flesh.
Jon st
epped from behind the fragmented remains of a fallen table. “Awesome! Grandpa’s walking stick did that?”
Liam twirled it over his head. “Of course!”
Sarah pointed frantically at the pile of trolls. “I saw one of them move.”
“Are you sure?” Liam asked, peering closer.
Jon walked up to the pile and kicked one of their burly legs. “Dead as door nails!”
The mountain of bodies began to shake. One of the trolls grabbed a hold of Jon. He screamed as Sarah and Liam charged to his rescue. Liam drew his sword and ran it through the troll’s hand. It bellowed and released Jon, who stumbled away. The bodyguards drew their weapons and readied themselves as heavy breathing erupted from the wriggling mass, filling the air with a putrid funk. The trolls swiftly rose to their feet, roaring with anger and re-arming themselves.
They spied Liam and the children, their lips flaring around their curved tusks as they snarled. Now, mysteriously recuperated, they trudged towards them.
“Run!” Liam ordered. “I’ll hold them off!”
Liam wielded his walking stick again and sent another emerald plasma blast into the trolls. This time, it only stunned them and they back-peddled a few paces, slamming into several bookshelves. The Cleaners raised their weapons and released a full barrage of multiple plasma blasts, only agitating them further.
“They’ve somehow adapted,” Liam bellowed. “Move!”
Liam and his bodyguards maneuvered away from the retreating children, trying to draw the trolls away. But the troll soldiers had their eyes locked on the children, still slogging after them.
Sarah and Jon climbed over the bodies and debris from the first battle. As the Trolls encountered debris, they merely smashed it out of the way with their huge spiked battle clubs. A small swarm of new numbered bodyguards arrived to help, surrounding the beasts and attempting to distract their attention.
Sarah and Jon were at a full sprint, but the trolls were closing in, each of their steps equal to ten of the children’s. They zigzagged through the bookshelves, searching for a place to hide. The trolls’ massive bulk made it difficult to navigate the narrow aisles, their poor eyesight forcing them to rely on their huge nostrils, pursuing them like bloodhounds. The trolls periodically paused, grunting orders to one another before taking chase again.
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