by Justin Sloan
“Mom,” the real Brooke said. “I’m here, that’s not me!”
Her mom looked down at Brooke and her face contorted. “What in the—”
“That’s not me, Mom! Get the necklace!”
Trollay looked at Brooke’s mom with fright, but Brooke knew her mom couldn’t understand her and only heard a bird’s chirping.
“What is that bird doing in here again?” Brooke’s mom darted forward and flapped a blanket to send Brooke into the air and then out the window.
“No, Mom, it’s me!”
“Out, out!”
Brooke fluttered her wings and backed out, eyes darting frantically between her mom and Trollay. Her mom dropped the blankets and slammed the window shut, with Brooke on the outside.
Chapter 14: The Transformation
Brooke landed on the windowsill and stared in disbelief at her mom and Trollay on the other side of the glass. Inside, Brooke’s mom put an arm around what she thought was her daughter. Trollay turned to Brooke with an evil smile of triumph.
As Brooke flew into the open sky, she thought life couldn’t sink much lower. Not only was she trapped as a bird, but an evil raven had figured out a way to take over her old form and pretend to be her! She passed the fountain below, the one where she had met Timmy and had explored with the rats. The morning light glistened off of Roy’s tree in the distance. A creeping white fog covered the foothills, only the peak of Mt. Rainier visible in the sky.
A crooked branch on a nearby tree seemed as good a place to land as any. A small ant crawled along the branch below Brooke and she watched it for a moment before saying, “Maybe I’m not good at being a little girl. Maybe I should just stay a bird forever.”
The ant paused to look at her, shaking its tiny head before continuing on.
“Fine, go,” Brooke said. “Everyone leaves me anyway.”
“Your mom didn’t leave you,” Timmy’s voice said.
Brooke turned, looking for Timmy on the ground below and wondering how he had spotted her way up there. Then she saw Roy flapping toward her, Timmy in his claws. He set Timmy down on the branch and landed nearby.
Timmy limped toward her, very aware of the height and his potential to fall. “I saw. She thought he was you. She wants you back more than anything.”
“She has what she thinks is me,” Brooke said. “Why would she care?”
“She loves you,” Roy said. “Not some faker.”
Timmy nodded. “I’m telling you right now that if you don’t do everything in your power to get that necklace and return to her, you’ll always regret it.” Timmy sat on the branch and stared off at the fog as it cleared from Mt. Rainier, wisps of orange in the sky. “If you give up now, well, that isn’t you.”
“I don’t think I’d like that you,” Roy said.
They stared at her, waiting.
“What choice do I have?” she said. “He won. Trollay won.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Roy pointed to the ground below. It seemed to shift in a blanket of brown rats.
Grollock stood from the middle of his army and saluted. “We’re not letting Trollay get away with this. Reporting for duty!”
Timmy put a paw on Brooke’s back. “Like I said, the rats have something special. When they think of family, they mean an army of family.”
She watched the swarm of rats, barely believing it.
“Your friends are here,” Timmy said. “Now it’s up to you.”
Brooke fluffed her feathers and stood. She glanced between her friends and the army of rats below. “Let’s go home.”
Everyone cheered as Brooke took to the sky to lead the way. She arrived at her house and perched on the windowsill. The army of rats streamed out of the grass, moving to surround the house, Timmy among them.
Brooke peered in through the window and Roy landed on the windowsill beside her.
“We’ll have Trollay,” Grollock said to his men. “He won’t escape!”
A car engine started behind them and Brooke turned to it, her stomach clenching. The car backed out of its spot and began to move down the street.
“They already have,” Brooke said as she saw her mother, Paul, and Trollay in her body drive off.
Roy took a moment to process it and then shouted, “After that car!”
The others moved at once, but Brooke wasn’t sure. They had lost, right? She was about to tell Roy so, when he winked at her and took off into the sky. She had no choice but to follow.
The rats and Timmy raced below to catch the car as Brooke caught up with Roy.
“But we’ll never make it,” she shouted.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t try,” Roy said. “Let’s make it count.”
She flapped along, getting caught up in the moment. They were right, maybe she wasn’t done for. If Trollay had gotten into her body, there had to be some way to reverse the spell. She flapped hard, feeling the wind against her face and the rush of excitement.
But the car was too fast.
They continued their pursuit, the rats moving along the sidewalk and startling a small boy on his tricycle. The boy shrieked and pedaled away as fast as he could. Brooke looked down to Timmy, the lone white speck among the brown and black rats, then back to the car disappearing in the distance. She was about to say they should turn back when a gray streak flew past—a pigeon dive-bombing the rats. More pigeons began the assault and the rats parted in waves as the pigeons continued their attack.
One rat got hit and fell back. Another was snatched into the air and dropped into the nearby trees. A pigeon dove, but this time Grollock gave a signal and three rats jumped as one, bringing the pigeon into their midst. Feathers flew.
Brooke aimed for a pigeon that had Grollock in its sights. She slammed into it and they circled in the air, inches above the rats, claws tearing and beaks snapping. Roy zoomed over, but Brooke held out a wing and said, “I got this!”
She pulled back and head-butted the Pigeon, slamming it into the cement. With a grunt, she pushed back into the sky as the rats dealt with the pigeon on the ground. More pigeons were nearby and she turned for the attack, but they circled once and then began the retreat.
The rats roared in victory. Roy’s eyes went wide and he swooshed over to Brooke. He pulled her down just in time to avoid hitting a traffic light.
Brooke fluttered in place and saw that they had lost the car. The pigeons had succeeded in distracting them. She and Roy spiraled down to the huffing Grollock and Timmy.
Timmy looked up, his little chest heaving with quick breaths. “We... we tried.”
“It’s not over,” Brooke said. “I know where they’re going.”
Chapter 15: This Means War
Brooke perched on her mother’s car at the edge of the graveyard. Roy and Timmy sat beside her and the rats gathered in the car’s shadow. Fog wisped its way between nearby trees. In the distance, among flowing grass and headstones, Brooke’s mom and Paul walked away from the car with Trollay. Brooke stared after them, debating her next move.
“It’s my grandma’s grave,” Brooke said. “Mom always said this is where the whole family would end up someday. I didn’t know what it meant back then.”
Timmy stared at the graveyard in silence, his eyes moist.
“I miss my dad,” Brooke said.
Timmy moved to her and put a paw on her shoulder. Brooke looked up into Timmy’s eyes and they shared a moment.
“Let’s go say goodbye to him,” Timmy said. “And maybe get your body back?”
She nodded and turned to her army of rats, pushing out her chest. “You all came here to help me, right?”
A cheer rose up in response.
“I used to wonder how my dad could’ve risked his life for something, believed so strong that he’d fight for it. Now I know, and I’ll do anything to get my family back.” She hopped into the air, wings flapping. “Help me! Don’t let that faker keep my body!”
Brooke and Roy took off after Trollay, the rats and
Timmy following. Up ahead, Trollay seemed to have a hard time walking in Brooke’s body and couldn’t keep up with Brooke’s mom and Paul. Brooke and her friends grew close in their charge.
Trollay turned, as if sensing their approach, only to find Brooke flapping in his face.
“Get out of my body!” she said, swooping around him in an attempt to find the necklace.
“I don’t need the pigeons’ help to fight you!” Trollay leered at her and then turned away, dismissive. He snarled at the sight of the rats blocking his path to Brooke’s mom and brother.
A meow sounded nearby. Trollay’s face turned white as he looked over his shoulder and saw Creamsicle.
“A—a cat!” Trollay ran for the woods, but stumbled with a shout just past the treeline.
The rats swarmed over Trollay, binding his legs and hands with vines. They continued to cover him, everywhere but his face.
Creamsicle looked up at Brooke and purred.
“You came outside?” Brooke asked.
Creamsicle smiled. “I got lonely, decided you may still need my help.”
“I certainly do. Thank you so much!”
“Watch this.” Creamsicle winked and showed Trollay her claws.
“Get me away, anywhere.” Trollay squirmed among the vines. “Keep that thing away from me!”
Grollock jumped on Trollay, fist inches from his face. “Open your mouth again and you’ll have rat dung for breakfast!”
Brooke cringed. “Guys, that’s still my body.”
“Ah, right,” Grollock backed off, to Trollay’s relief. “As you say.”
The rats moved aside and Brooke hopped onto her body’s chest. Trollay went cross-eyed looking at her.
“You’ll never take my place,” Brooke said.
Trollay stared back wide-eyed. Sweat dripped from his temples as he glanced between her and Creamsicle.
“Give me the necklace,” Brooke demanded.
Trollay’s worried look turned to a smile at the sound of flapping wings and the cooing of pigeons. Bigon and Nog flew down from the trees, and when Brooke looked up, she saw the trees filled with pigeons.
“Is that the winds of change I hear?” Trollay struggled heavily and managed to get to his feet, the vines hanging loosely now from Brooke’s body.
“Stop him!” Brooke shouted.
Creamsicle pounced into his path with an intimidating hiss. Brooke flew into Trollay’s face and Roy joined her. The pigeons swooped down like a tornado. Claws swiping, Creamsicle took them down two and three at a time, but they just kept on coming. There were too many!
Brooke spun, looking for Trollay as pigeon wings slapped her face. Roy tore and nipped at them beside her, fighting with everything he had, but taking strike after strike from passing pigeons. Then Brooke spotted Trollay, near the edge of the clearing, kicking at rats in his escape. She made a move for him, but Bigon slammed into her from one side and Nog slammed into her from the other. Brooke fell with the wind knocked out of her.
Momma Swallow darted from the trees, catching Brooke and helping her to land softly.
The pigeons pulled back as Roy and the others gathered, a wall of rats before them. Creamsicle hissed at Trollay, who leered at them as his pigeons fluttered about like a cloud of grey and black above.
“Go, get you and your friend out of here,” Momma Swallow said to Roy.
“I’m not leaving, Mom,” Roy said. “This time it’s our fight.”
She considered him for a moment before nodding in understanding.
“Ah, so cute, CAW! But it's too late, see?” Trollay gestured to the cloud of his minions above. “Looks like I win again!”
“Not so fast,” Brooke said as she stepped forward. “My family loves me and I love them, and I’m going home.” She narrowed her eyes and pointed a feather at Trollay. “You and your stupid pigeons won't stand in my way!”
And with that, the two armies charged. Chaos was everywhere. The pigeons were being pushed back. Rats jumped from trees holding vines, which they used to tie the pigeons.
Roy and Momma Swallow flapped so Trollay couldn’t see, while Brooke tried to get the necklace and dodge his flailing arms. The rats swarmed his feet and Creamsicle pounced. Trollay shrieked as Creamsicle clung to his leg.
“It was the pigeons, lemme be!” Trollay pleaded. He ran in circles, screaming as Creamsicle and everyone else chased him. But then a voice broke through the chaos.
“Brooke?” her mom said. “Brooke, is that you?”
Everyone froze.
“Oh no.” Brooke felt the world collapse around her.
“Brooke, dear?” her mom said, closer now.
Trollay smiled mischievously and called out to Brooke’s mom, “You’re close, over here!”
Seemingly for no reason, Trollay twitched. A lump appeared under his shirt and moved up his torso. He tried to slap it, but missed. Timmy appeared at the shirt’s collar and, with a swift movement, unhooked the clasp of the necklace. The stone of the necklace caught the light and glimmered brilliantly as it fell. Trollay reached, his eyes in shock.
But Brooke was already diving. “I’M COMING, MOM!”
The ground approached fast, but she pushed forward until she snagged the necklace in her beak and, unable to pull up, rolled across the ground. With a crack, the stone of the necklace slammed against a rock and split in two.
Purple light shot from the cracked stone, blinding. It turned to yellow and faded, along with the light above as a shadow like an eclipse passed over the sun, everything dark. The mist glowed lavender as it consumed Brooke. The mist spread, engulfing the entire clearing, and by the time it reached Trollay he was a bird again. Creamsicle pounced as the mist overtook the surrounding trees, now a dense fog, changing from lavender to white. No one could see a thing.
An eerie scream from Trollay filled the silence.
Chapter 16: Home at Last
The shadow passed from the sun. The fog slowly lifted to reveal Brooke lying on the ground, eyes closed, in human form.
Brooke’s mom appeared in the light remnants of fog, her face a wash of relief to see Brooke. She ran to her daughter and lifted her. As her mom spun her around, Brooke couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so much joy.
“I thought you’d run away again,” her mom said as she lowered Brooke to the ground. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“No, Mom, never again.”
Her mom pulled her in tight for a smothering embrace. They turned together and she asked, “Do you think you’re ready?”
Brooke considered the question and everything she had been through. Somehow, her father would always be there for her, she understood that now.
“Yes,” Brooke said.
They emerged from the tree line to find Paul holding flowers and kneeling beside their grandma’s headstone and a spot of grass. Brooke approached, her hand in her mom’s. She looked to her mom and then moved to Paul. She put her hand on his and he nodded. Together, they set the flowers on the grave, together.
Brooke stared at the gravestone and then the bare patch of grass for a moment—the spot where her dad would be buried. The thought hurt so much, worse than anything she had ever experienced. But she knew his love would never leave them, and she would be okay.
“The funeral will be in a couple of days,” their mom said. “I wanted to show you both the spot, so you’re ready. Can I count on you to be here? All of us, together?”
Brooke nodded. She looked up to see her mom’s eyes watering and Paul smiling.
“I feel like he’s watching over us,” Paul said.
They stood, and Paul wrapped his arm around his sister as they walked to the car. But halfway there, Brooke paused and looked back to the tree line.
“Can I have just a minute, Mom?” Brooke asked.
Her mom hesitated. “Sure, honey.”
Brooke ran back to the spot where she had left the animals, but they weren’t there. Even the fog had mostly cleared, and there was no sign of a
ny of them.
“Timmy, Roy? Guys?” She searched the grass and then moved over to the trees.
Her mom called, “Brooke, don’t go too far.”
Brooke paused, confused by something she spotted on the ground. She bent over to pick up a small white mouse toy with an acorn cap on its head.
“Timmy?”
The toy mouse stared back, blankly. She shook it. This didn’t make sense.
“Timmy, wake up, Timmy!”
But still nothing. She sat there for a moment, staring at the toy mouse, not knowing what to think or feel.
Her mom approached and put a hand on her shoulder. “Honey, are you feeling okay?”
Brooke slowly stood and turned to her mom. “Let’s go home. I’m so tired.”
***
As they strolled off, the grass behind them moved. Rats began to poke their heads out. Grollock stood beside the cat, a tear trickling from his good eye. Trollay, in bird form, was tied with vines. His eyes lit up at the sight of Bigon and Nog nearby, but they shook their heads at him. They circled once and flew off, but as they went a large pigeon dropping fell from the sky and splattered across Trollay.
Trollay shuddered and hung his head. Grollock pulled back in disgust.
Up above, on the branch of a tree, Roy sat with his family and watched Brooke go.
“If we leave, will she be okay?” Roy asked.
“Everything will be perfect, dear.” Momma Swallow wrapped her son in her wings.
***
Brooke entered her bedroom and set the mouse toy with her other acorn-cap wearing dolls. She lingered, placing the broken necklace with the dolls. As she was about to leave, she frowned at a piece of paper on the floor—the note that her dad left with the necklace. Below the old writing it now said, “I’ll never truly leave you, my little birdie.”
Brooke’s eyes went wide and she looked around the room. Her heart was beating as fast as it had when she was a bird. The mouse toy seemed to wink at her.