“Don’t be mad.” I told her about the dream and my frustration over its refusal to reveal itself. “I needed Wayne’s help.”
“But not mine? You should have told me!” snapped Amanda. “You should have told Finn! What if he’s in danger?”
I wanted more than ever to be alone with just Wayne.
“That’s exactly why I couldn’t tell you!”
“It must be hard not being able to see it,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
I hated myself for feeling like I didn’t want her there with me.
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
Amanda knew I was lying.
WAYNE WAS SOMEWHERE ahead of us. Amanda and I walked quietly.
“Are you sure we can trust him?” Amanda broke the silence.
“Who? Wayne? Of course we can,” I replied, surprised at the suggestion.
“Don’t forget, he was the one who got Dillard involved, and…” Amanda stopped, choked up.
“He couldn’t have known that would happen,” I said defensively.
“How do we know that? He’s getting old. What if he’s...you know.” Amanda circled her finger next to her ear.
“Amanda! How can you say that? He’s Wayne! Look, no one asked you to—” I managed to stop talking, which was not the easiest thing.
Clomp...clomp...clomp...Footsteps. This time, heavier, almost wooden. Amanda and I looked around nervously.
We walked faster, hoping to catch up with Wayne. The clomping sound grew louder and closer. We took off running. Risking a glance over my shoulder, I spotted our pursuers. Mannequins! Freakish, headless things, dressed in little girls’ princess costumes. Horace and Jasper had called in reinforcements. The Overtakers had enlisted crash-test dummies and CPR rescue dummies before, but these were the strangest of all. Some stumbled forward on stiff legs; others hopped on single poles. All moved at an alarming rate. “Amanda…” I gulped. She looked behind us and shrieked.
“We can’t outrun them,” I said.
“We won’t have to,” Amanda replied. I nodded, understanding. She stopped in her tracks, allowing the unsuspecting mannequins to get closer. They didn’t know what we knew: Amanda had the power to telekinetically push. With the mannequins only a yard away, Amanda took a deep breath, put up her arms, and pushed. The mannequins flew backwards, landing in a jumbled pile on the ground.
“Come on,” I urged Amanda. We had to get away before the mannequins untangled themselves.
We ran toward Wayne, who had appeared at the other side of the room. “Hurry!” he called. Amanda stumbled—pushing drained her energy—and I stepped closer to her, letting her lean against me. Wayne joined us, pulling Amanda along. We rushed through the Emporium, finally emerging into the open air.
Outside of the Emporium, Amanda and I waited for Wayne’s command to move forward. He looked conflicted. What if Horace and Jasper were waiting for us? The clomping of mannequins advancing from behind made the decision for us. “Come on!” I exclaimed, grabbing Wayne and Amanda’s hands and pulling them forward with me. We ran to the hub of Main Street, the mannequins not far behind us.
“I could push them again,” Amanda offered.
“No, save your strength,” Wayne replied. “The mannequins are little more than robots. They can’t think for themselves. We can’t outrun them, but we can outwit them.”
“They’ll never figure out the way into Escher’s Keep!” I exclaimed.
“Exactly.” Reaching the hub, we passed the Partners statue and ran toward the entrance tunnel in Cinderella Castle. We could get to Escher’s Keep via the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Wayne had used that entrance the first time he led the Keepers into Escher’s Keep, back when the Boutique space had been occupied by a gift shop. As I saw the castle up close, my vision of cracks flickered in front of my eyes.
“They’re the same cracks…” I murmured.
Seeing the dazed expression on my face, Amanda recognized the look that accompanied my visions. But we couldn’t stop now—the mannequins were gaining on us. “Not now, Jess,” Amanda said as she yanked me forward. Blinking my eyes, I shook off the haze and followed her.
As we entered the tunnel, Horace and Jasper appeared at the other end, blocking our route to the Boutique. They’d been waiting for us. Behind us, the mannequins had already reached the Partners statue in the middle of the Hub.
“Hurry, girls. There’s another way in.” Wayne led us down the ramp and around the castle with the Overtakers in hot pursuit. Wayne stared at the castle’s wall, mumbling to himself as he tried to remember. He jabbed one stone, then another. Suddenly, a door—invisible only moments before—opened in the wall. Wayne ushered us into the dark hallway. With the Overtakers so close behind us, there was no time to close the heavy, stone door. We ran ahead, the sounds of our pursuers ever nearer.
It took all three of us to open the next door at the end of the passage. The effort cost us precious time—the mannequins, Horace, and Jasper were only steps behind us. With no time to spare, we dashed through the door into the throne room of Cinderella’s Royal Table and toward the entrance to Escher’s Keep.
A cavernous room opened up in front of me—Escher’s Keep. It looked like an optical illusion, something you’d see in a book of mind games. Staircases led up, down, even sideways. A variety of doors, pathways, and platforms were scattered throughout at seemingly impossible locations, all crisscrossed and interconnected in a headache-inducing puzzle. But this was no illusion: it was real, and we had to navigate our way through it. There was only one safe path; a single wrong move would send us down a slide into the castle moat or dropping to floor level to start over. It led the castle’s secret apartment, originally built for Walt Disney but never occupied by him. It was one of the few places where we might escape the reach of the Overtakers.
Wayne scanned the first tier of staircases. Only one would lead us onto the next platform. All others were red herrings: decoys that ended at dead ends, disappearing stairs, and quick descents to the moat. Picking the correct one, he quickly ushered us up one staircase, then another, and then another. The stairs were steep, and Wayne was out of breath. Reaching a platform that led to a long, dark hall, we paused to rest for a moment. While Wayne caught his breath, I peeked down at the entrance below. The Overtakers were still at the entrance to Escher’s Keep, clearly uncertain of what to do next. Horace—the shorter and squatter of the two goons—stared, slack-jawed, at his surroundings. The mannequins stood still, waiting for orders, but Horace and Jasper were too flummoxed by the puzzle...until they spotted us on the platform. “There!” I heard Jasper announce.
The mannequins charged forward, climbing every staircase in sight. Most chose poorly and fell down the chutes one after the other, like lemmings following one another off a cliff. But a lucky few picked the right staircase and made it to the first platform. Those that made it attacked the second set of staircases. This time, only two made it to the next platform. Splashes sounded out below us as the others landed roughly in the moat.
Horace and Jasper climbed up after the successful mannequins, carefully following the correct path. Only one staircase separated us from them. The last two mannequins charged up the stairs...and abruptly disappeared. They had chosen the wrong one.
Horace and Jasper wouldn’t make that same mistake.
WAYNE STARED AT THE COLORED TILES at our feet. Escher’s Keep presented obstacles and puzzles impossible to solve without trial and error, or knowing the clues.
“Right is right...no, that wasn’t it,” Wayne said. “Right is wrong, so left is right. Yes, that’s it.”
Amanda and I exchanged a worried look.
“We must stay on the left side of the path,” he said. “Was it red for Sorcerer Mickey’s cloak, or blue for his hat?”
I could hear the men drawing closer, huffing as they climbed. “They’re coming,” I said.
Wayne carefully tested a red tile. The floor opened up beneath him. Amanda shoved her arms forward,
exerting her paranormal ability. She slammed Wayne into a pillar as the floor dropped out from beneath where he’d been standing.
“Blue!” Amanda said, still invisibly holding him to the pillar. Wayne stretched his foot to the blue tile. Amanda relaxed and Wayne’s full weight came down to the floor. The red tile’s trapdoor returned into place.
“Interesting,” Wayne said, smoothing his clothes. He looked at Amanda admiringly. “Thank you, my dear.”
“No problem.”
“Blue,” he said, with a chuckle.
“Yes.”
The three of us crossed the tiled pathway quickly. We reached the other side as Jasper appeared—upside down!—behind us across the expanse of tiles. Horace was nowhere to be seen, likely already a victim to one of the Keep’s traps.
The mirrors created an astonishing illusion. Jasper tried to invert himself to get a better look at us.
“Eenie, meanie, miny…” He tried to outrace the trickery, jumping forward, a foot on either color tile. But as the red gave way, he lost his balance, teetered toward the open hole and fell.
“This is our chance,” Wayne announced. “Hurry, ladies.”
We successfully crossed and avoided several more obstacles, finally reaching the Black Hole—an elevator car illuminated only by stars painted on its ceiling far above us.
As the elevator platform rose, Amanda, weakened by supporting Wayne earlier, swayed, barely able to stand.
When we arrived to the apartment, Wayne opened the door and I helped Amanda to the couch.
“Excellent!” Wayne declared. “You did very well, young lady.”
Amanda nodded, exhausted.
Wayne motioned for me to join him at the apartment’s only window, little more than a glassed-in slit through which an archer might fire an arrow.
I peered out at the Magic Kingdom in its spectacular glory. What a place! What a view! For a moment I saw only the magic and joy, the vibrancy of the Kingdom. How could anyone—even a villain—want to destroy all this?
“Jessica? What do you see?”
“Magic! How wonderful a place this is!”
“Yes.”
We ruminated for a moment. I could feel Wayne’s memories flooding him. I treasured this chance to see the park alongside him, a Disney legend.
“As hard as it is, we must look beyond the good. Past the good.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“That’s what they are counting on.”
I looked into his eyes. I nodded. “I can try.”
“All anyone can ask.”
I closed my eyes instead of looking out. Wayne made no effort to correct me, and I appreciated him all the more.
“It’s so hard,” I said, “when there’s so much beauty. How am I supposed to see the bad?”
He didn’t answer.
I waited for some image to fill the void created by my closed eyes.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Give it time…”
“I love this place,” I said, still squinting. “How am I supposed to see something bad in something I love so much?”
“That’s a lovely thing to say. Maybe...and I’m not claiming to know anything about it, dear girl...but maybe you don’t need to see it. Maybe you can feel it?”
I don’t know if he meant for it or not, but his words relieved me of the responsibility I’d been feeling to see something. It was as frustrating as trying to will oneself to sleep. With the burden lifted, I did in fact feel something.
“Ruin,” I whispered. “Terror.” I could barely utter the final word. “Destruction.”
After a moment I opened my eyes.
Wayne’s were filled with tears.
“I’M SORRY. NO VISIONS.”
“We should only be sorry for those things we could have done differently, my dear. It is a word rarely offered, but always accepted.”
Wayne seemed to measure me. “What say we embark on an adventure, the three of us?”
Amanda came off the couch, curious.
“I think we already have,” I said, winning a smile from him.
“I’m not saying it would work.” He looked at us mischieviously, his mirth and playfulness, infectious.
Mandy and I knew better than to speak.
“You’ve heard of...certain shapes discovered in the parks?”
We both nodded. Every Disney fan knew about the small silhouettes of the mouse placed throughout the parks. “Hidden Mickeys,” I said.
He grinned and in spite of vowing never to discuss them he said, “There’s more to these shapes than meets the eye. True, some are merely ornamental. These came later. There’s a deeper purpose to the early ones—a secret we, the Imagineers, have guarded closely for decades.
“Cast Members,” he continued, “have long reported having visions of one of our central characters. I suppose they are not unlike the dreams that you’ve experienced.”
My heart raced. Other people with visions like mine?
“They didn’t have your gift, of course.” Wayne quickly clarified. “They weren’t visions, per se. More like snapshots. Always of this same character.”
“Mickey,” Amanda said.
“Always when standing in a particular spot. Imagineers marked any such spots. They were to serve as landmarks for future Cast Members and Imagineers.” Wayne’s eyes lit up with excitement as he spoke. “For moments like this. Imagine what might happen if you, Jessica, were to stand in one of those places! With your abilities, the strength of your visions?”
For a moment, I was silent. “So you want me to visit all the Hidden Mickeys?”
“Not just visit. You’ll likely have to make contact,” Wayne added.
“And they’re going to unlock my dream?” I asked.
“That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
When I heard it put to me like that, I wasn’t so sure.
The apartment suddenly felt exceedingly claustrophobic.
“Can we go now? I’m not feeling real safe all of a sudden.”
They both showed concern. Wayne, who’d returned to the slit window, grumbled while pointing down. “We appear to have attracted a crowd.”
I took a look. There, on stage terrace facing Main Street stood a dozen figures.
Overtakers.
There was no way for us to leave.
Suddenly, I heard scratching. Moving toward the apartment door, Amanda extended her arms ready to hold the door closed if necessary.
But it wasn’t coming from the front. It was behind us.
“The closet,” Amanda said.
Sure enough, opening the closet door caused the sound to grow louder.
“Ah ha!” Wayne said. “I’m getting old and feeble-minded. Stand back, my dears.” He stepped into the closet. “It’s a false back,” he said.
“I don’t mean to be rude,” I said, making sure I interrupted him, “but how do we know it’s safe to open it?”
“Why, the scratching, of course,” Wayne said, not allowing me to delay him.
“It could be the hyenas!” I said.
“The Small World dolls,” Amanda added.
“Look more closely.” He pointed down to a tuft of blue fur coming and going in the gab at the bottom.
Wayne giggled childishly as he spun around inside the closet, then took on a look of frustration. “Ah, yes!” he said, finding two coat hooks less than an arm’s length apart. He hung his weight from both and the back wall popped open.
Wayne said, “It’s only Stitch!”
The alien stepped into the light, his pointy, yellowed teeth and a round nose leading the way. This was followed by an oversized eye, too big for the fuzzy blue head it occupied.
I knew Stitch as a turncoat. He had once pursued Finn across Tom Sawyer Island, clearly serving the Overtakers. Later, he’d helped the Keeper team. Some of us believed he’d been under an Overtaker spell when he’d been against us. How were we supposed to trust him now? I recalled my own service
to Maleficent and felt awful for judging Stitch so quickly.
Amanda must have caught my look of distrust. “He helped me and Finn at Typhoon Lagoon.”
This wasn’t a character suit worn by a Cast Member.
“Can we get down the stairs?” Wayne asked him, pointing down the emergency stairs.
Stitch shook his head vehemently. He then pointed up the stairs.
Wayne said, “I should have thought of that.”
“How did you know we were here?” Amanda asked.
Stitch patted his chest and blinked at Amanda like a week old puppy.
I felt a lump in my throat. That one gesture of his summed up what I loved about all things Disney.
“Yeah,” I said, “I know exactly what you mean.”
Wayne smiled, and patted the blue head.
“Lead on,” he said.
STITCH LED US UP A STONE SPIRAL STAIRCASE that terminated in a short tunnel. It ended ten feet later in open air. It felt like we were a hundred feet high. Climbing harnesses and other pieces of gear, like straps and carabiners, hung from wall hooks. I looked out across the expanse of the park down the zip line that ran so far it disappeared. I wasn’t sure I could do what I knew came next.
“Ahhh…”
“I’m over four times your age, young lady, and I’m going,” Wayne declared, “so I don’t want to hear it.”
I didn’t know Wayne well. Most of what I knew I’d heard from others. But this sudden take charge attitude surprised me. I’d pictured him much more chill. Yet I found myself admiring it. The banging behind us reminded me we weren’t here for a tour.
“Did you shut both doors?” Wayne asked me.
Had I been the last one through? I was about to blame Amanda when I reconsidered.
“You and Stitch go first!” I said, my voice betraying my intended outward sense of calm. “Amanda and I will—”
But Amanda was already off.
I followed, not waiting for Wayne’s response.
WE FLEW DOWN THE STAIRS, racing against the Overtakers to be the first ones to the door. Our footfalls echoed through the stone stairwell, barely audible over the rush of blood in my ears.
Unforeseen - A Kingdom Keepers Novella Page 2