Unforeseen - A Kingdom Keepers Novella

by Ridley Pearson

  Jason seemed distracted. It felt like something about my bridge vision had set him on edge. We walked in silence. Soon, we emerged from backstage onto the stairs at the base of the Frontierland Railroad Station.

  Amanda and I followed Jason up the long stairway. My skin prickled as a flash of movement caught my eye, but when I looked to the side, I saw nothing.

  “You okay?” Amanda asked.

  I told her and Jason what I thought I’d seen.

  “Keep alert,” Jason said. “Once we’re up there, we’ll be a little isolated.”

  “Is it even possible to be a ‘little isolated?’” Amanda snapped at him.

  Jason took her words in stride. I so appreciated that he wasn’t the combative type. I got enough aggression from the Overtakers.

  We reached the station’s platform. Beyond the main queue, there were several small rooms.

  “It isn’t safe here,” I said. Not a vision, but a pronounced feeling of urgency.

  “Because?” Amanda asked.

  “Just my gut.”

  “I trust your instincts,” Jason said. “I don’t know of any Hidden Mickeys up here, but then again, their location is constantly changing. We’ll be fast.”

  We separated and began our search. The Hidden Mickeys were so easily overlooked that we had to take our time, to look at both the broad landscape and the small, minute details.

  I felt a rumble rise up through my feet and legs. “Should the train be running?” I called to Jason. His face knotted in concern, making his answer unnecessary.

  Each of us immediately moved in the direction of the nearest stairs. Then we stopped as one, like a trio of dancers.

  The top of the stairs was blocked.

  Three teenagers stood facing us, their eyes glowing green in the dim moonlight. These were OTKs—Overtaker Kids—regular teenagers who had been coerced and enchanted by the Overtakers, forced by magic to join the OTs in battle.

  The OTKs slinked toward us like a pack of wolves, forcing Amanda, Jason, and me closer together.

  “I can push if I have to,” Amanda whispered.

  “You’re too weak,” I said.

  “I can try.”

  “We’d love to hear what you’re talking about,” called a tall girl with stringy brown hair. I’d never seen her before.

  Jason had us walking slowly backwards—but we didn’t have much further to go. The train pulled into the station behind, and then alongside, us.

  Amanda glanced back. “No way.”

  Greg Luowski, a bully from school and a known associate of the Overtakers, along with a smaller kid with vivid green eyes, arrived onto the platform from a second staircase to our right.

  We were trapped.

  “You know you’re on the wrong side, don’t you?” I called out to them. “Good always wins when it comes to Disney.”

  “Says the girl who’s about to lose,” retorted the OTK.

  “Steady...” whispered Jason. “They’ve overlooked something.”

  “What’s that, old man?” Luowski shouted.

  Jason raised his voice. “I was telling the girls to obey you. We are clearly outnumbered.”

  “You’re out of luck, is what you are,” said Luowski. “We get the twofer: the old Imagineer and the Dream Girl. I’m going to get me a medal.”

  “Have you ever tried a double push?” Jason said it so softly I barely heard him. He continued, “Jess, you will pull her with us.”

  Amanda hadn’t answered him. I doubted she’d ever tried the sort of thing Jason was suggesting, and I knew that if she did, she’d be sapped of every speck of energy she possessed.

  Pull her where? I wondered. When?

  Jason answered as if reading my mind. “Train.”

  “I said, no talking!” shouted the girl. She and her partners were incredibly close to us now, as was Luowski and his sidekick. I’d lost track of them during Jason’s instructions.

  “Are you planning to beat us up?” Amanda asked, baiting them, drawing them closer.

  I couldn’t be sure if my future-casting abilities allowed me to sense what happened next, or if there is some small part of all of us that can perceive certain events a fraction of a second before they happen. Whatever the case, I knew the train was going to start rolling. And I knew Amanda was raising her arms before they could move.

  I grabbed Amanda by the collar and pulled her off her feet. She pushed to both sides, like a traffic cop. The force she delivered actually jolted Luowski upward like she’d hit him below the chin; the girl and the two others moved their feet, but failed to advance, like they’d hit an invisible wall.

  Jason grabbed Luowski and the girl by their clothing and dragged them toward the train, which was now moving out of the station. It felt so good to see Luowski struggling like a six-year-old. I caught myself about to cheer for Jason’s heroics.

  Amanda held the others off, but I could feel her wilting. Each step back shortened; her knees buckled. I threaded my arms under hers and let her sag into me as we stumbled together.

  The train continued to pick up speed. Amanda and I weren’t going to make it. Jason called out for us, but I barely heard him. My attention was split between Amanda’s weakening condition and the other OTKs.

  I backed Amanda up to the edge of the platform. Another step, and we would fall onto the tracks.

  As the train chugged away, I heard what sounded like the buzz of hummingbird wings. Pinned down and surrounded by the OTKs, I saw no choice but to fight. I knew Amanda would be useless; she might be able to walk, even run, but she’d have no strength for a battle.

  I threw my hands up. “Okay, we sur—”

  Before I could get the word out, the Fairies covered the OTKs like veils. Fawn, Rosetta, Periwinkle, Tinker Bell, Iridessa, Vidia, and Silvermist hovered and buzzed in front of the faces of each of our adversaries.

  While they were distracted, Silvermist spun around and motioned for me to go. As she took her eyes off her OTK, the kid swatted her away with an open hand. I couldn’t see what happened next, and for a moment, I thought we’d lost her. Then she came buzzing past me, one hand outstretched, and rammed one of the kids. He cried out. She kicked his front teeth.

  The kid staggered back.

  I spotted an exit ramp, easily overlooked. At the same time, my eye caught on the wrought iron ornamental design rimming the roof of the train terminal. The shapes were small and looked like pineapples on top of a monkey’s head. Until the light shone through one, that is, and I saw that they weren't monkeys at all; they were Mickeys.

  There was no way I was going to be able to touch one, which I regretted, but somehow the sight of so many Mickeys strung together like paper dolls reminded me of tentacles and suction cups—something I could add to my sketch later.

  Amanda had regained some strength by the time we reached the ramp. We glanced back and saw the OTKs were still struggling to fight off a sky full of angry Fairies.

  “Where...to?” Amanda gasped as we ran side by side toward the Plaza.

  “Fantasyland,” I said. Before she could ask why, I answered. “The cracked glass from my dream. Bad luck if it’s a mirror, and we all know who loves to look at herself in mirrors.”

  “Are you crazy? The Evil Queen?”

  “Finn buried her in Mexico. If she’s here, she’s a fake. And hey, without Wayne or Jason to guide us, you’re stuck with me. This feels right. Wish I could explain it better.”

  “Don’t eat any apples if anyone offers them to you.”

  “Ha ha.”

  “And don’t trust any sorry-looking old ladies.”

  Fantasyland was steeped in a late-night, low-hanging ground fog. It looked like it belonged on another continent, like there was no way it was less than a quarter mile from the Frontierland Railroad Station. With each step we took, the fog swirled around our ankles and knees. In patches it rose over our heads; in others, it swallowed us whole.

  “I don’t see the point of this,” Amanda complained.
“Fantasyland is too new. The Seven Dwarfs Mine isn’t open yet. Have you heard of a single Hidden Mickey in here?”

  “But that is the point,” I countered. “Maybe there are Hidden Mickeys no one has found yet. Maybe we’ll be the first! That might make them more important.”

  “Or maybe we’ll get lost in the fog and fall off the edge of the earth.”

  “What’s bugging you, other than being attacked by roaming gangs of green-eyed kids and losing the one guy who was willing to help us?”

  I was hoping to make our experiences something she could laugh at, but Mandy took me seriously.

  “You saw fire and lighting,” she said. “I don’t see how a foggy path in a brand new part of the park could possibly help us figure out what that means. It feels like we’re lost.”

  “We’re not lost, we’re hiding,” I said. “I was drawn here, and look, there’s fog to cover us. I saw cracks, too, remember? As in glass. As in a mirror, like I said. Look, Mandy, I don’t have any better ideas. I wish I did.”

  “Well, if you’re looking for the Evil Queen, she’s got to be somewhere on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. But as far as I’m concerned: no more mines!”

  “I’d rather stay away, too,” I admitted. “Hidden Mickeys and mirrors. Cracked glass. Cracked stone.”

  “We already tried that in the castle.”

  “You’re not even trying to help.”

  “I’m trying to keep us alive.”

  “Wayne’s whole deal is this: something bad is coming. The Keepers are part of it, which makes you and me a part of it, too. Stop me when I’m wrong.”

  I allowed a few seconds of silence to pass; Amanda didn’t say anything. The fog hovered twenty feet overhead. We were near Gaston’s Tavern, and approaching the statue out front. A pair of lantern lights flickered on either side of the tavern’s door.

  Sensing something strong, I stopped and closed my eyes. I saw a round head in profile, but with only one ear. I took a moment to sketch it so I wouldn’t forget.

  Amanda waited for me, and kept quiet while I worked on my drawing. She was always kind and patient with my visions, able to allow for my process. Typical me, I became so consumed in the sketch that by the time I looked up I’d lost track of her.

  “Mandy?”

  There she was. She’d unhooked one of the lanterns and was carrying it over to a lamppost on the left of the building. She climbed onto the stone base and shinnied up the square post, holding the flickering lantern at arm’s length.

  I kept my voice low as I hissed, “What...are...you...doing!?”

  “You’ll see. I think!” she fired back as she scrambled over the tavern’s thatched lower roof. She disappeared from view, and I was beginning to worry about her, a yellow glow rose from the far side of the building’s central, higher roofline.

  There was Amanda, clear up at the top, holding the lantern aloft.

  I had some choice words for her, but I wasn’t going to raise my voice and risk being overheard or spotted. And of course, I knew Amanda well enough to understand that she wasn’t playing games. Amanda was no kid anymore. Though she enjoyed a good time, like me she’d left childhood behind a long time ago. Too long.

  What was she playing at now? I thought she must be signaling someone, but who? Wayne? She had to know, too, that it was most likely she’d attract Overtakers. It seemed like a death wish. I waved and jumped and clapped my hands, trying to win her attention and get her down from the roof.

  She held the lantern still and pointed to Gaston’s statue. I shrugged, letting her know I had no idea what was going on. Again, she pointed, this time more vigorously.

  Enchanted Belle was not exactly where she was pointing, but it was probably the closest attraction in that direction. I offered her another shrug, clearly frustrating her. She pointed to her left and right. A second later, I realized that she might be indicating the window dormers arching out of the roof.

  But then there she was, gesticulating wildly again at Gaston’s burbling statue.

  I jumped up onto the rim of the fountain, wondering if she was trying to tell me to look into the water. Nothing. I worked my way around the rim, back to front—

  And paused, my gasp unheard over the gushing of the fountain.

  The lamp’s yellowish light threw shadows off the window dormers onto the cobblestone street. I understood why Amanda had been dancing around up there, moving the lantern back and forth, and why she was currently holding it deathly still—the vision was all about placement. The two dormers’ arched crowns cast shadows that fit perfectly against the round fountain, forming Mickey ears. Using the lantern, Amanda had made a huge hidden Mickey. Perhaps on certain moonlit nights, this same phenomenon would appear naturally. Who knew?

  I signaled her to come down and met her at the base of the streetlamp.

  “How did you ever—” I began.

  “You aren’t the only one who sees things!” she said, breathless.

  “What now?”

  “It means something. I know it does. Like you’ve always said: in here.” She put a hand on her heart. “I can feel it.”

  We approached the statue.

  “You realize that anyone on this side of the Plaza could have seen you up there, right? Every OTK in the park is probably sprinting toward us right now.”

  “Which is why it would be a good idea if we hurried.”

  “We were looking for a cracked mirror.”

  “From up there on the roof,” Amanda said, “the stone surrounding the fountain looks like it’s cracked. I promise you, Jess: this means something.”

  By now, Amanda had reached the large plaque in front of the statue. She pushed on the letters, attempted to turn the metal plate. When that didn’t work, she applied pressure to the rocks of the low pillar supporting the plaque.

  “Hello?” I said. “OTKs? Remember?”

  “Look at this thing. It looks like a chimney.” It did. “It’s a big pillar of rock, waist high, but all it does is hold up some stupid plaque.” No argument. “How’s that possible?”

  “Concrete blocks. Mortar,” I said.

  “No, no! I mean, why bother? Put the plaque on the ground.”

  “It might look like a gravestone.”

  “You don’t have to build this thing!” She kept pulling, twisting, pushing.

  I suddenly saw it through her eyes. It was a vent or a secret entrance! If the plaque moved out of place, it would open up a gap the perfect size to climb down into.

  “You’re right! It’s ridiculously overbuilt.”

  “But how...?” She was going to pull a muscle if she kept up her frantic search.

  “The statue,” I said, throwing my legs over the lip of the fountain and stepping gingerly into the cold water. “Guests aren’t allowed into the fountain, so no one would ever find the latch if it was concealed on the statue.”

  “You...are...brilliant!”

  We attacked the bronze Gaston and LeFou, searching desperately, hoping a leg or an ankle would bend, that a wrist would move and something magical would happen.

  Instead, we heard voices. Boys’ voices. Angry voices, at a distance but getting closer.

  Then the voices went quiet, and we were scared.

  AMANDA PULLED DOWN THE LID on LeFou’s beer stein. Immediately, water stopped pouring from it and from the barrel that filled Gaston’s stein to overflowing. Under our feet, I could both feel and hear a set of gears grinding, as if the waterpower was being directed elsewhere. The plaque pivoted on its upper corner. Amanda’s eyes lit up with glee, and she gave me a brief hug.

  We sloshed out of the fountain and up to the moving plaque in time to see the top of a metal ladder appear.

  “Go!” Amanda shouted, shoving me from behind.

  I clambered inside the narrow chimney. As I began to descend, I caught sight of a group of frenzied looking OTKs charging.

  I reached out in the dark and inadvertently touched what felt like a lever on the stone wall. I pulled i
t. Again, the sound of gears and water. The plaque slid back into place, almost chopping off the hairy hand of a boy daring enough to try to stop it from closing.

  Then, darkness.

  We scurried down the long ladder, finally reaching solid ground—concrete, I thought. It was pitch black, the kind of disturbing dark I hadn’t experienced since Barracks 14. The memory made me feel sick.

  “Jess?” Amanda’s voice quavered.

  “I’m here.” There had to be lights, but I didn’t want to speculate on something if I couldn’t deliver. I felt around for a switch of any kind, and quickly determined that we were encased in an extremely narrow box or tunnel. With arms outstretched, I could touch the opposing concrete walls. Behind me was Amanda, and behind her, the ladder.

  “Grab my shirt,” I said. My eyes ached from the effort of trying to see even the tiniest speck of light. Weird colorful orbs danced before my eyes. “Small steps. Follow me.”

  My face hit a spider web. I nearly screamed, and contained myself only for the sake of Amanda. Scraping the sticky strings off my face and out of my hair, I continued forward, my hands keeping me centered between the two walls.

  We turned twice. The first movement was almost undetectable; the second, a hard right. A yellow glow dawned in the distance. We gave audible sighs in unison.

  “What’s that?” Amanda asked.

  “Heaven,” I said dryly.

  TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, it was the Utilidor, a network of underground tunnels stretching everywhere beneath the Magic Kingdom. Why an escape tunnel had been constructed from Gaston’s fountain to the Utilidor was unclear, but something told me it was directly related to the Kingdom Keepers’ confrontations with the Overtakers. Maybe the Imagineers had been conscious of the dangers any dead end could present to the Keepers.

  I was wrong, of course.

  Once there was enough light, the real reason became apparent: the ceiling of the narrow tunnel was crowded with heavy electrical cables, aluminum tubes, pipes, and conduits, all of which connected to boxes and other cables and conduits on the ceiling of the Utilidor. We’d discovered the power and communication utility tunnel for Fantasyland.