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“I’m sorry,” I mumbled as tears began to form in the corners of my eyes, making my vision blurry. “I’m really, really sorry.”
“A little too late for that,” he scoffed. “And what happens if you get yourself out of this alive? Will you kill your next boss, too?”
“I—” My voice broke. “I didn’t mean to. I’m so, so sorry.”
“I have no one to mourn me, and it’s your fault,” he raged.
“No,” I whispered, lifting my head high. “Your daughter Kelley misses you very much. All she ever wanted was the chance to know you. And she’s still trying to find out who you were, even though you’re gone, even though her mother doesn’t want her to. And I’m trying to help. I shared stories with her. I helped her stand up to her mother…”
That’s when it hit me.
“I never liked you very much,” I continued, using this opportunity to get it all off my chest. “But I didn’t want you to die. And it’s not my fault you did. Yes, they were trying to frame me, but I didn’t choose this magical world. It chose me. Even though I’m very sorry for what happened to you, Harold, it wasn’t my fault.”
Poof! His silhouette turned into a dark cloud of dust and blew away into the abyss.
“I’m done lying to myself!” I screamed into the encroaching darkness. “You may have trapped me in an illusion, but I know my own heart! I know my own mind!”
Officer Dash appeared as a semi-transparent hologram before me. Not the new cat form, but in her familiar cop garb. “You think you can outsmart my illusion?”
“I know I can,” I shouted, wishing I could shake a fist at her.
She laughed softly at first, then more and more breathlessly. Soon Officer Dash was wheezing for breath. “You stupid girl. This isn’t some family-friendly film where the princess just needs to believe in herself to defeat her much more qualified opponent. You’re not a princess. You have no power, and you will not win.”
“Yes, I will!” I shouted back at the hologram, but she only laughed harder.
“Fine. Do things the hard way. See if I care. Eventually you’ll figure out it’s hopeless.” And with that, Officer Dash disappeared, leaving me in absolute darkness.
I staggered forward, unwilling to give up. I’d defeated the first two illusions. I could defeat more. I could escape this place.
And though I wandered for ages, no more lights appeared, and soon I grew tired searching for them…
Was this really how it ended?
24
Even time was an illusion within that mental prison of mind. It ticked on and on leading nowhere. I would lose my mind here, if I hadn’t already. I couldn’t do any good for Merlin from in here, either, which meant soon he would find himself overtaken by the sinister Dash.
I didn’t know why the dark witch had focused her attentions on us, but I knew now that we couldn’t win. She was simply too powerful.
Battered but not yet fully defeated, I closed my eyes and tried to create my own series of mental pictures to break the monotony of the void. My mom’s smile as we applied makeup side by side in that old mirror, Grandma Grace teaching me how to waltz in preparation for my first middle school dance, even Merlin speaking to me for the first time and opening my eyes to a beautiful and dangerous new world.
“Show me the truth,” he said in my memory, then opened his mouth and let out a shimmering huff of magic. The darkness folded in on itself, revealing green grass, blue sky, and bright sun.
No, this wasn’t a memory. It was really happening now.
“I knew that truth serum was worth the extra few minutes it took to prepare,” my cat told me as he brushed his soft fur against my wrists, freeing me from the cuffs.
“What’s going on?” Virginia cried as she awoke from her illusion and staggered toward us.
“Not so fast!” Merlin commanded, then kicked his hind legs into the earth and sent a pair of small cyclones spinning toward Virginia. When they reached her, they braided around her torso, trapping her within the high-speed winds.
I’d never seen such a powerful display of magic from my cat before, and now that I had, I felt very glad he was on my side.
“How did you find me?” I asked, bringing my arms in front of me to ease the ache in my shoulders. Now that I’d escaped the illusion, everything hurt again.
“Easy,” Merlin revealed, kicking up another pair of twisters and dispatching them toward Dash. “I followed our familiar bond. That thing is like a beacon.”
I watched as the black cat deftly dodged the windstorm, darting wildly to the side.
