More voices and noises were bounced around, but my consciousness barely skimmed the surface. I had no understanding of time or space, my brain wandering off like an unleashed dog. The rocking, along with his deep breaths as he carried me, lulled me into sleep.
Years. Seconds. Minutes. I had no idea how much time had passed, but my lids fluttered when I heard a girly voice.
“Wahine,” a girl’s surfer tone chirped. “You need to drink this.”
My lashes fluttered, seeing Quin hovering over me, a glass tipping at my lips. She stood on a stool, bringing her adorable cartoony face, wide eyes, and yellow beak level with my face. A red flower was pinned close to her ear, and she wore a coconut bra, her grass skirt swishing.
Any other time I’d have thought I was hallucinating, seeing a talking penguin in a hula outfit nursing me back to health. But this was Winterland.
“It will ease the pain and counter the poison from the nettles.” It took a few beats for my brain to compute her words. Her fin lifted my head, tilting the liquid into my mouth, the sweet taste pouring down my throat. “While I changed you out of your wet clothes, a lot of the nettles fell out on their own, but we need to work the poison out of your system.” She drizzled more over my tongue.
I felt warm. Relaxed. My senses intensified.
Laying on a king-size bed, I faced straight out onto a picture-perfect beach scene. The morning sun sparkled on the blue water as it crashed softly on the sand, palm trees framing the large doorway. The air was thick and warm, but similar to the snow side, the temperature was comfortable.
I took in the room. Made from warm-colored tiki wood, the ceiling pitched up high. A kitchen and dining and living spaces were on one side, a bathroom and what appeared to be a walk-in closet on the other. A palm tree decorated in holiday ornaments sat in the corner. It was beautiful, the perfect dream hut you’d imagine spending a honeymoon in.
“Dinah?” Blaze’s face popped around Quin, relief and fear tangled in his expression. “Oh, thank Claus.” He exhaled, moving in close, his hand cupping my face. I blinked up at him, my lids feeling heavy, but my mind reeled with everything. “I thought I lost you for a moment.”
“Fruusst?” I slurred, my tongue not working. “Me… mmmyy fauullt...”
“Shhh.” He leaned close to me, his nose gliding up the side of my face, whispering in my ear. “Save your strength. You are safe now. He will never hurt you again.”
But he didn’t hurt me. I was the one who had hurt him. Whatever I did turned him into a monster. It was all my doing. I tried to speak again, but my energy waned. My head waggled in frustration, making me feel agitated.
“Just heal, Dinah.” His lips brushed my cheek. “I will be here.”
I tried to fight it, but my mind shut down, gliding back into nothing.
The next time I woke, voices flickered at my consciousness, my lids cracking open, only taking in hazy figures near the door.
“I told you I’d take care of it.” Blaze’s familiar voice drifted to my ear.
“If anything happens to him…” a woman replied, her voice low.
“I know. I know. Nothing can happen to your precious boy.” Bitterness and hurt dripped from Blaze’s words.
“Stop whining,” the woman scoffed at the derision. “Ugh, you are so much like your father…even look like him too.”
Blaze’s shoulders jerked back.
“How did this even happen?” she continued.
I heard Blaze sigh. “I don’t know. There is still a week before Christmas. It shouldn’t have happened yet.”
“Yet it did. And it’s merely going to get worse.” the woman snapped, her voice low, but filled with irritation. “Especially given the fact you haven’t done anything about it yet.”
“What do you want me to do, Mother?” Blaze folded his arms. “I can’t force it.”
Mother. A spark of a memory tried to brush through the murk in my head, but it couldn’t land. I knew I had met their mother, but I could never recall her. I tried to pry my eyes open wider, but my body refused, sleep trying to sweep over me again.
“No, you can but you won’t. There is a difference.”
He growled, his head bowing.
“It’s time,” she huffed.
“Wait until at least tomorrow.” The light from the doorway was blocked as he puffed up his shoulders.
“You still have a weakness for her,” she hissed. “She will destroy you too.”
“You don’t know her.”
The woman scoffed, a laugh buckling from her throat. “I know her far better than you think.”
The woman shifted out of Blaze’s shadow as my lids drifted closed, an alarm drumming down my spine. Blackness crashed down on me like an avalanche, crushing me beneath, yanking me away before the warning could reach my mind.
“We want you to feel better, Dinah.” Mom crouched down in front of me, her palm cupping my tear-stained cheek, wiping it with her thumb. She was so beautiful to me. I wanted so much to grow up to be like her. “Don’t you want to feel better? Not so scared all the time?”
My long hair tickled my arms as my head bounced, my nose sniffling loudly.
“This woman is here to help you, baby.” She nodded to a person behind me, a short woman standing in the doorway.
A therapist, they told me. Someone who would help us with things we couldn’t work out on our own.
Mommy and Daddy said I needed to talk to someone. Someone who could help my nightmares go away.
I never could fully explain what I dreamed, the details slipping away soon after I woke up, but I would wake up screaming in utter terror, shaking and throwing up. I remembered trying to run, to get away from something chasing me, but I couldn’t move. The scary creature crept up on me in the dark. A boy cried from a distance, the sound echoing in my head so loudly I’d wake up sobbing.
“Dinah, sweetheart?” Mom tucked a strand of my brown hair behind my ear. “Can you please try to talk to her? I merely want you to get better.”
I nodded, sniffling again.
“You are so brave, sweetheart.” She leaned up, kissing my forehead before standing, her hand cupping mine, turning us toward the room. I kept my head down, too shy, scared, and embarrassed to look at the stranger. I could feel her eyes on me, making me want to dart out of the office and hide.
“Come in, Dinah. It’s so nice to meet you.” The lady’s voice was low and smooth, but it prickled my skin, making something stir in my chest.
“Dinah?” Mom squeezed my hand, her tone one she used when she wanted me to be polite to new people.
Sucking in, I lifted my head, my mouth opening to reply, but nothing came out. I took in the lady.
White, short, styled hair, thick-rimmed black glasses, red lips.
I took a step back, a trickle of fear zooming up my chest, my legs itching to run, but I had no idea why.
“Hello, Dinah.” Her mouth curved into a smile. “I’m Dr. Mari Bell.”
My eyes burst open, alarm cutting through the murky, sticky darkness wanting to keep me in its hold. Terror zinged up the back of my neck, clutching my chest.
“You are awake.” A woman’s voice jolted my head to the side. The sun had lowered behind the horizon, enveloping the room in heavy shadows, shrouding a petite figure strolling from the kitchen area, her red lips curved into a malicious smile.
Dr. Bell?
My grasp on understanding flipped over, spiraling me into panic. My brain fought with her being in this world, like a puzzle piece that didn’t fit—or so you thought. Alarm wrapped around my throat as my memory of her as a child coiled with my recent ones. Sitting up defensively, my gaze darted over the room, and I searched for help.
“He had to run an errand.” She moved to the side of my bed. “I promised to watch over you.” Her icy blue eyes were so clear, looking so much like Frost’s. I had no idea how I didn’t see it before.
“You missed your session, Dinah.” Her lips twisted with smugness, lik
e she was enjoying playing with me. “I was really worried.”
No words came off my tongue as I stared in horror, the memory of her crystal clear. The woman who had been my therapist both as a child and now.
Mrs. Miser.
The mother of Frost and Blaze.
The woman who was supposed to be dead.
I had no time to consider any of the factors, instinct taking over. Terror scrambled my weak body out of bed, my bare feet hitting the wood. I got two steps before my head started spinning, and my legs buckled underneath me, slamming me to the floor.
“Oh, Dinah, you think I’d let you get away so easily?” She chuckled darkly. “That I wouldn’t inject you with something while you slept so soundly?”
Biting my lip, I tried to rise, but my muscles fell limp to the ground again, making her laugh.
“Keep trying, my dear, tire yourself out.”
“Wha-what do…” Every syllable was battling to get out. “Want?”
“What I’ve wanted since you were a child.” Her shoes nudged my side. “When you were young, I tried to figure out how you did it, what made you so special, to slip into your mind to see why you had the power. But you completely blocked this world. Shut it down. I couldn’t get anything from you. After a while, I figured it was a fluke. There was nothing exceptional about you. I helped you forget this place. But it never really left you, did it? Then your sister came, and I knew I had given up too soon. You Liddells are more than what meets the eye.”
Her declaration skimmed my ear as I tracked movement under the bed. A tiny shadow scuttled closer until I saw large round ears, dark eyes, and soft gray fur.
Chip!
He crept to the edge, staying underneath, away from sight, his hands signing to me.
“Get up, Ms. Dinah. You need to get away from her. She’s wicked.” His nose twitched in panic. “You are in danger.”
I know. I tried to convey my thoughts with my eyes, which made him fidget more, not understanding why I didn’t move.
“Might have given you a little too much holly.” Dr. Bell squatted down next to me. Chip ducked back deeper into the shadows out of her eye line. “I needed to be sure you couldn’t fight me. And you, my dear, have a higher tolerance than most. I had to keep upping your medication, trying to crack into that stubborn brain of yours. Even when things slipped out, you still tried to shove it back in and pretend you were sane.” She lowered herself until her red lips hissed in my ear, her fingers pinching my jaw painfully. “I did you a favor, Dinah, dragging you back from being merely mediocre. Your life was pathetic. Ordinary. So dull, I wanted to take the holly extract myself so I could at least feel something besides boredom when you talked. Don’t tell me you didn’t either. Screaming on the inside, knowing there was more. I knew you held so much power, and it was being wasted.”
Her hand wrapped around my bicep, yanking me to sit up. From the corner of my eye, I saw something dart by my leg, making me realize I was only in my boy shorts and hoodie, but my brain didn’t have time to focus on whatever it was. She yanked me up to my feet, my legs barely holding me up, my body slumping.
She pulled out what I thought was a giant candy cane from her pocket, but the end was carved into a sharp dagger, similar to one you’d hunt with. Shoving the point into my side, the tip cut into me like I was butter, causing me to hiss in pain. She moved me to the door.
“It’s time for the young Liddell to show her muchness.”
My knees crashed into the snow, my head swaying, my system fighting extremely hard against the effects of holly, alcohol, and poison.
Anger bristled deep inside. I hated being weak, not able to fight back.
Dr. Bell/Mrs. Miser had dragged me from the sunny beach to the snowy forest, the moonlight sparkling off the white ice. The hours ticked by like years. My energy dipped dramatically. Every step forward burned at my muscles, and the need to curl up in the snow and sleep consumed most of my thoughts.
“Get up!” Her nails dug into my arm, yanking me back to my feet, trudging me forward, the candy cane knife stabbing into my spine. My legs bent and quaked, every muscle feeling ten times heavier than normal as I slogged through the snow.
My eyes slid to the woman next to me, fury building in me even more. I had trusted her, believed she wanted to help me. I exposed some of my worst fears, and the whole time she was fooling me, using me.
How did I not remember her? How did I not know she was the same therapist from my childhood? Why did Frost think she was dead?
I stumbled again to the earth, causing an aggravated scream to curdle from her throat. “Get up! Move.”
“No,” I snarled back.
“Yes!” Her fingers bit into my flesh, her expression twisted in rage, jerking me up again. “I’ve tried to play this nice, but no more,” she snapped, her voice hissing. “Time is up, Dinah.”
Air caught in my lungs, and somewhere in the depths of my brain, I latched on to the familiar eerie tone, the one who had been calling to me for months. Making me feel crazy.
“You,” I slurred, my feet stumbling. “It was you…haunting me. Calling me from the shadows.”
“About time you figured that out. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, Dinah.” She smirked, her red lips parting.
“How?” The endless questions weren’t coming out the way I wanted, twisting in my mouth, my head jumbled. “Ho-how come I-I don’t remember you? When I was little?”
“You never turned down a peppermint candy from me as a child, did you?” Her lips twisted in amusement, her grip on my arm tightening, pulling me forward faster. For a short, older lady, she was shockingly strong. “Peppermint is such a strong flavor that it covers up any taste underneath.”
Peppermint. Out of the blue, I went from loving it to hating it. It wasn’t a coincidence. I knew it now.
“Di-did you put it in my meds too?”
“Peppermint? No.” She shook her head. “I no longer wanted you to forget, Dinah. I want you to remember.”
“Remember what?”
“How you did it.”
“Did what?”
“Unlocked the chains…released the beast.” She yanked me over a hill, then down into a gulch, the moonlight disappearing behind the mountain. My attention flickered up at the object domineering the sky. The mountain reached far into the sky, curling at the top.
“Toadstool sandwich.” I blinked up at the memorable shape, awe engulfing me. It was exactly like the movie.
Mount Crumpet.
I had never traveled beyond the beach or fortress as a child, too occupied with playing with my friends to care if there was more to Winterland. It hadn’t mattered to my six- and seven-year-old self.
“Ugh, he is all talk and no action anymore,” she grumbled, sounding like a burned lover. “When he was all angry and bitter, the bad boy, he was a passionate lover. Now he’s useless.”
“You-you and the Grinch?” I sputtered, still trying to wrap around he existed.
“Ha! He’d like to think so.” She huffed bitterly. “It was one time. I was incredibly drunk and desperate. And heartbroken…”
My mouth dropped open in shock, and I was pretty sure revulsion too.
“Hurry up.” She shoved me farther down the ravine, drenching us in heavy fog, which chilled my blood. Desolation and misery coated my mouth and hung on my limbs like heavy ornaments, making me feel I would never be happy again.
She suddenly stopped, shoving me forward, my legs crashing down to the earth again, weighted by the crushing gloom. Every molecule of air congealed into despair.
“We spent years trying to break the chains, to open the box.” She snarled, anger and wretchedness crawling over her, twisting her features. “And you come along, some little human girl, a child, who should have no power. I don’t get you two, why are you both so special? Both of you have torn my family apart.” She stomped up to me, clutching my chin. “Tell me! How were you able to free it?”
“I-I don’t k
now.”
“Stop lying to me!” She grabbed my hair, yanking me forward.
“I’m not!” I shouted, trying to move away from her, but the sharp point of the knife dug into my side.
“Well, you better figure it out.” The candy cane cut into my skin. “Get up!”
Struggling, I rose to my feet. She hauled me forward, my gaze taking in a strange consistency in the air, ending the trail. Solid darkness hung in the air like a wormhole, oozing out crushing sadness and melancholy.
A sensation I had felt before.
A place I had been before.
“No.” I shook my head, observing more images I had put in a box and locked away, writing it off as a dream or hallucination. The desire to run had me stepping back, pulling against her hold. “No!”
“Yes, girl.” She wrapped her arm around me, jabbing the dagger in to keep me from running. “I’ve tried going through your dreams, and they failed. So, this time, you are going in. You will bring her out and free her.”
“No.” I thrashed against her, biting against the fatigue stealing my energy, the drugs clotting my head. “I won’t.”
It was more intuition than exact memories, but I understood that what was on the other side shredded you into nothing. Grief, sorrow, and anger drove through you until you were no longer, leaving merely a shell floating in space. Flashes of a tree coiled around a black box barely grazed my mind, a sinking in the pit of my stomach. I knew whoever she wanted free was the last thing I should release. I’d already let out one monster.
It would be devastating, not just to Winterland, but Earth. I had no idea why I realized that, but a heaviness sat on my gut, as though it knew, but couldn’t yet speak, trapped in silence.
“You can stab me, threaten me, but I won’t do it.” I wrenched away from her, the effort making me take in gulps of air. “I don’t care. I am not going to be an accomplice in whatever you want to do.”
“You mean take down Santa Claus once and for all?” Her eyebrows went up.
“What?”
“It’s time to do away with that unreasonable , selfish, old bastard. He is outdated and stuck in the past. It’s time for new leadership.” She patted at her perfectly styled hair, her chin lifting with righteousness.
Beauty In Her Madness (Winterland Tale Book 3) Page 24
