KK01 - The Kingdom Keepers aka Disney After Dark

by Ridley Pearson

  “We don’t know.” Charlene sounded frightened.

  “The sun!” Philby said. “Did you try the glasses?”

  “Y, I, and R. Three letters! They look painted, added on later.” Willa replied excitedly.

  “Same with us!” Philby said, “F, M, and E. We’re definitely on to something.”

  Finn interrupted their glee. “Where—is—Maybeck?”

  Charlene looked worried. “We got to the ride and he said he had something he had to check out. We told him we had to stick together, but he blew us off.”

  “And he hasn’t come back,” Willa said angrily.

  “Hasn’t come back?” Philby asked, finally realizing they had a serious problem on their hands.

  “And this was, like, half an hour ago,” Charlene said.

  “He kept checking his watch,” Willa complained. “He was nervous about something, like he was eager to get back.”

  “Oh, no.” Finn heard himself moan.

  “The button!” he and Philby said at once.

  If Maybeck had taken the button from the apartment with him to the other side, he could leave them all stranded inside the Magic Kingdom until he returned. No one knew if the button would cross over or stay behind. But they didn’t want to wait to find out.

  The four took off at a run.

  They approached the castle with caution. It seemed a likely location for security guards. At night, light streamed up onto its stone exterior, the towering spires pointing like fingers into the dark sky. Crouched behind some thick bushes, just off the ramp that led up to the castle, the kids waited, listening intently and looking in all directions.

  Charlene nudged Philby, who nudged Finn. A pair of pirates—figures from Pirates of the Caribbean, not humans—lurked in shadow just inside the castle’s first arch. Waiting. Their mechanical eyes never blinked.

  Finn whispered, “I know those two! They were part of the group that attacked me.”

  “You’re right,” said Philby. “I was there too, remember?”

  “You think they’re waiting for us?” Charlene asked.

  “No. How could they possibly know—?” Finn cut himself off.

  “Maybeck,” Willa said. “You don’t think—?”

  “Maybeck is not an Overtaker,” Philby declared.

  “He could be a spy,” Charlene proposed.

  “No way!” Finn said sharply. “If they’re waiting for us, it means Maybeck’s in trouble.”

  “He’s been caught!” Willa said.

  A chill passed through Finn. He waited a moment to see if it lingered—in case it meant that the witch was nearby. The feeling passed.

  Philby said, “Didn’t Wayne say something about—”

  “Secret ways into the castle,” Finn finished for him. “Yes, he did. And he also said if you took a wrong step in Escher’s Keep you ended up in the moat. But he never showed us any secret doors.”

  “I know where one is,” Philby announced.

  “What?” Finn said, astonished.

  “VMK,” Philby explained. “I was in this room and I heard these two guys talking about counting stones. Castle stones: I’m positive that was it! I had no idea what they meant. But it could be a secret door, a way inside.”

  “How many stones, and from where?” Willa asked. “We’ve got to hurry. Maybeck may need us.”

  “I don’t remember, but the point is, there must be a stone you push to get inside.”

  “But that’s in a computer game!” Charlene protested, sweeping one arm across the scene.

  “This is real life!” They all looked at her glowing, transparent arm. “Or sort of,” she added.

  “The game is part of real life,” Philby said.

  “Follow me,” Finn said.

  Together the four DHIs crept on their stomachs up to the wallof the castle, where they were now out of sight from the waiting pirates.

  “Spread out,” Finn said. “Push every stone you can reach.”

  They formed a long line, wrapping around the side of the castle, their backs to Tomorrowland, where the manicured lawn spilled down toward the moat. Finn pushed against the cool stone blocks. He started at knee height and pushed against every stone he could. Then he moved an arm’s length toward Charlene, immediately to his right, and started again.

  A few minutes into this process Willa called out, “Got it!”

  Finn and the others hurried over.

  A door had opened in the wallof the castle.

  It was pitch-black inside.

  Philby said, “Always trust computer games.”

  With no one stepping up, Finn took the lead. The chilly corridor smelled damp and old.

  Philby entered last. He said, “Wait up! We’ve got to shut this thing.”

  Willa turned to help him. She found an iron handle sticking out of the wall. She pushed and couldn’t move it, then leaned her weight onto it and it rotated toward the floor. The stone door made a sound like fingernails on a blackboard as it closed.

  Finn was still very wet from his ordeal at Splash Mountain; his soaked clothes made him very cold now. He felt his way along the cool rock, tripped when he reached some stairs, and warned the others in a dry whisper to look out. Together they climbed the stairs, at the top of which Finn encountered a dead end. It was a stone wallthat didn’t budge when he leaned against it.

  Charlene found an iron handle, just like the one Willa had found at the other end. The two girls leaned against it, and the wallin front of Finn moved open a crack. He and Philby pushed it farther open….

  “The throne!” Finn said, recognizing where this door led.

  They stepped into the throne room in the waiting area for Cinderella’s Royal Table. There were tapestries and flags on the walls. The throne was attached to the hidden door, so that when the door had opened the throne had moved with it. As a team they pushed the door back, but not before Philby had taken a moment to find the hidden switch, a wooden knob tucked away on the back of the throne itself. When this knob was moved, the door tripped open. They tried it once the door was back in place, and sure enough, it came open for them, offering them a way out, if needed.

  Minutes later the three others followed Finn up Escher’s Keep. He had carefully memorized the way, but took his time, knowing one false step could—

  “Thar they be!” came a gruff voice from behind and down below.

  Finn and the others turned to see the same two Audio-Animatronic pirates standing at the base of Escher’s Keep. They appeared to be overwhelmed by the complications of the stairways, ladders, and platforms, all of which were interconnected in improbable ways.

  One pirate was dressed in a blue coat, the other red. The one in red pulled out his knife and pointed up the stairs.

  “Hurry!” Charlene cried out.

  The sound of clunky mechanical legs echoed up the first stairway.

  “We can’t hurry,” Finn replied. “We make a mistake and we end up in the moat, and that would mean security guards.”

  The pirates continued to climb.

  Philby said, “Besides, they won’t figure it out.”

  But to his amazement, the two pirates made a lucky guess at the first platform and found the correct stairway. At the top, the red pirate turned left, but the blue one grabbed him by the shoulder and stopped him. They were frighteningly close to the kids now, only one stairway behind.

  Finn remembered how to get onto the upside-down mirror stairs. He stepped on the correct tiles and then tested the stairway with his right foot. It was solid. He climbed, and the others followed. As they came out the end of a short tunnel their images appeared upside down to the pirates below.

  “Avast!” the red pirate called out sharply.

  He and the blue pirate hurried up the set of stairs in front of them. Charlene charged past Finn, clearly afraid. But Philby, Willa, and Finn watched from their inverted positions as the two pirates reached the next landing and tried to decide on a course. They argued between themselves.
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  “You wouldn’t know east if the sun was rising!”

  “No? When was the last time you knew fore from aft?”

  They stepped up onto a set of stairs, seemingly proud of their choice, and promptly vanished from sight amid a roar of rough-sounding words.

  A moment later, two splashes.

  Finn said, “And that would be the moat.”

  A few minutes later the four kids rode the night-sky elevator to the apartment together. To their confusion, they found the remote button on the coffee table, exactly where Finn had left it.

  “Either he came here and sent himself back,” Philby said, “leaving us the remote, or—”

  “He never left here in the first place,” Finn completed.

  “That might explain the pirates,” Willa said, still wondering if Maybeck was somehow a spy.

  “Or it might tell us he’s been caught,” Philby suggested.

  “What about the teepee?” Charlene asked. “Didn’t we say if we didn’t meet here, we’d meet there?”

  “Yes, we did. You’re right,” Finn said.

  “I don’t love the idea of going back the way we came,” Philby said. “Those clowns could return.”

  Finn moved over to the silver Mickey plate on the wallby the window. “Wayne used the express lane,” he reminded.

  “I’m not going first on that thing!” Charlene declared.

  Finn said, “Then I will.” He hit the plate.

  The floor fell out from under him, and he slid in his damp clothes down a twisting, steep exit tube. It was the best tube he’d ever ridden, including every water park he’d ever been to. It leveled off near the bottom, slowing him down, and he popped through a pair of doors and landed on a patch of grass in a shadowy nook outside the castle walls. He rolled out of the way and waited. A moment later, Willa came through. Then Charlene, and finally Philby.

  Together, they made their way toward Frontierland, and the teepee, staying in shadow and hiding often.

  They called for Maybeck inside the teepee. No answer. Then, at Philby’s urging, they climbed inside to get out of sight.

  Finn said, “We have to find him before we go back.”

  “But it’s late,” Charlene protested. “We have to get back. Listen, he’s the one who took off. He broke the rules. Why should we be the ones punished?”

  Finn asked, “And if it was you left behind?”

  “Shh!” Philby said.

  The park suddenly seemed unusually quiet. It felt to Finn as if there were a thousand ears trained in their direction.

  A rustle came from the bushes just on the other side of the teepee wall.

  They heard footsteps. Someone circling the teepee.

  I know you’re in there, said Maleficent in her dry, raspy voice. But Finn heard her in his head, not through his ears. Missing something, are we? She clucked her tongue. What a shame you didn’t listen and obey. I told you to stay away from here. Nasty children. Nasty little children.

  The footfalls continued around the teepee and reached the front door. The teepee’s interior grew steadily colder until the kids could see four plumes of their fogged breath emerging clearly from their invisible bodies.

  Across from him, Finn heard a brief but sharp clatter of teeth. Charlene’s, no doubt.

  The four plumes of fog stopped as all four held their breath. A gangly shadow stretched across the open doorway.

  Maleficent’s voice sounded like slowly cracking glass. “You should have stayed away while you had the chance.” The shadow bent. Her oddly beautiful green face appeared in the open doorway.

  Charlene screamed, jumped up, and fled the teepee, suddenly visible. She surprised the witch, who reeled back instinctively. Maleficent lunged at Charlene with her skinny arms and bony fingers, but Charlene was much too fast for her. Maleficent got only a piece of the girl’s black Tshirt. The shirt stretched, and Charlene was nearly pulled off her feet. But the shirt tore at the last second, leaving a scrap of cloth in Maleficent’s green hand.

  Willa fled right behind Charlene. The witch missed her entirely.

  Finn saw that Maleficent’s eyes were eerily bright. She had surprisingly pretty, high cheekbones, with a high forehead, black hair, and a strong chin. She wore a strange headdress, like two twisting horns that rose from the hood of her cape. Her inquisitive face explored the empty teepee.

  “Why can’t I see you, you poor simple fools? Hmm? Have you got magic of your own? Do you?” Never taking her eyes off the inside of the teepee, she crouched. Her twisted green fingers with red nails couldn’t keep still. She scooped up a fist of sandy dirt from just outside the doorway.

  Finn kept in shadow, remaining invisible. He moved carefully and quietly toward the door.

  “Now, Finn Whitman, you shall deal with me,” the witch said, casting an arc of sand inside.

  Briefly, a ghostly image of Philby’s left side appeared as the sand struck and stuck to him.

  A clever witch at that, Finn thought.

  Philby brushed off most of the sand, but not all. His ghostly image remained.

  Maleficent stepped over the lip and into the teepee, heading right for Philby.

  Finn jumped forward and shoved her to the dirt. It felt like he had rammed into a wallof ice.

  “Run!” Finn shouted.

  Philby jumped over the witch’s legs and sprang out of the teepee. He landed in the dirt, rolled, and came to his feet.

  Finn also tripped over the lower lip of the teepee’s door. He, too, went down face-first into the dirt.

  As Finn came to his feet, a crow flew from the teepee. The bird dove for Finn, its talons like dinner forks. Finn blocked the attack with his forearm and was off at a run.

  The crow shrieked, rose high, circled once, and dove again, a flutter of feathers.

  Finn ran hard and fast, thinking, She will not scare me. She will not scare me!

  The bird dove again, this time striking the back of Finn’s head, its talons scratching his scalp.

  Finn headed for the shore. He hit the water in a racer’s dive, knowing the crow couldn’t follow.

  But the crow tucked its wings, lowered its head, and dove for the water’s black surface. Finn heard a big splash and then silence behind him.

  Charlene, Philby, and Willa, already in the water, swam to shore and clambered up onto the bank and quickly out of sight.

  Finn realized the bird—the witch—had gone into the water but had never come out.

  At that very moment, he felt something wrap around his ankle. Slimy and cold, it dragged him under.

  A giant, black eel. It climbed up Finn’s body, wrapped around his middle, and squeezed. And squeezed. Finn tore at it with his hands, but it was like trying to grab a giant slithering bar of soap.

  The more he fought against it, the more it squeezed. He felt the wind being choked out of him. He couldn’t breathe. He was losing consciousness.

  Finn heard a loud whine, like an…engine. The eel’s grip slackened just enough to allow Finn to take a breath.

  Above him, Finn saw Philby in one of the jungle boats. Philby held the boat’s outboard motor tilted just above the water, its spinning propeller aimed at the eel.

  As the propeller was just about to cut the eel like a meat grinder, the beast released its hold of Finn and slithered back down under the dark water. Finn pulled himself from the water as Philby ran the boat up on shore.

  “We gotta go, right now!” Philby shouted to the girls. “We’ve got to get back to the apartment and get out of here.”

  “Maybeck—” Finn said.

  “We can’t wait!” Philby shouted.

  “That’s what I’ve been telling you!” Charlene said.

  “I hate leaving him behind,” Willa said, worried.

  “We all do,” Philby said. “But they know we’re here. We’ve got to leave.”

  Finn hardly heard any of this. He was not thinking of the water, nor the crow, nor the eel. He was, instead, thinking only this one thing, ove
r and over: She knew my name. She knew my name.

  21

  Amanda stayed in the lead on her bike. Thankfuly, she hadn’t asked any questions, and he took this as a sign they were becoming really good friends. He told her only that he had to see Jelly and that she was welcome to come along if she wanted. They locked their bikes beneath a sign that read: CRAZY GLAZE.

  “You’re awfully quiet today,” she said.

  “Yeah,” was all Finn could think to say.

  “You want me to keep her busy while you check around back. Is that about it?”

  He nodded.

  Amanda entered the store, glancing back at Finn with a worried expression.

  Finn found two fire escapes out back, made of slatted iron, servicing several doors.

  Finn heard Jelly’s distinctive voice through an open window. This was followed by Amanda asking after Terry.

  “Terry’s not feeling well,” Jelly said.

  “I brought him some homework,” Amanda said. It was a white lie, because in fact she and Finn went to a different school than Maybeck; but she needed a reason to see him.

  “That’s sweet of you, girl. I’ll be sure to pass it along.”

  Amanda said, “Is it the flu?”

  “Not exactly the flu,” Jelly answered. “You want to leave him homework, that’d be fine. But right now, I’ve got a lot do.”

  “Can I help you?” Amanda offered. “Can I fill in for Terry, if he’s not feeling well?”

  “Well…Terry’s asleep upstairs. That would be very good of you, Amanda. Thank you for offering. I’m happy to pay you, though I can’t pay much.”

  Finn climbed up the fire escape. The rail was hot to the touch. If caught, Finn wasn’t sure what excuse he’d use, but he’d think of something. At the first landing there was a normal-looking door.

  Finn knocked gently. Nothing. Then he tried the doorknob; it turned, but he didn’t dare open it. That was just plain wrong, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  Then the obvious hit him: that other landing below the adjacent windows. If he could make the jump…

  Finn climbed over the rail of the landing, hung on, and jumped. His fingers hooked around the railing. He hung on for dear life, pulled himself over, and collapsed below the first window.