Dorothy In the Land of Monsters

by Garten Gevedon

“What is it? I’ve seen nothing like it before.”

  “It’s a staple where I come from, but there are places all over the world in my realm where the food is nothing like this. There are different cuisines in almost each place you’d go, and I want to try them all.”

  “You will try them when you travel to those places.”

  “Yeah, to travel the world is my dream. For a minute there I was thinking I might be a flight attendant—I could travel to places for free—but I wouldn’t get to stay for too long that way. And I don’t think you get to choose where to go. I don’t know how I’ll make that happen for myself. But falling in love, I’d like to do that. ”

  “Me too,” he says and smiles a smile that makes my heart flutter at the sight of it. He is so charming, and a lovely person. He’s my true friend. We may have started out a bit off, but we are ending as true friends.

  We finish eating and rise from the table. When I reach out to clear the plates, the table opens up and swallows our trays. A huffed laugh escapes me as Nick steps toward me and says, “I will miss you, Dorothy.”

  “Oh, Nick, I will miss you, and I’ll never forget you.”

  “I could never forget you,” he says, and I throw my arms around him in a huge hug. After a moment, he hugs me back just as tight.

  “All the best things in life is what I wish for you. I wish you all the happiness in all the realms,” I say, and I mean it so much.

  “And I wish the same for you. For you to see yourself as I do is what I wish for you,” he says, sounding sad.

  “And I wish the same for you,” I tell him.

  He pulls back and takes me in, then kisses my cheek.

  “I will see you in the morning.”

  “See you in the morning. Sweet dreams,” I say, and he smiles, letting me go before he walks off the balcony and out of my room, the door sliding closed behind him.

  Sorrow cracks open inside me like a dozen eggs at the bottom of a grocery bag, and I burst into tears. It feels like my heart is breaking. I miss him already. Nick and Ardie and the Werelion—I will miss them all so much. This is the end of the road for us. Part of me doesn’t want to leave them, but I know this situation is temporary. They will move on and I’ll be alone here. It would be wrong not to tell my aunt and uncle I am alive. They must be so worried or sad thinking I am dead. But this time I’ve spent with these three lovely beings has been the best time of my life. It has also been the scariest, the hardest, and the most trying, but still the best. They are my best friends by far, and I will miss them more than any words I could concoct could ever express. Once I get back to Kansas, I will be okay though, and I will be grateful to be home.

  I hope.

  After a few deep, cleansing breaths, I dry my tears, take off the dress, hang it in the massive closet filled with old timey clothes, and get into bed wearing my old timey underwear that are a lot like old lady pajamas. Toto is already asleep in the small bed on the floor. I’d say it’s a dog bed, but they don’t have dogs here. Perhaps it’s meant for a large cat. Magic turns out the lights as I snuggle into the soft bed covered in luxurious linens. Sadness weighs heavy on my eyelids, and I drift into a deep sleep.

  17

  The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz

  The smell of sizzling hot bacon and dark roast coffee fill my senses and my eyes flutter open from a deep, refreshing sleep. When my vision comes into focus, I find a gorgeous breakfast set on a tray on the end table before me. Misty green magic in the shape of a rotating table fan blows the smell of my breakfast right in my face.

  “I’m awake,” I say as I sit up and scan the room to find Toto in his dog bed gnawing roast meat off a large bone in a state of carnivorous bliss. His little grunts and growls as he tears the meat off the bone with his teeth are nothing short of adorable.

  As I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand, the mist surrounds me. The next thing I know, I’m standing in the bathroom.

  “Thanks,” I say and go use the facilities. When I come out, the mist lifts and carries me back to the plunge pool.

  “Oh, wait. I—” I say as I’m dropped into the water.

  When I come up for air, the suffocating bubbles surround me again, and after a thorough scrubbing, I’m lifted out of the tub and set on the drying platform. Station by station, I’m brought through the same rigmarole as last night, but this time only the magic of Oz is tending to my grooming. Hands of mist powder me and carry crystal wands that illuminate my skin and style my hair.

  When I’m whisked over to the makeup station, my breakfast floats in on a green cloud and hovers before me. As the mist lifts powders and creams and brings them to my face, I eat my delicious breakfast of crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, and waffles slathered in whipped green butter and doused in glittering green syrup.

  Once I finish my breakfast, I brush my teeth and when I’m done, folded undergarments and a long green silk dress with a sweetheart neckline and fluttery short sleeves appears in glittering fog and floats at my side. To my surprise, the undergarments are a green lace and silk under-wire bra and matching bikini cut underwear. I take the underwear and put it on. The mist lifts the dress over my head, I raise my arms, and it slips on with ease.

  When I take a step toward the mirrors to see how I look, a thick mist surrounds me, clouds of green take over my vision, and after a moment, the fog disperses. I stand before a large door with Toto at my feet. He has a velvet green bow tied around his neck and his coat shines like he just had a meticulous grooming.

  “Oh! Dorothy! You look so beautiful,” Ardie says behind me. When I turn around, Ardie and Werelion are there looking dashing—Ardie wears a fancy green velvet suit while Werelion wears green bows tied in his curled mane.

  “Thank you. You look very handsome. Both of you.” The large copper and emerald pavé door opens to Jellia standing on the other side with a bright smile on her face.

  “Hello and good morning. Your traveling companion is already inside with the Wizard. He will see you all one at a time. Come along.” Jellia pivots on her heel and walks off. With every step I take toward her, my heart beats faster and sweat dampens my palms.

  The door shutters closed behind us with a resounding clunk as the many ladies and gentlemen of the court, all dressed in rich costumes, turn and gawk at us as we enter the great hall. I’d say it was a ballroom if there weren’t so many other things going on in here. It’s like a salon or a common area. People play games like chess, backgammon, cards, and other strange board games I’ve never seen across emerald tables throughout the room. There’s a buffet with little cakes and cookies, pastries, baked goods of all sorts, and a green cut-crystal bowl of chartreuse punch that effervesces.

  Jellia slows and walks at my side, leans into my ear and whispers, “These people have nothing to do other than talk to each other, but they always come to wait outside his door every morning even though they may never see Oz.”

  As we approach the even larger door on the other side of the grand room, they gawk at us with unbridled curiosity, and one of them asks me in a low tone:

  “Will you set your eyes upon the face of Oz the Terrible?”

  Jellia pulls me along before I can answer but leans in and whispers in my ear, “The wizard does not like to have people ask to see him. At first, he was angry you asked to see him and said to send you back where you came from, but then he heard about your silver shoes and became very much interested. It was then that he decided he would admit you to his presence.”

  As we arrive at the even larger copper and emerald pavé door, a bell rings. A split-second after that, Nick emerges looking so handsome, dressed like a prince, but his eyes are heavy with distress. Before I can ask him what’s wrong, Jellia says, “That is the signal. You must go into the Hall of Mirrors alone. Now,” and shoves me though the door. In a blink, it slides shut behind me.

  My heart is in my throat pounding fast as I search the grand hall. Big and round with a high arched roof, the walls, ceiling, and floor
are all mirrors in emerald and copper panes echoing an endless sea of vacant reflections. In the center of the roof is a great light, as bright as the sun, which makes the mirrors and the emeralds sparkle and cast brilliant bands and streamers about the room.

  As I watch the light whirl around the room in an auroral dance, an old man’s face with sharp white brows and wild white hair appears in every mirror and looks as though it’s scrutinizing me from every possible angle. I shudder as his eyes bug out of his head like he’s incensed I’ve disturbed him.

  “I am Oz, the Great and Terrible. Who are you, and why do you seek me?”

  I gulp down my growing anxiety and answer.

  “Um… I am Dorothy… the Small and Meek. I have come to you for help.” Ugh. I should have thought about what I would say before I came in here.

  After a long silence, he asks, “Where did you get the silver shoes?”

  “From the Vampire Witch of the East, when my house fell on her and killed her.” His bulging eyes narrow in accusation and it occurs to me that he might have been friends with her, so I explain straightaway. “It wasn’t intentional. I didn’t mean to kill her, and I didn’t take the shoes or anything. They appeared on my feet and I can’t get them off. I was hoping you could help me with that and then send me back to Kansas, where I came from.”

  He looks left, then right, up, down, and his reflections all seem to be looking in different directions like he is seeing every part of the room at once—it’s unnerving. When I’m thoroughly freaked out, he looks at me again.

  “Why should I help you?”

  “You should help me because you are strong and powerful, and I am not. You should help me because you are a great wizard and I am only a teenage girl.”

  “Only a teenage girl? How is it then that you were strong enough to kill the Vampire Witch of the East?”

  “That was an accident. It just happened.”

  “You have no right to expect me to send you back to Kansas!” shouts the Wizard. “Unless you do something for me in return. In this country, everyone must pay for everything he gets. If you wish me to use my magic power to send you home, you must do something for me first. When you help me, I will help you.”

  “What must I do?” I ask, knowing I’d do anything to get home.

  “You must kill the Vampire Witch of the West,” answers Oz.

  Anything but that.

  “What? I can’t do that.”

  “You killed the Vampire Witch of the East and you wear the silver shoes, which bear a powerful charm. There is now but one Vampire Witch left in all this land, and when you can tell me she is dead, I will send you back to Kansas—but not before.”

  How can I stake out and murder a Vampire Witch?

  “I’ve killed nothing on purpose. The only thing I’ve killed are vampires and zombies trying to kill me. It was in self-defense. When I killed the first Vampire Witch, it was a complete and total accident. Even if I wanted to, how could I kill this Vampire Witch? If you, who are Great and Terrible, cannot kill her yourself, how do you expect me to do it?”

  “That is my answer. Until the Vampire Witch dies, you will not see Kansas again. Now go, and do not ask to see me again until you have completed your task!” the Wizard’s head booms at me, and I flinch.

  Heavy with sorrow, I hurry out through the giant door back to where Werelion, Ardie, and Nick are waiting.

  “Oz won’t send me home until I have killed the Vampire Witch of the West, and I just don’t think I can do it.”

  I burst into tears and rush off, Toto in tow, as a thick, green mist envelops me. In an instant, I find myself back in my suite falling face first into the bed.

  Deep, heart-wrenching sobs pour out as thoughts of a life alone in this monstrous land flood my mind—I’ll be here forever, my family will never know that I survived the cyclone, and I’ll be alone. Now I have my friends, but they will all go back to their lives and I will end up alone. I’ll have Toto and nothing more. Where will I live? What will I do? How will I support myself? I will need to find a job, but what? I need to find a place to live.

  There is a light knock at my door and a head peeks in. It’s Nick. He sees me crying and comes in. Sympathy fills his eyes at the sight of me bawling.

  “What am I going to do? I have nothing here. Nowhere to live, no idea how I will support myself, or survive. I’m screwed.”

  “It will be all right, Dorothy,” he says and sits beside me on the bed and strokes my back.

  “How do you figure? I’ll have to stay, and I have nothing here. Ardie will go back to his job, his life. The Werelion will go back to the forest or stay here and do his shifter thing. I hear they stay in their groups. You will find a girl to fall in love with and start your family, and I will be alone, homeless, and destitute,” I sob.

  “Nothing changes for me unless the witch dies. The Wizard told me if I did not kill the Vampire Witch of the West, he would not permit me to stay here, and I would forever be heartless,” he says, and I’m flabbergasted.

  “But he told me I had to kill her,” I say, confused.

  “He wants her dead and I do not think he cares which one of us kills her. I think he intends for us to go together.”

  This stuns me out of my self-pity, and I sit up beside him.

  “I cannot believe this!” Angry at his request, angry the wizard is demanding this of either of us, and sad for Nick that he has to do this with me, I steam as I begin pacing, my mind in a scramble to find a way out of this, a loophole, something.

  “You don’t have to do it. I’ll go, and I’ll kill her,” he says.

  “Nick, I am not letting you go alone.”

  “I need you to stay safe, Dorothy.”

  “Well, I need you to stay safe. These silver boots will keep me safe, and I still haven’t used most of the weapons in my bag. They’ll help me take her out.”

  “I am so sorry, Dorothy.”

  “No, I’m sorry. If I hadn’t killed that Vampire Witch, he wouldn’t be asking this of us,” I sigh in regret. “It wasn’t even me. My house landed on her! I tried to tell him, but he didn’t care. That head is a dick. He’s a dickhead,” I say pissed and Nick chuckles.

  “Head?”

  “He was a humongous old man head with shifty eyes.”

  “For me, he presented himself as a most terrible beast ten times the size of Werelion. It had a horn and five eyes on its face, five long arms growing out of its body, and it had five long, slim legs. Thick, woolly hair covered every part. A more dreadful-looking monster I could not imagine. It was menacing the way he appeared in every mirror in the hall,” he tells me and shudders a bit.

  “I suppose I should be grateful he was only a huge head when I met him.”

  “You should.”

  “I hope Ardie and the Werelion have better luck.”

  “The Werelion was going in when I came after you. Ardie would be next. When they finish, they will come here to see you. I told them where the room was.”

  “I’m sorry he’s making you do this. It’s because of me, because I killed the first Vampire Witch,” I say, heavy with regret.

  “No, Dorothy, it is not your fault.”

  “It is. I killed her and these boots just appeared on my feet and now…” I say and cry.

  “No,” he says wrapping his arms around me, holding me to him, comforting me. “I am glad he asked it of me for I would never let you go alone.”

  I hug him back, wrapping my arms around him.

  “You are so handsome in your fancy clothes. Like a prince,” I tell him through my tears, mustering up a smile. He smiles back.

  “You are like a princess.”

  “It’s a nice dress isn’t it? I thought it would help me convince my aunt this place was real. Now I’ll never get there, and I’ll be homeless, penniless, and alone in this scary place.”

  “You will not. We will kill the Vampire Witch and you will return to Kansas where you will be safe.”

  “I can’t
imagine going after someone and murdering them. If she came after me, tried to kill me, I could defend myself, but to stake her out to kill her? I can’t do that,” I say and the tears come again as I hug him tight and he strokes my back to comfort me.

  “I can, and I will. If that is what it takes to get you to Kansas, I will do it.”

  “What if we fail? Then what?”

  “If I survive, I will keep my promise to you. I will take care of you.”

  “But what about your own life? I can’t do that to you. And the second you get a girlfriend, she won’t like me hanging around all the time,” I remind him.

  “Dorothy—” he starts then the door slides open and Werelion’s pops in from around the door jamb.

  “Dorothy?” Ardie says peeking his head in over the Werelion’s.

  “Come in,” I tell them, and they do, the door sliding closed behind them. “Did you get your cure? And your courage?” I ask, and they both deflate.

  “He also told us to kill the Vampire Witch,” Ardie tells me. “If she is dead, we will all get our wishes. We have four days to prepare, one for each of us, and then we must leave the palace and the city until we vanquish her. After that, we may return and collect our wishes.”

  “This is awful. It’s all my fault.”

  “No,” Ardie tells me. “It is not. The Wizard requires a price, and this is it. We would not allow you to go alone no matter what. It is best this way.”

  “Yeah,” the Werelion says. “We’ll kill that Vampire Witch. We’ll get her good,” he says, his eyes narrowed in determination.

  “They have given us four days to prepare?” Nick asks.

  “Yes. I will stock up on brains for the trip. They have many zombie restaurants here. I attended many through the night. There are so many zombies in this city. It is quite the scene.”

  “Ardie met a lady zombie last night,” the Werelion discloses with a conspiratorial giggle.

  “Shh. Dorothy doesn’t want to hear that,” Ardie says, shaking his head.

  “Yes, I do. You met a girl?”

  “She’s not a girl. She’s a woman, and yes, I did. I quite like her,” he says and Werelion giggles.