Dorothy In the Land of Monsters

by Garten Gevedon

  “Yeah, he’s as ambitious as it gets.”

  “That he is,” the King agrees

  Now that his story is over, I look out at the world around me and see the green, shining walls of the City of Emeralds before us. In one sense I am glad the journey is over, and not so glad in another because it means I’m leaving soon and I don’t want to go, not anymore. The vampire bat monkeys set us down before the gate of the City. The King bows low to us and his band does the same.

  “Thanks for the ride and the history lesson,” I say when he rises, nods, and flies away, his band taking off after him.

  “That was fast,” I say, my heart pumping anxiety.

  “Yes, and a quick way out of our troubles,” says Werelion. “How lucky it was you brought away that wonderful cap.”

  “Lucky,” Nick grumbles, disappointed our time together is ending. So am I. I’m miserable over it.

  He wraps his arms around me and says in a soft whisper, “I love you, Dorothy.”

  “Me too, but you,” I say, missing him already.

  “Time to knock at the Gates,” Ardie says.

  Nick releases me from our embrace and I face front. This is it—the beginning of the end.

  24

  The Discovery of Oz the Fraud

  The four of us walk up to the massive gate of the City of Emeralds with Toto at our feet and ring the bell. No answer. So we ring again, and again. After ringing several times, the gate morphs from opaque emerald to a clear crystal and on the other side looking out at us is the same crotchety old zombie—the Guardian of the Gates.

  “What? Back, again?” he asks with a sneer.

  “Do you not see us?” says Ardie.

  “Oz told you not to return until you killed the Vampire Witch of the West.”

  “We did,” Ardie says.

  “What?” asks the man, his jaw falling open and his eyes widening in wonder.

  “Dorothy melted her,” Werelion adds.

  “Melted? That is good news,” he says with a bright smile that somehow looks wrong on his ornery face.

  The clear crystal of the gate disappears and we step through into the small room. As the hollow door fills with deep emerald crystal, the Guardian opens his emerald pavé trunk of spectacles, and we choose our glasses just as we did before. Unlike last time though, he doesn’t argue and presses the palm-sized cabochon on the wall. The door opens, and with our bags on our backs, we all step into the magical lift. When the door closes, before the Guardian can dial in our destination, the strange elevator takes off.

  “Ah! Oz knows you are here,” says the Guardian as we hug the walls careening around bends and speeding up and down slopes. Toto slides across the floor toward me, so I bend down, pick him up, and hold him tight to keep him from bouncing off the walls.

  Right as Werelion is about to lose his lunch, the elevator stops and the doors open to the roof deck rampart. The Guardian leads the way, and we step out of the elevator onto an elevated emerald platform with the Flower of Life pattern carved into it. Green mist rises from the pattern and engulfs us before it lifts us off our feet and transforms into a large bubble that carries us over the city. While I am in the same bubble with Nick, Ardie, Werelion, and Toto, the Guardian has his own, and he floats beside us as we beeline for the Wizard’s castle.

  When we reach the front steps, the bubble lowers us to the ground and pops. Zombies, shifters, and humans walk up the steps and gather around as the Guardian’s bubble lowers and pops beside us. Raising his arms, he announces, “They melted the Vampire Witch of the West!”

  Shocked whispers and gasps arise from the crowd that grows by the second, the announcement relayed from one person to another in hushed tones.

  “Come!” the Guardian says to us with a wave of his hand as he walks up to the palace doors.

  The whispers compound as the doors slide open. When we step inside, the door closes behind us and to my relief the whispers stop. The Guardian says something, but I can’t hear him because my heart is pounding in my ears. Now more than ever since I arrived, I feel nervous, worried. Anxiety constricts my insides to where I can’t breathe. Jellia appears with the other attendants in a puff of smoke and I smile to say hi, but I can’t say anything.

  Concern takes over Jellia’s face, and she hurries us along. As I wave goodbye to Ardie and Werelion, I hurry off to the bank of Oz elevators. Even though I’m breathing, I’m not getting any air. Doors open and I hurry inside. People are talking but I can’t hear what they are saying because my ears are ringing. When the doors open to the vestibule that joined our old rooms, I hurry out and the door to my suite opens for me as I hurry inside with Jellia right behind me. Straightaway, I put Toto down, and she herds me into the bathroom with her hand on my arm, leads me over to the infinity mirrors, and sits me down on an emerald bench.

  “Breathe,” she says into my ear and I am surprised and relieved I can hear her.

  “Can’t,” I choke out and she presses my back down until my head is between my knees.

  “Stay there and breathe. Deep breath in, and out. Deep breath in, and deep breath out,” she says in a soothing tone and I try to do as she says, but it doesn’t help—I’m still breathing and I’m not getting any air.

  Soon my attempt at breathing turns into gasping and I’m frantic, suffocating. A paper bag appears before me in a green mist and I snatch it, open it up, and breathe into it, in and out, and it helps—my heart stops racing, and a little air makes its way into my lungs.

  Jellia rubs my back in soothing strokes, and I calm down. The last panic attack I had was when I found out my parents died. Even when I thought Nick was dead, I didn’t have one. Now that we’re here though, now that we’ve fulfilled our mission, I have one after four years?

  “What happened?”

  “I had a panic attack,” I say as I collect myself.

  “Yes, I know, they are common here.”

  “No kidding?” That’s surprising to hear. Is it something in the green mist that makes people feel like they’re suffocating?

  “Predators infest this world. Traumatic incidents happen to us all. Many of us react the same way as you just did.”

  “Oh, that makes sense.”

  “What happened?”

  A lot happened, but why have a panic attack now? The first answer that enters my mind is that I don’t want to leave yet, and at any second, he could send me home never to return.

  “I don’t want to leave,” I tell her.

  “Leave?”

  “Leave this realm. I’m not from here. The Wizard will send me back.”

  “Oh,” she says, “and you are in love.”

  “Yes,” I croak as tears shoot to my eyes and I cry.

  “Dorothy?” Nick says as he enters the room, and when I look up at him, he looks so concerned that it makes my heart surge with misery and love at once, and all I can do is sob.

  Jellia pats my shoulder and goes as he rushes to my side.

  “What is wrong?” Nick asks as he sits beside me, caressing my cheek as he does.

  “So many things. The first of them being I don’t want to leave.”

  “You must go.”

  “Come with me then.”

  “Dorothy, we have been over this,” he says, his tone kind but firm.

  “Do you know how this plague started?”

  “Well, there were always zombies and shifters, and the threat of them, of being bitten, existed for long before the vampire plague began. When my mother was young, she left Winkie Land and met my father in her travels. As a child, she had learned to fight—her father and mother taught her well—and she was adept at eliminating zombies and werebeasts because of where she grew up. When Quelala turned the Witch of the West and enslaved almost all of Winkie Land, my mother wanted to leave but her family wanted to stay, so she left alone. On her own, she made it all the way to Emerald where she met my father, and they fell in love. My mother was a fierce fighter, and she taught me all she knew before she pa
ssed.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “A terrible illness took her,” he says.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

  “She was the strongest woman I had ever known before I met you,” he tells me with a sweet smile.

  “Stay here. Don’t go back to Winkie Land.”

  “Those people asked me to lead them and I promised them I would,” he says with disapproval in his eyes.

  “Quelala will come for you there—he’s ambitious and sees Winkie Land as his. If you go there, he will come for you—he’s gathering his armies now.”

  “How do you know this?” he asks, but he doesn’t seem surprised at all.

  “The King of the Vampire Bat Monkeys told me. Quelala started this plague with the Vampire Witch of the East. Did you know he was Gayelette’s husband? Once he married her, he turned the Sister Witches to control them so he could rule their kingdoms. All this happened because he wanted to rule the North and Gayelette wouldn’t allow him to take over. Now he’s gathering an army of vampires, getting ready to come and kill you to commandeer the castle and conquer all of Winkie Land.”

  Silence pervades and I suspect he already knew everything I just told him. With his lips pressed into a firm line, it’s clear he’s annoyed and trying to think of what to say to me next.

  “Did you know all this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Right, so you’re going back there to commit suicide?”

  “No, but I cannot leave those people. Now that the Vampire Witch is dead and Quelala left, they have their freedom back. Now, they can fight back. There is no spell over them any longer. Because my mother and her family lived outside of town on the outskirts of Winkie Land, they did not fall under her spell. That is the only reason. The wicked Vampire Witch no longer exists to enslave them and they need training to fight back. When they asked me to do it, I promised I would. There is no one else to teach them, or care for them, and as you now know, I have little time to do it, but they deserve a fighting chance, and I am the one who can give it to them.”

  “Fine, but you know this guy is coming to kill you, right?”

  “I am no idiot,” he says, and it makes me sad and angry at the same time.

  “Oh, I disagree,” I say, getting mad.

  “What?”

  “What you’re planning is suicide. That’s stupid.”

  “I will go out fighting, Dorothy. I will not give up, but I also will not leave all of those people defenseless.”

  “If you expect to die in all this and you are still fine with it, you’re being stupid.”

  “Perhaps I am stupid then.”

  “Why would you do this?”

  “What do I have to look forward to?” he shouts, getting very upset with me, and I flinch quaking with so much cortisol already pumping in my system. When he sees me trembling, he softens and wraps his arm around me in a comforting embrace even though he’s still upset.

  “The life I lead is one where I expect to die at any minute every second of every day. The only hope I have ever had came when I met you. On this journey with you, I fell in love and came to this city in hope of a peaceful life only to see that is not possible here. This city is far from secure—it will not last now that Quelala is in charge. As you have said, he is ambitious, and he will come after this city and all the living inside, kill every werebeast and zombie with an army of so many vampires there will be no stopping them. This city is not safe. No place in all this land is safe. The woman I love is leaving, and I’m happy for you to live a safe life in a realm free of these monsters.”

  “Come with me,” I beg, and he sighs.

  “I am not a person who runs away. I am not someone who leaves people who are relying on me behind. That is dishonorable—it would plague me for the rest of my life. Not to mention, we do not know if I even could go with you, but even if I could, it would be very difficult for me there. Plagued by guilt for what I had done, I would be a burden to you and unable to get a job because the only way for me to exist there, to survive and provide for you, is to become a living dead person. Not only would I would hate myself, but you would grow tired of me fast that way.”

  I know he’s right about everything but me growing tired of him.

  “Please let me stay,” I ask in a sad whisper.

  “Dorothy, I will die soon, and you will be here without me in this land of horrors. Is that what you want?”

  “No, but if I’m with you, I could help you fight, protect you. With these boots I can help keep you alive.”

  “If I know you are safe, I will be happy. That matters more than anything else to me.”

  “What if you don’t die? What if you defeat Quelala and live? Will you be sad you let me go?”

  “No matter what, I will be sad to be without you.”

  “If I stayed, we could win, defeat him together. Then we could live a happy, safe life.”

  “Dorothy, I want a life with you that is safe more than anything, but you will have one chance to escape this realm and you must take it. If you could return after it was all over, if we’ve eliminated the vampires, if the werebeasts and zombies find their antidotes, if I was still alive and somehow I could be with you, it would make me happier than I ever imagined I could be. It is a life I never dared to dream of, but that is not reality. The Wizard will send you back to your realm and we will never see each other again,” he says, and I see tears come into his eyes, “and I need you to go, so I can finish this. If you stayed you would be alone here, having lost your chance to return to a safe realm, and I could not rest well. When I die, I want to rest well, Dorothy,” he says, almost pleading with me.

  “How can I let you die?” I ask, as my heart wrenches and tears pour down my cheeks.

  “How can I let you stay?” he says, looking as miserable as me.

  As I cry, I hug him tight not wanting to leave him in this horrible place to be the murder victim of an army of vampires.

  “I feel lucky though. I got to fall in love with the most amazing woman in all the realms. For however short a time it may have been, you were mine—I got to have you as my love—and I get to help an entire people fight for their freedom. They may not win, but they will have a chance, however slim. And do not worry, my love—I will not go down without a fight. That I promise you. I will fight the soulless bitten to the death. Who knows, I may even survive. No matter what though, I get to make sure you are safe. That is a gift to me—to know you are safe and following your dreams.”

  “You are my dream now. I want to follow you,” I tell him, beg him.

  “No, you have me, always—my heart will always be yours—and you will go on in your own realm and find a man worthy of you who will love you the way I would.”

  “I already found you.”

  Like a total mess, I sob in his arms as he pets my hair and looks into my red, wet eyes.

  “We may not have much time left together. May we spend our last moments happy? It would mean a lot to me.”

  After a deep breath, I nod yes and do my best to collect myself as he dries my tears with his fingers and kisses my cheeks, then my lips, then carries me through the suite to our bed.

  “I will love you forever, Nick.”

  “I feel the same. I do not think I can move on from you, Dorothy,” he admits in a whisper.

  “Me too,” I say and kiss him with everything I am.

  This time, there is no holding back or denying what’s between us. All I have is now, and I’m making every single second count. He doesn’t hold back either, maybe because he expects not to last too much longer. The thought of it breaks my heart, so I try not to think about it and just enjoy this temporary bliss.

  We spend the entire night in with no word from the Wizard, and I am happy for it. The more time I have with Nick, the better. Three days pass and still nothing, but we stay in making our last moments together count while Ardie and Werelion find the waiting tiresome and wearing.

  They came again this mor
ning to take Toto around for the day, as they have been since we arrived. Nick and I will be staying in, again, spending every moment we have being as close as we can be.

  At the moment we are waiting for Ardie and Werelion to leave so we can be alone again. Cuddled together, we sit on the couch and to the outside eye it appears as if we are only sitting close, but he is being very mischievous, stealing naughty touches.

  “Have a good day,” I say, hoping they take the hint as Ardie paces about saying something I’m not paying attention to. Nick chuckles at me.

  “How can I have a good day?” Ardie rants. “Every day we are here I grow more and more vexed that Oz should treat us in so poor a fashion after sending us to undergo hardships and slavery! I have had enough of this!” he says and goes to my door and opens it. He peeks out and waves his arm.

  “Jellia?” he says and Jellia hurries into the room.

  “Take a message to the Wizard, please. Tell him if he does not let us in to see him at once we will call the Vampire Bat Monkeys to help us and find out whether or not he intends to keep his promises,” Ardie insists.

  “Yes, sir,” she says and hurries away.

  Nick deflates, as do I. I am sure he will respond to that and it will only end our time together. I have been enjoying this. It’s been blissful being with him, loving him, being loved by him. I will carry it with me forever.

  “Since you’ve cut our time here short, go. Give Dorothy and I the little time we have left together,” Nick orders.

  “Jellia will return with a response. We must wait,” Ardie says and Nick groans.

  If we get called to see the Wizard, I want these last moments with Nick. When I look to him, I can see the irritation in his clenched jaw and furrowed brows, but he kisses me anyway. Sorrow and deep love overtake me, and I hold him tight as we kiss, desperate to hang on to him, to continue to fill that once empty space inside me with him for as long as I can. Since I’ve been with him, an empty part of me is now overflowing. Maybe Nick is more self-aware than I am because I was missing my heart too, I just didn’t realize it. Now that I have it back, I don’t want to let it go.