“Don’t let the zombies get him!” I said to Dad and the others fighting. I wanted TheVampireDragon555 stopped, not destroyed. I flung myself into the group of zombies, hitting them with my sword. One zombie turned away from TheVampireDragon555 and came at me. With one sharp slash I took care of it. Destiny was hitting the zombies, too, and then there was Dad, taking out two with one hit.
“No! No! Help!” TheVampireDragon555 was crying under the pile. Somehow he’d dropped his sword and he had his hands up over his face, trying to protect himself.
“Look!” Destiny said.
A sliver of light appeared over the horizon.
The zombies hissed and jumped back. They hated the light.
As the sun rose, their bodies began to smoke, and then to flame. The last of them burst into fire and vanished.
Soon only theVampireDragon555 lay there on the ground, unharmed and panting. If the zombies had bitten him, it obviously didn’t have an effect, since, after all, he already was a zombie. But the fact that he wasn’t from the Overworld had also given him another advantage, since he hadn’t burned like all the other zombies.
He started to sit up but found he couldn’t get far. Destiny, Dad and I all had our swords at the ready, pointing at him so he knew not to go anywhere.
TheVampireDragon555 looked at the swords, looked at our stony faces, and then looked at the buttery, soft light going all over the land. Slowly he raised his green hands in surrender.
The villagers were standing behind us, and they cleared a path to let Maison walk through. In one hand she held a Potion of Weakness and in the other, a golden apple.
“Jig’s up, VampireDragon555,” she said, stopping in front of him.
“You saved my life,” TheVampireDragon555 said to me, stunned. “You could have let the zombies get me.”
I never thought red eyes could look so bittersweet and sad, but his did. He really expected me to let the zombies get him.
“I’m not like you,” I said. “If I fight, it’s to protect myself and others in self-defense. I would never hurt another living thing for fun.”
He gave a long swallow, watching me. “But,” he stuttered, “I still don’t understand. If I were you, I wouldn’t have saved my enemy when he was down. Why did you do that?”
“Because,” I said softly, “it was the right thing to do.”
“Where are you from, stranger?” Dad demanded. “You’re not from this world, and I can tell you this: you’re not welcome back in this world.”
“We’re from the same world Maison is from,” Destiny said.
The villagers all turned their eyes on her. She looked a little embarrassed and quickly continued, “I am so sorry for all this. We hacked into Maison’s account and used it to create our own portal here. I never knew any of this would happen, so I joined with Stevie and Maison to stop it. With your help, I want you to join me in destroying the portal we made so we can’t get through again. This is your world, not ours.”
“You know this zombie?” Dad asked her, gesturing toward TheVampireDragon555.
“Yes,” Destiny said. “He’s my cousin, Yancy.”
“Yancy?” I repeated. “You just tried to destroy an entire world and your name is Yancy?”
TheVampireDragon555, er, Yancy, looked down as though ashamed. “Yeah,” he muttered.
“Well, Yancy,” Dad said in his no-nonsense voice. “Why did you attack the Overworld and do such terrible things to the villagers?”
Yancy didn’t look so big and scary now. And, like any normal person, he was intimidated by Dad. “Because,” he said weakly, “it’s the only thing that makes me feel good about myself. It’s the only thing I can do.”
“That’s how I used to feel, too.” Destiny threw her sword on the ground. “But I’m tired of acting that way.”
“I never knew there were people like you out there,” Yancy said, looking at me, and then at Maison. “You risked your lives to help the villagers. Most of them were people you didn’t even know. You could have just gotten out of the portal and never looked back. You even risked your lives for me.”
He looked down at his green hands. “This will give me a lot to think about. I thought stuff about heroes was just from books. But you two are heroes.”
Dad put his hand on Destiny’s shoulder. “I think she’s a hero as well. I saw her fighting to save us, too.”
Destiny smiled shyly. “Thank you, sir.”
“And Stevie,” Dad said. “I shouldn’t have been so hard on you about memorizing potions. I see you’ve mastered them just fine.”
“Well …” I said, a little shy. “I probably should study them a bit more.”
“All right, Yancy,” Maison said. “It’s time to go.” She splashed him with the Potion of Weakness and handed him the apple, watching as he transformed back into a human being.
CHAPTER 21
A WEEK LATER, MAISON AND I WERE BUSY BREWING in Dad’s house. We were working on the Potion of Swiftness. Dad said he saw my point that it was easier to learn potions by making them instead of just memorizing them. To make a Potion of Swiftness, you needed glass bottles filled with water, Nether Wart and some sugar.
It wasn’t just about potions, though. I also wanted Maison to fill me in on everything that had happened in her world since we’d last seen each other.
“You want to know the craziest thing?” she said. “I got home thinking my mom would kill me for being gone for so long. But I’d only been gone twenty minutes. She thought I was just doing my homework or playing Minecraft in my room. Yancy must have done something with codes to change the time while he was in there. It’s a mystery.”
“But what about …?” She knew what I really wanted to know. After Yancy had turned back into a human, we’d all gone to the portal they’d created and sent both him and Destiny back. And then Maison, Dad and I had destroyed the portal so they couldn’t return. Maison’s and my portal, which was protected by a specially-built house, was still around for the two of us to use.
“Well, the first thing I did was get a firewall so no one can hack my computer again,” Maison said. “My mom was confused when I ran downstairs saying I needed a firewall ASAP. But then I showed her the stuff Yancy had been writing about me online and said I’d feel safer if I had a firewall.”
“What did your mom say?”
“She said she was proud of me for telling her about the cyberbullying. She said you shouldn’t ignore it when it gets serious like that. You should tell an adult. I told her that I knew Yancy’s real identity, so she called his mom. It turns out Yancy was talking to his mom right then with Destiny there, admitting that he’d been trolling people for years and he needed help. His mom has him seeing a therapist for his anger issues. One of the things his therapist had him do was write an apology letter to me. In the letter, he said, ‘I will never go to the Overworld again. You have my word.’ The therapist and his parents didn’t get that, but I did.”
“What about Destiny?” I asked.
“We don’t have any classes together,” Maison said. “But we hang out at lunch every day now. She doesn’t bite her nails so much anymore.”
“Are her nails still splotchy?” I asked. “Are you sure that’s not a zombie sign?”
Maison sighed. “I’m sure.”
Ossie came up, purring, rubbing against both Maison and me. The Potion of Swiftness was just about ready and Dad came over to check it.
“Looks good,” he said with pride. “I have two very talented potion makers here. The next time you have to save everyone, you’ll be ready.”
“Next time?” I echoed hesitantly.
“Well, sure,” Dad said. “I’m a farmer and a miner, and that’s what I always thought you’d be someday, Stevie. But the more I think about it, I think you and Maison are going to grow up to be heroes.”
“Aww, Dad,” I said, embarrassed. But I could tell from Maison’s smile she liked the compliment.
“That’s not a word I throw arou
nd lightly,” Dad said. “However, both of you did save Maison’s school, and then you saved the Overworld. I think someday the Overworld will be telling stories about the adventures of Stevie and Maison.”
“Or the adventures of Maison and Stevie,” Maison corrected.
“I know the perfect way to figure out whose name should come first,” I joked. “We’ll both take the Potion of Swiftness, and whoever reaches the tree house first wins.”
“You’re on,” Maison exclaimed.
We each doused ourselves with the potion. And then we took off running across the field at super speed, laughing as the sunlight poured down on us and our tree house came into view.
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