by Ivory Autumn
Chapter Seventeen
Iron Key
Ivory sat on her haunches, feeling cold and miserable. The chain with the heavy lock bolted to it dug uncomfortably into her neck, making it painful to look up.
Every time she tried to raise her head, the chain around her neck would pull her like a magnet toward the Foglocker. When he summoned, she had no choice but to follow. She stumbled blindly over rocks and sticks, tripping through the mud, wallowing through it like an animal. The mud seeped into her skin like a poisonous dye, causing her countenance to grow dark.
She cried out as she fell, scraping her knee across a jagged rock. She could see the blood from the gash mixing with the dark mud. She wondered if she would be obliterated until nothing but oily black mud remained. She sobbed, and closed her eyes, trying to shut out the mesmerizing whisperings of the Foglocker that urged her to keep following him. Its voice rose up from the ground, drenching the air with a suffocating heaviness, echoing off rocks, and rolling over the lonely hills in a never-ending chant.
As the sound faded, an awful feeling of despair pushed in around her. In that single moment she knew she would die in this place, away from her friends, away from everything she loved. She cried out, clanking her chains together, only to be hopelessly drawn to follow after the Foglocker. She ran, and stumbled, and panted, tripping and stumbling in the mud until she fell. She slowly pushed herself up, and gasping, and sobbing. Just as she moved to follow the Foglocker again, a warm hand held back. She stiffened, her body going rigid. Against her will, a gentle finger tipped her mud-covered face up. Through a blur of her own tears, she saw Andrew, like the face of a boyish angel. He had a concerned look on his face, his brown hair hung down over his forehead. He looked at her with such sadness that she felt a sudden hunger to comfort him.
“Ivory?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, Andrew,” she sobbed, shaking uncontrollably and clutching him as if she’d never let go. “Why are you here?”
Andrew wrapped his arms around her. “That’s a silly question. Why wouldn’t I be here? Everything is going to be okay, Ivory. We don't have much time. Rhapsody can't distract the Foglocker for long, he...” Andrew was stopped mid-sentence, as the voice of the Foglocker howled through the air, like a moaning wind through a cracked pane of glass. “Follow! Followwww.”
Ivory's body contracted in pain, she stumbled forward, not able to resist the pull of the Foglocker. Andrew reached out and caught her by the arm, and pulled her back. She tripped and fell, dragging Andrew into the mud along with her.
“Let go!” she screamed, pulling away from him. “Let me go! You are just like everybody else I’ve ever known. You and your friends just pretend to like me, but when it comes down to it, once you find no use for me, you will leave me. This way is better.”
“How is this better?" Andrew cried, pulling her back, and clutching her muddy body to his. “And I’ll never let you go, Ivory. Never!”
Ivory let out a frantic scream, and bit his arm, but Andrew still held on. She struggled against him, until she collapsed onto her knees, exhausted, sobbing.
“Ivory,” Andrew murmured, slipping in the mud as he tried to lift her up. “Don’t…don’t cry, please don’t cry.”
Ivory looked up at Andrew, her tear- streaked face ridden with anger. “I hate you, Andrew! I hate you!”
Andrew cringed at her words as if she’d just broken his arm. But he did not budge.
“JUST LEAVE!” she screamed. “LEAVE!”
“I can’t!”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t leave you here.”
“Yes you can!”
“No I can’t!”
Andrew grabbed her clenched fist, struggling against her until he pried it open, revealing the iron key.
Ivory's eyes widened in fear as she stared at the key, looking at it as if it was the first time she’d ever seen it.
“Now,” Andrew commanded, “take the key and put it in the lock. The key will only work if you do it yourself. The key to your freedom has been in your hands the entire time.”
“No,” Ivory said, staring at the key in stunned shock. “I can’t. It’s too hard. You don’t understand, Andrew. It’s too heavy. I’m not strong enough to use it and I’ll never be.”
“YES, YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH!” Andrew insisted, closing her muddy fingers around the key. “You freed me once, Ivory, and gave me water when I was thirsty. You believed in me. Now you must free yourself. I would do it for you if I could. But I can’t. I can only help you to believe that you can.”
Ivory’s body trembled. Tears filled her eyes and streaked down her muddy cheeks. “You don’t know what it’s like, Andrew…you don’t know. Just leave me…please…please just leave me.”
“Ivory, I know you can do this. I’ve never known something so strongly in all my life. Please…try. You are stronger than you realize. You know I can’t leave without you!”
“But you…can’t stay…” Ivory faltered. “The Foglocker…he’ll see you.”
“That’s why we need to hurry,” Andrew pointed beyond them to Rhapsody who was blowing puffs of the Foglocker's own fog in his face. “Rhapsody can only distract him for so long.”
Ivory shook her head. “It’s no use, Andrew. Don’t you think if I could have freed myself, I’d have done it by now?”
“Not if you didn’t even realize the key was in your hand this whole time,” Andrew said, gently moving her hand towards the lock. “Do it now, Ivory. Or it will be too late!”
“No. It’s too heavy.”
“Then, I’ll lift it for you.”
"You would do that for me?"
"Yes, Ivory."
Ivory's arm trembled as Andrew lifted it up to the lock. She could see beads of sweat drip down Andrew’s face, and the muscles in his face contract as if he was lifting a heavy boulder, instead of her arm. “I…vory…” he said through gritted teeth as he struggled to hold her arm up to the lock. “Please! Do it!”
Ivory cried out in pain. Her arm felt so heavy, like it would break.
"Please!" Andrew pled, using every ounce of strength to lift her arm. "Ivory, use the key!"
Ivory cried out once more, and inserted the heavy key into the lock. Her hands trembled as she tried to turn the key. “It’s too hard,” she sobbed. “It hurts too much.”
“Turn the key, Ivory!” Andrew cried. “TURN, THE, KEY!”
"I can't…can’t turn it,” Ivory sobbed. “The chain around my neck’s…suffocating me. Help me…Andrew! Help me…”
“You must do it yourself!” he cried, his voice growing frantic. “You must do it!”
“No…no. I can’t!” Ivory wept. “I just can’t.”
“Yes, you can!” Andrew shouted, feeling his own strength wane, as the wind and haze of the Foglocker started to close in around him, fogging his mind.
Ivory shook her head. “I’m lost…it’s over Andrew. OVER.”
“No it’s not!” Andrew repeated. “You can do it, Ivory. It’s the only way! I have faith in you.”
At those words, a light turned on in Ivory's eyes and she placed both hands on the iron key and turned it with all her might, crying out in pain.
The key did not budge. She tried once more, crying out as if an arrow had pierced her heart, putting all her strength into it until the lock unexpectedly clicked open and the heavy chain fell from her neck. As the chain hit the ground, a terrible tremor shook the earth, and her iron bonds melted away like soft chocolate into the black ground. Ivory trembled from the shock of the heavy weight leaving her neck and shoulders. She gasped in air, falling to her knees. A peaceful look came to her eyes, and smiled at Andrew, then collapsed.
The instant the lock hit the ground and faded, the Foglocker’s gaze was drawn to Andrew and Ivory. He pointed a bony finger in their direction, and howled. “Follow!”
Andrew frantically tried pulling Ivory up. But his arms were so tired.
His strength was utterly sapped. He could feel the grip of the Foglocker's fog smothering his thoughts.
Andrew looked around with dazed eyes and struggled to his feet, dragging Ivory along with him. Before he’d gotten very far, a thick, heavy, powerful sensation weighed his down shoulders. It pricked the skin on the back of his neck, as if a bee had stung it. He glanced behind him, becoming instantly frozen in place.
The Foglocker stood only a few feet away, glaring at him like a hungry snake. The pull he felt from the Foglocker’s gaze was like the current of a raging river, dragging him to certain death. A tremor pulsed through his body. The gaze of the Foglocker was as powerful as pleasure, as gripping as misery, and as overwhelming as sorrow, all wrapped up into the Foglocker’s frightening glare.
“Hurry, Andrew!” The urgent voices of Freddie and Talic called out to him from behind a large rock on the hill. “Andrew, what are you doing? Get over here!"
The voices of his friends sounded far off and hazy, like muffled voices under a pillow. He struggled to turn his head away from the Foglocker's gaze, and towards the hill where his friends were. But the pull he felt from the Foglocker was sinking him deeper and deeper into an incomprehensible chaos.
Without consciously knowing what he was doing, he stumbled towards the Foglocker, pausing before the formidable creature, in awe, entrapped by his captivating presence.
The Foglocker smiled, showing off a row of jagged keys protruding from his gums, like rusty stalactites in a dark cave. The creature swayed back and forth, holding aloft chains in which to bind him just like Ivory. “Kneel before me, sheep!”
Andrew’s knees buckled, and he cowered in the mud before the Foglocker. Just as the being made a move to place the chains round Andrew, Ivory came up from behind, quickly placed her hands over Andrew’s eyes, and dragged him back. The second the Foglocker’s gaze on Andrew was broken, a loud snapping sound filled the air and the earth shook.
“Run!” Ivory cried, grabbing Andrew’s hand and pulling him up the hill. “Run!”
Andrew glanced behind him at the enraged being, nearly falling, but Ivory held onto his hand and pulled him along with her. All the while, he could hear the Foglocker’s thunderous cries howling behind him. The chained souls of the Foglocker reached out to snag him, but he whipped past them, going further and further until Freddie and Talic ran out to meet them and pulled them back behind the rock that hid them from the gaze of the Foglocker.
“He’s…he’s…coming, Ivory cried, dropping to her knees.
“Come, come back!” the Foglocker moaned, filling the hills with his voice, shaking his key-covered cane as he ran towards the rock.
Andrew could feel an irresistible urge to heed the voice.
“Andrew!” Ivory cried, shaking him. “Don’t listen to him. Listen to me. Do you hear. Listen to me!”
Sweat trickled down Andrew’s face, and he panted heavily, struggling against the desire to follow the Foglocker’s voice.
Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light in the bushes behind them, and the approaching Foglocker let out a horrible scream. “NOOO!” the Foglocker shrank back, hiding his eyes and crying out lamentations.
Rhapsody stepped out of the light and smoke and into full view. His face was twisted into a fierce scowl, causing the skin round his eyes and mouth to look particularly rumpled and wrinkly. “We must leave this place, immediately!”
