Chapter Twenty-One

THINK OF ME

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The beautiful bed or roses was growing right above the un-marked grave. Katie sat next to the flowers, inhaling their beautiful scent. "Hi Fiona," she whispered, as though she were beside a tomb stone. "These are beautiful flowers... Do you like them? I never found out if you liked flowers or not..." She smiled. "I miss you, sometimes... I'm sorry I haven't been back to visit, but coming back home--especially to this place--is hard for me..."

[At this point, the song "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" from "The Phantom Of The Opera" begins.]

KATIE: You were once my one companion. We fought on together. You became a friend and sister. Then my world was shattared. Wishing you were somehow here again. Wishing you were somehow near. Sometimes it seems if I just dream, somehow, you would be here. Wishing I couldn hear your voice again, knowing that I never would. Dream of you won't help me to do all that you dreamed I could. Fallen feinds and Azoth stones, cold and monumental, seem for you the wrong companions. You were warm and gentle...

[She stands up and begins walking down the path to look for Hewie, and as she turns a corner, the castle appears, looming over her. She walks through the open gate, which she had left open five years earlier.]

KATIE: ... Too many years fighting back tears. Why can't the past just die? Wishing you were somehow here again. Knowing we must say good-bye. Try to forgive, teach me to live, give me the strength to try. No more nightmares, no more silent tears, no more thinking about your stolen years. Help me say good-bye...

The place really hadn't changed all that much, maybe because no one had come to tend to it. However, there were bow beautiful flowers growing all around the court yard. Other than that, nothing had really changed. "I wonder who planted those flowers," she said to herself.

"BARK! BARK! BARK!"

She jumped at the sound of Hewie barking, and jerked her head around until she stopped him, crouching down next to a tree, staring back at her with large, brown eyes. She held out her hand to calm the dog down. "Easy, boy… We have to go now."

Hewie got up, and with one more loud bark, the dog took off bounding away from her and the tree. Katie watched as it ran until it came to the dead end wall, then headed down the flight of stairs to the butchery room.

She took off running after him.

oOo

Remarkably, the place had been cleaned of all blood. There were no carcases hanging around, and it appeared to have been converted into a storage room. Hewie was in the corner, nudging his nose at something.

She rushed over to him. "Hewie! Bad dog!" This was the first time she ever had to say that to him in the last five years. She was almost crying. "Why in the world would you make me come back here--to this terrible place?!"

He continued to sniff at... whatever it was he was sniffing.

"What is it, boy?" She looked to see that he was nudging at a large, old looking sheet. She was very hesitant, but grabbed hold of the sheet and pulled it away, to find a large painted portrait of a young man.

Even though she had the vision long ago, it was still fresh in her mind. The young king of Belli Castle looked so handsome, with his silver hair and glistening eyes. "Lorenzo must have taken this down years ago," she said to herself. Then, she noticed a small, gold inscription at the bottom of the portrait:

HIS MAJESTY, KING HEWBERT BELLI THE 1st

MORE AFFECTIONATELY KNOWN AS "HEWIE"

Katie's eyes widened as she slowly turned to look at her dog friend, who was sitting her, almost smiling at her... if a dog could smile, that is. "... Hewie?" she asked. "What does this mean?"

He walked over to her and nudged up against her. As she pet him, she felt a warm sensation on her chest and immediatly looked down.

There was the light again.

"Hewie?!" she exclaimed as the light engulfed them, taking them into the new vision.

oOo

Lorenzo snuck into the king's quarters that night, where he slept in his king sized bed. For a moment, Lorenzo stood above him, looking down at him angrilly. Then, he slowly bent down, his hand hovering above the king's mouth. Then, he abruptly clamped his hand over the king's mouth, causing him to wake up immediatly. The poor king struggled, but Lorenzo held him down. He reached into his pocket, taking out a small stone, grinning menacingly. "Go home to my wife, indeed." He said as he pressed the stone to the king's chest. "This will get you out of the way indefinately!"

At that moment, a bright light surrounded the king, and he appeared to... shapeshift into a new shape. The king's grumbled cries slowly morphed into animal whimpers. When the light faded away, Lorenzo laughed loudly as she white German shephard jumped down from the bed, and ran out of the room.

"Long live King Hewbert!" Lorenzo declared as he laughed even louder.

oOo

"Oh my... Hewie... You were... You're the--"

Hewie barked loudly, and also nodded his head.

She sighed, surprised. "Well... Why are you telling me this?" Then, her eyes widened at the realization that her Azoth was still glowing. "Oh... I see."

He barked again.

She smiled. "Well, if it was an Azoth that turned you into this, then maybe I can change you back..." She held out her arms. "Come here, boy!"

Hewie happily ran up to her and jumped into her arms, and the light grew even stronger...

"Katie?" a young man's gentle voice said. "Are you okay?"

Katie opened her eyes to find that the light had faded away, but she was holding someone in her arms. She slowly looked up in awe at the young king. As she held his hands, he felt quite solid, but he looked transparent, like a ghost. "King Hewbert..." She gulped. "Hewie?"

He nodded. "Yes, Katie. It's me. Look... Ruff, ruff!" He chuckled.

She stared at him with her mouth wide open. "For the last five years... It's always been... I mean... I don't have the words for this!"

He threw his head back and laughed. "That's okay. It's hard to find the words for any of this!" His voice had a slight echo. He frowned. "Please... Let me apologize."

"For what?"

"For not being able to tell you about me sooner. And..." He made and angry face. "... I humbly appologize for all of the dimented horrors that you and Fiona had to experiance in MY castle!" He took a deep breath. "More than five-hundred years ago, I was a very young king, and I felt as though a lot of weight was on my shoulders. I didn't want to do anything to jerperdize my people, or my kingdom. So, when Lorenzo came to me with his radical notions abouts the Azoth, I had to tell him to leave. But I never expected him to turn me into a dog!"

She laughed.

"Anyway, I hid away in the castle all that time, staying alive by using the energy of the Azoth stones. I told myself that I was not going to let myself die until Lorenzo was punished. I waited five-hundred years..." He smiled. "And then, one day, I saw Debilitas carry an unconcious young woman into the castle, and into the butchery room. Of course, there was nothing I could do to help her. But then, another young woman appeared at my castle's door. I knew that I had to protect these two girls, or else I would never be able to forgive myself." He forned again. "When Fiona was killed, I felt as though I had failed her, despite us surviving everything else. So, I decided to stay with you and protect you, to make up for Fiona..."

"But how were you able to stay alive when I destroyed the Azoth stone?"

He gently took her hand and placed it on her chest. "Your own Azoth is what has kept me alive all of this time. However, I could only stay alive in the form I was in--a dog. Now that I am human again..."

She gasped silently. "You're leaving me?"

He shook his head. "No! Never! I'll always be with you. You may not know it, but I'll be there." He smiled brightly. "I'll be in your memories... Remember that time you tried to give me a bath?"

She raised and eyebrow and chuckled. "Yeah. You shook all over and made a wet, spoapy mess of my bathroom!"

He shrugged. "What can I say? I don't like that much soap in my hair... What about the time we were taking a walk in the park? You heard a crow cawing as it flew by..."

"And I shreiked... It brought up some bad memories. I had to sit down on a park bench to calm down."

"And I jumped up and laid my head on your lap to calm you down."

She nodded. "Yeah, thanks for that, by the way."

"And what about recently, when you woke up screaming in the morning?"

She closed her eyes. "Yeah, it was so good to see you there. I knew I was safe..." She felt her face scrunch up, as she was sbout to cry. When she opened her eyes, tears came falling down, and he pulled her in for a hug. "Hewie... Who will comfort me when you're not there?"

"I can still be there for you..."

"How? You're leaving me..."

"No... Not really." He placed his hand on her cheek and raised her head up, to look into her eyes. "Katie, you know that I love you, right?"

She nodded. "Yes... I love you, too."

"I know... And I loved Fiona very much. And I came up with this method for whenever I missed her. I simply thought about her, and the happy times we shared."

"Happy? There was nothing happy about that experiance!"

"Of course there was!... When we all first met, I could tell that you two didn't really see eye to eye. But when we were in the movie projector room, you both put aside your differences and agreed to get along... That made me happy. And even before you found out that you were sisters, you two were starting to love each other. That was wonderful!"

Katie released more tears. "I did love her... And I never got a chance to tell her..."

He smiled wide. "You'll be able to tell her... I have a feeling that you'll tell her soon..."

She looked at him in bewilderment. "What does that mean?"

"Never mind it for now... Katie, what I want you to do, whenever you think you need me--or Fiona--is to simply think of me, and I'll be right there."

[At this point, the song "Think Of Me" from "The Phantom Of The Opera" begins to play.]

HEWIE: Think of me. Think of me fondly when we've said good-bye. Remember me every so often. Promise me you'll try. On that day, yes each every day, that you are crying out for me, if you ever find a moment, spare a thought for me.

KATIE: And though it's clear, though it was always clear, that you would one day have to leave, if you ever find a moment, stop and think of me. Think of all the things we've shared and seen. Don't think about the way things might have been. Think of me, think of me waking silent and resigned. I promise you, you will never be too far from my mind. Recall those days, look back on all those times, think of the things we loved to do. There will never be a day when I won't think of you!

Hewie smiled wider as he kissed her on the forehead, stepped back, and winked. Then, he faded completely away, and he was gone.

Katie dried her eyes and smiled wide as she towards the stairs, and back up to where the sunlight was. She quickly dashed towards the door of the castle, ran outside, and began to run back down the dirt road.

Then, she heard the double doors creak from behind her.

She whirled around, and there he was. the one person whom she never thought about being alive in all these years. She started at him, frightened at what he might do, and in return, he stared back with wide, brown eyes. Then, he bowed just before he closed the double doors completely, locking them from the inside. She sighed with relief, as she knew that once she left here taking her Azoth with her, he would soon die. "Goodbye Debilitas," she whispered before continuing her run down the dirty path.

oOo

She ran until she made it to the flower bed of roses, and skidded to a stop, eyes wide, and mouth open.

There she was, standing there with a bright smile on her face, and she was also transparent, like Hewie. Behind her was a familiar man and two woman.

"Ugo... Daddy? Mom?... Ayla?"

Fiona began to sing.

FIONA: Can it be?... Can it be Katie? Long ago, it was so long ago, you were the sister that I knew. You need not worry, my friend. We've not forgotten you.

The two girls walked towards each other, meeting each other half way. For a moment, they stood there, not saying a thing, but smiling. Then, they wrapped their arms around each other in a hug.

"I love you Fiona," Katie said.

"I love you too," she replied.

They turned to look at the other three. "We love all of you!"

"We know," Ugo said.

"We love you," Katie's mother said.

Ayla nodded. "Always..."

Katie smiled, and she and Fiona giggled happily.

"Come on now, Fiona! Time to go!" Ayla said.

Fiona ran back over to the three and looked back at Katie one more time, and Fiona waved at her as they faded away.

Katie took off running back down the road, through the woods, back up to the road, and got back into her car. She buckled up, turned the engine on, and looked back in the direction of the castle one final time, as she would not be coming back. As the car drove away, Katie concluded the song.

KATIE: Flowers fade, the fruits of summer fade. They have their seasons, so do we. But please promise that sometimes, you will think of me!

oOo

KATIE AND FIONA:

Who can say if I've been changed for the better, but...

Because I knew you...

Because I knew you...

I have been changed...

For good...

oOo

THE END

WISHING YOU WERE SOMEHOW HERE AGAIN: from "THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA"

THINK OF ME: from "THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA"

FOR GOOD: from "WICKED"