Chapter 5: It Falls

Perry

I ran off into the night, the rain pelting me unrelentingly. I reached Christine's doorstep and knocked. I hope she's here and safe, I thought. She answered the door and ushered me inside quickly.

"What are you doing out in the rain?" she asked worriedly.

"I was told to come see you," I said.

"Who sent you?"

"Frederick."

"So, you know about him?"

"I'm not sure what there is to know. He is not at all what I thought he was. He kept saying something about a scarier person, an Enigma."

She hushed me and looked around warily, as if afraid someone might hear. "Frederick is Dr. Doofenshmirtz in the Enigma's body. They switched so that he could better harness the magic required for the spell. I might have been able to break it with Phineas like we did before, but… his heart has been corrupted. He's not the same."

"I am sorry to hear that." I gave a reverent bow. It seemed this Phineas was someone whom she cared for very deeply. "I came here looking for answers."

"Right." She slammed a fist in her hand, which I took to be a sign of resolve. She ushered me to follow her into another room. "I've done the best I could to make a device that will open a portal to the next dimension, the only problem is that I need the windmill to generate enough power to make it work. I think that's why you kept getting sent there. It is a hive of great power."

"Right… and what exactly does this accomplish?"

"You'll be able to get back to Penelope. The Enigma likes holding it over me that I can't stop him and told me how he manipulated her machine to take her to the wrong place. So, I made this… I'm not exactly Phineas, but I've paid enough attention to what he does to say this might work."

"I appreciate the confidence." I sighed.

"Perry, you're the only one that can do this."

"And what if I can't? What if I fail?"

"I don't think anyone would wanna think about that, especially me." She had a hand over a locket and my head hurt upon looking at it. My mind wanted to remember something, but something prevented me. "Please, Perry."

Brandishing my courage, I stood tall and asked, "What do I need to do?"

Penelope

"Maybe stopping the windmill is the key," I said. We were climbing the rafters of the mill, or, at least, I was climbing and Perry was flying.

"There must be some reason why it keeps going. However, saying that its movement is what's keeping the curse up is a large gamble. I agree that the windmill is the key, but stopping it doesn't feel like the correct solution," he said.

"Well, what do you suggest?" He scooped me into his arms and carried me the rest of the way up until we were in the inner mechanisms, behind the spokes.

"I know if I had to get back to someone like you, brainwashed or not, I'd find a way. Believe in him."

"I hope you're right. I can't shake the feeling something very bad is going to happen."

Perry

It was a difficult task to get the device out of town. It occupied a small wagon and was hard to explain or hide. Somehow, we made it back to the windmill. Its spokes still turned loudly. We went inside and Christine began grounding the device to the floor.

"Now, all we need to do is attach it to the mechanism," she said.

"Why do I get the feeling that-" I began.

"It's up there," we said in unison.

I sighed. "Heights make me nauseous."

She slapped my cheek and I started. "This is no time to pull back and be afraid. This is the time to get these cords up there."

"Right." I took the cords in my mouth and began the climb. It took some time and a lot of reminding myself not to look down. Finally, however, I made it to the top where the mechanisms of the windmill lay in wait.

"Good job, Perry," came a happy voice.

I jumped and nearly dropped the cords. I spit them out and handed them to her. "If you could have just climbed up here, why did I have to do it?"

"I thought you could use a little boost of bravery." She smiled, but that still didn't explain to me how she got up here.

I shrugged it off. "All right then." We hooked up the cords to the mechanism. From its spot on the ground floor, the machine whirred with energy. Christine climbed down and I followed her. She turned a crank on the machine and it started whirring faster and louder.

Light started to appear on the top of the machine. It expanded and started opening a doorway into a different place. The rain was never more apparent to me than in that moment as thunder rolled and I saw the light from the lightning.

"It's working!" said Christine, excited.

"Is this safe?" I asked.

"It's fine! So long as the connection is stable, we should be-" The doorway suddenly vanished, the machine whirred to a stop, and I noticed the windmill had stopped turning.

"What happened?"

"Cheese and crackers! This had to have happened on the other side. The connection was severed, which means you're not going to get to Penelope this way." She kicked the machine, frustrated. "Dang it."

"What can we do?"

"Come up with a new plan, I guess. I honestly was putting a lot on this plan working though." She slumped to the ground and sat with her back against the machine. I sat cross-legged in front of her.

"It'll be all right. I'm sure of it." I smiled wanly, trying to lift her spirits.

"Wait a second! Magic's the answer! We have to find someone who knows about magic. Someone we can trust… and I know just the one to go to…"

That's all for now. Please keep reading and reviewing, thanks :)