Topeka, Kansas
Seven days prior to the Double Eclipse
Twenty-three days prior to the Final Eclipse
There was nothing DG enjoyed more than hopping on her bike and taking a cruise down the highway with nothing more than the wind on her face and music playing from the stereo she'd paid nearly a fortune to have installed. When she was on the road the only worry she had was Officer Gulch catching her speeding and trying to give her another ticket. She'd gotten good at avoiding his radar over the past few months and knew it annoyed the hell out of him. She knew he was one of the people in the town who thought she belonged in the nuthouse and was just waiting for an opportunity to put her there. She also knew her parents were always afraid she was going to have a relapse any day yet she stayed strong.
She hadn't dared to return to the woods since the search party found her there half mad two years earlier but her therapist suggested that she try to go back one day to face the demons she left there and slam the door on them. Several times she thought she was ready but something always held her back.
She kept herself busy with her night classes at beauty school and her day job as a waitress at the Hilltop Cafe. It wasn't easy work. Sometimes she got orders wrong and dropped things but overall the customers seemed to like her and her co-workers weren't difficult to get along wirth as long as she did her job right.
Then the dreams began. In the first set she was walking through a cold, dark cave and she could hear someone screaming and another voice pleading with her to turn back yet something led her on. She couldn't see what it was but whatever it was always made her run from the cave in fear.
The second set was even more strange. She was standing on the porch of a small cottage in the woods looking up at the night sky. She could feel another presence with her and although she couldn't see it, it comforted her. It seemed that she always had both dreams at night. The cave dream would occur first, the one about the forest cottage immediately after it.
She was hesitant to tell her parents about the dreams for fear that they'd think she had a relapse and make her go into the hospital for an evaluation. She couldn't stand going to the hospital any more than she could the sessions with the psychiatrist or taking her medications. It wasn't that Dr. Abberline was a bad person, she wasn't but Dr. Abberline never allowed her to hold anything back during their sessions.
She had a more logical explanation for DG's behavior after prom night than the doctors in the hospital did. They'd simply labeled her a schizophrenic and put her on antipyschotics that seemed to be making her worse until her parents had enough of it and sought a second opinion. The antipsychotics were the first to go and Dr. Abberline started to treat her condition for what it actually was; post traumatic stress disorder.
"I'm having dreams again," DG confessed to the doctor during their morning session.
Lisa Abberline looked up from the legal pad she was writing on. "Similar to the ones you had while you were in the woods or different?"
"I don't remember much of the ones I had out there but the cottage in the woods seems familiar. When I'm there I feel at ease."
"Because it always seems to be your safe haven when you're under emotional distress," Lisa explained.
"Everyone who found me says I created someone who was there with me but I can't remember his name or picture what he looks like. All I see is a sleeping dragon with two crossed swords in front of him."
"The dragon image was most likely spawned from your fascination with the Dark Hunter books, particularly Dragonswan."
"At least when you're not trying to pick apart my head we get to talk about them." DG joked. Lisa laughed.
"And you make fun of me because my favorite one is Valerius. I'll be his Tabitha any day."
"I can't picture you running around in Goth clothes and carrying a stake. And Valerius has a major stick up his ass."
"No, just misunderstood. The cave nightmare, the one you tend to have first, do you see anything or do you just hear the screams?"
"Just the screams but they're not mine. Then I hear another voice telling me we need to leave but I don't listen. I've been scared of caves for as long as I can remember but I don't think I've ever been in one."
"What about confined places?"
"Yes. That's why my bedroom is in the attic. The other rooms were too small for me."
"I'd like you to start keeping a journal of these dreams. Write down as much detail as you can remember. The best time to do it is when you wake up."
"Do you think they might be memories of what happened while I was missing coming back?"
"It's possible, or they may be memories of something that happened in your childhood that you've forgotten. Other than the dreams, how is everything else going?"
"I'm enjoying beauty school. I'll work in a shop until I have enough money saved up to start my own. I've also been learning how to do tattoos so that I can do both in my shop."
"Ambitious but a clever outlet for your creativity," Lisa remarked. The intercom buzzed. "Yes?"
"Dr. Abberline, your next patient is here."
"All right. We'll continue this discussion next week, okay, DG?"
"Thanks Dr. Abberline." she said as she hurried out of the office.
"...Ten minutes late again!" Carter growled as DG walked into the Hilltop Cafe's kitchen while he was putting orders up on the counter.
"My appointment ran late," DG explained. "I told Molly I can't come in until ten on Monday mornings. She must've forgotten."
"Yeah well now that you're here, you mind getting these out before they get cold!" he snapped. DG sighed and grabbed the plates and went out to the dining area to serve the customers. The breakfast crowd was larger than usual and she was running around so much that her feet were throbbing with pain by the time her break came. Yet it was all worth it when her paycheck was deposited in her bank account every two weeks.
She had only three hours before she had to be at her beauty school class. That was just enough time to take a shower, change and eat dinner and then she was back on her bike again riding off to her class. After class she always went to the gym.
Her parents questioned her often about why she incorporated so many activities into her day. The job and the schooling she had answer for...they needed the money and she wanted to learn useful skills. The vigorous workout regimen...that she didn't have an easy answer for. When she told them she was having dreams, they got that look in their eyes.
In the back of her mind she had a nagging fear that something or someone was coming for her and she wanted to be better prepared for it this time. Tanisha, one of her workout buddies had informed her that a new self defense class was starting up in a week. DG, although she already had a full schedule every day signed up for the classes and planned on taking shooting lessons sometime in the future. She was never going to be powerless again if she could help it and whatever it was that was coming for her, it wouldn't take her down without a fight.
"I'm gonna start calling you Beatrix Kiddo," Tanisha joked as they were walking into the gym for their workout.
"I don't have a sword and I don't know martial arts...not yet anyway." DG said.
"You're not serious!" Tanisha cried. "Are you seriously going to have someone teach you how to use a sword?"
"I am."
"Why? When will you ever get the chance to use one?"
"I don't know but I want to learn how if I ever need to use one. Plus shooting lessons."
"Honey..."
"What? Do you think I'm taking my need to learn how to defend myself to extremes?" DG demanded angrily. "You have no idea how it feels to have someone attack you and feel like you haven't done enough to stop them. That prick is walking free. Who says he won't try to come after me again...or any other woman for that matter?"
"I just...I'm just worried."
DG sighed. "Everyone is worried about me but I'm fine now," she insisted. She leaned over the weight bench and started adding weights to it.
"Wow! You had another tattoo done! Did you draw that one too?" Tanisha said as she pointed at the sleeping black dragon tattoo on her friend's right shoulder blade. The other one, of two crossed Katana swords was on her upper right arm.
"Yeah. If it was really like the drawing, the swords would be right underneath the dragon so I made a compromise and put the swords on my arm."
"You should work in Mitch's tattoo shop instead of a beauty salon. You'd make more money."
"I want to try both for a while." DG said and lay back, lifting the heavy bar. Tanisha watched her, still worried that her friend was doing too much and would eventually break down again.
That night the dream came again. She was walking through the cave but this time she could hear a woman singing softly and strange images appeared before her...two dolls spinning on their own in the air...a bear growling...the ropes of a swing.
"Two little princesses dancing in a row
Spinning fast and free on their little toes
Where the light will take you there's only one way to know..."
Suddenly a woman with the brightest lavender eyes she'd ever seen appeared before her. "A storm is coming!" she cried.
DG's eyes snapped open. She glanced over at the clock. She was supposed to be at work already.
Shit! Carter was already pissed at me for being late yesterday. I keep this up I can kiss that job goodbye.
She jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to the bathroom to get dressed. She heard her mother calling from downstairs, asking if she was awake.
"I overslept!" she called as she emerged from the bathroom.
"You better hurry up baby girl or you'll get fired," Hank warned.
"See you tonight!" she called and got on her bike. As she raced down the road at twenty miles over the speed limit she could hear the familiar siren of Officer Gulch's squad car as he started following her.
Can't catch me... she taunted as she pulled into the rear entrance of the Hilltop while Gulch went up the road.
Better luck next time.
"Carter's looking for you. He's mad," one of the bussers said as she was taking off her helmet.
"He's not the only one," she said over her shoulder. She had just gotten changed into her uniform and had her hair tied in bands when she heard Carter shouting for her. "Sorry Carter," she mumbled.
"Bad enough Pheobe's gotta go take care of that potato head son of hers during the lunch rush. Now we have you perfecting the art of being late!" Carter complained.
"Carter, guy on four wants a slice of french apple and a chunk of cheddar," Erika informed him.
"It won't happen again," DG promised.
"A lot of people would fight for a job like this. Your future's in the here and now, kid. Don't throw it away."
And there it is again...a not so vague way of referencing my breakdown two damned years ago!
"Yeah right, I've seen the lines stretching across the prairie for this stepping stone," Erika said sarcastically. "The fellow who wanted pie asked for you special DG. Table four."
"You just gonna stand there? Go, go go!" Carter ordered.
The pie in her hand, DG approached the table where her nemesis waited. She put on her best smile. Couldn't be rude to the customer although she wanted to dump the pie right in his lap.
"This isn't my day..."
"Sure isn't," Elmer affirmed, tearing a filled out speeding ticket from his pad and handing it to her.
"Thank you," she said, still smiling until she read the paper. She was being asked to appear before the judge to question whether she was deemed fit to operate a vehicle.
You dirty little...a traffic summons? Are you serious? You actually want me to go to court!
"It's for your own good," he told her.
Goddammit, I thought I was finally getting away from all this shit! My best friend thinks I'm going to be a sword wielding, gun toting maniac. Officer Gulch thinks I'm gonna start mowing people down with my bike and my parents are waiting for me to start babbling and trying to throw myself out windows! I need to get the FUCK out of here! It's this town that's going to drive me crazy...not me trying to drive me crazy!
When she got home her father was outside working on the windmill finding it odd that he, who actually was a mechanic had such a difficult time with some of the machinery around the farm yet she usually had it fixed in no time. It was the same this time. While they worked he asked her about her dream. She handed him the picture she drew of the woman.
"She said a storm is coming."
"What storm?" Hank asked, now concerned.
"I don't know. I'll ask for clarification next time."
Emily was waiting for her on the porch. She handed her the citation.
"Elmer Gulch is a meance to the community." DG muttered.
"Menace or no, he's an officer of the law. You're gonna have to face the judge. Officer Gulch wants you in jail."
"He doesn't want me in jail. He wouldn't have anybody to chase then," DG laughed as she played with one of the flowers in the pot on the porch table.
"This is not a joke. We'll be lucky if they don't just impound your bike."
"They can't impound my bike if I take off on it."
"I was wondering if you were planning a trip," Emily said as she tossed some travel brochures of Paris, Australia and Florida on the table.
"You went through my stuff!" DG cried, frustrated that she hadn't hidden the evidence in a better place.
"She's been worried. We both have. You've been acting strange...distant." Hank spoke up.
Like I'm going crazy again...
"If you spend your every spare minute drawing your pictures, dreaming of another life, you're gonna wind up not living the one you got." Emily reminded her.
"But this isn't my life. This town, that job taking other people's orders? That's just passing time. There has to be more to life than this."
"And you really think you'll find better out there?"
"Look, I love you guys but I just don't feel at home here. I don't think I ever have," DG sobbed as she ran into the house. Emily went into the kitchen to check on the meatloaf in the oven.
"Our job in this world has been to be the best parents we can be!" she cried.
"And it's one we done proper. But she's a young woman now." Hank held up the sketchbook. "DG's having the dream."
Emily sat down at the table. "The double eclipse is coming then." She looked up at her husband. "Hank...what if...what happened to her two years ago wasn't hallucinations like the doctors say?"
"You think someone from the OZ tried to contact her?"
"It wasn't the queen. She said it was a man but I can't remember his name and we burned everything she drew and wrote about what happened then."
"This still means we have to get her ready to go back."
"I...I'm afraid of how she's going to take it. We've spent all this time convincing her there's no other world out there but this one and if she came in contact with our world, we've made her think it was all in her mind."
"She's getting stronger physically. She may need it. The Mystic Man can help her with her magic and memories and the doctor has been helping her."
"She may not have needed to see her in the first place."
"Yes she did. What that boy did to her was horrible. I'll go talk to her."
DG sat on her bed feeling her world caving in around her. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get anyone to understand how she was truly feeling. She felt like she was trapped and the only way she could be free was to make her escape.
Oz (The Outer Zone)
Seven days prior to the Double Eclipse
Twenty-three days prior to the Final Eclipse
"General my search teams have returned from the northern guilds empty-handed." Zero informed General Lannot when he returned to the Tower from his own excursions to the southern guilds with the same results.
"She will be less than happy."
"She always is." Zero muttered.
"You made me a promise." Bastinda said angrily.
"Unfortunately, there were complications with the resistance spies in the north. A slight delay, sorceress. That's all."
"The emerald, Lannot. Where's my emerald?"
"We will double our efforts, close the vice even tighter. All I need is a little more time."
"There is no more time. In seven days, the double eclipse will darken our skies. If I don't have the emerald in my hand by then, everything I have worked so hard for all of this will be lost."
"We will have it? I give you my word."
Commander Ozopov would have done a much better job, Bastinda seethed. She still visited his grave faithfully, wishing she'd been allowed to take him as her lover but her mother would not allow her such a luxury, reminding her of her own doomed love affair with Aramon.
Dorothia is awakening...get rid of her! she heard her mother's voice command.
"Something wrong, sorceress?" Zero inquired.
"I need to see Lylo."
"I'll have the alchemist bring him right away."
The poor, exhausted viewer was dragged into Bastinda's office where one of her viewing tanks was installed, Lylo cringed when he felt the helmet being placed onto his head, the liquid sedative from the tank's hoses flowing into his veins, forcing him to reveal all he saw against his will.
"Peer into the future. Tell me if there's anything that will hinder my plans."
"It hurts Lylo to look." he cried.
"It will hurt more if you don't." the alechemist threatened, holding up the electric prod.
"Those who resist you will continue to be conquered."
"The emerald, Lylo, will I find it in time? Where is it?"
"Lylo knows not, but before the eclipse, in your hand, it will be. It will be!"
"Do you see anything that will stand in my way?"
"Lylo see nothing, but but what? Lylo feels a presence. A glimmer of light in the darkness. Light from the other side."
"The other side? General Lannot awaken a travel storm. Take a small company of men, and just slip through to the other side. Find this light and extinguish it! Then bring me the body!"
At last the bitch that had been her undoing centuries earlier would be back in the grave where she belonged. And there would be no one to save her this time.
Topeka, Kansas
Seven days prior to the Double Eclipse
Find my prison and release me...
Ever since DG retreated to the sanctuary of her room, that haunting male voice was the only sound that disturbed her comforting silence. She was used to hearing strange things in her dreams but not when she was awake and it was starting to make her question her sanity.
She picked up her sketchbook and began to draw a picture of her sleeping dragon tattoo with the two crossed Katana swords lying in the grass in front of him. Off in the distance she drew the cottage she'd seen in her dreams only it was in a state of neglect. The grass was overgrown, part of the roof was rotting away and the porch was full of holes.
Hearing footsteps, she slammed the sketchbook shut and concealed it under her bed as Hank came up the stairs. She always found it easier to talk to him than her mother and today was no different, however this time his little stories and rhymes offered her little comfort but there was one thing he did say that made sense.
"No matter where we find ourselves, home is where your heart is."
But where is my heart? Where is my home? I feel like part of my heart is missing and I'm going to have to spend the rest of my life trying to find it.
"I can't stay here forever."
"There's a place and a time when we learn where we're supposed to be and you're almost there." Hank hesitated for a moment. "And...don't forget all of life's answers..."
"Can be found along the old road. I remember." DG finished. She'd heard this many times along with the daughter of light story, not understanding what either of them meant. The only old roads she'd ever seen were the ones she sped down on her motorcycle and they were leading her nowhere and the only icy seas she'd ever seen were the ones on television.
Once her father was out of sight, she took out her sketchbook again and continued work on her dragon drawing. She felt her eyelids getting heavy and her pencil slipped out of her hand, the sketchbook falling to the floor.
She was back in her forest sanctuary only now it changed and it was exactly as she'd drawn it, a paradise in ruins. She walked up the rickety steps and sat down on the porch.
Find my prison and release me...
Who are you and why do I keep hearing you in my head?
The cottage vanished and she was once again seeing images of the dark cave and the lavender eyed woman warning her that a storm was coming. She awoke to the sounds of violent storm winds blowing. When she glanced out her bedroom she could see a large twister making its way toward the house. When she ran downstairs she was horrified to see a group of men in leather coats attacking her parents.
"No DG, go back!" her father yelled as one of the men grabbed her. She bit down on his arm, forcing him to release her while her parents broke away from their own captors. They made their way up to DG's room, her father limping from a bullet wound to his leg.
"Dad, who were those guys?"
"Longcoats."
"This wasn't the way it was planned," Emily said.
"I know but it's our only chance. We have to take her there now!"
"Take me where?"
"There's no time to explain DG," Emily cried as they climbed out to the roof. The twister was now directly in front of the house. DG was terrified.
"Dad, what are you doing?"
"Trust me!" he insisted.
"You have to jump!" Emily cried.
Jump into a twister? Is she crazy? I'll be ripped apart!
"No!" DG yelled over the howling wind.
"You have to jump!" her father insisted.
"No!"
"We need to go DG. The longcoats are after you."
"What? Why?"
I've had the men in white coats after me before but who the hell are these Longcoats?
"Because it's time," Emily said.
"Time for what?"
Her parents started to push her toward the twister. "What...what are you doing?"
"You have to trust us!" Hank pushed her into the funnel cloud. DG screamed in horror and closed her eyes, not wanting to watch as the storm ripped her apart. A few minutes later she fainted.
Oz (The Outer Zone)
General Lannot knew he was living on borrowed time when he returned to the Tower empty handed once again. They paused outside the witch's throne room, overhearing her having another conversation with their Dark Mistress.
"Perhaps we should return."
" need. She's ready for you," her advisor Vy-Sor informed them. Sorceress."
"Report!"
"The source of the light was a girl of 20 annuals."
"A girl? Bring her to me."
"Unfortunately, there were problems."
More excuses. She'd grown tired of them. It was time to change leadership. Zero was no Commander Ozopov but he would do.
"Last time complications, this time problems?"
"She disappeared into the storm along with her parents."
"Your storm? Are you saying they could be here? Othersiders in the Outer Zone?"
"I am sorry, Sorceress."
"You did your best," Bastinda said sweetly as she approached him then held out her hand. The others watched in horror as their commanding officer's face turned blue and a mist flowed out of his mouth and into hers, her body glowing while she absorbed his life force.
"Zero you've just been promoted," she said breathlessly.
"If this girl is in the OZ, find her."
"Right away Sorceress."
His men were chuckling while they followed him down the hall.
"Can think of a better way to give her an orgasm than sucking the life outta somebody. Probably hasn't gotten laid in ten years and I doubt the Commander was THAT good in bed."
"You wanna join Lannot?" Zero snapped.
"No."
"Then shut up! We have a girl to find."
Ambrose was tied to the ceiling of a wooden cage in a munchkin village in the Eastern Guild. He'd been captured by the suspicious munchkins who thought he was one of Azkadellia's spies. He'd tried to tell them that he escaped the Tower but they didn't believe him. He expected them to flay him alive, instead they kept him hanging around, literally since his cage was hanging in the air.
"Ankle biting assholes," he grumbled. Once he was untied he was going to teach those little paint faced cretins a thing or two. His confinement would've been more pleasant if he had someone to talk to but he hadn't been given a cellmate in the tower either. He saw a group of munchkins returning to the camp with another prisoner trapped in a net only this one was a female dressed in strange clothes. They put her in his cage. He thought about saying hello but when he saw the munchkins on the bridge he decided to keep quiet for now. Maybe the girl would show him a little sympathy and get him down.
"Will Azkadellia attack from the east?"
"Who?"
This girl doesn't know who Azkadellia is? What rock did she crawl out from under?
"The sorceress Azkadellia! The one for whom you spy. From which direction will her men come? Will they walk or will they fly?" Blue hat interrogated.
"Okay, how many times do I have to tell you guys that nothing you've said has made any sense to me?"
"Perhaps she's just a girl," Red Hat said.
"Yes! I am. I'm just a girl!"
And I'm just a guy on the run after having my brains ripped out, Doll. Look where that got me. Have fun trying to convince these guys of anything.
"Azkadellia has raided almost all villages searching for the stone. Are we next on her list?" Red Hat demanded.
"I don't know about any list but if this is how you treat strangers I'm not surprised you have enemies."
Glitch wanted to laugh until he heard that the girl's parents were on the brick route headed for Central City. Not one to miss an opportunity he figured if he made friends with the girl she'd get him out of there. There wasn't much time. The munchkins were getting the flayer ready.
She looked up and saw him tied to the top of the cage. "What are you doing...?"
"Up here? The little...ankle biters thought it would be funny to keep me hanging around. Loosen that rope and I might have the last laugh."
She hesitated.
"C'mon Doll! If Mom and Pop really are on the route to Central City then you are falling further and further behind."
"You know the way?"
"Sure."
Liar. You can't even remember what you did two minutes ago let alone find the brick route.
"It's kind of hard to give directions like this. Unless you have a better offer."
She reached up and untied the rope.
"What the hell?" she asked as she stared at him.
"Hey! You aren't so hot on first glance either honey!" Glitch snapped. "What? Is...is there a problem?"
The girl seemed flustered. "Oh umm..."
"What?"
She was grinning. "Your ahh..." she pointed to her head and whispered. "Your zipper's undone."
"Oh, didn't mean to offend. Gotta be careful not to lose your marbles but since the Sorceress made her medicoats take mine well you flick the abacus."
"Why would they remove your brain?"
"Because of what I know, or used to know whatever it was. Name's Glitch on account of sometimes my synapses don't fire right. Sometimes my synapses don't fire right."
"You just said that."
"Did I?" He laughed. "There you go, glitching again."
"Here I was thinking this nightmare can't get any weirder."
"This isn't a nightmare. This is the OZ. The Outer Zone. It used to be a piece of heaven too until Azkadellia got her claws into it."
"Azkadellia, the Sorceress of Darkness, village raider, brain thief!" the girl exclaimed.
Murdering, heartless bitch. You forgot those ones.
"Don't think she's a joke because she's not. She had my brain torn right out of my head and wouldn't have hesitated to rip my heart out along with it."
"Are you okay?" the girl asked softly.
"I'll be all right, Doll." he assured her.
"DG. Name's DG."
"Nice to meet you DG," Glitch said and held out his hand for her to shake.
"Longcoats!" he heard a munchkin call out as a group of soldiers on horseback rode into the village. He looked down. Gregory Zero rode in at the lead.
"What are you doing?" Glitch asked worriedly. The wooden cage shook as DG hung on to the bottom of it and started swinging it toward the bridge. It was a risky move but one that managed to get them both to safety.
The truth that he had absolutely no damned idea where he was going became evident when DG pointed out that they'd managed to walk around in a complete circle for hours. Glitch was introducing himself to her again when she hissed at him to be quiet.
Find my prison and release me...
The words were followed by a series of shouts and cries of pain. In his own head, Glitch heard a different voice.
Seek out the two that must become one
This is your task and you must not fail...
They ran toward the source of the noise, each wondering what was to be found there.