Chapter Twenty Nine

(Hey, y'all!

Whew! New Year's Day is almost here and in a few days, it'll be 2014! Get your fireworks ready and get ready for a whole new year!

Fun Fact:

Stephen King, famous author known for writing Carrie, The Shining, and Misery, didn't know that 'redrum' was actually 'murder' spelled backwards until he actually typed it. 'Redrum' was the famous word used in a scene from The Shining and I heard that it was also the name of a TV show on the Investigation Discovery Channel.

How To Survive A Horror Movie Tip #1: If a kid believes that something's wrong in a house, STOP, LISTEN TO THE CHILD, PACK YOUR BAGS, AND LEAVE! Your life/ves would be saved if a kid senses trouble.

Anyway, enough with the horror movie stuff. Here is this chapter for the story.

Enjoy the story and life as it goes!

-imaginarytoon1)

Third-Person POV:

TW and Lion were almost to the point of finishing the re-stuffing of Two-Headed Scarecrow when they heard a deep and mildly scratchy voice calling their names and the sound of leaves crunching and getting shuffled around.

"TW! LION! SCARECROW! ARE YOU GUYS STILL HERE?" The voice called.

"Who's that?" Lion asked as he was stuffing the last bit of straw in Scarecrow's chest.

"TW! LION! SCARECROW!"

TW looked to his left and he saw…Toto running down a trail with a worried look on his face.

"Look! It's Toto!" He exclaimed. "We're over here, Toto!"

Toto ran faster and faster until he was close enough for TW, Scarecrow, and Lion to see him.

"Where did you come from?" Head Number One asked Toto.

"Winged Monkeys…took me…and Beatrice…to the Witch's castle…" Toto said while catching his breath. "…I was stuffed…in a basket…and the Witch attempted…to take the sandals off…of Beatrice's…feet...crazy things began to happen…and I escaped."

"But what about Beatrice?" TW asked with worry present in his voice.

"She's still in the Witch's castle and we have to hurry. We have to get Beatrice out of there!"

Scarecrow jumped back on to their feet and they, TW, and Lion followed Toto. All five of them ran.

"Come on, fellows!" Toto exclaimed as they ran through the trail that he just ran through earlier. "There's no time to lose!"

…..

Tommy:

After coming back from eating at an expensive but fancy Alamo-based restaurant, I walked to my room and changed in to my night clothes.

I put on my dark blue pajama pants and a white tank top and I began to comb my hair. I don't know why I decided to comb my hair but I continued to do it despite of my realization.

I heard someone knock on my bedroom door.

"Come in." I said.

After I heard my door open up, I turned around.

"Hi, Dad." I said. "What's up?"

I know that Dad is being serious about something as soon as I saw him sit down on my bed.

"Tommy, I would like to talk about you about something." He said.

…..

Third-Person POV:

After climbing up a hill that led to a rocky mountain, TW, Scarecrow, Lion, and Toto hide behind a giant pile of rocks where some dead trees were sticking out from the gaps. The Witch's castle was so big that the towers made it very easy to see.

"What's that? What's that?" Lion asked and pointed at the castle.

"That's the castle of the Wicked Witch." TW replied.

"Beatrice is in that awful place?" Head Numbers One and Two asked in unison.

Then, TW's eyes began to fill up with oily tears.

"Oh, I hate to think of her in there." TW said. "We just got to get Beatrice out."

Head Numbers One and Two looked at TW.

"Don't cry now." Head Number One hissed.

"Beatrice has the oil can and you'll rust yourself again." Head Number Two said. "You've been squeaking enough."

Then, the sound of a group of people marching was heard at the bottom of the mountain.

Lion looked down with an uneasy look on his face.

"Who's them?" He asked as TW, Toto, and Scarecrow looked down.

By the opened castle door and the flat drawbridge were a large number of Wickersham Monkey guards with Cossack-like outfits, helmets, and spears. They were all marching around and they began to chant something that sounded either like: "All we owe, we owe her" or "Oh, we loathe…the old one".

"Those are the guards who tried to bring me back in the castle after I escaped the clutches of the Witch." Toto whispered.

All of the sudden, along with Head Number One, Head Number Two's eyes widened. They both gasped in unison.

"What?" TW whispered.

"We have a plan." Both heads replied.

"Really, you do?" Lion asked.

"We have a plan that can get us in the castle." Head Number One said.

"And you're going to lead us." Head Number Two said to Lion.

After a brief pause, Lion gave the Scarecrow a surprised look.

"I am?" Lion asked.

"Yeah, you are." Head Numbers One and Two replied.

"I got to get Beatrice out of there?"

"Yeah, that's right." TW replied.

Lion smirked.

"All right, I'll go in there for Beatrice…Wicked Witch or NO Wicked Witch…" Lion said with building courage. "…guards or no guards, I'll tear them apart! RUFF! I was born ready! I was born to tear and scare! I may not come out alive but I'M GOING IN THERE!"

"Yeah, that's the spirit!" Toto exclaimed, moved by Lion's speech.

"There's only one thing that I want you guys to do."

TW, Scarecrow, and Toto looked at Lion with curiosity.

"What's that?" They asked Lion in unison.

Lion's smirk melts to a look of terror.

"Talk me out of it." He said and was about to turn away.

Immediately after watching Lion's attempt to turn around and run away in terror, TW, Toto, and Scarecrow stop him and make him to climb up a few more steps.

…

Beatrice:

Zola Jesus's song Skin begins to play in my head as my last song to play in my head before I die.

I stopped crying but I am still waiting for my death to come.

Maybe Tommy would be better off being the one who can fulfill my and his destiny. I thought. He is practically never yelled at or chastised by Mom while I, on the other hand, am almost never supported by Mom and she'll be better off without me. She likes Tommy more.

Tears came back in my eyes when I looked back at the hourglass.

The top bulb was a thick one and a half inch of being empty.

…..

Third Person POV:

The guards were lining up and began to do another round of marching while TW, Toto, Lion, and Scarecrow slipped behind a small barrier of rocks.

The five friends were really close at the point of being spotted by the guards but they ducked just in time before chaos began.

But little did TW, Toto, Lion, and Scarecrow suspect that three of the Witch's Wickersham Monkey guards were sneaking right behind them.

By instinct, Lion turned his head and saw the guards sneaking up behind him and the others. He tries to warn TW, Scarecrow, and Toto but they all hush him up, believing that Lion was having a moment of being a coward.

Abruptly, the guards jump right behind TW, Scarecrow, Lion, and Toto and…an unseen scuffle begins to happen but the marching guards…didn't see anything.

A Few Minutes Later…

TW crawls over the barrier with a guard's outfit over his tin body and Scarecrow and Lion followed him, along with guard's outfits over their bodies. Toto climbs up from the barrier with a red tassel in his paws.

The guards were about to line up in a single file line and march right back inside the tower and Toto, Scarecrow, and TW knew that there was no time to lose. It's now or never.

"Come on," Head Number One said, "Let's go in!"

"Do you think it'll be polite, dropping in like this?" Lion asked.

"It's now or never." TW replied.

"Come on!" Scarecrow and Toto said in unison.

Quickly, as the marching guards were crossing the drawbridge, Scarecrow, TW, Lion, and Toto walked over some rocks and watched as the line of marching guards was growing smaller and smaller as they disappeared into the castle.

Then, in just in the nick of time, Scarecrow, Lion, TW, and Toto catch up to the line and marched along with the other guards. The drawbridge was drawn up as every guard, including Scarecrow, Lion, TW, and Toto (well, almost every guard) was in the castle.

After walking a few feet away from the drawbridge, Scarecrow, Lion, and TW hid behind a wall and they started to catch their breath after making it inside the castle.

"So where do we go now?" TW asked Lion and Scarecrow.

"Hey! PSST!" Toto whispered and ran up a staircase.

"Over there!" Head Numbers One and Two exclaimed.

Immediately, TW, Scarecrow, and Lion ran after Toto as he led them up the staircase.

"This is where Beatrice is!" Toto said before stopping in front of a door of a dark color.

"Wait!" Head Number One said as he and Head Number Two walked up to the doors. "We'd better make sure again, just in case."

…..

Beatrice:

"Beatrice? Are you in there?" I heard Head Number One yelling through the door.

"It's us!" I heard TW exclaimed.

Immediately, I jumped back on my feet and ran to the doors. The Witch was wrong! My friends did come to save me!

"YES! IT'S ME!" I exclaimed. "The Witch locked me in!"

"It's her!" Lion exclaimed.

"We got to get Beatrice out!" TW cried.

"Open the door!" Head Numbers One and Two exclaimed.

"HURRY, PLEASE, HURRY!" I exclaimed and looked back at the hourglass, which the top bulb was less than an inch thick full of sand. "That cursed hourglass of the Witch is almost empty!"

"Stand back!" TW exclaimed.

I heard a long banging noise and I stepped back. After three more bangs, I looked back at the hourglass. It was still at least less than an inch thick full of sand.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The hourglass was less than a tablespoon empty.

BANG!

The door swings open and I run out of the room. I kind of noticed a pile of outfits at the edge of the staircase but I ignored that.

"Thank y'all!" I exclaimed.

TW ran up to me with concern and he and Lion hugged me with relieved smiles on their faces. Toto and Scarecrow joined in for a brief second and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"What are we waiting for?" Head Number Two exclaimed in a sudden change of tone in his voice.

"We got to get out of here!" Head Number One cried.

"Yeah, let's go!" Toto exclaimed.

Since my bag was tossed away by the Witch, I picked up Toto and Scarecrow, TW, Lion, and I ran down the staircase.

"Look, there are the doors!" Toto exclaimed as we got closer and closer to the last steps.

Then, after TW, Scarecrow, Lion, and I, with Toto being carried by me, stepped on the last steps, I just realized something.

"But what about the broom that the Wizard mentioned us about?" I asked the others.

All of the sudden, the doors that we were running toward slammed shut. TW, Scarecrow, Lion, Toto, and I ran into the doors like a Toon running into a wall in a cartoon.