“That's true.”
“This is Nefarious’s magic. He doesn’t want any prism to change sides, or to open their eyes to freedom.”
The music was already distant from my ears, there was no one else in the room, only the two of us.
“No ... Nefarious is a good man. I know.”
“You're very naive. It just makes me want to take care of you even more. Let me protect you.”
Elof moved his body closer to mine, gently ran his hand over my face. I had no resistance, I let myself get involved. He said everything I ever dreamed. I was shivering to the last hair in my bangs.
“Be mine. Stay with me.”
When I closed my eyes, my body softened. I felt again his hot breath on my cold face, my heart was pounding. I indulged in a seductive kiss. Butterflies invaded my stomach, as in a roller coaster ride.
We kissed in the fire of desire. My necklace flashed violently purple and a shock of a thousand volts repelled Elof from my lips, throwing him into the middle of the empty hall. I also felt the impact, it was as if my heart was hit by a sledgehammer.
“Why did you do that?” said Elof, fallen, almost without force to speak.
“It wasn’t me!” That's when I opened my eyes and saw my chest lit by the purple light. I had no control over the necklace, it seemed to have a life of its own.
Elof shot me a look of disappointment as he tried to gather himself. I felt the urge to go to him, but heard my name.
“LOLA, HELP!” Dakota's scream brought me to reality.
The scream came from a half-circle door now visible to my eyes. I looked down at Elof, took a breath, and ran to the door.
With my ax and all my strength, I broke the padlock that sealed it. As the door swung open to another hall, I saw Dakota pinned by her hands to a bronze post, beside a transparent dome where my father had been thrown. Both stood beside a pompous red velvet mahogany throne.
“DAKOTA! Dad!”
I ran to meet him, needed to let him go.
“LOLA, NO!” Dakota tried to alert me of the dome that protected the perimeter, but didn’t have time. I was thrown yards away with a fierce bump. By the time I got up, Elof was standing in front of his throne.
“Set them free, please.”
I was anxious by seeing them there, vulnerable, but I wasn't afraid.
“I don't understand why you care who for the ones who treat you with disdain. They only use you. You are always caring for them. Why does nobody ever do anything for you?”
My face became confused. It was true, I was always doing something for someone, whether it was pleasing my father, cleaning the house for my mother, taking care of my brother. No one ever did anything for me.
“Lola! Hear nothing from him.”
“SHUT UP, you moron. Nobody asked you anything,” snapped Elof. “I'm not a monster, Lola. Forget your father and join me. We will be more powerful than anyone in this dimension!”
Suddenly everything went dark. I felt goose bumps down to the last hair on my head.
“Dakota?”
She didn't answer me, nor did Elof. I was alone in the darkness of that room. My necklace was off. Trying to control myself, I took a deep breath and tried to guide myself by my ears. I started to take a few steps forward, in the direction where I last saw everyone in the room. In a second, the ground opened, I fell into a dungeon, deep enough to think that I would die there. I fell on a haystack that softened my fall. A light from the top of the pit lit just above me. Something moved where I fell, coming toward me.
“Dakota?” I spoke softly.
“No Dakota, girl! Here we are, together again.”
It was Helga, the poisonous snake we found in the maze. She crawled down the walls of the moat with her rattle missing Koda's collar and came toward me.
“Lost your jewelry?”
“Don’t tell me that! Blame that hunchback vulture.”
“Where are we? My dad is up there, I need to go back. Can you help me?”
“Girl, do you think a simple reptile like me, would have that much power? Be reasonable, please! Elof is with all your friends, said he will end them one by one, starting with your friend sausage water, she will be dinner tonight.”
“What? No!”
“Girl, where is your sense of humor? I don't know what Magnanimus will do to your friends, I'm just kidding!”
“Great, a snake in a good mood…”
“If you don't like it, it’s your problem. I came here to warn you that your hourglass is running out of time, think of Magnanimus’s proposal and get out of here in time. He didn't tell me what it was, since I’m a crawling reptile. When time is over, your father will become the vulture’s dinner, don’t forget it,” said Helga on a bitter voice.
“But what do I have to do? I have reached the castle, I'm tired of this game!” I protested as the hourglass that appeared next to us showed only a few more grains to fall. I had what would be two minutes until the sand was over. I needed to act fast.
“She is tired of this game, poor Lola!! Stop being the poor thing, it makes me sick.”
“Disgusting snake, I'm not playing the poor thing!!”
Or was I? I always disdain people who do that. I hate people saying that about me.
“Do you think you’d just get here and give us the password for your order? Please... You will have to find them. A tip, they are no longer where you last saw them. You need to open that door, right behind us,” the snake nodded with her head, showing an iron door full of sharp points, like the back of a porcupine with only one latch.
“Hmm too easy ... Where's the key?”
“Hahaha good question, smartass. It's right there, good luck and goodbye! I have other things to do.”
Beside the iron door, a wall lit up so high I couldn’t see its end, full of keys! How would I know which one of hundreds of keys, perhaps thousands, was the right one? Help.
I started trying all the ones next to me, which of course weren't the right one. After a few times, the hourglass was already running to the final minute. The faster I hurried, the worse it got. In the last failed attempt, I remembered a phrase that Nefarious told me when we made the passage to the parallel kingdom.
“Close your eyes, take a deep breath. Imagine the portal opening. Use it whenever you need to find something. Everything you can imagine is real.”
If that worked to see the portal, it could also work to see the key. The desperate search would not help me at all. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, imagined the right key standing out among all the others. I felt something come out of my chest. I opened my eyes on impulse and saw a small purple soap bubble coming out of my necklace. It flew slowly toward the walls of keys, but when in front of it, stopped.
“Come on!” I started to get nervous.
It didn’t work. Thirty seconds left, the last grains dripped to the bottom of the hourglass. I had to calm down and use my brain. ‘Imagine the ball searching for the right key.’ I mentalized with all my strength, felt a strong energy come out of me, a heat. When I opened my eyes, one key stood out, shining brighter than all the others on that endless wall. It worked! The soap bubble went toward the shiny key, enveloped it and brought it to my hands.
It was a shark's tooth key, which was sharp and lined one by one in a metal larger than the palm of my hands. As I put it in the lock, I heard a clatter of gear and all the iron spikes in the door fell off like rotten teeth. The toothless door made a slamming sound as the hourglass knocked over the last grain of sand. BAMMMMM!