Christmas had come and gone for Annie Koestler. It was not a pleasant time, but one could not state that it had been a boring holiday that year. Annie pulled a thick black wool shawl over her cold, bony shoulders. It was a bitterly cold December day in Boston, typical for that time of year. The elderly woman sipped on a steaming mug of tea and contemplated the fate of her beloved granddaughter Hillary. A light snow had begun top fall as she stared through the frosted over window overlooking her yard. A strange and yet wonderful sight caught her 244
attention. Sailing majestically and forcefully through the air was a huge feathered, black and silver creature. As it slowly came into sharper focus, she could make out a raptor sharp beak, with razor talons at the forefront. Its hind was that of a lion, though it was not of the usual tawny colour. The wondrous gryphon came to a graceful landing in her backyard. The barely noticeable passenger hopped off its back immediately. Digby ran up to the back-door and was greeted by Annie and her guest Rupert. Annie quickly dispensed with the introductions and pressed on to the matter at hand. “Digby, how much do you know about what’s going on?” The tiny red-haired creature responded breathlessly. “Samantha is very bad, and she might well be in league with the evil crimson riders. Charles Penrose may still be danger, but he will have to fend for himself for now. I have no idea were Hillary has gotten to, and the storybook is nowhere to be found.” Annie nodded as she digested his solemn words. “ The storybook is important, and we must get that back, but the priority now is to save my daughter. Carolyn tried to recombine herself through the mirror, but must have been stopped by that fowl changeling Samantha. She must still be trapped within the mirror somewhere. The problem is that Samantha seems to have figured out how to easily move between the two realms. Travel through the mirror is no longer safe. There is no telling what she might do to any one of us. If only Carolyn were able to fine her own way out, then we could save her.” 245
Gabriel Gardner stared out at the cold and blustery Boston landscape. He sipped on his coffee as he stared out his bedroom window at the slowly falling winter snow. He looked down at the strange storybook. He casually opened it to a page halfway through the story, and found himself staring at an illustration depicting what looked to be his own son Wallace with the still missing Hillary Penrose. He closed the book immediately and rubbed his eyes. He opened the book to another page and found a picture of the kidnapping suspect, Ronald Boggs.
Suddenly he was filled with an overpowering sense of dread. He knew instinctively that something was very wrong. He began quickly scanning the pages of the book to discern its overall content. The farther he read, the stranger the very experience of reading it became. In a little over five minutes he came to the shocking and impossible conclusion that he was reading an exact description of the bizarre events that had recently transpired. The last chapter detailed his finding of the book. He read on with ever increasing interest and trepidation. As he stared at the last page, he disappeared from the room in a blinding flash of light.
Samantha gazed around the Victorian bedroom seemingly belonging to the characters from the Peter Pan story. She surmised that the room was empty, but that somebody had recently been there. She could smell them. She walked over to the open bay window to take in the breathtaking view of old London. She noticed a 246
fine, sparkling powder at her feet. She reached down to wipe it with her forefinger.
She instantly recognized it as fairy-dust. It was obviously the stuff of fairies, and that could only mean that her enemy Lilith had been there, she thought. Glancing down again at the glittering grains, she realized that the few tiny scattered grains were of insufficient quantity to endow her with magical flight. She scanned the room for a secondary course of action. A collection of stuffed animals sat atop one of the beds in the room. She rapidly scattered them about the bedspread looking for something useful to her. She grabbed at a stuffed pitch black raven. That would do quite well, she thought. She grasped the bird and placed it before her upon the hardwood floor. Samantha proceeded to kneel and pray in her own diabolical manner. “Oh Tiamat, please make this raven alive, so that he might help me in my quest to be real.” The black as coal winged creature grew to enormous size and cackled loudly as it came to life before the wicked doppelganger. Samantha was well pleased with her dark creation. “ I have a task for you large bird. We must find Hillary and her new friend and stop them once and for all. Then I will finally take her place in the real world.” The huge creature assented to her wishes and waddled towards the open window. The clever girl climbed atop the raven and kicked her legs. The two insidious hunters swept off into the cold, dark London night in search of their prey.
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Charles and Ronald were jammed together inside the police station bathroom. They could hear the trampling of feet as their pursuers grew nearer. The disheveled man looked at his fellow escapee and then at the tiny tribesman. He was at a loss as to their next course of action. “Either of you two have any clever ideas?” His question was essentially rhetorical in nature in light of their dire circumstances. Not expecting any response, he was shocked to watch as the miniature saviour jumped up to the washroom sink. He proceeded to throw his spear right into and through the mirror. Its passage was marked by a tiny splash in the surface of the glass. Next he himself leapt into the mirror with another slightly larger splash and was gone from the room. Both men in attendance were dumbfounded but intrigued. Charles shrugged his shoulders in tacit acknowledgement of the absurdity of their situation. “ What the heck…its not like I have any better ideas…when in looneytown, as the saying goes…” Mr. Boggs had no ready response, and in any case was a follower by nature. He watched as Charles with great difficulty crammed his large frame through the surface of the shimmering mercury like glass. He followed his intrepid companion through the liquid glass just as several officers burst in the door. The eldest on duty pointed at the mirror hanging on the wall. “Uh…did you just see one of those guys from the cell crawl into that mirror? No? I didn’t think so…neither did I. That’s it…I need 248
some sleep, and I don’t even care anymore what happened to those two nut-cases…no more eggnog for me tonight.” .
Digby decided that the best way to save Carolyn was to try and retrieve her from the other side of reality. He sought the wise counsel of Annie. “I agree with you that passage by way of mirrors has become too dangerous now that Samantha has become so powerful. She might well be waiting for me through the kitchen cabinet entrance. However, she may not know about the store elevator. That way must still be open.” Annie nodded in assent of his conclusions. “Yes, that does seem to be the best course of action. You take your gryphon friend Godel and travel there immediately. I will do what I can from here.” The elderly woman did not wish to admit that her health was in a poor state as of late. The recent events and their possible disastrous outcome had not helped matters in the least. Digby rushed out the door and quickly jumped atop his gryphon companion. The two shot upwards into the cold winter air, seemingly unnoticed by those around them. Annie retired to her den to contemplate her next move. She could not help but feel directly responsible for the complicated and dangerous turn that events had taken. As Digby had mentioned, the mirrors were no longer a safe means of passage or communication. Instead she relied upon her unique and powerful psychic bond with her only granddaughter. She closed her eyes tightly and attempted to send a 249
message to Hillary. She feared that in her presently diminished state, she no longer possessed sufficient power to make the vital connection.
Charles, Rodney and the loyal talisman emerged on the other side of the mirror into completely enveloping blackness. Charles immediately called out into the void. “Hey…is there anybody out there?” At the same time he felt around in the darkness blindly. He quickly received an answer. “Charles…I’m here…sounds like I’m behind you. You better watch not to step on your helper there.” Charles stopped dead and realized his mistake. “You’re right…hey little buddy…where are you at?” Charles felt a tiny tug at his pant leg. He reached down and gingerly felt for the small tribesman. He carefully picked him up and placed him in his pocket.
“There…got him. Now onto other matters. Where the hell are we?”
“Beats me. How about calling out for help? It couldn’t hurt at this point.” Charles called out in his loudest voice. “Hello! hello! Is there anybody there? We are really in a jam...” His bellowing voice echoed eerily in the blackness. A faint voice was heard in the distance. The two men could barely make it out.
“Rod…hear that? Grab the back of my shirt. I think I can make out the direction its coming from.” Their progress was slow, but the faint voice gradually grew louder as they moved forward. After several minutes it was quite plain and clear. “Is it help you need? And who is it that you might be there young lad?” Charles listened 250
to the lyrical Irish brogue and responded. “Hello…I'm Charles Penrose and this is a friend of mine-Rodney. Can you get us out of this place...wherever this is…” The Irish voice belonged to a leprechaun named Chauncey O’Reilly. He queried the lost traveler. “Well now that all depends…are you a friend of Digby’s or a friend of Samantha’s? That makes all the difference now.”
“Oh, did you say Digby? Heck, we go way back…we’re thick as thieves, as they say.” The leprechaun mulled over the glib response before answering. “Well, that may be, and then again, you could well be telling a fib…but you do have an honest voice. You and your friend there stand back. I’ll have you out in a jiffy.” The green jacketed creature proceeded to pull a small purple vial from his vest-coat. He unplugged the stopper and tossed the bubbling contents onto the green hedge before him. Suddenly a small, round oak door materialized within the green hedge. The Lilliputian man kicked at the door with his brass buttoned boots and peered within. “Well…what are you waiting for…Christmas?” Charles knelt down and stared through the tiny small aperture. “That’s a tight fit, but I guess we have no choice.” He began to carefully crawl through the door as his friend Rodney followed close behind. They both emerged on the other side standing upon a gravel pathway in the midst of an endless green hedge.
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Detective Gabriel Gardner awoke with a sudden gasp. He found himself floating upon a small raft in what seemed to be an endless expanse of choppy ocean. Slowly he raised himself from the wet vinyl bottom of the raft and scanned the horizon. There was nothing but water around him in every direction. He was at a complete loss as to how he had come to be in this predicament. Instinctively he called out for assistance. “Hello? Is anybody out there? Hello?” As he slowly came to terms with his confused state if being, he made an unsettling observation. He noticed the telltale dorsal fin of a shark circling the raft. Then he noticed another and another. They in fact seemed to be swarming around his flimsy watercraft. His immediate reaction was to conclude that he was experiencing some bizarre nightmare. How else to explain his very greatest fear seemingly becoming reality, he thought? Yet he could not deny the incredible realism of the alleged dream. He could feel the cold, salty air upon his cheek, and his pangs of hunger seemed real enough. He attempted to backtrack in his mind to the most recent events. All that he could recall was the reading of the strange storybook, and then nothing. As he contemplated his precarious position, he was shaken by the terrible blow from one of the sharks. It had come from beneath the raft, and nearly knocked him into the dangerous waters. Another vicious attack followed, this one ripping a hole in the thin rubber craft. Soon after, a steady stream of water began to fill the raft. Gabriel was frozen in panic. He leapt to his feet and began to literally pray out loud for 252
assistance from above. “Lord, I can’t say I truly understand what is happening to me, or why I am being tested, but I humbly ask for your help.” He looked heavenward in a humble manner, as he prepared for the worst. “I would sorely love to see my family one last time.” He raised his arms in a defiant gesture against the forces of nature. In the distance, he noticed a tiny black spot in the sky.
Hillary and Wallace continued to sail effortlessly through the cold London night. They gazed down at the snow-covered rooftops and the cobblestone roads below. Hillary was entranced by the wonder of flight and the magic of the wintery scene. With great difficulty she broke herself from her reverie. “Wallace, this is all very beautiful, and we have certainly been through a difficult ordeal, but we really must focus upon priorities. My Nana always told me that its lovely to gaze at the clouds, as long as you do not lose yourself completely. We must stop Samantha and find my mother. Who knows what has been going on, since we’ve been gone?” For himself, Wallace could hardly help but be caught up in the dazzling wonder of actual flight. Yet he was also deeply concerned about his family. “Hillary, this is the best day of my life. I never want to leave this place. Its like my dreams have come true.” Hillary listened and was already formulating a plan. “Yes, it can be a wonderful place. We are definitely still in Nibiru, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to fly. That means that we must be very careful. We have friends here, but also many 253
enemies. I think we must set down on the ground and find out exactly where we are.” With some sadness of heart, the two adventurers alighted on an empty street.
The bright light from a kerosene light-post lit their faces in the dark night. “We could be anywhere Wallace, we must find a way back to the maze. The thing to remember is that to escape, you must find an in-between place. We might find our way back through the mirrors, but they are dangerous, you can be caught in the dark, or worse. If only I had one of those portal potions.” The cold night air began to chill her bones. She shivered and crossed her arms across her chest. Her companion noticed her frigid state, and offered his sweater. “Here, you take this.
I’m okay, I like the cold.” Hillary at first demurred, but eventually was coaxed into accepting the kind offer. She wrapped woolen cardigan around herself, and stuck her cold hands into the deep pockets of the garment. She suddenly felt something in the left hand pocket. She proceeded to pull out a purple vial with a cork stopper.
“Look…its just what we need! Where did you get this?” Wallace shook his head in disbelief. “That’s not mine…I have no idea where that came from. What is it?”
“This is some kind of magic portal potion. I’ve seen Samantha use them.
Now we just need to find a wall or something.” Just then they both heard a voice in the distance. It grew closer. “You two…what are you doing alone in the middle of the street at this hour?” A British bobby had discovered the two and was in pursuit.
Hillary grabbed Wallace’s hand and lead him down a dark alleyway off the main 254
street. They ran as far as they could until the alley ended. The policeman continued his pursuit. “I expect you two are up to no good. Now stop right where you are, you hear?” Hillary quickly pulled out the purple vial containing the potion. She uncorked the end and splashed it upon the wall. Slowly a small round oak door with heavy steel trim and knocker materialized within the solid stone wall. Hillary rapidly dropped to her feet and pulled open the door. She urged Wallace forward.
“Quick, through the door…hurry!” Wallace fell to his feet and crawled through the small door. It was a very tight fit for a large boy. His companion followed right behind him. Hillary felt the Policeman tug at her shoe, which came off in his hand.
She reached behind her and pulled shut the door. The British bobby was left holding a small white girls shoe as he stared at the featureless stone wall. He walked away muttering into the cold London night.
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