29

  Cody

  I was putting some books away in my locker, after that was done, I grabbed a five hour energy I had stashed away and took an energy shot to get ready for third period. Lunch was first though. I was hoping that getting some food in me could settle my nerves and get me ready for the rest of the school day.

  “We need to talk, where’s Christian?” Susie came up to me and grabbed my shirt, turning me to her.

  “It’s almost lunch, probably the library, if I don’t invite him to lunch, he usually heads there, said he was tired of guys spitting in his milk,” I said. God he was such a poor bastard, he never did anything to deserve that, not that the guys who did that to him were in any position to look down on someone. Gary was probably more hated than Christian thought he was. He got busted this one time in ninth grade with a water pipe in the boy’s room. He didn’t get expelled because he didn’t have any pot, he was smoking pencil shavings of all things. A three-day suspension followed by rumor spreading through the school like wildfire made him a persona non-grata even more then Christian considered himself to be.

  For some reason Gary found Christian easy picking, spitting in his milk, shoulder checking him in the hall, knocking books out of his hand and laughing at Christian for being a clumsy faggot, I guess everyone needs to feel bigger than someone. I wonder what was going through his head during that ambulance ride?

  On to the point of hand, Susie pretty much dragged me by the collar to the library, “I told Brad to meet us there, are you sure that’s where Christian is?” she asked.

  “I mean, that’s where I would guess,” I said, “How am I supposed to know?”

  “You’re his best friend, he may not be your best friend, but you’re his best friend,” Susie said.

  When we got to the library Brad was there at one of the back reading sections talking to Christian. Christian was in his element, obsessed with Somewhere Else, with fantasy world. It was like a drug to him, a place of joy and wonder he could escape the problems of the real life with. But now something threatened that world, and Christian was determined to solve that problem.

  Susie dragged me to the table and pushed me forward, “I found her,” Susie said.

  “Wait, found who?” Brad asked.

  “Morgan LeFaye,” Susie said, she turned and went to the back corner of the library we were the old yearbooks were by. She looked around to make sure no student or librarian was close enough to hear us talk. She went to the collection of yearbooks from years past of the school’s student body.

  “Really?” Christian said, “I’ve been skimming through every Grimm story I’ve ever read. I can’t make heads or tails of why Morgan LeFaye is in the other world. She’s from British lore, not German. It doesn’t make any sense, I mean Grimm has tales of evil fairy queens, but why would an Evil Fairy queen be named after an Arthurian character?” he said, “The evil queens and dark witches rarely have names themselves, at least they don’t in the original stories with a few exceptions,” Christian shook his head, “It doesn’t make any sense, unless this world is bigger than we thought. Like, maybe we’re in the German part of fairy world, and perhaps other regions myths and folklores exist in far off lands and now we’re seeing the incursion of one tradition trying to overpower another's,” he said.

  “That could make sense,” Brad said, “I mean, I’ve paid enough attention in history class to know that old Europe loved going to war with itself. Do you think if we went far enough, crossed an ocean, we would start running into Davey Crockett and Johnny Appleseed?” he asked.

  “That could be a good point,” I said, “We don’t know how big that world is, and we probably never will. I know we still don’t understand how that place works, but it could be on a planet, on a globe, who knows what’s beyond those giant mountains that always seem to be so far away on the horizon,” I said, I was just as clueless as Brad was when it came to trying to figure out that world. When you’re dealing with magic, talking animals, and dark fairies, the debate of helio-centrism kind of takes a back seat.

  “Idiots!” Susie snapped, “It’s not like that at all, there’s a reason it doesn’t make sense for Morgan LeFaye to be in that world, because she’s not from that world,” she slammed the two year old yearbook on the table we were at and opened it to the back, hastily flipping through the pages to find the ‘In Memorial’ section that unfortunately every high school yearbook seems to have, “Look at this, Morgan Lafayette, she was a student here two years ago,” Susie pointed to a picture of a young girl with dark black hair, pale skin, and dark black eyeshadow. She was wearing black fishnet sleeves, had a Nirvana T-shirt and a nose ring, “What do you think, looks pretty familiar doesn’t she?”

  Christian was the first to take the book and turn it to himself, “No, no it can’t be,” he said, shaking his head, his jaw dropped as he noticed the stunning similarities between Morgan Lafayette and the dreaded and threatening Morgan LeFaye.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Two years ago, Morgan went missing and she was never found. I’ve been doing research on her, I knew I had seen that face somewhere else, I remembered that old billboard on the highway, it was put up two years ago and no one ever changed it, I passed it on a trip to my cousin's house for a barbecue, I saw her face when we met her Somewhere Else and I knew I had seen that face before,” Susie said, “The last place most people saw here was at a party outside Freeman’s Farm, everyone says she got home that night, but she disappeared a week later and no traces of her have been found, nothing,” Susie looked to us, “I think this is her, she looks exactly like the Fairy Queen,”

  “Here, look at this,” she said, flipping the page over, “Testimonials from her friends, she loved to read, she loved fantasy, she loved getting lost in her own world, this is her, I’m sure it is,” Susie said.

  “Susie, this could be a coincidence, it’s a just a name,” I said.

  “We don’t know how long that portal has been there, do you really think we were the first people to find it?” She asked.

  “If anyone found this before us, they would have told someone about it,” Brad said.

  “Oh, you mean like how we told people about it?” Susie said.

  “Susie, calm down,” Christian rested his hand on hers, over the yearbook. He took a deep breath, looked down at the picture of Morgan Lafayette, they really were dead ringers for each other, “It’s a sound deduction,” Christian said, nodding his head, “But why would she want to destroy that place. If she is the kind of person who would love it, I mean, why would anyone want to destroy that place?” he asked.

  “She doesn’t want to destroy it. I think she wants to rule it. We all seem to be able to have some sway over there, granted none of ours are anywhere near as strong as hers, she probably went native, two years here is much longer over there, the power probably drove her mad, she spent two years in there and god knows how long that length of time here would be in that world,” she turned to me, “Your experiment, it’s exponential right, like a minute there is just shy of a minute there, but we’ve been in there for almost a week and when we come out only two days have passed in the real world. If she’s spent two years in there that means it’s possible that she’s been there for almost a decade, learning everything she can about that world, growing her power, getting stronger, and now she’s able to conquer it,” Susie said.

  “We have to stop her, whether or not she really is this Morgan Lafayette,” Christian said, “We have to stop her either way, and we’re the only ones who can. She’s been destroying castles and towns alike if she wants to ruin that world, I’ll do anything to stop her,” he said, looking up at us. He had this kind of determination in his eye that I wouldn’t have been sure such a soft spoken and at times weak willed man could have.

  “Christian, this is bigger than us, there’s a missing girl involved. A missing girl who has a family that is probably desperate to find her,” Susie closed her eyes, collected herself, “I think we need to tell someone,” she said.

  “Tell who?” Brad asked, “I mean, I don’t think I’m crazy when I say that if word gets out that this other world is something we know about, we’re going to be questioned, I don’t want to be questioned about this, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Brad said.

  “Brad’s right, this is too big for us to tell someone about, even if they would believe us,” I said. I was worried about what revelation of my knowledge of somewhere else would mean for me, it was kind of selfish. I knew Christian would never want to tell anyone about that other world. Hell, if he had discovered it alone, I doubt there would be any chance he would tell us about it. In another course of situations, he could have been relegated to our yearbooks in Memoriam section and just disappear into that world. And who knows, maybe he would have just become as twisted as Morgan did, if this was indeed Morgan Lafayette ravaging that world as she enjoyed her ultimate escapism. I saw Christian do amazing things in that world, if he lacked people with him, no, friends with him, who knows what could have happened. This angry loner given otherworldly power in a society that couldn’t imagine what he could do, he could have been just as bad as her. Hell, not that far later, Susie accused him of being just as bad as her.

  I’m getting ahead of myself again. I told Susie and Brad that we need to tell the whole story. Susie may hate him, and Brad may have already consigned him as the lost soul he was, but I just think it’s important that we get the whole story across. What we encountered there was not something any of us were ready for.

  Let’s leave the philosophical debate for later. I’m not going to go through the effort of this account, the effort of working with Brad and Susie when I haven’t talked to them for years, just to make a long story short.

  “We can’t tell anyone, Morgan, I mean, Morgan LeFaye, has already done too much damage to that world, whether she’s from our world out not, we have to stop her, we can stop her. Susie, if you’re right and she’s from our world, she’s just one person, and we’re four, we’ve beaten the Piper, and the Wolf, if anyone can stop her it’s us. We can, we can save the world,” Christian said.

  “Christian, do you even hear yourself? Save a world? This was just fun in lala land and getting coins for dealing with problems they probably could have dealt with themselves anyway, this is bigger than us,” she said.

  Brad spoke up, “This is just a theory right now, we don’t know if Morgan and Morgan LeFaye are the same person, if they are that complicates things, sure, but if we’re wrong then things get even more complicated,” he shook his head, “I don’t even want to know if we’re right or not, I don’t know which outcome is worse. If Morgan is something from that world, she’s the mightiest force we’ve ever faced, and if she’s something from our world then, well I don’t know what that means,” he said.

  “Maybe we can talk to her?” I said, “She’ll see that we’re like her, from this place, maybe she’ll parlay, we can try to negotiate,” I looked to Christian, “I’m sure there’s something we can do,” I said.

  “Parlay, yeah,” Christian nodded, “We have to go this weekend, I’m sorry if you guys have plans, but we all need to go, we have to take her on, parlay or not, we need to figure out something that can stop her,” Christian said, I could see that thousand-yard stare on his face for the first time. This was a man who was willing to do anything to save that world, and I, Brad, and Susie, soon found out that he really would do anything to save somewhere else. He may not have cared about what this world had to offer, but when it came to Somewhere else, he was ready to die for that world.