Giving Fantasia: The Taking Fantasia Sequel

Chapter 137: Vow of Everlasting Love

Chapter 137: Vow of Everlasting Love

"Jim!" Ariel stumbled from Sarah and Sinbad. Pushing past Wendy, she screamed into outerspace. "Jim!"

Nothing. Ariel screamed again, louder and longer. Nothing. She screamed again, snarling at the sky, demanding a response. She was answered, but only by her echo. Then there was nothing. Nothing but a big black hole marking where the Wishing Star fell from the sky.

Jim had literally rattled the stars. He had turned the Wishing Star into a shooting star. And in doing so, he also tore the space fabric, forming a black hole. The black hole opened into the neighboring galaxy – Neverland, Jim had called it. 

From below, Neverland's stars resembled a salty trail stretching lightyears away. The Fantasians and Otherlanders were astounded. They gazed at the adjacent galaxy. Suddenly, their little planet seemed very, very small.

The Outerworld had opened. And Jim Hawkins was not there to guard the entrance.

"Shooting star..." Wendy searched the night sky. Star dust sprinkled her nose. Cognizant that Peter was also missing, she suddenly remembered Jim's description of shooting stars.

Specifically, the danger of shooting stars.

"Ever make a wish on a shooting star?" Jim had asked her on Pirates Point.

"Certainly." Wendy had replied.

"Well." Jim had explained in his secretly excited way. "All shooting stars travel at supersonic speeds -- fake or not. They move so fast, everything burns in their path. Everything except graphene. So if I have to stop a shooting star from burning into Fantasia, the graphene protects me."

"Jim..." Wendy's stomach knotted. Jim hadn't been wearing his graphene suit. Mouth covered, she whispered her original response. "That doesn't sound quite safe."

She could almost hear his reply.

It's not.

"No, no, no." Wendy shook her head. Again she searched the stars, frantic for a sign, something, anything to reassure her that Jim had survived. But at that moment, Ariel screamed. Her scream broke into sobs. And Wendy knew that Jim was gone.

Ariel was beyond devastation.

She had always prayed to find her voice. A lifetime of speaking, laughing, and singing would have been wonderful, but Ariel was not greedy. She only wanted her voice for one sentence, six little words: James Pleiades Hawkins, I love you.

Well, make that eight little words. Ariel also wanted to say, I do.

Never, ever, did she imagine that her first words to Jim would be the last. Never, ever, did she imagine that her voice would become raw screaming his name.

The two armies, those of Fantasia and the Otherland, were grim. Few members, those closest to Ariel, were even empathetic. But none, not even Admiral Triton, offered comfort. War kills. War is unkind. War is cruelest to those that bury the dead. Ariel was too young, too sprightly, too hopeful to understand.

As was Wendy.

Wendy strode through the stardust. She touched Ariel's shoulder. She wept silently as Ariel shuddered beneath her hand.