Elise Runs and Dorothy Falls

Chapter 35

Cautiously she stepped forward, over the coin, and continued her useless patrol. These were her own thoughts, and all she could think about were the flowers. Her head hurt with anxiety and her body felt heavy. Narrowing her eyes, she tried to focus again on the room.

Plunk!

A coin—the same coin or another she couldn't tell—hit her foot. Rather than looking this time, she looked up. There, a smiley face peering back at her, black on yellow, from somewhere in the rafters. It then vanished.

Dorothy took a deep breath. Her mind further strayed as she inhaled greyness. What was she doing here? She prided herself a fighter, but she kowtowed to their demands as easily as she slid across this trackless floor. She inhaled greyness but she smelled the sweetness of broken grass and smudged daffodils. She smelled Elise.

Plunk!

A coin hit her in the arm. She searched but saw nothing. Without a target, even her spells were useless. She turned high and low, and when she gazed left—

Plunk!

Another coin hit her on the forehead. Rushing with feelings, she took an angry step that way, only to be tripped. She tumbled forward onto the ground; her lantern tumbled. As she pulled herself off skinned elbows, another coin hit her. She took a final step, a last attempt at dignity, but she was easily tripped and she fell to the ground. This time she didn't try to get up.

She hurt not only on the outside, but on the inside. It just didn't matter anymore. After all her grand escapes, after escaping even the Wall Cloud, she wound up right where she started: in the place of an unwanted servant. After days of uncomfortable sleep, her body felt like lead. Her calves ached. She didn't want to work for acceptance, or to play for fear any longer. She just wanted to sit with Elise and get to know her. She wanted to be with her and not be bothered by anything at all. She wanted her to never think about boys. She wanted to hold her hand, and she wanted to kiss her. She wanted Elise to love her, too.

Her shoulders collapsed against the floor. Bowing her head into the crook of her arms, she allowed the tears to stain not only her eyelashes, but also her cold red cheeks—and she let it go, and go, not caring what would happen to her. She cried for longer than she would wish you know.

Poke.

Dorothy looked up to find the strangest spirit she had yet seen. Seven feet in length, it had a mechanical body shaped like a CV boot, eight jointed stick appendages (one of which hovered over her shoulder), and at the largest side of the boot a clock-shaped head that showed a smiley face. However, when she looked into the face with her own, like a computer icon changing form, the smile dematerialized into a frown.

It held out four spindly arms. Dorothy, unsure of its intent but with nothing to lose, held out a hand. With unexpected strength it helped her to her feet. Standing on its other four arms, it then lowered its face to meet hers. Dorothy couldn't think of anything to say, so she sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. It tilted its frowning head. Dorothy continued to frown, too.

The spirit, after a moment's pause, twirled an arm and produced from thin air a flower, which it presented to Dorothy. Dorothy took it, but it only made her sadder.

"I'm sorry," muttered Dorothy. "It's just that I have someone I want to be with..."

The spirit tilted its head further, interrogative. The sad yellow face turned sad blue.

"Her name... is Elise."

Suddenly the face of the spirit flashed yellow again. It smiled. It beckoned Dorothy with a tine, then loped away. Dorothy, picking up her lantern again, followed. Leaving the vast room behind, the spirit teetered into adjoining hallway, slowly enough for Dorothy to keep up but she had to hustle nonetheless. The spirit seemed earnest enough that she didn't feel too embarrassed about her outburst, although she certainly felt embarrassed. Soon enough, at least, the spirit revealed another room, this one very small, which had only a ladder. The ladder had metal rungs and ran upwards at a hole in the ceiling far, far above.