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Suddenly, an enormous ghostly orb descended form the ceiling and landed at the far end of the room. It stretched into a wide oval and gained color and depth, as if an invisible paintbrush were painting it. With every passing second, the forest became more and more visible and clear. Soon, the image didn't look so much like a painting, but a doorway.
The witches peered through the hole and took their first steps into the Otherworld. The main ones were in front, followed by hundreds just as ugly as them. The Sea Witch rode in on her own personal wave and the Snow Queen came with a chill that evaporated the little warmth in the air.
"Your Excellencies," Morina said with a shallow bow. "I'm so glad you've both successfully made it through the bridge. Just as promised, I have found the Bailey girl and cursed her with the dust from the magic mirror. With her power at our disposal, the Otherworld will be ours in no time."
They looked shocked that she had pulled it off.
"Well done, Morina," the Sea Witch said. "I have to admit, we're pleasantly surprised by your competence."
Unfortunately, no one noticed the five people barred to a bookshelf. They were just too excited to be here to care. We tried to scream and yell and shout to warn them, but we couldn't move and our sounds were muffled.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" the Snow Queen screeched. "We have a world to conquer!"
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We hung in the room, limp and unable to talk. I tried to talk to Conner via Morse Code, but he didn't look up from the stop Alex had previously occupied on the floor. We could hear the Snow Queen's screeches from inside and the commotion of the battle going on around the building, but we couldn't see it. Despite the commotion, Conner kept his determined gaze on the same spot in the floor.
Suddenly, the fighting stopped outside. I heard the witches screaming to each other and then the shouts of the soldiers. Just as a thunderous round of gunfire ensued, Morina reappeared in the room. She sauntered through the room to the bridge.
We yelled and kicked and screamed, calling her every foul name we could think of. She didn't even glance our way.
"Save your strength- you're going to be up there for a very long time," Morina said with a laugh. "Now that my pawns are in place, it's time to secure a checkmate. Enjoy these moments while you can- it'll be the last time thee Otherworld belongs to you."
She blew us a kiss and the metal bars around us tightened. She stepped through the doorway and disappeared.
We struggled against our restraints, but we just created bruises and scars. We were pinned so tightly we could barely breathe and I was starting to lose feeling of my limbs. Hero started to cry and Red started to weep, very loudly and hysterically.
Then, the fighting outside went dead. I heard the witches shout at one another, and then the soldiers shout at one another. The rumble of cars went by the building and continued down the road to wherever the witches had moved the battle.
Just then, footsteps echoed around the room. Since my face was stuck facing forward, I strained to see who it was, but failed. Until they were right in front of us did, I know who they were. And they were the last people I thought I would ever see.
"As I live and breathe," Mindy said. "If it isn't Conner Bailey...and he's exactly where I've always wanted him-vulnerable and in need of a favor!"
Mindy, Cindy, Lindy, and Wendy stepped farther into the room and came to right in front of us.
"The Book-Huggers?" I tried to say in disbelief, but all that could be heard with mumble gibberish.
"Oh, look girls!" Cindy said. "Bree Campbell and Conner are in a suspicious circumstance together! What a surprise-NOT!"
The way they acted took me back to the times in Germany when they shipped me and Conner.
"Hmmmm hmm hm hmm hmmm!" Conner grunted. I had no clue what he really said, but I think he said 'What are you doing here!'. Which would make sense.
"What's that, Conner? After all these years you finally have something to say?" Mindy asked. "Wish I could hear you through all the lies and trickery you've planted in my head!"
"HMMM HMM HMMM!" Conner grunted angrily. If I had to bet on what he had said, I think it would've been 'THEY'RE NOT LIES!', which also would've been true. Or, 'THAT'S NOT FAIR!', or, 'HELP ME DOWN!', or, 'WHAT THE HECK!'. He could've said anything.
"Lindy, go back to the abandoned subway tunnel," Mindy ordered. "I believe there's a handsaw on the platform. That should help Conner loosen his lips."
I wasn't sure if they were going to cut the bar off, or torture Conner with the saw. Either were possible.
A few minutes later, Lindy returned with the handsaw.
"Great work. Now remove the bar covering his mouth," Mindy instructed.
Lindy paused nervously. "Maybe Wendy should do this? She was the only open of us who didn't fail woodshop."
Well, at least they didn't want to kill Conner, or anyone else here for that matter.
Wendy nodded confidently and took the saw from Lindy. She placed it between her teeth and climbed the bookshelf up to Conner. With two quick strikes on each side, the metal bar across Conner's face fell to the floor.
"What the HECK are you guys doing here?" he asked.
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~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~
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"I was really hoping for the lost continent of Lemuria, but I'm not mad at worlds of fiction," Cindy said after they had fully interrogated Conner and gotten the truth. And after Wendy won the Baily Twins Disappearance Pool.
"Ho do you get to the worlds of fiction, anyway?" Lindy asked.
"There's lots of different methods," Conner said and I hoped he was going to hurry up with getting us down. We had lost a lot of time already. "Like that enormous hole int eh back of the room leading to a forest."
The Book Huggers turned and their mouths flew open. They gasped.
"I thought that was just a big plasma screen!" Lindy said.
"Nope, it's a bridge into another dimension," Conner said. "And soon, thousands of terrible beings are going to charge out of it and attack our world. So, if you're done asking questions, cut me down so I can do something to prevent it!"
Wendy hurried to Conner and sawed off the remaining bars that held him in place. He took the tool from her and cut Jack down. Jack used his saw to chop the remaining bars away. Once I was on the floor again, I almost toppled over. I looked at my friends, it seemed their legs had started to go numb too. Once full feeling returned to my legs, I walked over to the 'giant plasma screen', or the bridge between worlds.
"There's got to be a way we can seal this thing before the Literary Arms arrives," Conner thought aloud and joined me in inspecting the doorway.
"I don't think there's anything we can seal it with that the Literary Army can't get through," I didn't want to be a nay-sayer, but we couldn't pretend to have hope when we didn't. Unfortunately, we were treading on no hope for the current situation.
Conner angrily kicked the bridge, but his foot went through it and he almost slipped.
"I don't know how we're going to stop Morina!" he said. "She's like, one hundred steps ahead of everyone else!"
"That's not entirely true," Goldilocks pointed out. "Morina revealed a lot about her plot to take over the Otherworld, but she never mentioned anything about our recruits at the hospital. I don't think she knows we have an army of our own!"
"That stupid cow!" Red said. "Morina was probably so fixated on kidnapping Alex she didn't even notice the people from Conner's stories!"
I looked over at the Book Huggers. They no doubt had no idea what was going on, but their faces were calm and cool, with a sprinkle of excitement. It reminded me of me when I first went of my adventure with Conner in the 9th grade.
"In that case, our odds haven't really changed," Jack said. "We knew we'd have to face the witches and Literary Army; we just didn't realize we'd be facing them in the Otherworld. I say we send for the others at the hospital and try to track down your sister in the meantime."
Conner nodded. "Mindy, Cindy, Lindy, and Wendy," he said. "I need you to go back to the abandoned subway and get as far away from here as possible. Once you're somewhere safe, find a phone and call my mom. Tell her we need backup and we need it fast. She'll know what to do."
To Conner and my complete surprise, the Book Huggers saluted him and walked off to the hatch in the first level of the library. They had actually just cooperated with Conner for the first time ever. We followed them to the staircase and as they headed to the children's section on the first floor, we headed to the entrance hall on the first floor.
As soon as we entered the entrance hall, my stomach dropped. It was so destroyed. The door had been blown open, the front steps covered in bullets, the streets filled with icicles, but luckily, no bodies were there- living or dead. Just as I had heard earlier, the battle had moved somewhere else. We stepped out into the middle of the street and looked both ways. Not for cars, but for a battle.
"Look!" Red said. "All the soldiers are up the road by those trees!"
"It looks like they're trying to get inside Central Park!" I said. "But what's tat weird bubble in their way?"
Conner recognized it right away. "It's a force field," he said. "the witches must be inside the park, and Alex has put a shield around it."
"Good thing the park is closed at night," I said, relieved for the first time. "Otherwise the witches would have hundreds of hostages."
"The park's not empty!" Conner exclaimed after a moment of thought. "The Boy and Girl Scouts of America are having a huge camp-out in the park tonight! The little boy I sat next to on the plane me all about it!"
I remembered seeing Conner talking to the young boy, but I hardly paid attention, I had been reading about the library.
"You mean there are children trapped inside the park with witches?" Red asked.
"Yes! And we have to help them!" Conner said.
"How are we going to get int eh park if Alex put a force field around it?" Jack asked.
"If we can't get through it, maybe we can go under it," Conner said, quoting 'We're Going On A Bear Hunt', a classic children's book. "Rusty said the Calvin Coolidge Express was going to stop in Central Park- let's go back to the tunnel and pray we find another hatch beneath it. But we have to hurry- God only knows what the witches are doing to those kids right now!"
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THANKS FOR READING!!!
BYE BOOK-HUGGERS!!!
TLOSGEEK2-OUT!!!