Patty Liu - Silent Reflections

Nothing had changed. There was no Virginia running towards him to give him a big wolf hug. There was no beaming Tony to congratulate him for breaking the spell. There was nothing. Everything was still the same. Wolf threw his head back and howled at the rising moon that was slowly brightening from the fallen darkness.

Patrick covered his ears. They hadn’t broken the spell. It hadn’t worked. Virginia and her father were still trapped. What in the world were they going to do now? Weren’t the shoes supposed to be telling the truth? It was then that he noticed that the two tazzies that were lying on the ground were beginning to come to. He and Wolf had tied them up earlier and now they were tugging at their restraints. They were two average-sized tazzies who didn’t speak an utter word of comprehension. Patrick gagged them and tightened their restraints. He turned to find Wolf still staring at the place where Virginia had disappeared.

“Huff, puff. If Virginia is going to be trapped in there for the rest of her life, I should be in there with her!” Wolf cried out. “Why didn’t it work?” He threw the two pieces of the map down and kicked dirt onto them.

“Wolf, you can’t go in there.” Patrick leaned down to pick up the map. He studied the lines and the letterings on it that pointed out the different towns and kingdoms. He saw the Mother Goose village where he was from. He saw the river that divided the kingdoms. And he saw the dark purple stain that covered the entire Sixth Kingdom. “We must be doing something wrong. Maybe we didn’t do it right.”

Wolf grabbed the pieces out of Patrick’s hands and stared at them. He wanted his Virginia. He wanted her at his side. He began crumbling the map pieces in his hands. He couldn’t help himself as he started to slowly take steps towards the border line that divided the two kingdoms.

“Wolf? Don’t!” Patrick called out.

Wolf just shook his head and gave him a pleading look. “I have to. I can’t stand this. I can’t see her. I can’t hear her. I want to be with her.” He crumpled the map up into a ball and began tearing it into pieces again.

Patrick made a grab for Wolf but it was too late. Wolf’s foot had stepped backwards pass the invisible barrier and he could feel himself being sucked in.

“I’m sorry Patrick. But I have to do this. Go and tell King Wendell what has gone on.”

Wolf fought the pulling force of the wall for a few more moments and tore the map up into tiny shredded pieces. He tossed them into the air and watched as the pieces fluttered to the ground. Half his body had already disappeared. Patrick didn’t even make a grab for Wolf as he watched half of Wolf’s body still hovering in mid air. Then he saw Wolf’s eyes grow huge in shock.

“CRIIIIIIIPES!” Wolf gave a high piercing howl