Part 10

In this scene, the heroine (Caroline), previously cured by magic of an incurable ailment, is reverted to her original state. Worse, her dream world comes under attack.

It was Sunday morning. Caroline was dozing in bed. Her father was winding himself up for today’s football game, looking for things to do to take his mind off the Packers’ chances. His stomping prevented her dropping off. She had not been to the Unicorn Queendom for months. Her dreams had swayed into more predictable zones; lurid scenarios involving dubious physical encounters. It was all so confusing. 

Her body spasmed, then arched, as if high voltage had been plunged right into her spine. She screamed. Silence strangled the house. Then came the running.

Caroline heard her mother cry out. This was close by. In her room?

Pain was everywhere. Her back felt like it had been doubled over and snapped. She threw an arm out. Fingers interlocked with hers.

‘Caroline! Caroline!’ her mother wailed.

Caroline’s jaws were clamped shut. She knew that magic was being done to her. She recognized its vibration. Her eyes bulged as she looked at her mother. The reflection of fear in her mother’s face was hilarious. What a child she was, to have so little tolerance for absolute suffering. Sweat flooded out of her. She heard one of her mother’s fingers crack like a snapping twig. Then it was over. She lay panting. As the pain receded, she tested her reflexes. 

Nothing.

She tried to move her head. She could not. She tried to open her mouth. Her jaw remained slack. Panic exploded from the pit of her stomach. It manifested in her eyes.

Her mother saw; she knew. ‘Oh my dear love,’ she wailed. Her head fell onto Caroline’s arm. 

Her mother’s tears burned like acid drops. This was bad, all bad. Then she heard the screaming inside her mind.

‘My Princess!’ wailed the voice. It sounded like someone close was calling into a gusting wind. It was Simonale. Something was terribly wrong, she sensed it even after the second ruination of her body. Out and In. She was suffering both but could only direct herself to one of them. She decided that Out could wait. 

The path to the Unicorn Queendom was mysterious through disuse. She had to think to navigate the route. Several times she forgot to sidestep a memorial pothole and cursed herself for lack of visitation. When she burst into the Queendom, the cause of Simonale’s alarm was obvious. On the horizon, space was folding like contracting origami. Trees fell and were undercut by a moving wall of blankness. The sky was cannon grey. Lightening spit from anvil clouds. Thunder hammered.

The Queendom was collapsing in on itself. 

Caroline flew to her castle. She mentally propelled herself so rapidly that her wings folded themselves in to avoid being ripped off. The metallic smell of destructive weather assailed her nostrils. The drawbridge was down. In front of it Simonale hopped from paw to paw. When she landed in front of them, they fell to the ground at her hooves.

‘My Princess, what is happening?’ they sobbed.

What could she say that would calm them? The end, it seemed, was well and truly nigh. She was paying the price for  treason. The dolphins were enacting a revenge crueler than if they had never entered her life. Reverting to her vegetative state was no punishment, just a return to normality. But to crush the Unicorn Queendom, this was to take away her real life. They were killing her.

She wailed, ‘They are punishing me for my betrayal. I’m so sorry.’ She collapsed to the ground. Her sobs lessened the cacophony around her. 

She felt a soft touch on her neck. Looking up, Simonale’s paws rested on her.

‘I feared as much,’ they said. ‘We are bereaved.’ They looked over their shoulder.

Caroline looked around. In the portcullis stood all the animals who had served her. All the different formations her imagination had created to populate this retreat. Many of them were holding on to one another for support. 

They are me, she thought. They are my mind, telling me that I will be truly alone now. I have murdered them with my own stupidity.

The annihilation was close now. She looked at the forest. It had lost its vibrant radiance. The greenery was lackluster, as if leeched out. She saw taller trees behind the fringe fall away, as if scythed down from behind. 

‘It comes!’ yelled Simonale.

No! she thought. I will not allow it, not here. This is mine. I have the power here.

She summoned all the magic inside her. It came, and she directed it into her horn. An expanding hemisphere of shining radiance swelled out around the castle. The destruction stopped when the barrier blocked it. But she immediately felt the pressure building. Death was forestalled, but every second that they lived the wall grew heavier and more catastrophic. She knew that she could not keep the crushing at bay indefinitely.

She turned back to Simonale. ‘My faithful friend, I have failed you. Can you forgive me?’

‘Can you forgive yourself?’ Simonale replied. 

The mirror of Caroline’s soul bore the answer, and she wept bitterly. 

Cracks began to appear in her magical barricade. As seconds passed they grew wider, and the destruction spilled through  like water from a burst dam. As the power of her horn wavered and its light dimmed, her castle began to collapse,

Simonale stood up. ‘Farewell, Unicorn Princess Caroline,’ they said. They turned and ran on all fours to join the wailing hug under the portcullis. The massive keystone cracked and gave. In a waterfall of stone, Simonale and the rest were crushed. A shard of fire plunged into her heart. 

The destruction pushed hard against the weakening force of her barrier. She was the final part of its wrath. She tucked her head into her forelegs and clamped her eyes shut.

I shall not look at the final days of my salvation, she thought.

The pressure began on her body. She braced herself for the end. Her wings began to buckle. Her horn went dark, and she heard it snap. She had no magic left to feel its rendering. Her ribcage was crushed by power so strong it expelled the last of whatever passed for air in this place.

With the strength of will left to her, she summoned all that remained: heart, soul, dreams, pain, love, desire and regret. She molded them into a thought arrow and shot it into the destruction. She imbued it with her last word.

FINN!