Page 46 of The Wonder of You
She looks over at me and Maudie and sniggers.
“Get inside!” Phoenix shouts at me, panic spreads across his face, but everything happens too fast.
“Start now!” Claudia says as a wicked smile takes her features. The witches start cursing words I do not understand, their arms begin lifting in the air in union. I look around at everyone in panic, they all seem as confused as me. But then Claudia utters a spell that somehow manages to shock my body as if I’ve been electrocuted.
Pain ripples through me.
“Kill the woman!” she hisses, “She will live again, but she’ll forget this hell and find a new one, whileheremembers everything! That this ishisfault! Then kill the child! No child should live as a clown!”
The witches begin to chant and cackle, their focus turning to Maudie and I. It’s as if time goes into slow motion when the ground opens beneath me. I hear Phoenix and Lukas scream. A noise that will haunt my dreams if I ever make it out of this alive.
My feet slip, dragging me into the large hole that looks like an entrance to a fire pit. I push Maudie violently away from me. She almost goes flying and I know I will have bruised her; I hope she forgives me, but I have to save her. I’m certain I will fall to my death.
But Phoenix grabs my hand before I fall and my bladder feels like it might release itself as it really hits me what is going on; I am dangling into a fire pit that has opened itself in the middle of the circus.
“Welcome to the final show!” Claudia shrieks.
I hear Maudie scream out my name but my eyes revert to Phoenix. His pupils are dilated and they dart around me in panic, searching for a way to rescue me.
“Don’t let go,” he begs, tears running down his cheeks.
“Phoenix, I don’t think I can hold on,” I cry out. He tries to pull me up, but it’s not working. A stronger force than either one of us is dragging me down toward hell. Lukas rushes to hold onto Phoenix as extra weight to attempt to pull me up.
It’s not working.
Am I going to die?
I look down as my legs wobble around. This hole looks like it goes on forever but I can see the orange flames below, like hands dancing upwards with a desperate desire to grab my feet and take me with them.
This is the end.
I look back at Phoenix.
“Don’t forget me,” I cry. Tears are falling from my eyes as I see the fear on Phoenix’s face. He grits his teeth in desperation.
“You’re not going anywhere, just hold on.” He strains himself to pull me up again, but he isn’t strong enough. He’s not strong enough even with Lukas trying to help, even with Toni who can lift a fully grown man above her head trying to help too. I think it’s part of the spell the witches set upon us.
I can’t be saved.
My hand starts slipping. I so desperately want to hold onto Phoenix. To feel his skin on mine. No, no, no, thiscan’tbe the end.
We were sat drinking coffee this morning, assuming we had forever together and now… now I am dangling into a fire pit facing certain death, all because some witches didn’t get their own way.
I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping this is a bad dream and anytime soon, I’ll wake in Phoenix’s arms as he reassures me everything is okay. He’ll tell me to repeat his words like he always does, knowing it settles me down to say it out loud.
But everything is far from okay and I can’t bear to hear him screaming,
“Help!” he begs to everyone. His voice breaks my heart, it sounds so weak and childlike. But theyarehelping, everyone is trying to save me. Everyone I love is here.
“I love you, Phoenix,” I whimper.
I remember the glow in his eyes when I first met him.
I use my other hand to grab onto Phoenix’s arm, trying to pull myself up him like a rope.
We ran away together; from everything I knew. From darkness into glowing lights.
I scream as I try with all my might to lift myself. Phoenix’s face is bright red with the strain he is putting into trying to pull me up. Other hands try to reach me, but I can only focus on Phoenix.
