THE 33 KEYS: Key 2 - ANSWER THE CALL "Listen for that Perfect Beat"

CHAPTER 77: GLUES OF TRAUMA

There are beings that lie in waiting, for all who make the call, to take them to high places and prepare them for the fall. And that's why they came for me. At least that's what I want to believe, instead of just being the girl who downed half a bottle of pills.

In fact, at this stage I can believe whatever I want. I can remember things the way I would've wanted them to happen, even. My mother was never Ebony-the-Great. Her sister never stole our castle. I never met anyone named Pete Falona. Lily never shot herself in the head. I was never born with smooth skin. Mary Pethiel was born like every other Dahlyxian, with rough skin that turned smooth when she hit her teens.

And Matron Caine never gave me any eviction notice. What eviction notice? What Matron Caine? What Bunny House? In here, I can reverse whatever bad thing I want. I can also undo the way I still feel about every single thing they did to me.

Feeling that enough time has passed though, I open my eyes again to see that the timer has hit thirty-two and the song has started up again. So I have no choice but to return to my madness.

In my mind, I jump off the cot and use my finger to draw a circle. Then I fill it with numbers minus the clock's hands. Because if I can reverse anything I want then I have become the hands of time. Thus I place a picture of myself in the middle of the circle to make it official. Then I break the hour glass and begin walking the way the witches taught me – anti-clockwise, imagining that I am killing, not me, but the Mary that Ebony created.

First I awaken from the coma she put me in. That mindset which imprisons me. Then once I am fully awake, the first thing I do is scrub all her precious camouflage off, The weakness she injected into my soul. The mask she specially prepared for me to wear. Even for those times when she wasn't around. And each time around that circle pumps my balloon up.

Now I have the strength needed for whatever comes next. All my darkness is finally fading. Very soon the dawn will throw its cloak off to beam down upon the brand new me. I look now towards the serpent for a reaction. It offers a smile of approval, and I smile too. For that means we can finally move on further down the road.

But now we're confronted by two buildings. One with three storeys. The other has one level. I recognize the Bunny House easily. But when I enter, everyone is gone. Not just gone, though. It's almost as if no one ever lived here. The walls are brand new. The rooms smell like a thousand orchids threw up on them. Butterflies float in and out at their leisure. Some of them encircling me as if they're trying to shove me out. As if I'm the intruder. I evade them and do my tiptoe run to the steps then look back and realize that they've disappeared.

Now the hallway ceiling disappears too. All of them. And I can see steps from the third floor leading to the roof. Suddenly I am back in Fantum's hole, waiting for the water to fill it and drown me. That's when the water chooses to put on its best performance. All these years I've lived here, and now it decides to burst the main.

It gushes out from the washroom with two arms, one of them pushing me to the left and out the building. The serpent is nowhere to be seen. So it's just the two buildings and me. Then it hits me why I couldn't make it to the third floor. Two always comes before three. No wonder I never reached my fullest potential in that Bunny House.

I skipped a floor; I missed a lesson. And it's the same thing with Ebony too. I was always her baby. When she died, I thought I had gotten hold of the prison key. And so I leapt to freedom as an adult. Then I realized that my body was ready; yet not my mind. Mary Pethiel wasn't ready to face the world whether medium or rare. She needed to be well done. So it's much more than just removing her makeup. Mary has got to inch her way to the top until her new leaves feel that first kiss from the purified sun.

"Are you ready for that, Mary?" the serpent reappears and asks.

So let me ask you too. Are you ready to walk backwards? Go around the circle taking each piece of dirty clothing off, one at a time? Are you ready to come unstuck from the glues of trauma? Okay then. Stay silent if you must. But as for me, I am definitely ready.

Before I begin though, I think of all the things I can say or do to wrap my mind around reversal. Then I focus on my picture and walk anti-clockwise around the circle again.

"13...12...11...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1."

"Z...Y...X...W...V...U...T...S...R...Q...P...O...N...M...L...K...J...I...H...G...F...E...D...C...B...A."

"Saturday; Friday; Thursday; Wednesday; Tuesday; Monday; Sunday."

"Pethiel Mary. Falona Pete. Paul Father. Dumont Marc. Ka...Li...Ma."

"That's it, Mary. Move like the earth; counter clockwise. Yes, backwards is good."

Once I put myself in a deep enough trance, I stand and stare at the one-storey building, and ask myself what I prefer to believe about it. I want to believe it holds a special treasure. One I've been searching for since forever. Then I imagine that I hid it from myself a long time ago. It was one of those times when Ebony left me alone with the castle thief, when all her money was gone and she had no choice but to return to her vomit.

Something moved me to do it. I don't know; maybe intuition. Andromalius did say that it was my one strength. Nevertheless, there was something about the castle thief that scared the living daylights out of me. So I dug up my treasure and ran off into the night. Along the way, I found this building and hid it inside one of the rooms.

Now all I have to do is find the courage to enter it and finally become rich again. I can win that lotto and buy Hazel a mansion. Never mind the priest already won it. This is my world, remember? I can undo everything and make it like I always wanted. So that's it! I'm going in. And when I'm done I'll just enter one more time......you know, to seal the deal.

I place one foot inside the one-storey building with the other firmly planted on safe ground.

"What are you looking for, my dear?"

"The life you promised to steal back for me."

"Ran out of patience waiting on me?"

"I just figured why use a hammer to kill a fly when I have a zapper on hand."

"So you're doing it without me then?"

"You've got a problem with that?"

"No problem at all," Andromalius clarifies. "Let me just get out of your way."

"Good, because I think it's in that room over there."

"They're all the same room to me, dear. But you go right ahead."

And as he says it, all the rooms become one big room with a table at the centre.

"Want to hold my snake?" he asks, and laughs.

"Why not!" I put on a brave face. "It won't bite, right?"

"This harmless little thing. Well; not the people it likes."

"And you're not just telling me that to fatten me for the kill?"

"I told you before. We never tell lies."

Then he disappears and the treasure map throws off its veil of darkness, and finds me first.