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

CHAPTER 78: DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR

"Mary, the world wants to know. Tell us how you won the rights to your mother's music."

"The hallway walls absorbed them; that's where she always birthed her first soulful hums."

"Didn't that building crumble and a new one take its place?"

"Yes, but the rubble hid itself where they would least suspect."

"The famous one-storey building everyone's talking about. That's where the evidence was?"

"For many years, yes. It's almost as if time froze so I could go in search of it."

"So, to be clear, it wasn't the three-storey building where we all thought it was?"

"No, it was the one deep in the forest. Its path was barred by barbed wire and thorns."

"And now that you've found it, how does it feel?"

"Humbling."

"I can just imagine." The serpent exhales. "So what will you do with your life now?"

"Enlighten others. Help them find whatever treasure they lost. That way Ebony can live on in someone worthy of her greatness."

"Any chance the world will get the same soulful songs out of you one day?"

"I intend to walk my own path."

"Well, thank you for coming on our show."

"Thank you for choosing me."

"Any time."

Now the scenery changes to a small dark room. I know because I feel as if the darkness is cramming me into the ground. My audience has disappeared; the serpent too. Yet I can sense another presence beside me. And then it whispers to confirm my suspicions.

"Hello."

In the pitch darkness of the room, my head turns to follow its voice.

"Yes."

"What do you want out of life?" the voice continues to whisper.

"I don't know. Who wastes time worrying about that?"

"Dreamers do. They do it all the time."

"Good for them," I say after a long pause. "Maybe their dreams don't cost much."

"Stop worrying about money. Money's like the wind. It blows wherever it wants."

"That's the kind of foolish talk I hear every day. Good thing I don't have time to waste."

"Time? See, that's why you have no money. You're stuck in time."

"A dark room and a strange voice. I'd feel much better if I know who I'm talking to."

"You already know. Listen harder and it'll come to you."

It has to be one of the witches from my dream. I dredge my memory to pinpoint which one.

"Is it Raea?"

The voice splashes both ears with water then speaks again.

"How about now?"

I would recognize her from a mile off. The way it beats down on a tin roof from light to heavy.

"Kat? But why?"

"I can become any of them whenever I want. You can too, if you learn how."

Now the scenery changes again. I can see Kat's shadowy form. She is three feet away from me; her red eyes switching to white then red and white again. But we're no longer in a room. We're standing atop a flat rock – more like a stone, and surrounded by an almost motionless ocean. A stark reality hits me that I'm not in control.

"Tell me what kind of life you really want."

I take furtive glances at my surroundings. There's no land mass for miles. Come on, Mary. Play this one cool until you reach civilization.

"What, what do you want to know exactly?"

"Let's start small," she says. "What can you do?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"What are you good at?"

"Well, the only thing I've ever done was odd jobs here and there."

"Did you learn anything about yourself on those jobs?"

"Like what?"

"I know you left all of them. What happened to make you leave?"

"The same old story. Nothing new. Just advantageous evil people everywhere I go."

"And you stood up to them, didn't you?"

"Then I had to leave." I sigh. "Is there a reason you're bringing this up?"

"Yes, there is Mary." Kat moves towards me. "You're good at standing up to bad people."

"Yeah, right," I chuckle, "and then I have to run for my life."

"Not after you enter that building."

"I'll stop running? Just like that?"

"Not only will you stop. But you'll flip the script and chase whatever chases you."

"All just from entering a building?"

"Exactly."

"Look! I'm just in this to find hidden treasure."

"And you'll find it."

Suddenly, she disappears again. I look up at the starless sky then down at my hands. A purple and blue mist is making my fingertips glow like neon lights. I wave them around as a ballerina would and the colours blow into the night. Amazing! Am I now a fairy?

Kat returns, with the ocean's fierce howl in the backdrop, and transforms from a shadow to lightning. Electricity dances before my eyes. And as she moves closer, my eyesight weakens with each step. But I can still feel her presence towering above me. Like a hint of evergreen.

"Hello," she says, back to the whispery voice. "Take my hand."

Darkness falls upon us again. I step forward anyway; then stop and feel around.

"Where are you?"

She laughs.

"Can't you smell me?"

"The evergreen?"

"And the other thing?"

I sniff the air. Nothing.

"Stop it! I don't like this."

"How can it be that you fear both the darkness and water that once nurtured you?"

"I only fear what I can't see."

"Mary, if it's the darkness you fear, you'll never be able to create anything."

I am about to respond but feel a tugging on my hand; then a bolt pushes me out of my skin.