Within the Pages

Chapter 58

Chapter 58

We rush through the trees, the branches snagging against our clothes but not seeming to slow us down any. The laughter gets louder as we approach. When we finally get through to see her, I feel kind of relieved. My mother is looking forward into a swirling cloud of mist showing what looks like the land of Oz. The cloud shows high about the land of Oz, flying over the Munchkin village, featuring the small people trying to fix up their small town, repainting the scorched houses and placing a golden urn, most likely filled with Glinda's ashes.

My mother laughs, most likely about their ruined village. She travels along the path, heading to Oz. Even in her maddened state, I don't want her to see my father's body or my sister's ashes, probably put into an urn as well.

I jump out and use wind to push her backwards. The cloud disappears and she flies back, hitting a tree. She gets up with a groan, glaring at me. "That is not a nice thing to do to YOUR MOTHER!" She says, each word getting louder than the previous word. At the end of the sentence she flings me back with a huge blast of water before raising a piece of hard rock from the ground and throwing that right at me.

I raise more rock up and block her attack. "I don't think you should call yourself my mother after abandoning me all those years ago."

Her eyes flash with anger and she darts toward me moving as fast as lightning, smacking me and causing me to fly back, landing onto Goldilocks and Alice, both just standing back trying not to get caught in the crossfire. "Sorry." I moan out, teleporting myself back in front of my mother. I gather a ball of wind and water in my hand that I splash out against her. She falls back onto the ground. "You abandoned your own son to grow up without a mother or a father. Or even a sister."

She gets angry and throws herself at me. As we fall back I summon a swirling portal to Oz. We fall into it and hit the yellow brick road hard, rolling off in different directions. As we fall I take a quick glance at my watch. The screen is cracked but the time still shows. I have another 3 hours until the 48 hours is up. Will I really be able to fight her for another three hours? Probably not. I'm surprised she hasn't killed me yet.

The portal closes just as Alice and Goldilocks fall through. My mother looks at them and grins as she gets up. "Well well well Jack. You brought some friends for me to hurt as well."

Goldilocks looks up at her with surprise. I guess she was really hoping that she would be back to her original self. I would be too if I didn't have a plan for my mother to kill me at the 48 hours mark.

Just as my mom starts walking toward Alice and Goldilocks with that evil smirk on her face, the lion jumps out of nowhere and knocks her over. The claws scratch my mother's face. She glares, her eyes red with anger. With one look the lion floats in the air and flies into a tree. He groans and doesn't get up. Just after the impact my mother continues on towards Goldilocks and Alice. This time out of the trees, soldiers come from every direction pointing giant spears toward her and charging in. Holding both hands up she freezes time for everything, except me. Probably because I am powerful enough to evade it. I still slow down though as I try walking toward her. Thinking of using superspeed, I try speeding over, now only seeming to go just faster than regular speed. She sees me coming and teleports away somewhere, the soldiers unfreezing as she does. I just barely stop going super speed and narrowly miss a guard. The guards look around quickly, not knowing what happened.

"Damnit!" I yell out loud, making the nearby soldier jump. I might not find her before my time is up.