Kingdom Keepers: Once Upon a Dream

Chapter 22

A/N: I was listening to "So Close" while re-reading over this to publish it here so that was...a time. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter!!!

***

45 minutes later, the four soon-to-be criminals walked hurriedly through the Magic Kingdom. They weren't doing anything wrong yet of course, but they avoided eye contact with as many people as they could in anticipation of the nervousness that was about to come.

"Explain to me what this plan is again?" Finn asked as they continued down Main Street.

"I called Dell while we were on our way over to you," Jess explained. "He managed to get a schedule of the security checks after closing. We're going to work around that."

"Work around it?"

"We'll hide in one bathroom and leave just before they check it, then carefully head to a bathroom that they've already checked. Then we wait there and we're thinking we should be in the clear by 2:30," Amanda said.

"Locks?!"

"I can open those with my powers."

Finn stopped to process everything that had just been said, but the girls kept watching. Realizing he'd fallen behind, he jogged to catch up to them.

"How do you expect to not get caught?!" he exclaimed.

"Is he always this squeamish?" Mattie asked, and the three girls shared a laugh. Finn was beginning to feel that he was in over his head.

***

Finn had never realized that the Magic Kingdom was never silent...until it was. Sitting in the women's bathroom between Adventure and Frontierland, he was acutely aware of the fact that the entire place was almost completely devoid of sound. All he could hear was the sound of breathing, and the ticking of his watch; it made time stand still. He didn't know how long he'd been sitting here, but it felt like forever.

His head turned to Amanda, who was sitting a bit apart from him with her knees pulled in close to her. She looked solemn, like she was deep in thought about something.

"You okay?" he asked.

She startled slightly as she looked over at him, like she was surprised by his being there, but she eventually smiled lightly and exhaled through her nose before looking over to her right, where Jess and Mattie leaned against the other wall that formed the corner they were all sitting in, laying with their eyes closed on each other's shoulders.

"I kinda had it shoved in my face tonight that I'm a pretty shitty friend," she said hardly, looking at the floor. "Forget sister."

Her gaze turned back over to Jess and Mattie, where it stayed. Finn had never seen her this vulnerable.

"Hey," he said, struggling to find the right thing to say. "Don't beat yourself up. I'm sure it's not that bad. I know you."

"You haven't known me long enough," Amanda said, a cry coming to her voice.

Seeing her this way stirred something in Finn and his gut wrenched. He searched for a moment for what to say, then scooted closer to her.

"If it helps," he said. "I'm not feeling much better about myself. I just realized that I've spent the last few years treating my family like garbage so..."

He sunk further into the floor and slid his hands back through his hair. The entire reality of the realizations he'd come to that night were weighing on him.

"You?" Amanda scoffed. "Please."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"The great Liam Kane not being close to his family? Highly unlikely."