The Mind Behind The Beanie || ✔

Vines, Vines, Vines

(Comment your favorite vine reference!)

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~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

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We ran after the spiral.  We ran and ran and ran.  We followed around street corners, across intersections, and into fields of flowers. The spiral was so fast, we couldn't keep up with it. It stopped eventually and we struggled to get there before any real damage was done. 

But it had been too fast.  NYC was covered in vines by the time we got there.  Alex was sitting under the New Year's Eve Ball, crying her eyes out. This was not a good predicament.  There was nothing we could do to control her emotions and no one who could control her.  So she just spiraled out of control. Literally. 

"I see her!" Conner said, ad I seriously wondered if that boy needed to get his eyes checked.  He always noticed things after me. "She's up there under the New Year's Eve Ball!"

The lion statues, who had previously been guarding the library, jumped down from where Alex was.  the impact was so strong it rattled Time Square and left paw prints in the gravel.

"Alex, I know you're experiencing unimaginable pain right now, but it's very important you listen to us," Emerelda called to the roof. "The curse you're under stems from a very powerful and very evil magic mirror. It's making you think things that aren't true, feel emotions that aren't real, and it's disturbing your point of view.  As difficult as it is, you can't trust anything your body or mind is telling you.  The magic has only one purpose: to destroy everything its host holds dear.  If you let it deceive you, all will be lost."

After more altercations passed between them, Alex made her way down to us. 

"Not so fast!"

Morina walked out from around the corner and stood next to the lion statues. All the progress we had made with Alex disintegrated when Morina appeared.  The curse took over her gain, returning her to Morina's command. 

"Why can't you people just stay where I leave you?" she asked. 

"Let my sister go, Morina!" Conner shouted at her. 

"Sorry, but no can do," she said. "I've got big plans for your sister, but sadly, you'll just have to take my word for it- none of you will be alive by the time we're through."

I wished I had brought my licorice whip, whatever that wouldn't be done to help the situation.

"Alex," she said. "Hold down your friends so we can finish what we started."

Alex nodded and waved her hand over Time Square.  The vines previously on the ground sprouted up and took each of us to billboards and signs all over Time Square and held us there.

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~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

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Well, not a ton happened. Besides Red defeating Morina with her hand mirror.  And Red and Froggy getting married.  And Mother Goose officiating the marriage from under the pinning of a giant lion statue. Nothing besides that happened. 

After the ceremony, Jack helped to get us down and we started strategizing.  Alex was now loose in NYC with nothing to hold her down.  The witches had gone back to The Land Of Stories, and Morina was dead.  No one else here had the power over her curse, unfortunately.

"What do we do now?" I asked as Alex flew away, destroying Manhattan in her wake. 

"We need to get off this island and regroup with the others," Conner said. "Now that she's been ordered to destroy the Otherworld, Alex isn't going to stop until we break the curse."