Sacrifice for a Wish

Chapter 19

The sight of the small man made me nervous. If I had the energy to decipher my emotions, I would have realized that this man always made me nervous, "Mr. Green, what are you doing here?"

He laughed, and the sound for some reason made him grow. His body and face changed into something that was incredibly different then my history teacher.

"I'm glad you came," the man who was not Mr. Green laughed.

I crab walked backwards as I started to realize who I was looking at. I wondered if the fever I had was adding to the insanity that was Mr. Green. He stood at almost seven feet tall, his head scraping the ceiling of the office. It had to be the fever that was causing me to hallucinate because the image of the monster kept being transposed over the face of a beautiful man.

"If she would just give me what I want, we could go back. I could save them all," he growled.

I could see the man Morgana had transformed him into, a beautiful man with blue eyes that matched Rose's. He had black hair and pale skin. He didn't look that much older than me. He looked like a fallen angel with his beauty. But over the image of an ethereal man was a monster. His tongue was long and serpent like and split in the middle. His teeth were the sharpest of fangs and he had several rows of them. His brown leather shoes were replaced by hooves. He stood hunched over on two back legs that were ungulates, and above that he had a tail that was longer than he was. It was so big that I wondered how it fit into the small outer office. I saw him whip it back and forth in agitation and realized that his monster visage was purely an illusion.

Dark grey fleshy wings sprouted from his back and his hands were curled into claws. His face, covered in scales also had multiple tentacles that grew each side like the whiskers of a cat. When he bent closer to me, I could see spines growing down his back. The sockets of his eyes were a deep set and jet black, and a brilliant red shone from the centers.

Whether his monster self was an illusion or reality, it was still terrifying to look at. "No one sent me. I just want to bring Dahlia home."

"She's my daughter!" The Jabberwocky roared

If he were going to hurt me, he would have done so already. With the bravery the fever gave me, I responded, "So was Rose but you hurt her."

The monster roared and I closed my eyes. I could feel the warmth of fire from his breath on my face and I could smell the smoke along with some other scent. I took a deep breath and almost choked on the added smell, sulfur.

I kept my eyes closed and connected to the magic that sang all around us. I could see the outline of the Jabberwocky clearly. Seeing with my magic was a lot like getting prescription glasses for the first time and everything came into focus. I could see the Jabberwocky so much better than before, and what I saw made me gag.

Chunks of the Jabberwocky were rotting off. He had open sores all over his magical body. The sores were red, swollen, and oozing pus. It appeared that the magic was eating his body from the inside, and it wasn't being nice about it.

The smell of sulfur and rotting flesh was overpowering and made me nauseous. A few seconds of breathing it in, I leaned over and vomited on the carpet.

As I was trying to catch my breath, I felt a claw run down my cheek. When I looked up, I saw the Jabberwocky watching me, his eyes glowed bright. I could tell he was trying to be gentle but the claw scratched my cheek open.

It was all too much, and I screamed. Through my screams I could hear a growling from the doorway and through my tears I saw Bandersnatch.

"No, Bandersnatch, run!" I pleaded with my cat.

Bandersnatch paid me no heed though, just kept his cute little kitten eyes trained on the Jabberwocky. I saw the Jabberwocky's eyes get big with terror.

When I turned back around my kitten was gone and, in his spot, stood a 12 foot long, 300-pound purple cat with pink stripes and whiskers that sparkled. I gasped in astonishment, somehow, I knew that this gigantic cat was my Bandersnatch.

Bandersnatch growled at the Jabberwocky and bared his fangs. The Jabberwocky turned to face Bandersnatch, his claws extended and his own fangs dripping with what looked like green glowing venom, his tentacles thrashed in agitation. When he turned to battle Bandersnatch, his tail that I had thought was just a projection of his true self, hit me in the head. I yelled out in pain, but as I tried to stand to help Bandersnatch my world faded into darkness, and I sunk into its cool embrace.