The Last Flower on Earth

Fantasies of Magic

I open my eyes only to see the roof of the bunker, my head is killing me.

Looking around the room without getting up I see the bottle of pills Emma found with the cap unscrewed and a half-full glass of water beside it.

I notice that Emma is asleep on the other couch.

What happened?

My memories are so foggy, I was in The Waiting Room again. Clair was there, she said that I have a hidden power and that I have a job to do. I hold my head as pain pulses through it. The pain keeps me glued to the couch.

Emma is sound asleep.

I fight the pain and take an ibuprofen.

Once I sit down on the couch ready to go to sleep again Emma wakes up.

"Morning, or night, I don't know." I finish off the water as she wakes herself up.

Emma blinks a couple of times and wipes her eyes. She realizes that I'm up and rushes over. "Oh Connor, is everything alright? Are you doing fine?" Oh Connor? Did I forget something? Last time I checked the first thing you say to an injured person is 'hey bro, what the hell happened to you? You look like shit' or 'You went down pretty hard, you alright'? Perhaps the movies and shows aren't realistic.

"Except for the fact that it feels like my head is about to explode I'm good, I took a headache pill so I'm waiting for that to kick in." I rub my eyes in hope for the minor migraine to subside. "What the hell happened before I passed out. I can't remember a thing."

She holds my hands. "We ran as the building began to collapse, which trapped the Hate Demons. You tripped and went down really... elegantly. I dragged you back right before night fell."

"Well, my head sure does feel like it went down elegantly. How long was I out for?"

"I dragged you back, wrapped up your head, gave you one of those Provigil pills and now we're here." I notice the pain in my head slowly fading away.

"The ibuprofen is working now." I lay myself down. "I'm going to close my eyes, you can keep talking."

After I woke up again, I found Emma leaning over a map of the city and a book on her lap. "So, if we go here-."

"Could you please explain what you're doing?" I sit up to see her drawing over the map with a pencil crayon. "That's the only one I got."

"The only pencil crayon?"

"Map, the only map I got." The headache is completely gone now but I assume it is going to be coming right back around at this rate. "Why are you drawing on the map?" The 'a' in 'map' is drawn out as much as I could muster... which isn't exactly much.

"My mom used to tell me the story of a mystical place called 'The Place Where Wishes Come True', and this storybook also talks about it." Emma flips a page of the book.

"The Place Where Wishes Come True is a common fairy-tale which tries to get kids outside more." Emma draws another line.

"I believe it because the book gives me a rough location for it, it's a fair bit west."

I shake my head. "Emma, you're great and all, and a pleasure to be around. But for the first time in our time together I feel disappointed enough to call you out on it. It's a fairy tale, an urban myth even, either way, it's fictional and should be treated as such." I look over the map.

"This route wouldn't even work."

I walk away. "But Connor, I believe this, I believe in this. This can be a way to a better future for us! In The Place Where Wishes Come True-."

I cut her off. "Nothing can die. I was read the book as a child as a good night story, it was my personal favourite as I always wondered what my one wish would be."

"You should know then that all fairy tales have some base in reality, if we go then, we can see for ourselves!" She doesn't know something that I know all too well.

"Let's hypothetically say that we made it all the way to the industrial district, we didn't die from a collapsing building or hypothermia. The Hate Demons live in the forest, they live in shadows. We couldn't go past there." I continue walking away.

I don't believe in those fairy tales and urban legends of a magical place that grants you one wish, everything comes at a cost anyway, would it cost my soul?

I fidget around with an old laptop before Emma creeps down the stairs. "Connor?" She says with a nervous tone in her voice.

"Yes Emma?" The laptop doesn't work.

"I just wanted to know if you're still mad at me." Emma seemed sad about it, and I can understand.

"I could never stay mad at you. I was just having a hard time and my cool ran low." I turned the laptop back over and poke around at the components inside.

"I just wanted to tell you that I know exactly where the Place Where Wishes Come True is." Emma slowly approaches me, I motion her to continue talking. "It says that '[The Place Where Wishes Come True] was created during the late seventeenth century by an unnamed man within the forest by Burrard Inlet. The unnamed man sacrificed himself to create the place though documents around the world claim to have seen the [The Place Where Wishes Come True] at earlier dates.' That can only mean that it has magical properties."

I turn my seat to face her directly. "Is their firsthand evidence?"

Emma flips through a folder of papers. "An Arabic man by the name of Ayaan Salib reported that he was wandering through a forest and discovered a mysterious house, he found an old book and wrote his wish in it. He wished for 'His pet dog Bibi to come home.' And two days later he stepped outside his home and his dog was sleeping on the front porch. When he went to show the newscast the house it had miraculously disappeared."

"Alright? Is there any more?" I wish I hadn't asked that.

Emma flips to a different page. "'Mourning Mother claims magic is real after wish for missing sons return comes true.' Same magical house claim, same disappearing house trick." She smiles knowing full well she won.

"How many reports are there?"

"Ten that I have, the remaining are ancient writings and depictions of the structure. The Place Where Wishes Come True even has a cameo in Nabveris." She steps closer, folder under her right arm.

"Show me the papers." She hands me the folder and I scan everything over, and she is right, I can only find loopholes in four of the ten. And the ancient writings are definitely true to the illustrations the witnesses have claimed to see, and those drawings all look close enough that it has to be the same building.

"Guess we have to use the map then." Emma hops around in celebration knowing her case is solid enough that it might just be worth dying for.