Mythlands: THE HEIST

Part Two: Dead and Buried

*** *** Weekend Write-In for 22nd Jun 2018 *** ***

"bury": In 500 words, tell what happens when it's buried

Maria watched from a distance as events unfolded - this could go one of two ways. Either her lord and master, the Mouse, triumphed and achieved his ultimate goal of opening the portal to all realities ...or not. If her lord won, she would be able to go back to the mortal realm ... Oh it wouldn't be the same as the version of 1930's England that she had come from - the lost home that she had once thought of as 'real' - it was in fact just part of a story. She would never see it again, but still ... the real England, even in the 21st century. She could do very well there - she had always been ahead of her time, but her sisters and her brother, they never did get her.

It was why she had to kill them. Well, that and the power. She had wanted it, you see, but her three siblings and their friend, the boy entrusted with the power - they were too full of stupid ideas like honour and nobility. They had stood in the way of her achieving her maximum potential - that was the way the Mouse had explained it, when he'd found her and taken her under his wing after Loki had released all the evil.

Even before she had sworn her service to the almighty Mouse and taken her place as number two to Captain Lochs, even before then - way before then, she had seized the power, killing her friend, the trusting boy and two of her siblings in the process. For a moment she saw Peter's face contorting as she pulled on the garrote. Her brother had died protecting his friend - died trying to keep her from her destiny.

She had killed and buried one sister before the others found out - then the boys had to die and the prize was hers. One sister had survived and hunted her - it was many decades before their final battle occurred - by then her sister had hunted her for close to sixty years - sixty Mythlands years. By then her sister had reached 20 years of physical age - Maria had taken a long time to outgrow her childhood - Mouse had explained that the mortals who knew her story saw her as a wild little girl with a bob cut and fringe and that in order to grow, her will must be stronger than that perception.

Maria still had the haircut - she wore it as a mark of defiance, but her will was fierce and slowly she had aged. She thought she was about 19 now - she had been 18 five years before when she'd killed her last sister, just around the time that the vault had let out the creatures and powers of the night and the apocalypse had begun.

The rabbits! They were attacking the portal - trying to stop Mouse and his forces from summoning more demons - demons from other realities and hells - demons the Mouse sought to control and manipulate.

The one with the eye patch and shotgun ... looked like a hero! Maria hated heroes. Her sister was a hero ... and her sister had painted her the villain. Blonde, beautiful, carrying a shot gun just like the muscular one eyed version of The Hare. Wearing her damn trench coat and those leather boots ... she'd lost though. Maria had killed her and left her corpse for someone else to bury.

Someone flitted by - Maria had gone small but this was a fey. She gasped in recognition! Ariel was joining the attack, helping the rabbits and the winged horse. The rabbits had been taken by surprise when their friend appeared - when he had hulked up to become the other super strong giant rabbit man, merged and warped by the magic of the master - All hail the glorious Mouse!

Maria kept watching - she had her orders. If the Mouse's forces looked like losing, she would obey - she would use the box and go back.

'Ho ho ... I rely on you hah hah, Ms Jones,' her master had said. 'My hah hah enslaved magic mirror ho ho, has told me, ha hah. I will win ho ho, but it never hurts to ... ho, have a failsafe. You're my ho ho, failsafe Ms Jones.'

She knew what she had to do if it came to it - the box that she cupped in her hand, gave her powers - go small, go swift ... but it did one other thing.'

'Only use the power if all is ho ho, lost,' the Mouse had said. 'Go back to when it began ho ho ... and give him this hah hah!'

Mouse had handed her the memory stick - it contained all his thoughts and a recorded history. She was to deliver it into his hands ... the younger Mouse would know what to do with it. She could only use the box one way - into the past. But so short a jump would mean she wouldn't get lost - it would also mean she got to kill her sister all over again. 

'Jemima,' she whispered. Then the names of the long dead - the boys, Kay and her brother Peter. Then her dead sister. 'Susan.' They and all the others, she had killed long ago, to get her box and all its delights.

But Jemima ... she quivered at the thought of their reunion.

Something was happening - the big one had smashed one of the others into the maw of the portal. A girl ... a girl rabbit!

One eyed Hare was screaming and reaching out. 'COTTONTAIIIIILLLLLL!'

Maria kept on watching - soon she would know what choice she had to make.