The Magic Tree House - An Hour for Oblivion

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Though darkness had nearly consumed the entire kingdom of Camelot, Vortigern’s plan of destruction was ultimately doomed to fail.

What he counted on was the fact that the “Creator” would no longer put her pen to paper. This uncertainty allowed him to exploit the eventual end of their world. It was the power of Mary’s stories and the complex web of imagination spanning millions of children reading her words that kept Camelot viable.

What Vortigern didn’t count on was outside intervention, or (perhaps) internal intervention. There were many worlds and he knew this. Worlds within and outside his own realm. So the “Creator” opened her favorite pen again, reread the words she had abandoned. Letter after letter, word after word, she breathed life back into a realm crafted within intersecting world-lines, blurring the boundary of fantasy and reality.

You know where you reside, don’t you? Or do you?

As each word is spelled out, the reader begins to understand what is happening. You now read these very words and take a deep breath and wonder what the villain will do next.

*     *     *

Vortigern rose from a dry and dust-caked ground. The location is nowhere and everywhere. This is the end, he thinks, smiling sadistically. But wait. There’s something at his feet.

A single blade of grass.

Impossible, he thinks. This is a world ending, not one breathing life anew.

Another blade, then another. Behind him, a thin river of green sprouts, running up the side of a hill.

Then a tree. An oak sapling. Small at first, but growing.

“No!” he screamed aloud. “Stop!”

But, of course, it did not.

*     *     *

Sunshine sliced through the darkness of the basement like a hot steel knife through snow.

Teddy and Kathleen, huddled together in a corner, winced in pain, squeezing their eyes shut.

Sunlight? they thought. Had there ever been sunlight in Dark Creek?Kathleen stood and moved cautiously toward the light, Teddy close behind. All sounds from the woman above had ceased.

When they reached the light, they saw that it was hidden behind stained and crusted glass.

“A window?” Teddy asked, laughing. He reached out and scratched a fingernail against it. Dirt and grime peeled off. He rubbed harder, allowing more sunshine to make its way through. “I never knew there was a window down here,” he added.

Kathleen smiled. “It was too dark before,” she said. “The only place we could see outside were the bars.”

When Teddy was done exposing the pane, he said, “I think it’s big enough to crawl through. It’s jammed, though.”

Kathleen glanced around, then brought up a broken wedge of rotting wood.

“Stand back,” she advised.

*     *     *

Mary turned the page in her notebook.