Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON TWO (Ongoing)

Part 1.15

PRESENT TIME
KADREA

The moon girl calls me, and I walk, through a dream of reality. Grass sponges beneath my bare feet.

I miss my mother. But you will play with me, won't you?

Yes, I will. Her loneliness is a sin. It blackens everything around her. A world without stars.

I will play with her till time's end. But there's something I have to do first, isn't there? Something to do with Maya.

Anxiety puddles in my stomach. It was something very important. Maya was trapped, because she'd been too close to Pandora's flowers. We're going to try and send her home in the morning to see if it will work. If not, we'll confine her to the cottage, away from those flowers, while I talk to Pandora. Maya had to be freed.

Anger pieces the night air. You're trying to take her away from me! Pandora shrieks. She is mine! I won't let you!

The silhouette of Naemar lurches into view. I find myself in a shadowed alley, Ignatius's roots swelling around me like giant sleeping worms.

"Pandora," I say gently, transmitting my voice telepathically as well as physically. "It isn't nice to keep Maya here. She doesn't belong to you. She misses her mother too."

Pandora's shriek tears through my veins. I miss my mother! I miss my mother! I miss my mother!

My head spins. There's moonlight in my skull.

Then nothing.

*

When I come to, my limbs are sticky and slow. I blink. No, not sticky. They have something stuck to them. That vine with the shrivelled brown flowers. Pandora's flowers. They're wrapped around my body, binding me to Ignatius's roots like a fly stuck to a web.

Beside me, a lump stirs. Pink hair peeks out from a tangle of vines.

"Maya," I breathe.

How did she get here? Did Pandora call her here? Why?

Stop it, or I'll break her. Pandora's voice is menacing , full of a spite I haven't heard before.

"Break her?" I repeat.

I break everything, Pandora explains, and there's sadness in her tone now. I didn't mean to break the people on the ship. I was only playing. But Mummy left me. I cried and cried. It was so long before another ship came. I played with them too, but they also broke.

By the Dark Witch. My breath hitches in my throat. Pandora wasn't lost on the moon. She was left there.

"Your parents left you on the moon."

Yes, Pandora sulks. Because I kept breaking people.

"Pandora...why don't you stop breaking people?"

I don't break them on purpose, she insists. I play with them and they break on their own.

"People aren't toys, Pandora."

There is silence on the other end. I wonder if she understands.

"Pandora, I'm sorry your parents left you. I don't want you to be lonely. But the way you stop being lonely is by making friends. I can be your friend if you like."

Friend? She's unsure, but I have an opening, and I'm going to use it.

"Yes. Friend. We can play together."

There's a long silence. I don't want you to play with me. I only want to play with you.

"Friends play together, Pandora. I play with you and you play with me. That's how it goes.