Deeper into the town, most of the streets were curvy, rising up and down like steep hills in a way Loki had rarely seen before. Still, with all the ups and downs, Loki saw the tips of two high turrets from behind the hills. The turrets were incredibly high, almost reaching for the midnight clouds. Loki thought they must belong to the castle where the princess lived, but no matter how many streets he crossed, they still seemed far away, as if they changed places or something. This whole thing about the curving streets made him fell as if he were driving in a maze.
A flying newspaper spiraled in the air and landed in front of the Cadillac’s windshield. It fixed to the glass with its edges fluttering like a small bird. Loki was able to read the headline written in big read letters:
Welcome to Sorrow.
“Welcome me too much and I start worrying,” Loki muttered, leaning forward to read the paper’s date. It read July 26th, 1812; which didn’t make sense. He didn’t have enough time to make sure he read it correctly because the paper flew away as if it was a bird, flapping its wings in the air.
“It’s alright, Loki. It’s just a flying newspaper. Nothing to worry about,” he mumbled. “Remind yourself to tell Pickwick about it later.“
Loki noticed Carmen hadn’t played any music yet, which meant she was still scared.
He wondered if he should call Lucy so she could tell him how to reach the castle, and maybe ask her if there was a pet cemetery he could sleep in, but he decided it was too late in the evening. He checked the card Lucy had given him once more. It had an address of a school scribbled on the back: Rumpelstein High. He couldn’t help but wonder if Lucy’s family owned the school.
The address read 1812, Straw Street Nefilheim, but there was no one awake Loki could ask for directions. He assumed people in Sorrow went to sleep early, and decided to drive around, hoping he’d find the school so he could get some sleep in its parking lot—perhaps if an old woman attacked him while he slept and tried to hit him with a frying pan, he’d have a better excuse to call Lucy.
Loki heard faint humming voices in the empty streets, but no one was visible anywhere. There was something irresistible about the unseen voices, and it peaked his curiosity. Listening carefully, he heard children singing somewhere in the distance.
Loki hunched over the wheel, trying to make out the words to the faint song. They were definitely children; mostly young girls, he thought, but he didn’t recognize the song.
He tried to distract himself by reading the names of the scattered shops here and there. A restaurant’s sign caught his eye. It was called The Belly and the Beast.
“I feel hungry already,” he said as the singing voices returned.
He wondered why the children were out in the streets when everyone else was asleep. Were they practicing for a choir maybe?
The singing was accompanied by the sound of clicking shoes. It came from the narrower side streets, which were dimmer with a few flickering lamp-stands. It didn’t seem like a smart idea to investigate the narrower streets. What scared Loki the most were the things he couldn’t see. They frightened him, although he knew they were usually just a figment of his imagination.
The voices grew louder. Loki wondered if they were getting closer to him. He couldn’t make out the words, but it sounded something like:
One two,
Blah, blah, blah
Three four,
Tat, tat, ta
Loki’s curiosity peaked. He started looking for kids jumping rope. Why would children be jumping rope in the middle of the night?
Three four,
Taps on the floor
Five six,
Clicks, clicks, clicks
Instead of locating the children, Loki found himself in front of Rumpelstein High’s parking lot. It was a weird coincidence, but he parked Carmen nonetheless, forgetting about the singing girls. He needed to sleep so he rolled up the windows, locked the doors, leaned his seat back, and hugged his Alicorn ready to dream the night away.
***
An hour later, Loki’s eyes flipped open to the voices outside his Cadillac. He thought it was the squirrels and cats trying to talk to him again, but it wasn’t them. He was too tired to sit up and look outside—a little bit worried as well.
It was the singing children.
They sounded close enough they could knock on his window, but he decided to forget about them. If he looked outside and didn’t find them, he was going to freak out and keep searching for them all night. If he did see them, there was no way to be sure of what they would expect of him. He already had his share of goose bumps for one night.
Loki started counting sheep in the moonlit sky, preparing to sleep and snore the night away. He imagined sheep playing in a green field in Heaven, making their happy sounds: baa, baa ever after. It was a lovely image, and he wished it were true. He thought he wouldn’t mind if he were a sheep as long as he was forgiven and allowed back home. As he drowsed off, he spotted two black sheep, which the other sheep avoided. Closer, he discovered he was one of the two sheep, but he was already asleep before he could see who the other sheep was.
While snoring in his sleep, the song the children were singing slipped into his dream. He could finally hear the words while the kids clicked their feet to the beat:
Snow White one, Snow White two,
Sorrow was coming out for you.
Snow White three, Snow White four,
Black as night, go lock your door.