“Turn off the car’s light!” a band member whimpered.
Loki turned off the dashboards light, slipped under his blanket, and hugged his Alicorn. One of the things he wanted to go back home for was the possibility he’d end up hugging a girl he loved at night instead of an Alicorn.
He started counting sheep again. After sinking into sleep, he saw two black sheep. All the other sheep were baa baaaing at the two outcasts. He knew he was one of the two black sheep, and wondered who the other one was. Was it his dark shadow from the past, the one Charmwill had told him about, or maybe Snow White, the vampire princess herself?
Loki stopped dreaming and slept soundly to the melody.
Zzzz. Zaa. Zoomm.
It was hard to tell what time it was when Loki woke up again later in the night. Tucked under his blanket, eyes heavy, he noticed the Pumpkin Warriors had stopped snoring. The night was silent as the dead.
Loki wasn’t ready to wake up, so he decided to roll over on his other side and continue sleeping.
Then he heard something.
“Row, row, row your boat,” a girl with a sweet voice was singing outside his car.
Loki’s eyes sprang open. These weren’t the little girls singing this time. He knew the girl’s voice. It was the same sweet voice he’d heard tonight, and he doubted he’d ever forget it the rest of his life. It was Snow White’s voice.
“Gently down the stream,” she sang.
Loki was afraid to look through his window and find her waiting for him outside. Had she followed him?
He held his Alicorn ready, wondering how close she was.
“Horribly, horribly, horribly,” she hummed happily. “Now it’s time to scream.”
Loki straightened up slowly, wiping the sticking fog from his window. As he moved, he noticed Carmen was loose and shaky as if not standing on stable ground. He looked outside the window, and the situation became all too clear. The parking lot had turned into the Swamp of Sorrow, and his Cadillac was floating in the middle like a lily pad.
A shriek argued its way out of him. The swamp stretched as far he could see. There were no street lamps, no school, and no parking lot.
“Don’t forget to scream,” Snow White repeated the last part again, but she still sounded angelic, not scary.
Loki saw her rowing in another canoe, which was actually a white swan. She was in her normal, beautiful girl form, dressed in white with that red ribbon in her hair. There was no blood spattered on her face, and she wasn’t flashing her fangs. She was just a pretty girl, rowing away in a dirty swamp.
Turning her head toward Loki, she looked surprised he was there with her.
“Loki?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
Loki shrugged.
What is going on?
“How did the parking lot turn into a swamp?” he said.
“What are you talking about?” she wondered. “Did you come here to help me? To save me?”
Her voice was ripping Loki’s heart out. It was smooth, vulnerable, pleading for help. She reminded him of the squirrel he’d saved; a small helpless being, waking up every day, looking for a nut, but forced to live among Minikins, monsters, and vampires. Every moment of every day, it had to escape the danger of the monsters that overshadowed it so it could live in peace.
“What a ridiculous metaphor,” Loki knocked on his head as if it were a nut he wanted to break open and fix.
“Did you say something?” Snow White blinked, her cheeks blushing red. She had eager doe eyes that made one want to sacrifice themselves just to protect her to protect her—but only when she was normal like now.
“No,” Loki shook his head. “I’m in the mumbling business. I mumble to myself all the time.”
“I noticed,” she laughed.
Her laugh made Loki want to throw away his Alicorn and dance on the water of the swamp while rain poured on him.
“I mumble to myself a lot, too,” she said. “I am lonely you know—“
This isn’t right, Loki. This just isn’t right. Think of a way to cross over and kill her now. She’s sparing your life so she can make fun of you. She’s a bratty princess who wants to have some fun with her next victim. She knows your weakness.
“But I prefer to sing instead of talking to myself,” she continued. “I know a lot of songs.”
“Enough,” Loki shouted, waving his hands nervously in the air. He was kind of silencing her, and silencing the annoying voice in his head that compelled him to disbelieve his eyes and kill her. “Back in the castle, you said you want me to save you.”
Snow White’s face changed. She looked worried, but nodded her head reluctantly.
“From who?” Loki asked.
Snow White didn’t reply. She looked appalled as if something was going to jump out of the water and pull her down. She only shook her head ‘no.’
Loki understood that she wasn’t going to answer him. “If I come closer, will you be able to whisper it to me?” Loki said as he lowered his voice, too.
No, don’t come closer. It’s a trap!