Auchinmurn Isle
Present Day
Zach searched for Em in every room of the children’s floor of the Abbey as carefully and quietly as he could. He trusted that his movements were stealthy, and that he was opening and closing doors without much sound. He also knew from nights when he and Matt would sneak into the kitchen for slices of pizza or Jeannie’s cake which floorboards on the Abbey’s back staircase squeaked.
After a fruitless hunt in the kitchen, he moved across the foyer and into the library. Maybe she’d fallen asleep reading. It wouldn’t be the first time.
He had only taken a few steps into the room when an intense pulse of light exploded in his brain, dropping him to his knees. He squeezed his eyes against the pain and gagged at the taste of salt and seaweed in his mouth as the vision flickered in front of his eyes.
Em was holding the reins of a gilded seahorse as she drove a golden chariot across the bay. She was dressed like a warrior in silver chain mail, a steel-grey breastplate and a purple cape that matched the streak in her hair. A quiver of arrows hung from her shoulder. The cape was veined with threads of silver, and billowed out behind the ethereal-looking chariot. An army of smaller but equally resplendent seahorses in a rainbow of colours followed behind her.
The image disappeared in a flash, leaving Zach on the library floor with floaters dancing in front of his eyes. His nose was bleeding.
Wiping the blood with the hem of his T-shirt, he got to his feet and bolted from the library. He didn’t care about the pounding at the base of his skull or the blood at the back of his throat. He could sense Em at last, and his mind was awash in her pale violet light.
He knew exactly where he’d find her.
Zach burst back into Em’s bedroom, skidding across the sopping wet floor. Em was soaked and shivering, lying in a fetal position directly beneath the pulsing image of her comic-book drawing.
Zach gazed once again at the centre image of the warrior princess riding across the waves on her golden chariot. It was still pulsing with the energy and light from an animation.
Grabbing a blanket from the bottom of her bed, he stripped Matt’s soaked hoodie from Em’s body and wrapped her in the soft blanket. He was about to toss the hoodie aside when Em’s eyes snapped open.
‘No!’ she cried, grabbing it from Zach’s hand and pressing its soggy folds to her chest.
Shh, Em. It’s OK. It’s going to be OK.
Zach pulled her close as she shivered and cried, wrapping her tightly in his arms and sending calm and soothing thoughts into her mind. Em relaxed against him at last.
For a while they sat together on the floor of her room, saying and thinking nothing. Zach pulled a handful of long, sparkling silver threads from Em’s hair. When he brushed them to the ground, they sparked and fizzled, then disappeared.
Em opened her eyes and smiled up at him sleepily.
Hey.
Hey to you too. What happened? Where have you been?
Oh, Zach, I’m so happy to see you.
She lifted her hand and touched his chin, sending a jolt of electricity through him. He tugged out a fresh glittering strand of silver from her hair and held it before her eyes.
You fell out of your own comic book?
Em sat up, pulling the tarp tighter round her body, the light of memory in her eyes. She looked around the room at her familiar belongings. I just… imagined myself into it. And now I’m here. With you.
She grinned broadly at Zach. As her intense feeling of accomplishment flooded his mind, Zach returned her smile. It was impossible not to. Then he pulled her into a hug.
He pushed her away again almost at once.
Jeez, Em, you’re burning up. I need to get your mum.
Em’s teeth had started chattering. It’s the effort of animating by imagination. I’ll be fine. I just need to… sleep…
Her eyes rolled under her eyelids and she passed out.