King Luke sat on his throne, gazing over the sea of Red, Blue and Green. The entire Floor was camped in the desert ahead of him—millions of them. It was beautiful…and it was all because of him.
“Your Majesty?”
Malcolm stood beside him on the wooden platform, back in his rightful place as king’s advisor, and thankfully wearing clothes.
“The girl wishes to talk to you.”
“Girl?”
“The angry one, Your Highness.”
Luke nodded. “Ah, Ivy! Send her up.”
There weren’t many people who were allowed onto King Luke’s special platform—he had insisted it be that way since everyone had started bothering him with questions for the Great One. When will my children get married, should I invest in a new house, do trousers suit me better than shorts…they just kept coming. At first Luke had refused to accept any questions, but when people started offering him gifts to do so, he was hardly going to object, was he?
Ivy stormed up the steps, shoving Malcolm out of the way.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.
Luke was surprised. “What do you mean?”
Ivy held out her arms.
“The special platform you made people build for you? The gifts? The throne? Making Miss Binkles an advisor?”
She pointed at Miss Binkles, who was curled up on a plush gold cushion beside the throne and wearing a small crown.
“Ivy, be reasonable!” said Luke. “People need someone in charge until the Great One comes back. The Red Queen’s gathering the rest of the Floor and the Bin King ran away, so that leaves me. And I’m the one who reunited the tribes, aren’t I?”
Ivy laughed bitterly. “Do they look reunited to you, Luke?”
She pointed to the sea of tents stretching out ahead of them. It was true—when people had first started gathering in preparation for the Great One’s return, all the tribes had mixed together. But slowly, as more and more people arrived from across the Floor, they’d started forming separate camps. You could see the boundaries between them now—three huge expanses of Red, Green and Blue.
“People still don’t trust each other!” said Ivy. “Fights are breaking out along the camp borders, and you’re doing nothing to stop them!”
Luke rolled his eyes.
“People need time to become comfortable with each other, Ivy. One hour ago, you’d never have seen a Blue and a Green camped within even an inch of each other! That’s progress.”
He sat back down on his throne.
“Besides, I’ve already organized a police force to stop the fights at the borders—”
“You did,” said Ivy angrily. “And they’re all Blues.”
Luke blinked. “Well, of course. I can trust them.”
Ivy was shocked.
“Luke, what’s happened to you? You told me you wanted a world without rulers. Now it’s like you’ve forgotten what your quest was! You’ve turned into—”
“The Bin King, Your Majesty.”
Luke and Ivy spun round. Malcolm was pointing behind them.
“He has returned.”
A squadron of warflies droned through the air toward them, trembling the tents with the flapping of their wings. Luke could see the Bin King at the front, sheepishly waving a white flag. His warfly lowered to the platform, and he stepped off, along with a handful of fly riders. Miss Binkles growled at him.
“So!” said Luke. “You’ve finally come crawling back. What do you want, Bin King?”
The Bin King looked mortified. “Er…can we do this somewhere private, please?”
Luke shook his head. “Anything you have to say, you can say in front of the Floor.”
By now thousands of people had stepped out of their tents to watch. Reds, Greens and Blues alike were staring at the Bin King with hate. He gulped.
“I wanted to…apologize, King Luke. For everything I’ve done.”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Like trying to kill me? Twice?”
“Er…yeah, like that,” said the Bin King.
Luke said nothing. The crowds waited. You could have heard a pin drop. The Bin King cleared his throat nervously.
“We—that is, my fly riders and I—would like to join you. We’d like to come to paradise, please.”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Ask nicely.”
The Bin King bowed. “Your Majesty, may we—”
“No, on your knees,” said Luke. “I want to see you grovel.”
Ivy was horrified. “Luke!”
The Bin King glared at him with fury. He got slowly to his knees, like it pained him, and spoke through gritted teeth.
“Please, Your Majesty. Please let us come with you.”
Luke smiled.
“No.”
The crowd gasped. The Bin King turned white. Luke drew himself up to his full height.
“There’s no place for tyrants like you in paradise!” He pointed across the desert. “You and your fly riders are banished—forever! You wanted the whole Floor for yourself…well, now you can have it!”
The Bin King leapt to his feet. “You can’t do that! I—”
But the crowds were already shouting him down—Reds, Greens and Blues, together as one.
“See?” said Luke. “Not even your own people want you, Bin King! Leave and never come back!”
The Bin King gave Luke a look of black loathing, then climbed back onto the warfly and flew off while the crowds booed him. Ivy watched, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Luke, the Great One told you to gather everyone together! You can’t turn people away!”
Luke snorted. “The Bin King’s a monster, not a person. He’s the one who let your parents die!”
“And what about his fly riders?” said Ivy.
Luke was suddenly angry. “I’m trying to be a king, Ivy! That means making tough decisions sometimes!”
Ivy didn’t answer him. She just stood gazing at him with a terrible sadness in her eyes.
“Oh, Luke.”
The world turned black.
The Bedroom Door was opening. A shadow was passing across the Floor, covering them all in darkness. Luke turned from Ivy and waved to the crowds.
“The Great One has returned!”
A huge cheer went up from the Floor. Millions raced out of their tents to see the Great One for themselves. Adults waved flags, and children jumped up and down in excitement.
“Welcome back, Great One!” Luke cried. “We’re ready to go!”
But the Great One said nothing. He just stood there. Whole seconds passed in silence. Luke shuffled his feet nervously and tried again.
“Tell us, Great One, what do we…”
The Great One lifted a foot and slowly stepped forward. Luke sighed with relief—for a moment, it had looked a little embarrassing.
“He’s coming—get ready, everyone! And don’t be afraid: the Great One may look frightening, but—”
“Luke,” said Ivy, “he looks different.”
Ivy was right. The Great One was somehow taller now, and broader. The shadow he cast was longer. It was impossible to make out his face. Miss Binkles whined and hid under her cushion. Ivy stepped back.
“What’s that in his hand?”
The Great One was holding something that looked like a long black sword, pointed down toward them.
“It…must be what he’s going to take us to paradise in,” said Luke uncertainly.
The Great One’s feet came booming to a stop in front of them—so close it almost crushed some of the tents. The crowds jumped back in surprise. Even the feet were different—these weren’t white trainers. They were black leather shoes instead.
The Great One held the black sword over the floor. Luke could see that it was a long tube, and inside was pure darkness. It hovered above their heads like a dying sun.
And suddenly Luke realized why the Great One looked so different.
“It’s not the Great One! It’s De—”
The world split in two.
Luke clutched his head in agony. The tube was making a noise like a thousand chain saws grinding against each other. He had thought that the Great One’s voice was the loudest thing he had ever heard, but this was so much worse. It was like the sound was eating the desert. It was like the end of the world.
Luke spun round in terror. A whirlwind was forming on the sand around them, whipping the tents into a frenzy and scattering them like confetti. The black hole was dragging everything up from the ground, sucking it toward the darkness inside….
“Everyone, run for your lives!”
But there was nowhere to run—the entire desert was being swallowed up. People were fleeing, trying to escape, but the force of the hurricane was too great. Luke watched in horror as his loyal subjects were picked off the ground in the hundreds and sucked into the black hole above them, screaming and spinning in terror. He grabbed Ivy and Miss Binkles.
“We have to get out of here, now! Or—”
Suddenly all the breath was drawn out of Luke’s body, and the wooden platform cracked and split beneath them. He was trapped in the hurricane just like everyone else, tumbling up and up. Ivy disappeared from his grip, and Luke was alone, spinning closer and closer toward the darkness….
Luke looked up at Demon’s face just before he was swallowed completely. Demon was smiling. But it wasn’t the smile of a boy—it was the grimace of a man.
And then there was nothing.