Fredozy
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Chapter 54: Gone
🕑 Added 2025-08-12 16:39:19 +0000 UTCKAI - POV
I disappeared.
How the fuck did that happen again?
Ah, yes Fate had decided to be a bitch once more and deal with my meddling.
After we got back to the Physical Kids' Cottage, my mind immediately shifted to one thing, which was getting rid of that damned button immediately. Stealing it was the obvious choice, but with Quentin clutching it like it was his firstborn, I needed another plan.
Penny kept pacing, eyes flicking to the button like it was whispering to him.
"I'm telling you, man, it's radiating magic. Like… pulsing in waves."
I felt it too, that strange hum under the skin.
"Yeah, and that's exactly why you don't touch it," I warned. Quentin agreed in with the same advice as he saw penny flick open the container with the button inside. Ofcourse Penny had bragged about being trained by Mayakovsky and all but I still voiced my concerns.
Penny's lips curled into that 'I've got an idea' smirk. "Fine, there’s a navigation lock spell I know. We bind it to the earth and it stops moving unless we want it to move."
Fine. Worth a shot.
We set the button in the center of a silver bowl, the bowl acting as a binding anchor. Penny muttered the incantation and hands moving in precise arcs over the button. The air trembled faintly, like the last vibration of a plucked string.
Eliot, leaning on the wall with his ever-present flask drinking and drowning his sorrows away, asked, "Well? Did it work, or are we all about to end up in Narnia?
Penny exhaled. "Yeah… it should hold."
I could no longer feel that constant magical thrum, so maybe he was right. Still, I decided to be thorough. I plucked Eliot's flask right out of his hand and tossed it at the bowl. It clinked harmlessly off the side.
"Well," I said with a grin, "looks like we won't be vanishing into Wonderland today."
Penny rolled his eyes. Alice muttered something about overkill.
"Prevention's better than cure, Snow White," I shot back.
Penny picked up the button. Nothing happened. I felt my shoulders loosen. So, no month-and-a-half-long search for a missing Traveler this time. ‘Good. One disaster sidestepped.’
But when the coin finally passed to me, the tingling returned, sharper, almost electric.
"Huh, what is—"
And then the world shifted.
I was no longer in the Cottage. I was standing in the middle of a deserted street in God-knows-where.
I took one long look around and looked at my hand seeing nothing as the button was of course gone. "…Ohhhhhh shit."
---
A couple of hours later, I made my way to Julia's apartment.
Something was already off. When I'd gone to my own place earlier, my key hadn't worked. And when the door finally opened, I was greeted not by my living room… but by a grinning, sandal-wearing hippie smelling like patchouli.
"Who the hell are you?" I'd asked.
Turns out, he was the owner. Never had been. According to him, he'd been living there for five years. A quick compulsion later confirmed it wasn't a lie. That sank a bad feeling deep in my gut.
And now, standing outside Julia's door, that feeling grew teeth. I knocked.
No answer.
And… nothing from the boundary spell either. The faint magic of the doorway boundary m spell wasn’t there anymore.
When the door finally opened, my breath caught.
"Mackenzie?"
Julia's sister stood there with pale, dark circles under her eyes, a half-empty bottle of vodka in hand. She looked like she hadn't slept in weeks.
Okay. Something was definitely wrong.
"Who the fuck are you?" she slurred.
I hesitated. "Oh uhhh sorry, I'm… I'm Kai. Is Julia in?"
Kenzie laughed. Not the happy laugh no, it was one of those hollow, bitter laughs that sounded like a cracked mirror breaking further.
‘What the fuck is she laughing about?’
"My…?" I tilted my head in confusion. "Did I say something funny?"
She took a long swig and shook her head, still laughing. "Is this some kind of a sick joke?"
"I… don't follow."
Her gaze hardened. "Leave before I call the fucking cops you bastard."
This was going nowhere. I sighed and locked eyes with her, pushing my will into hers. "Where is Julia? And what's going on here?"
Her expression softened. Then the words came.
"Julia's dead."
The floor seemed to tilt under me. I couldn't get the words out properly. "No… that's not—"
That shouldn't be possible. Unless…
"How long?" I asked quietly.
"Two months," she said, almost flatly. "Accident. At school."
‘Yeah right,’ I thought bitterly.
I glanced past her. The place was a wreck of pizza boxes stacked like dirty monuments, clothes strewn across the floor, empty bottles gathering dust.
I had to do something about that. From the looks of it she was spiraling from the loss. That’s understandable, but she was also on her was to an early grave if she didn’t fix herself.
"Ok, listen to me Kenzie. You're going to be okay alright" I said gently, pushing the compulsion deeper. "You'll mourn her… but you'll move forward. You'll remember the best moments you had with her and how beautiful everything second of it was, the times that made you laugh until you cried and the times that made you realize how much you loved her. You'll know she's in a better place, and that she loved you more than you realize. She wouldn't want to see you like this, Kenzie."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"You'll clean yourself up. Eat something real. Sleep. And when you wake up… you'll be ready to live again."
Her eyelids fluttered shut. When she opened them, I was already gone.
And she was alone.
