Mena tried to control her panicked mind as Clearmind loomed ever closer with his ominous pair of tongs. Perhaps she could reason with him. “Come on,” she said, her eyes darting around nervously in his shadow. “My eyes are not so good. They’ve very nearsighted…except when it comes to handsome wizard men.”

Clearmind continued his trajectory with the sinister tongs. He spoke relentlessly to her. “The only thing that’s truly nearsighted is your attempt to reason with me.”

The cult leader’s voice was nasally and quite haughty. “One pair of eyes from a spotty teenager is worth the price of saving humanity. If you cannot see that, my dear, then you must be blind.”

“Well,” Mena said, innocently gazing skyward. “If I’m blind you don’t need my eyes then…and…”

“Your rhetoric is that of a child with kid gloves on,” Clearmind snapped. “And it is my fault for humoring you.”

The icy metal of the tongs pressed up against Mena’s eyelids, she laughed nervously. “Please, mister. Can we talk this out…try to see things eye to eye?”

Clearmind’s singular eye narrowed and she giggled neurotically. “I mean, eyes to eye.”

The tongs pinched Mena’s eyelids, but before she could suffer an extremely painful form of vision loss, there was a blinding green flash. Clearmind’s cyclops eye watered heavily and he exclaimed, “My eye, my eye…”

He stumbled backwards, crashing into his desk. The globe on top of it rattled and tumbled off, conking him on the head and leaving him out cold. Once Mena’s eyes adjusted to the blinding light, the assailant stood before her. It was a cute black kitten with a red ribbon tied around her neck.

“Auntie Grizabella,” Mena smiled as the kitten dashed forward, drew her ultra-sharp retractable claws, and sliced the ropes binding the young witch. Immediately, Mena leapt to her feet and sighed, “Phew, you saved me in the nick of time.”

“Did somebody call my name?” Nick laughed evilly as he menaced her with his outstretched wooden hands.

“Eep…” Mena squeaked. “I didn’t mean you.”

Auntie Grizabella mewed. Mena turned her head and saw her auntie with a clever smile. She extended her retractable claws, and her niece snatched her up with a grin. “Well, loverboy, how about some serious ‘Kat-rate?’”

She hurled her auntie-turned-cat who let out a loud, ‘MEOWWWWRRR” and brandished her claws. She took several swipes at Nick’s face before he was able to throw her off.

With large indents in his face. Nick traced his fingers through the newly created crevices in his wooden face. “My flawless finishing…” he gasped, and ran out of the room crying.

Mena firmly positioned her hands on her hips. “How do you like being a scratching post, wood-boy? Consider yourself dumped.”

Grizabella gave a sly mew and Mena rolled her eyes. “Yes, auntie. You were right. Some boys Are no good.”

The black kitten nodded and scampered off. “You lead the way,” Mena cried. “Let’s get outta here.”

Mena followed Grizabella down the hallways full of tacky wallpaper depicting the Clearmind insignia with garish orange and pink pinstripes. She passed four jet black doors, each with a logo emblazoned on it. The first reading, “MindLuv, and featured the signature eye-inside-the-brain logo framed within a heart. The second read, “MindTruth” and showcased the Clearmind Insignia beneath a magnifying glass. The third read, “MindPax” and the eyeball-brain logo was formed into a question mark. Beneath it, the words were written: “We don’t know what pax means, but it sure sounds cool.” The fourth and final door featured the logo in front of a spiral and read, “MindWash.”

Mena only stopped when she heard a familiar voice. “What are you ijits doing?”

Mena carefully peered inside a shadowy room where Law Pops, the short, top hatted mayor of Wordwood was tied to a chair with his eyelids forcibly held open. Two members of the Dream Police stood by him while a third one flashed a Clearmind ring. “We’re clearing your mind of all internal and external corruption, Mr. Pops. When we’re done with you. Wormwood shall be run by a clear-thinking politician for once.”

Pops protested as a tiny beam of golden light broadcasted itself from the ring, traveling straight into his forehead. “Now repeat after me,” the third member of the Dream Police said. “I have a clear mind. Anyone who doesn’t is an idiot.”

“I have a clear mind,” Law Pops slurred in his country drawl. “Anyone who doesn’t is an ijit.”

Grizabella mewed, and Mena pulled herself away from the horrid scene. “Now they even got the mayor too. We really need to get out of here.”

Grizebella guided Mena through more dim corridors without drawing any attention. At last, they escaped out a camouflaged door built into a wall in the alleyway. Rain fell in the black of night in large reflective puddles. Mena took a breath of the fresh, non-congested air. “We really gotta get back and tell the girls what’s up,” Mena said, and her kitten companion nodded in agreement.

***

Mena sat on her bed in her powder blue pajamas. Her long-braided hair was neatly conditioned from a shower and flowed open. She looked ready for a night’s rest, but she wasn’t planning on sleeping until she told her friends the news.

May and Janus sat on the bed with her, sporting pink and purple jammies respectively issued from the Sweet Suite. They listened intently as Grizabella stretched her paws at the foot of the bed.

“And Nick was made of wood…” Mena exclaimed raising her hands apart.

Janus and May raised their eyebrows as if to go ‘Really?’ with nonplussed looks.

Mena responded by telling them, “I mean all of him was made of wood. He’s really a wooden dummy.”

“Ohhhhh,” Janus and May both said, finally getting it.

“And not only is his father a crazy one-eyed cultist who wants to pull my eyes out, but he’s already got the mayor of Wormwood under his mind control.”

“Mmm,” Janus said, sitting cross-bones style on the bed. “Sounds like you’ve had quite a night out. Enough to wake the dead.”

“Yep,” Mena nodded. “I became a celebrity item, got kidnapped, met the villain behind everything and learned of a conspiracy to brainwash this whole town…”—Mena’s head sank—“And ended my first relationship on the same night it started.”

May gave a belly laugh. “At least you got rid of the puppet. They always creep me out when mummy takes me to puppet shows.”

“Worry not, Mena,” Janus closed her eyes with a chipper smile, placing her bony hands on Mena’s shoulders. “You can’t have a relationship with a block of wood anyway. Unless you’re one of THOSE people."

Mena held her hand to her mouth and giggled. “I guess you’re both right.”

Mena looked fondly into her friends’ eyes until Grizabella whipped her tail, drawing forth a piece parchment and ink. She began to inscribe the paper with words. Mena read them as Grizebella wrote them. “Most importantly, my niece,” Mena read aloud. “Did you not tell me about an unnatural aura in the air last time you encountered Penwell?”

“That’s right,” Mena nodded, and her face turned cold. “It reminded me of Anguish.”

“But isn’t the city being protected by the force flame?” May asked and scratched her head.

Grizebella began to scrawl again, and Mena read it, “I know Anguish well, and her tricks can easily outsmart a few powerful spells by some absent-minded politicians. She’s wanted this city for a long time, and now would be the right time to seize it. That is why it might be haphazard to go to the third and final seminar.”

Mena closed her eyes, and deep in thought, she tossed her head onto her pillow. “You know,” she said, gazing up at the ceiling. “Why don’t we ask for help? We don’t have to go it alone. We have Gemini and the whole school. We simply need to contact him.”

“Are you sure they’ll come in time?” May asked, peering over at Mena lying on the bed. “Because…I kinda found a note on the inside of the lampshade. It was from X/O again.”

Mena sat right up. “You what?”

May sheepishly pulled out a piece of parchment. “I was waiting for the right time to show you.”

Mena snatched the letter and her eyes scanned it over. As she did, they grew wider and wider.

“Shine the light of truth

and reunite with friends old and new,

Friends from betwixt the worlds of life and death,

Friends you thought would never draw another breath

But tomorrow is your final chance

Before the dark witch begins her death dance

X/O”

Mena pondered the riddle, but one thing stuck out to her: “Friends from betwixt the worlds of life and death.”

Other then her parents, there was only one friend she knew who had been relinquished to the world of death. Mena softly murmured. “Dede.”

She turned to her friends, gripping the parchment tightly in her hands. “We’re going. We’re going no matter what.”

“What?” Everyone asked.

Mena softly remarked, “I think the old friend from between worlds is Deidre. I know she died but…”—Mena looked away—“I think this might be a sign that she’s alive. I hope you don’t think I’m crazy.”

Janus nodded in agreement. “I don’t think you’re crazy, Mena. I didn’t see her death in my vision, and I see everyone who crosses over to the other side.”

Mena’s heart thumped in her chest over the prospect of seeing her friend again. She placed her hand on it, as Auntie Grizabella scrawled another note.

“Be wary, my niece,” Mena read. “This could very well be a trap.”

Mena was silent, but soon, her voice rose in determination. “I don’t care. We’ll spring this trap, save Dede and leave before Penwell or Anguish or whoever spots us.”

“Please,” Mena said, holding her hand to her chest.

May and Janus were silent but before May smiled. “I know how much this means to you, Mena,” May said. “So, I’ll try my best to save Deidre.”

Janus nodded in agreement. Even Auntie Grizabella did not try to reason with her further.

“Thank you,” Mena said, her eyes shimmering with sadness, but a smile on her face.

That night, after going to bed, Mena desperately hoped she could commune with Deidre in her dreams. But instead, she dreamed of nothing. Nothing but darkness the whole night through.