The smell of damp bark lingered in the air. Light rain patted gently on fallen leaves. Mena opened her eyes and had to rub them twice. She was in a misty forest glade. Everything had color again, and a light white fog hovered around the wet trunks of the surrounding trees. The trees reached skyward, protecting Mena from most of the rain. She immediately knew where she was…It was a place she hadn’t thought about for half a year now: The Pembroke Forest—her home.

Mena crunched over crisp leaves and hopped over a mildew and fungi covered log. She made her way west. Though the air was humid and moist, a cold chill traveled up Mena’s back. “I’m home? But…it can’t be…my auntie’s cottage was destroyed.”

As she walked farther and farther, the fog seemed to part, and her mouth gaped stupefied. There in the distance, was her auntie’s cottage, still standing, as if the twister hadn’t reduced it to rubble. She ran as fast as her feet could carry her, almost forgetting Ashlan’s warning.

So many thoughts were flashing in her mind. Was her collection of books still there? The picture of deceased parents? Her auntie herself? Right before she reached the hill, Mena stopped herself. She took a deep breath. I gotta remember, she said to herself, Something isn’t right. I gotta find it. I can’t get sidetracked.

“Meeeena!” a somewhat abrasive and precocious voice cried out to her. Mena peered tentatively over the hill. There, waving at her from her auntie’s carrot patch, was Straw-Woman, Mena’s animated scarecrow friend. Mena leapt down the muddy hill, sliding down with a strange grace and stopped in front of her friend.

Straw-Woman bounced up and down excitedly. Her red felt lips expanded into a smile and her straw-pig tail rustled on top of her head like a pineapple stem. “Mena, you would never guess who came to visit you and your auntie today.”

“Who?” Mena asked, inquisitiveness dilating her eyes. Simply seeing her auntie’s old cottage was enough to blow her mind. Who knew there was an even bigger surprise?

“I can’t tell you,” Straw-Woman taunted, “But wait til you see who it is.”

Mena closed her eyes, breathing in and allowing a moment of meditation. This wasn’t the dream she imagined. She expected a land of men with cheese-grating abdominal muscles, not a return to the home she had spent all thirteen years of her life. She bid goodbye to Straw-woman. Her feet softly pitter pattered up the wooden stairs of her front porch.

As soon as Mena opened the door, she could hear voices. Her auntie’s stern, but warm voice was easily recognizable, but there were two other voices. One belonged to a very mild-mannered man, and the other was a woman with a somewhat of an excitable, theatrical tone. Who were they? Mena asked, and as she passed the old portraits in the hallway, making her way to the kitchen, she immediately lost all of her defenses.

A beautiful woman who bore Mena’s chest-nut brown eyes and long, dark hair sat with her auntie and a kind looking man with a receding hair line and silver adult braces. Mena immediately knew who they were. “Mom? Dad???”

“My little Pumpkin Spice!” the beautiful woman exclaimed, and Mena ran to hug her. Her mom wore her signature navy blue witch overcoat and pointed hat—the kind of witch fashion Mena loved.

Her bespectacled father gave a brace-faced grin as she peered over her mom’s shoulder. “Happy to see you still got that ‘bling bling’ on your grills,” he said, laughing to himself. “Is that how the kids say it these days?”

“Dad,” Mena giggled as tears welled up in her eyes, “You’re such a dork.”

Mena pulled herself out of her mom’s hug. “It’s so nice to see you again, sweetheart,” Arabella Willow said to her daughter and pulled up a seat.

Mena sat at the table with her parents. So many questions were on her mind: How did they survive Anguish? How did they get here? What were they going to ask her first? What was she going to tell them? Her mind was so full of questions, she immediately forgot to be wary.

Arabella gazed at her daughter. She seemed to marvel at Mena’s very existence. “I hear you’re finally attending the illustrious academy Grizaebella and I went. We were 985 alumnis of Nightdream, yessiree.”

“Oh yes I am,” Mena responded, and Arabella stood up and lifted her hand to the stars.

“My fondest memory,” Arabella said, her brown eyes glistening. “Toyah and I were the lead stars in Stellaris’ theatrical presentation of ‘We Three Witches.’ I remember singing the title song as if it were yesterday.”

“Come on Grizabella,” Arabella hung her arm around Mena’s aunt and dramatically began to pontificate and sing. “Sing with me, ‘Ohhhhh, we three witches, getting too big for our britches.”

Mena’s auntie bashfully slunk away from her sister’s theatrical fervor. “Arabella. You know I’ve never been for those theater dramas.”

Arabella Willow wrinkled her nose. “Oh, you’re no fun. No wonder you were merely the stagehand.”

“Without stage hands,” Grizabella shot back. “The show could not go on, but that’s beside the point. I’m sure Mena has plenty to tell us about her time at Nightdream.”

“Right,” Arabella said, quickly sitting back down “Go ahead, my little pumpkin spice. Tell us all about it.”

Mena couldn’t help herself. She told her parents everything: How she reached Nightdream by summoning it with her own mind, to the friends she made and the adventures she had. Everyone listened intently with smiles on their faces. Mena had reached the tale of her time in the Unwritten Kingdom, when suddenly, she remembered why she was here. Tears ran down her face again.

“You’re not real,” she said at last, “Are you going to hurt me and kill me?!”

Her mother reached her hand out to touch Mena. It was as soft and gentle as any mother’s touch. “Nonsense,” she said, softly. “This is your happiest dream. Your father and I would never hurt you. Much like real life. Only in real life…we can’t be with you.”

Mena sobbed. “You promise?”

“Mena,” her father said, losing his goofy grin. “We love you and would never hurt you.”

A loud, abrasive voice cut through the air. “And I love you all. My HUMAN friends.”

Straw-Woman rose up from behind her parents with a sinister grin. “Wait a minute, that's not right at all,” Mena said out loud. “Straw-Woman despises human-kind.”

Straw-Woman seized a butcher’s knife from the kitchen table. The stitching on her mouth spread apart into a demented grin. “And I want my human friends to be stuffed like me! Then we can truly share Straw-Empathy!”

Straw-Woman lunged forward with a loud roar. “You can do it, Mena!” her parents cheered. Mena looked back at them, and tears lined her eyes. They really did love her...even if they were dream visions.

Mena thrusted her arms forward, and grappled Straw-Woman, who in turn used her straw arms to push against Mena. “Alright, you Straw-Scoundrel from the Depths of Heck,” Mena said, attempting to growl. “I knew you were the glitch in my dream the second you opened your straw mouth.”

“But Meeeena,” Straw-Woman said in guttural rasp as her straw-head swiveled in circles. “I’m your frieeeeend.”

“And the real Straw-Woman wants nothing to do with me,” Mena responded, her eyes slightly tearing with regret. “Now that she found her people.”

“Not me,” Straw-Woman responded, and ripped off her potato sack. It was Anguish’s horrifying pink head beneath it. “I want to be friends with you forever Mena. Forget your family and be with meeee!”

Mena squeaked in horror as Anguish’s visage glared at her from atop a straw-body.

“Go on, Mena,” Arabella yelled. “Show her you’re a real bad daughter-of-a-witch.”

“That’s right!” Mena exclaimed, “I am!” And she grabbed the sack and jammed it back on Anguish’s head. She hooked her arms beneath Straw-Woman’s and suplexed her straight through the table.

Everyone stood up and gasped.at Mena. “Owww,” Straw-Woman whined. “I got the stuffing beat out of me!”

“Wowie zowie,” Mena exclaimed. “Remind me not to mess with Straw-Woman in real life. Still…can’t believe I can suplex people in my dreams.”

Arabella clapped loudly. “That’s our pumpkin spice! Way to go, darling”—Arabella abruptly waved at her—"Bye now”

“Wait…” Mena said suddenly and sadly. “Where are you going?”

“Back into the ether of your mind,” her dad responded. “You broke the illusion. Bye Mena.”

“Please!” Mena exclaimed, her face a mixture of congealed tears and snot. “Please don’t go.”

Her parents cried out “byyyyeeee Mena,” as everything was sucked far into the horizon, leaving Mena standing in the darkness sobbing.

“Mena…” a raspy voice cried out. “Mena,” it said again. “Are you ok?”

Mena opened her eyes. Ashlan and Janus were standing over her with concerned faces. The mist seemed to have dissipated. She whimpered loudly. “I miss my parents,” the young witch cried. “That dream was too real!”

“You were in your dream so long,” Janus said, shaking her head. “We were worried my dad would be coming for you soon.”

“I want to be back in that dream again,” Mena cried, shaking on the ground.

Janus looked at Ashlan in doubt. Ashlan knelt beside Mena. “Sometimes there’s a lingering after effect of Mirthful Mist: It can make the person experience withdrawal but…”

Ashlan looked back and forth, before carefully lunging forward and hugging Mena. Mena’s warm tears trickled onto Ashlan’s uniform soaking into the fabric. The lioness patted Mena on the back. “Please stop crying, Rainy” she said, gently, but equally firm too. ”I take it you saw your parents…”

“Mmm hmm,” Mena said, her mouth muffled by Ashlan’s robe. "They left me so quick. I never even got to say goodbye."

“There there,” Ashlan said, trying to make her raspy, lion girls voice tender. She massaged Mena’s back, causing Janus to whisper, “You’re enjoying this.”

“Shut it, Bony,” Ashlan growled, before speaking softly to Mena.

“We must remember that whoever used that mist, used it to play games with our head. Bony here dreamed she had the best birthday ever.”

Janus wistfully closed her eyes. “All my best friends, living and dead were there. We even played my favorite game: “Pin the bone on the Skeleton” but then I realized…I only have deathdays.”

Ashlan pulled Mena to her feet. The young witch looked into Ashlan’s eyes. “And I won’t even tell you what I dreamed about,” the lioness told her, looking away for a moment—”It was too painful…even for me.”

“I’ll take you word for it. Thanks Sunny,” Mena sighed and wiped her tears away. “I should be grateful though. We all made it out of these dreams.”

“Well,” Ashlan said, turning her catlike eyes skyward. “Almost everyone.”

Chad lumbered in front of the three girls. He made a muscle for them as the flesh rotted off it “Hey ladies, how do you like the new and improved Chad. With a hundred percent new skin over these bones.”

Janus shook her head. “He was ensnared by the dream…but he can’t die. So now he thinks he’s living again even though he isn’t…poor thing.”

“None of you will be living for much longer, dearies,” A loud witch cackle filled the room. A mild-mannered laugh did too. Bubbel and Karen stood at the far end of the room. Bubbel held a tiny green dragon with a pointed beak, limp in her hands.

“You,” Ashlan shouted. “How are you always one step ahead of us?”

“Feast your eyes on this,” Bubbel proclaimed, and she held up a golden badge shaped like an ear. It resembled the badge Bubbel had placed on Mena when she was disguised as Mrs. Cumberson. “Courtesy of our sweet little Mena Willow, we can listen to everything you ingrates talk about. It’s proved very handy on this mission.”

Bubbel thrusted a green index finger at Mena and her friends. “But now, your vacation in the Unwritten Kingdom ends here. We will destroy you and take you back to Anguish, hand wrapped in this very book!”