After my jaw dropped in surprise I said, “How am I supposed to do that?”

The wizard said, “If you can defeat everything I throw at you and you can still fight, then I will admit defeat and you can finally escape this place. However, if you can’t or you die while trying to defeat me your body will stay here and it will never be able to escape.”

“So it will be my magic against your magic?”

“Yes.”

“But that doesn’t seem fair, you’re so much more powerful than me, how am I supposed to defeat you?”

“Are you saying that you don’t want to fight as a way to escape?”

Slightly joking I said, “I would prefer to just walk across a bridge and be home.”

“Well that’s just not going to happen. It’s either you fight or you don’t escape those are your only two options.”

I sighed and said, “I guess I’ll fight then.”

The wizard said “good” as he raised his walking stick into the air. Suddenly a saw a shock of electricity moved its way from the bottom to the top of the stick and blasted into the air above him. Once the electricity was completely off of the stick it formed a thin circle and it started to spin. Faster and faster it spun. In a blink of an eye the electricity turned into a falcon.

The falcon hovered above its master waiting for instructions. The wizard pointed his stick towards me, which was more than enough to get the bird to swoop down for an attack on my head. Its big brown wings were spread out further than my arms and its legs were bent up against its stomach so that its sharp black talons were ready to attack its prey; which was me. I aimed my magic at the bird, which made it just miss my head. It flew upwards to circle around. This time when it flew at me it made an ear piercing call that made me cover my ears, so that I was defenseless against its attack. Its talons dug into my hair and pulled it as hard as it could. Letting go of one ear I waved my hand back and forth as I tried to hit the bird, without looking at it.

I guess my magic hit it gently because it let go and flew up again. Not letting it fly at me again I straightened my left arm, with my right arm on my left elbow, and aimed my magic at the bird as hard as I could. My dark magic swarmed the bird, leaving it nowhere to go, and then crushed it. When it disappeared all that was left was a puff of smoke.

The wizard, who just stood still and watched the whole thing, started to clap slowly and then said, “Good job. That was my easiest trick, now get read for something on your same level.” The wizard aimed his walking stick a good distance away from him, and then shot electricity out of it again. This time what appeared was a single ogre holding a red boomerang.

I couldn’t help but giggle a bit when I saw the boomerang. ‘Such a useless weapon, why would the wizard think that this would be a challenge?’

Just then the ogre threw the boomerang at me at incredible speed.

The wizard said, “Don’t let that thing touch you because it can cut through a wall of concrete and it has poison covering every inch of it. Only those immune to the poison can touch it.”

Before I could turn my head back to the ogre it threw the boomerang at me again, this time just missing my neck. Instead of catching it, the ogre let the boomerang whip around its head and move on its own. When the ogre was out of the path of the boomerang it began to charge at me.

So now not only did I have to avoid an object moving at a speeding pace but I also had to fight an ogre. ‘Great’ I thought.

The ogre came stomping towards me with massive force, shaking the ground beneath me. It didn’t come up to me yet; however, the ogre smashed its powerful fists into the ground; causing me to lose my balance. When I was on the ground the boomerang whipped to the ground just above the ground. Once it started to move upwards I got back up to my feet and got ready to fight the ogre. Once it saw that I was not giving up, the ogre charged at me as fast as it could. Since the boomerang was coming towards me, at the same time, I moved out of the way but the ogre managed to hit me in the stomach with its head sending me flying backwards.

‘What do I do? Take out the poisonous boomerang or the ogre? The boomerang can cut me clean through, while it poisons me, or the ogre can crush me to death. Hmmm though call.’ Ultimately I decided to take care of the boomerang first, since the ogre was slower and would take more time to defeat.

I steadied my stance and waited until the boomerang came close enough to me. It came violently spinning at me, so I dodged it and waited until it changed its direction. I prepared my aim and fired my magic at it in a line, in case I missed. Just like the falcon, when my magic hit it, it disappeared and turned into a puff of smoke.

I turned my head towards the ogre and thought, ‘Now for you.’ I stood there for a moment to see what the ogre would do. It too froze for a moment and just stared at me. I made an angry face at it and formed my hands into fists, in case it all of a sudden charged at me. Which thankfully I did because it roared at the top of its lungs and then charged at me.

I glanced over at the wizard and he was just standing there watching me with a big grin on his face, as if he was enjoying the show.

I looked back at the ogre and began to allow my magic to come out of my hands. I ran it as fast as I could as well. When we got close enough to each other, the ogre raised its hands to smash down on me, but little did it know I had other plans. Just before I could reach it I slid on my stomach and went between its spread legs. My feet weren’t fully on the other side of the ogre’s body; however, I was still able to flip on my back and aim my magic at the back of its head with all of my strength.

Not knowing what happened to it, the ogre roared and stumbled backwards; which caused me to move out of its way. I rolled and rolled until I knew the ogre wouldn’t step on me. Then I quickly got up and ran towards it again. This time I constantly aimed my magic at it and hit the ogre as many times as I possibly could before I came face to face with it.

I stopped to see if the ogre was strong enough to take another hit. Since it took a step towards me, it was. So I just stood there and aimed both of my hands at the ogre and imaged that it killed Linley. The black magic swarmed the ogre and every time it tried to take a step away from it, the darkness would follow it and stop it. As I watched what was happening I just kept my hands where they were until the ogre disappeared. Thinking that the darkness was a type of bug the ogre began to swat at it, but this just made the darkness surround it faster. The ogre roared in frustration; however, before it could stop the blackness moved down its throat and began to kill it from the inside.

I stopped and watched the darkness destroy the ogre piece by piece. Until finally, the ogre exploded and became a puff of smoke.

In exhaustion I turned towards the wizard and yelled, “IS THAT ALL YOU’VE GOT?”

“Well since you asked, no. I saved the best for last.”

“Okay, what do I have to fight this time?”

The wizard didn’t say a word, instead he just pointed his walking stick and watched the next thing come to life.

My brother.

I looked at my brother and back at the wizard. “How the fuck am I supposed to fight my brother? He’s family.”

“That’s exactly why I chose him. For the final battle you have to fight flesh and blood, and since you already fought yourself to get here it doesn’t count.” He paused and walked over to my brother. Putting a hand on my brother’s shoulder the wizard said, “If you truly want to escape you have to kill your brother.”

My brother put his hands up in protest and said, “Woah now, I didn’t sign of up for this.”

“Shut up you fool” the wizard snickered.

‘I’ve already lost Linley and I really don’t want to lose the only family I have. But if I don’t do this I’ll never be to able to see anyone every again.’

The wizard hit his wrist with his pointer finger, repeatedly, and sang, “tick tock the time goes by, who will live and who will die. Tick tock the time goes by, who will live and who will die.”

“Shut Up!” I yelled at the wizard. I walked towards my brother, and with every step I took my eyes began to fill with tears. Until I couldn’t bare looking at my brother anymore, because I knew what I had to do. I didn’t even say goodbye to my brother before I aimed my magic at him. I watched it completely consume him, and it wasn’t long until he was gone; forever.

I couldn’t say anything further. I just dropped to my knees and cried. Tears poured down my face into my hands, which were covering my face.

Over top of my crying I heard the wizard say, “You can now go home.” He faded away before I could yell at him again.

I just sat there and cried until I could make out florescent pink light peaking through my hands. I looked up and say a pink hallway. I slowly got up and walked towards it. Being cautious I stepped one foot at a time into the hallway, and once I was all the way in a force pulled me forwards. I sped through the hallway, not knowing where I was going until the force shot me out of the hallway and into a field.

I just laid there for a moment and looked at the blue sky above me. As I soaked in the beauty above me I thought. ‘I’m back.’