That's No Dog Toy

I was dragged much longer than I’d like to admit, so I wont. What I will admit is that in those moments of shame, I began to believe that failure was possible. And that maybe I had been wrong about Arly all along. She didn’t want to be saved. She wanted to be free. I was wrong in thinking they meant the same thing.

“We’re almost home,” Nhid said, while tugging hard on the whip ensnared around my body.

“Go on ahead and check in with the ant scouts. I want to be told good news,” Arly said.

My whip was transferred to a couple of dark gray crew socks who appeared to be zombified. There was no sue pleading with them. The only way to save the army of dark socks was to break their curse. The only way to do that was to save Arly. And to do that, I needed to defeat the army of savage insects. Considering that I led everyone who escaped from Copper castle into Arly’s trap, I had no idea how I was going to do all of this on my own.

The dragging finally stopped, yet I was firmly kept in a prone position. I craned my neck as far as the fibers within it would allow and I was briefly able to make eye contact with Arly who was smiling down at me. She didn’t speak, but she did mouth a single word which broke my spirit into several pieces.

Prepare.

One by one, the army of mindless insects marched out each of my companions from the web infested facade of Alry’s cavernous lair. None of them appeared injured, which was a small win I clung on to in order to keep my heart from letting go. But that weak tether was quickly severed when Chester was marched out last.

His stiffened legs were tightly chained together below his belly, preventing him from running off. Two blue whips were harshly latched around his neck, stinging and burning him if he twitched too hard. Then I saw Murphy. He was sprawled across Chester’s back, face down and not moving. The expression on Chester’s face told me that it was bad, but Murphy’s eyes were open and I could see him breathing. Another small win. But it’s what I didn’t see which frightened and excited me the most. Polk.

“Line up the prisoners,” Nhid hissed, “Our Queen desires to demonstrate the consequences of defiance.”

I tried to communicate Polk’s whereabouts with Chester, but it was impossible. The choke hold around his fragile neck was too severe and he was in too much pain. I had to let this play out and hope that Polk’s disappearance was purposeful and that he had a plan to stop what was about to happen.

I was hauled upwards and was given a front row seat to the horror show which was being hosted and executed by Arly. A dense grouping of ants banded together and transformed their abdomens and thoraxes into a regal throne for their Queen Mother.

Arly assumed her self-appointed position of ultimate power, then raised her glowing blue staff and addressed her soldiers, “The time has come. With the turning of the remaining prisoners and this courageously foolish new sock, I will finally be strong enough to break the light veil. We will finally be free to expand our kingdom throughout the entire apartment.”

Raucous applause erupted all around me as the hundreds of ants and spiders harmoniously stomped their feet in jubilation. That’s when the nightmarish party began.

One by one, the unique assortment of imprisoned misfits were marched over to Arly’s amber throne. Then one by one, Arly pierced their hearts with her staff and turned them into mindless slaves.

There had to be a way to stop her. After all, she was only a sock. She wasn’t born within the Dark Space. She clearly found a way to gain her terrible cache of power. I simply needed to figure out how and what the true energy source was, and destroy it. Except I was out of time.

Chester was marched over last, still carrying Murphy on his back. Once at Arly’s feet, Harry pressed a small gray button on Chester’s ankle chains. The mechanism clicked twice then retracted all four chains into the center housing unit beneath his belly. All four of his legs were sucked inwards and he was cruelly immobilized. Two other dark socks lifted Murphy from the mouse’s back and placed him on the ground beside his bound friend.

Arly leaned forward, staff pointed down, and spoke firmly to her enemy, “You should have stayed in that swamp.” Without hesitating, she pierced his frail stitching and sank the tip of her sapphire staff deep into his fibrous heart.

Once again I had become helpless and was forced to watch a second friend be grotesquely transformed into a monster.

The transformation took longer, and was more intense than the others. Murphy had either been fighting it off with every ounce of strength he had left, or Arly was taking great pleasure in making sure that his metamorphosis hurt.

Once she finally finished the ritual, Murphy’s vibrant cotton fibers were charred a deep blue and sizzled with tendrils of sapphire smoke. His white eyes rolled back and newly evolved black pupils took their place. He rose from the ground, no longer impaired by his previous injury, and loomed over us all.

The conjuring seemed to have stretched his fibers, making Murphy Arly’s largest, and most formidable soldier in the army. I tried calling out to him but it was useless. His mind had been turned. The Murphy who had rescued me from the swamp was gone.

“Bring him to me,” Arly said, slithering each word with vile pleasure.

Obeying the command, Murphy strode over to my position and took command of my restraints. With a heavy tug, he pulled me over to Arly’s throne; remaining absolutely silent as he handed me over.

Wherever Polk was, I hoped he was paying attention because it was now or never.

“As reckless as you’ve been, I cannot deny my admiration for the hope you keep for your friends. Even in the end, when every ounce of it has been lost, I can still see the tether in your eyes. It will be my greatest honor to finally sever it for you. For good this time, of course.”

“The strength you believe you’re receiving from your dark powers is only making you weaker. Your desperate desire for freedom is actually pushing you further away from being free. The dark space is simply a void for those who are lost, it only becomes a prison once those who are lost wish to never be found. You claim to be a ruler. The Queen Mother of the realm. But you are no different than me, or any of your dark soldiers. In here, we are all the same. We are all equal. We are all lost. If you expand this kingdom, the weight of that loss will only increase, making it impossible to ever return to the sock you used to be.”

Arly slammed the bottom of her staff into the dirt, burning a small blue crater around the area of impact, “There it is. You’ve finally figured it out. The sock I used to be is dead, and I am the one responsible. There is only one path left for me now.”

She lifted the glowing spear and aimed the pointed tip at my heart. My time had run out. there was nothing left for me to do, especially with Murphy’s vice grip. I had failed the others. I had failed Derrick, and I had failed myself. But most importantly, I had failed Arly.

I closed my eyes, and awaited the sharp sensation of the transformation. It never came. Instead, three arrow shaped strands of light soared through the air above Arly’s throne and pierced three dark socks standing at attention behind me. Before us all, another transformation happened, except this one was different from the others.

Each sock hit with one of the beams of light was momentarily hoisted up off the ground. Their dark gray and blue fibrous frames glowed with buzzing white electricity as Arly’s spell was slowly eradicated. They were gently brought back down to the ground, yet they were no longer mindless soldiers, they were Derrick’s socks. Socks I had recognized and grew up with in the drawer.

Stunned with confusion by the sudden attack, Polk finally made his dramatic appearance. Exploding through the eastern tree line, behind the throne of red ants, Polk rushed the army. With a makeshift bow slung over his round body, he fired beam after beam of light at every sock he could see. One by one, the socks began transforming back into their regular selves. The odds were no longer in Arly’s favor.

Beyond furious, Arly brazenly commanded the rest of her army to attack, “Kill them all, and bring me that dog toy!”

Murphy was suddenly hit with two beams and his grip on my shoulders was broken. I leaped to my left and took cover behind a large rock. Picking up one of the blue spears dropped by one of the healed socks, I repositioned myself to go on the offensive and watched as Polk weaved his way through the fearsome battalion of insects. Slashing white blades of light at snapping fangs and piercing as many socks as he could, “That’s no dog toy.”