Worlds Collide (The Land of Stories #6)(78)
The Freedom Tower was the tallest building in Manhattan and provided Alex with a breathtaking view of the city as she destroyed it. At the very top of the building, wrapped around the base of the antenna, was the Communication Platform Ring. The three-level platform was filled with radio equipment, giant lights, wires, and hundreds of support beams. Alex and the lion statues walked around the platform as they watched the vines consume the Big Apple below them.
Suddenly, the Mad Moth whooshed out of the sky and knocked both lion statues to another rooftop nearby. The massive insect roared like a banshee and pounded the statues into smithereens. The Mad Moth gobbled up the small chunks of stone before they could rematerialize into the lions. A thunderous burp erupted from the alien’s mouth, causing the windows of a neighboring building to shatter.
Unbeknownst to Alex, while she watched the Mad Moth devour her stone guardians, Lester had snuck onto the roof behind her and dropped off eight passengers. Alex heard their footsteps as they spread out on the platform, but when she turned around, there was no one in sight. Alex briskly walked through the levels of the platform and searched for the intruders.
“I’ve spent the last thirty-eight hours wondering how to help you,” Conner called out from his hiding spot. “I’ve thought of spells, potions, charms, enchantments—but none of them were powerful enough to break the curse. Then I remembered that when we were kids nothing helped you forget your troubles more than a good story. So I wrote you one—here it goes.”
Conner stepped out from behind a support beam, and Alex hit her brother with a bright burst of light. It knocked him unconscious, and Conner collapsed on the platform. Seeing her brother injured, even by her own hand, broke the curse temporarily, and Alex returned to normal.
“Conner!” she yelled.
She hurried to her brother’s side. When she arrived, she discovered that this wasn’t actually her brother—it was Arthur! The young king had been transformed to look like Conner! Once Alex realized she had been tricked, the curse returned tenfold. The real Conner cleared his throat from wherever he was hiding and began his story.
“Once upon a time, there was a little girl. She was very smart and loved to learn more than anything else in the world. The little girl was the best student at her school and surpassed her classmates in every subject they studied. Unfortunately, the other students became jealous of the little girl and were intimidated by her. Instead of praising her intelligence, the children teased and bullied her for being so smart. They wouldn’t play with her on the playground or eat lunch with her in the cafeteria, and the little girl became very lonely.”
Alex saw her brother running across the third level of the platform. She zapped him with another burst of light and he collapsed. However, when she went to check on him, she found Jack lying on the floor instead.
“Whenever the little girl felt sad, she would read a new book from the library. The characters in the stories became her friends, inspiring the little girl to read as much as she could. The more she read, the smarter the little girl became. And the smarter she became, the more people resented her for it.”
Conner appeared on the bottom level of the platform. He leaped over the railing and landed on the level above. Alex blasted her brother with a beam of light and discovered that he was actually Froggy. This time the curse didn’t even break so she could check on him—it knew the game Conner was playing.
“By the time the little girl was a young woman, she was the leader of a faraway kingdom. The young woman’s passion for knowledge made her a very wise ruler, and the mistreatment she experienced as a child made her sympathetic to her people’s needs. Unfortunately, the young woman’s superior leadership intimidated the adults in her life. They became envious of her abilities and made her life difficult whenever they could.”
Conner popped up from behind a satellite dish. Alex struck her brother with another burst of light and Charlotte collapsed on the floor.
“Since there always seemed to be consequences for the young woman’s good qualities, she gravely feared the consequences of a bad quality. So the young woman held herself to an unhealthy level of perfectionism and never allowed herself to make a mistake. It was hard enough being resented without reason—she couldn’t imagine how difficult the world would be if she gave it a reason to hate her.”
Alex saw Conner skipping across the platform above her. She hit him with a ray of light and Red rolled onto the roof.
“One day the adults in the young woman’s life created a plan to exploit her abilities for themselves. They put a terrible curse on her that caused the young woman to feel and do awful things at their command. Even though she was being forced against her will, the young woman was such a perfectionist, she blamed herself for every terrible act she committed. She was so ashamed, she asked a loved one to take her life, believing it was the only way to end her suffering.”
Conner suddenly peeked out from behind the Freedom Tower’s antenna. Alex hit her brother with a powerful ray of light and he transformed into Cornelius.
“But it wasn’t the young woman’s fault for thinking this way. You see, no one ever told her it was okay to make mistakes. No one told her there was nothing wrong with needing help. No one told her it was normal to feel upset, or angry, or overwhelmed now and then. Everyone in her life took her perfectionism for granted and didn’t realize how suffocating it was. And because no one gave the young woman permission to be human, she thought she was a failure for being one.”