“My name is Zara White,” I begin, “and I am asking for your help.”
I don’t imagine everyone in their underwear or anything because some of them are pretty gross already and they need all the clothes they have to cover up wounds and sores and burns. It’s never good to vomit in the middle of a speech. Plus, it just seems kind of pervy to imagine everyone half naked. Instead, I take a couple big breaths to calm myself down.
“My name is Zara White,” I repeat. “I stand before you to swear that this will not be the end of the world, but a beginning. I stand before you to beg for your help.”
There’s a murmur among them. Hoping it’s not a disgruntled murmur, I continue. “Centuries ago there was a description of a great apocalypse that would befall the world, the Ragnarok. All but two humans would die. It is my responsibility to stop that fate, and I need your help.”
There is another murmur. I scan the crowd for Astley, Nick, Issie, and Amelie, but I don’t see them there, can’t find them among all the heads.
“I don’t know what century you all are from, but the world is still full of goodness and badness. It is still full of love and pain. And each person in it holds the power to determine his or her own fate. Each person has a chance to live his or her own life to its absolute fullest, to choose to live kindly or not, to love or not …”
I spot Astley in the crowd. He nods at me and smiles. My heart warms from seeing him moving, looking alive, looking at me.
“But the side of evil, of unchecked needs and lust for power, is strong now, too strong, and it wants the world to end—the world that you all probably loved so much, the world that I love so much despite all its problems.”
Nick stands by Astley, just behind him and to his right. Despite the massive crowd around them, I can see his face. It looks like he’s holding his breath. My ankle feels empty without the chain there, but it will be okay. We all have to feel empty sometimes.
“I’m just a human, but I know that I can’t dare to forget, today or any day, that I have a responsibility to my friends, to my town, to my world. And I know that you were once of that world, too, and I know that you have left that world behind and that this place—this place—”
I remember my dad glowing so beautifully, so full of love.
“—is just one step in your journey, in all of our journeys, toward something bigger and more beautiful and more glorious. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a responsibility to others, to let them have the lives they need to have, to let them have lives free of terror, to let them have lives where they can be the best people they can be.
“I beg of you to help me when the time comes, to choose to fight for those you’ve left behind, for the world you’ve left behind. It is not perfect, but it is your legacy. It is not perfect, but it is a testament to years of human courage, of hardship, of joy. No, it’s not perfect, but none of us are. Our lack of perfection doesn’t mean that we should not be brave, love, and do perfect deeds. I know that when I think about the people I love that I dare not forget where it is I have come from. Do you? You leave behind you the heirs of humanity, and it is our duty—our absolute duty—to keep them safe. You have one more chance to do one more selfless thing. You have one more chance to save our world. Please join me when the time comes. Please show the world that evil does not always triumph, that good can overcome. Thank you.”
They are silent. Did I blow it? I think maybe I’ve blown it.
One small baby girl, maybe about five years old, yells, “Hooray!” and then there is applause—huge, thunderous applause. The balcony echoes with it and it sounds like horses stampeding to the rescue, like hope, really. Yes, like hope. My heart beats again. My eyes close.
“You have your army,” Hel whispers in my ear, and somehow I can hear it despite the noise of the dead clapping. The smell of vanilla and death is overwhelming again.
I argue. “But I’m not magic. You said that magic stops—”
“Sound the alarm. They will come.” Hel smiles at me. “Trust in yourself, Zara White. Have faith.”
And then she claps a rotting hand on my shoulder and says, “I hope when your time comes to pass, that you will stop here and not Valhalla.”
“Me too,” I say. “Me too.”
COUNTY SHERIFF 911 TRANSCRIPT
Boy: I can hear my name. Someone’s in the woods by the road saying my name.
911 Operator: What’s your location?
Boy: Can you hear that?
911 Operator: Sweetie, I need to know where you are so we can send help.
Boy: The Shore Road by Water Street. I’m walking. Oh … I can hear …
911 Operator: Hello? Hello?
It’s hard to find my friends again because of the milling crowd below and then I spot people moving aside, as if others are trying to get through to me. Nick is pushing his way through the dead, the others trailing behind him.
Issie’s thin voice yells, “Sorry! So sorry! Excuse us.”
It makes me smile. And then Astley must give up, because he soars up through the crowd and lands on the balcony next to Hel and me. He manages to land on one foot and wobbles a bit, but doesn’t fall down.
Once he’s steady, he looks to Hel and they exchange greetings that are formal and boring and then he sputters out, “Freezing us was decidedly uncalled for!”
She raises an eyebrow. “I needed to talk to Zara alone. Do you dare confront me in my own realm, Star King, and tell me my procedure is unwarranted?”
“Yes. No. It’s just—”
“You can see that your queen is unharmed and you have been unfrozen. Do not make me regret my hospitality,” she says with a warning tone, and then she retreats a few steps back and calls to a man to come attend her. The moment she is gone, Astley swoops me into a hug and lifts me up, spinning me around.
“You were brilliant!” he gushes. “So brilliant and queenly.”
“No bunny pajamas this time,” I kid.
“I was so proud of you, I almost forgot to be angry at her,” he says, kissing the side of my head and letting me back down.
As Nick, Issie, and Amelie get closer I grab his arm and whisper, “I saw my father.”
His eyes widen. “Which one?”
I explain it was my stepfather, the one who raised me, and his smile grows so big that his face can hardly contain it. “That is so wonderful!”