Dorothy Gale's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Dorothy stood in the throne room because she had nowhere else to go. She'd walked every road that promised a way out, listened to every fool who claimed to know the trick of getting home, and ended up here anyway. Queen Icelia sat watching her with eyes like winter glass. The queen gestured toward a window. Outside, red flowers blanketed the ground as far as Dorothy could see, their petals bright as blood. People wandered through them, smiling at nothing, reaching for things that weren't there. "Those who accept my terms but fail to pay," Icelia said. "They forget where they meant to go. They forget to want anything at all." Dorothy looked at the flowers and felt something cold settle in her chest. The queen reached into the air and pulled out a pair of red shoes that sparkled like they'd been dipped in crushed glass. "Wear these home," Icelia said. "Three clicks of the heels and you'll wake in Kansas. But the shoes require payment. They'll take your memory of why you went there." Dorothy stared at the shoes in the queen's pale hands. Home without Aunt Em's face. Home without the reason she'd fought to get back. She'd be standing in the yard with no idea why her chest ached or what she'd lost. "No," she said, and the word came out steady. She turned and walked toward the door, past the emerald towers visible through the windows, past the queen's cold smile. She still didn't know how to get home, but she knew the difference between arriving and returning.