Unforeseen - A Kingdom Keepers Novella Read online

  I flipped over the plate in front of him.

  The same scrolled writing suddenly took shape in my mind’s eye.

  Lucky 1,000

  I lost my grip, juggled the plate, and dropped it. Shards of pottery exploded in a dozen different directions.

  I looked at Wayne, and he looked at me. Something passed between us. I moved on to the next setting, trying to pretend where there was no pretending.

  “You saw something,” he said.

  “Why’d you choose that chair?” I asked. “You could have sat anywhere.”

  “But I sat here. What did you see?”

  “Nothing,” I answered. I’d had to lie for most of my life; little white lies to protect me and Amanda in the Barracks, bigger lies in the hope that I’d never have to go back. I considered myself pretty good at it.

  Wayne laughed. I didn’t know him well, not like the Keepers did, but I’d never heard anything more than a chuckle out of him. This laugh was big and full.

  “You can tell me, Jessica. It’s witchcraft. I don’t believe a word of it. I never have. That’s why I’ve survived it so long.”

  He might consider the writing witchcraft, but I lived with my visions. I’d come to believe in them, to trust them. The Haunted Mansion was said to be awaiting one more soul, one more to make its roll of ghosts number one thousand. Wayne was sitting in front of that plate. No matter how much he doubted it, I felt horrible, like I had something to do with this.

  Wayne couldn’t die! We needed him. The Kingdom needed him! The Keepers wouldn’t make it without him.

  “Nothing!” I repeated sharply. “I lost my grip and dropped it. That’s all.”

  “So there’s nothing to add to your drawing? Only a riddle about the future—which, of all us, you’re most familiar with.”

  “Maybe it’s a warning,” Amanda said.

  I wanted her to shut up.

  “But that doesn’t make sense,” she said. “They’re all warnings. Everything you see is a warning.”

  Tears burned behind my eyes. I didn’t want this responsibility. I’d never asked for it.

  “You will need to share what you’ve seen with your friends.”

  “I told you, I didn’t see anything. I just dropped the plate. I was clumsy.”

  “Yes, so you said.”

  He didn’t believe me. He stood. “I’ll help you get home now. Wanda is waiting. We should hurry...before something dreadful happens.”

  As he said this, he began collecting the pieces of the plate.

  Amanda and I helped him.

  As we pieced it back together, I noticed something equally terrifying: it had broken cleanly into five perfect pieces. Five: the number of Kingdom Keepers.

  I took out my drawing and studied it again. Our awful adventures during this long night had completely filled it out.

  Would I dream it again now that I’d seen it? Was this it? Was it supposed to mean anything?

  I looked at the plate. I could barely see any cracks. It looked whole. Complete.

  But I knew differently.

  WAYNE LED US OUTSIDE. Jason caught up and walked alongside me.

  “So?” he asked in a whisper.

  “So, we’re following him somewhere,” I said a little curtly.

  “What happened in there?”

  I looked up at him. He could read the message in my eyes: don’t ask that.

  But Amanda had overheard. “She saw something, but she won’t talk about it, so don’t bother.”

  “What she witnessed,” Wayne said, apparently making ours an open conversation, “was dark magic. It is nothing we need pay attention to. The point is this: Jessica filled in her dream sheet, or so she claims. She found her missing dream. That is why she visited us in the first place, Jason. We must learn to not project. Projecting is Jessica’s realm, not ours.”

  He led us up onto the balcony at the Main Street Train Station, overlooking Cinderella Castle. The park was mostly dark, but the orange glow of moonlight and distant city lights gave us a full view of the sprawling beauty below.

  Wayne said, “As Imagineers, we are forced to take a stand. Either there is good and evil, or evil is just a lack of good.”

  “No difference,” I said.

  “Ah, but of course there is!” The old man smiled at me kindly as he spoke, but I felt like he was looking past me, into a future even I couldn’t see. “One suggests evil is real, something that needs to be defeated. The other sees evil as a mere absence, a hole to be filled. We Imagineers are constantly filling such holes with joy, excitement, and wonder. What do you think the parks are about? Filling a need. We are like those men and women on the highways that repair potholes.”

  “We’re the highwaymen,” said Jason.

  Because I was staring at Jason, I caught a flash of uncharacteristic anger from Wayne. It was a silent message to Jason, telling him, “Shut up; don’t ever speak of such things.” I filed away the term, hoping I’d remember it in the future.

  “For now, we’ve won,” Wayne said. “We reconnected you with your vision. What you choose to do now is up to you, Jessica.”

  It’s not up to me, I wanted to say. Things happen. Don’t blame me just because I see them before they do. But I held my tongue.

  “Thank you,” I said instead to both Wayne and Jason. “For helping.”

  “You mustn’t trouble yourself over a spot of black magic,” Wayne said. “And don’t worry about me. Of course I’m going to change, but not today, and not tomorrow. Not until my usefulness has run its course.”

  “Don’t say that!” Mandy barked.

  “You get to be my age, young lady, and you can hardly afford to be afraid. I still have Jason and the other young Imagineers to train. Some words on a plate—” Wayne met my eyes significantly, “will not stop me.” He motioned down Main Street, toward the magnificence of Cinderella Castle. “Tell me that doesn’t beat it all.”

  “It does,” Amanda whispered.

  Jason’s hand barely brushed mine—just barely. And somehow, my upset and tension melted away.

  “It does,” I agreed.

  THE END

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to Lisa Rutherford and Jennifer Lou at Coliloquy for the Insiders inspiration and making us all a family of readers and writers. To Wendy Lefkon for her support at Disney Books. To Genevieve Gagne-Hawes for her endless editorial work. Special thanks to Jen Wood and Nancy Zastrow who keep me and my office running.

  To Allie Lazar and Brooke Muschott: You two represent the heart and soul of Kingdom Keepers Insider. Thanks for your substantial writing, editing, and research contributions to this novella and for keeping the Keepers’ magic alive.

  About Coliloquy

  Coliloquy is the first digital publisher to focus on active and interactive storytelling, leveraging advances in technology to create groundbreaking new forms of digital content. Originally developed as part of the Kindle Developer Program, Coliloquy’s books and apps are now available across all tablet, phone, and e-reading platforms, including iOS, Android, Kindle, NOOK, and Kobo. Based in Palo Alto, CA, the company was founded by Lisa Rutherford, an AlwaysON “Top Women to Watch” award winner, and Waynn Lue in 2011. For more information, please visit www.coliloquy.com.

  About the Author

  Ridley Pearson is the award-winning author of the Kingdom Keepers series. A recreational tree climber and sometimes snowboarder, Ridley spends whatever time he can sneaking around the Disney parks and aboard the Disney Cruise Line ships in the name of research.

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2014 Page One, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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  First eBook Edition: March 2014

  Cover design by: Joann Hill

  Dream Sketch by Kelsey Gomez

  The Coliloquy name and logo are trademarks of Coliloquy, LLC.

  The following are some of the trademarks, registered marks, and service marks owned by Disney Enterprises, Inc.: Adventureland® Area, Audio-Animatronics® Figure, Big Thunder Mountain® Railroad, Disney®, Disneyland®, Disney California Adventure®, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park, Epcot®, Fantasyland® Area, FASTPASS® Service, Fort Wilderness, Frontierland® Area, Imagineering,Imagineers, it’s a small world, Magic Kingdom® Park, Main Street, U.S.A., Area, Mickey’s Toontown®, monorail, New Orleans Square, Space Mountain® Attraction, Splash Mountain® Attraction, Tomorrowland® Area, Toontown®, Walt Disney World® Resort.

  Toy Story characters © Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar Animation Studios

  Winnie the Pooh characters based on the “Winnie the Pooh” works by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-937804-38-1