The Society of Imaginary Friends

Valerie reached the bottom of the stairs and saw a long, narrow tunnel stretching ahead of her. Her heart thumped wildly as she stepped inside. She was only a few steps in when she tripped, catching herself against the wall at the last second. Her night vision goggles slipped off and landed beside her with a crunch. When she picked them up and put them back on, she saw only blackness. They were broken. She panicked for a second, and then remembered the flashlight in her pocket. She pulled it out and frantically pointed the beam in all directions.

The tunnel was completely empty, and the walls were lined with rough stones. The air inside smelled stale, as if it had been stagnating in here for years—which it probably had. The passage was only a few inches taller than she was, and so narrow that she could touch both sides of it without extending her arms completely.

She was being squeezed by the close space, and she struggled to keep her breathing steady so that she wouldn’t hyperventilate from her fear. Ever since a terrifying experience of being locked up at one of her foster homes, small spaces always robbed her of her self-control.

It took all of her strength not to turn around and race back outside to safety with Thai. But she considered the life that was waiting for her back there—the sickness that was sucking her strength away and the emptiness inside her that made her heart ache. If she moved forward, she had a chance of a fresh start.

So she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other, and her body obeyed even as her mind was tortured by thoughts of what was lurking further ahead. Without her flashlight, she would be in complete darkness. What could be hiding in the darkness beyond the circle of light?

Her panic swelled inside of her, and she began to run, faster and faster, hoping that the tunnel would finally widen. Would it ever end? Had she somehow failed the Sphinx’s test and this was her punishment? Abruptly, the tunnel narrowed and the ceiling began to taper down so that she had to crouch in order to move forward. Her breathing came in gasps, and she scraped her hands against the sides of the walls as she tried to propel herself forward. The lack of oxygen made her dizzy.

She had a sense that she was directly under the Great Pyramid, and the vibrating of its magic rattled her to the bone. It was as if the entire weight of the massive monument was upon her shoulders, bearing down on her. The tunnel curved sideways and angled upward.

Finally, she crashed into a barrier and collapsed to the ground. Her head was spinning as her lungs ached to breathe something other than the musty air of the tunnel. Her flashlight had shut off when she fell, and she frantically, blindly felt around the ground until her hand closed around the handle.

She turned the flashlight on and said a silent prayer of thanks that it hadn’t broken from her fall. She shone the flashlight beam on the barrier. It was the door that marked the entrance to the launch room. At last.

The door was covered in symbols and numbers that made up hundreds of complex equations. She recognized some of the symbols from her algebra class, though most of them appeared to be in a language that she couldn’t understand. Some of the symbols were the same as the ones embroidered on Chisisi’s sash, and her anxiety for him, which had been driven out of her mind by her harrowing journey through the tunnel, returned.

She rested her flashlight on the ground and wiped the sweat off her forehead. Then she pressed both of her hands against the door, ready to push. But she didn’t have to do a thing. She watched as light poured out of her fingers and traveled through the entire door, illuminating the equations with a translucent, neon blue light. Slowly the stone door disappeared, leaving only the glowing equations like a veil between the tunnel and the room behind it.

She stepped through the veil and into the chamber. As soon as she entered, the room lit up brightly, temporarily blinding her. More equations covered the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room, and they were all glowing brightly. She stretched, relieved to finally have room to breathe.

Then something caught her eye that caused her anxiety to subside. In the center of the room, a long, silver sword appeared to be thrust into the stone floor. The handle was gold, and the blade shone in the light of the room.

She was immediately reminded of her favorite story since she was a little girl, the tale of King Arthur, who had pulled his magical sword from a stone to prove he was king. That legend had always fascinated her, and she had read every book on King Arthur and Camelot that she could find. She couldn’t help walking over to the sword and gently grasping the hilt.

Hesitantly, she pulled, and it slid out of the floor easily. She stared at it with reverence. She’d stepped inside of her favorite tale. Winding along the blade was elaborate script. She had only read the first word—Pathos—when her nose picked up a familiar foul smell and the blade reflected someone entering the room.

Venu must have managed to sneak past Thai and follow her into the tunnel. Rage rose up inside of her with a ferocity that she had never known. Rage for attacking her, rage for almost killing Thai, and most of all, rage for what he had done to Chisisi. His face was contorted with pure hatred, and she knew that he shared her loathing. Sanguina stood behind him, a nasty grin spread across her face. But the usual freezing paralysis that Sanguina induced melted in the inferno of Valerie’s anger.

Venu lunged at her. She didn’t know if she would have beaten Venu last time without that taste of her power that Stonehenge had allowed her. But even without magic, her time on the streets had honed her reflexes. She dodged him, and he slammed against the wall from the force of his own stride. Venu shouted something in another language that sounded like a curse, and pulled a long dagger from his belt.

“Leave here now and Venu will never come near you again,” Sanguina said. Valerie knew that she was trying to distract her. “I promise you, even if you escape him, I will be waiting for you on the other side.”

But Valerie’s rage focused her, giving her an anchor to keep her from getting lost in her fear of Sanguina. She held the sword in front of her, and even though it was clumsy and awkward in her hands, it also belonged there. As Venu thrust at her with his dagger, she awkwardly knocked his blade away, barely keeping the sharp edge from touching her skin.

It took every ounce of focus to anticipate where Venu’s next attack would come from. She concentrated on his twitching muscles, and escaped his next slash by a hair.

Sanguina put her face right in front of Valerie, blocking her view of Venu. “In the end, you know you’ll lose. Run now while you can,” she commanded.

But Valerie refused to let Sanguina’s words distract her. She knew that her life depended on being able to focus. So she said nothing and concentrated every cell of her being on the fight for her life.

She saw Venu’s blade less than a second before it came speeding toward her, ready to plunge into her stomach. She stopped it in time, but the tip of the dagger pierced her skin, and blood trickled out of the wound. For a split second, her mind registered the pain. But just as her rage had swallowed her fear, it also obliterated her pain. Nothing existed except for calculating her next move.

It was time to stop being on the defensive and attack. Every passing second was making her weaker. Valerie struck out blindly, and her sword met nothing but air. This wasn’t a strategy that would enable her to make it out of this fight alive. She forced herself to take a deep breath. She reminded herself of what a helpful foster brother had taught her about fighting—to use all her senses to guide her. She heard the sound of Venu’s heavy breathing and smelled the poison on his hands.

Letting instinct lead her, she thrust her sword and it clashed with Venu’s dagger. She flicked her wrist, and her sword nicked his flesh. She had the strangest feeling that her sword had acted on its own, giving her a tiny advantage.

Venu grunted in pain and his dagger skittered across the floor. Without over-thinking her next move, she kicked, and her foot connected with his stomach. She heard his heavy body fall to the ground.

“Are you going to let this little girl defeat you? Are you a man? Get up!” Sanguina demanded.

He struggled to stand at her words, but his wrist gave way and he fell again, hard. Valerie didn’t hesitate. She hit Venu on the head with the flat of her sword, and he slumped to the ground, unconscious for the second time in three days.

It took all her remaining strength to drag him out of the launch chamber so that he wouldn’t be near her when she was launched into space. As her rage drained away, something strange took its place that was even better—pride in her triumph over Venu, Sanguina, and her fear. Venu wasn’t moving at all, but he was still breathing.

“It will be much, much worse for you on the Globe, I promise you. I will find you like I always do, and I will destroy you,” Sanguina said when Valerie finally dropped Venu with a grunt. She heard the desperation in Sanguina’s voice and deliberately turned to her.

“You know what I think? For all your threats, you’re afraid of me. That’s why you don’t want me in your world. And you should be afraid. Because I will fight you, and I will crush you.”

Something in Valerie’s face silenced Sanguina, and she vanished. Valerie took a deep breath and knew that it was time to take off, before Venu could attack again. She had never felt so powerful in her life. She was ready to be on the Globe, to embrace her magic fully, and to take on whatever trouble came her way.

She must have passed the second half of the Sphinx’ test, because she knew exactly what to do next.

“Goodbye, Earth,” she said, and she touched the center triangle on the north wall that would launch her into space.