Alison woke up, stretching. The sun, falling through her bedroom windows felt great. She opened her eyes and screamed. Everything was purple! Her hammock, her windows, the sunlight. What in the world had happened overnight?
She leaped out of her hammock and ran downstairs, a million questions swirling in her mind.
“Mom!” Alison called, halting at the top of the stairs. No response.
“Mom?” she called again hesitantly this time. No response. Alison started down the stairs trying to convince herself that her mom probably just hadn’t heard her. Her gut wasn’t helping, as she had a feeling that something had gone terribly wrong.
She stepped off the staircase and turned to face the kitchen, where her mom should be. There was just one problem. There was no kitchen, rather a whirling, purple, portal. Alison, memorized by the portal, took a step towards it.
“Noooooo!” something yelled, jumping in front of her. That broke the spell.
“What were you doing?” the mysterious thing yelled at her. Alison spun around to look at the creature, and was only mildly surprised to find herself staring at a purple boy.
“Umm. Walking?” Alison tried to answer, not sure what she should say.
He snorted, “Ya right, this house came through the portal last night, the first one in a while. As you’re not purple, I assume you came with the house. So tell me, what are you doing here? What are your intentions!”
“I’m the only one who came here?” Alison asked. She had stopped listening after he had said she came with the house.
“No, there were two others. A very…jumpy young boy and then a tired looking woman. Why, do you know them?” Now the boy sounded curious.
“Of course I do! They’re my mom and brother. What have you done with them!” Alison screamed at him.
“I’ve done nothing,” he screamed back, “I’m not even supposed to be here. But the council told us to stay away from the house and prisoners, so I investigated the house.”
“What do you mean by the council?”
“I mean the bunch of weird old dudes who don’t know a thing about the world as it is now. They’re the ones who took your mom and brother.”
“How do I get them back?”
“Well, I heard they were going to be taken to Heartfire, the most secure prison in the world. No one has ever escaped from it.”
“Well that’s about to change!” Alison declared and purposely strolled off.
“Wrong direction!” the boy called. Alison reversed and began to walk the other way, her cheeks burning.
The boy shook his head, smiling, “You’re going to need a guide. Luckily for you, you have the world’s best thief right here.”
Alison snorted, “Like I believe that.” “I don’t care whether you believe it or not, but I’m coming with you, it isn’t up for debate,” he ran to catch up with her. Alison rolled her eyes. This kid was annoying.
“Fine, you can come. Just tell me your name.”
“Isn’t it obvious? My name is Purple. Just like everyone else but the council.” Alison rolled her eyes, but didn’t respond. Her energy could be better spent in other places.
The two of them walked for days, stopping periodically for food and rest, a volcano looming in the distance.
When they got to the volcano, Purple stopped and flourished his arms, “I present to you, Heartfire!”
“Heartfire is a purple volcano?” Alison asked.
“Yes. That’s why it’s called heartfire. It’s in the heart of a fire spewing mountain,” Purple sounded like he was explaining the most obvious thing in the universe.
“Well, how do we break in?” Alison wondered out loud. Purple shrugged and started to walk around the volcano. Alison hurried to catch up.
Purple stopped walking around five minutes later in a seemingly random spot. He looked around, cautiously, before reaching down and pressing a hidden bottom. Instantly, part of the volcano swung up.
“Our way in,” he whispered, going into stealth mode. Alison nodded and followed him into the volcano.
They emerged onto an empty, swelteringly hot, walkway. There was a door on either end. Purple started to head for the one on the right. Alison took a good look at the inside of the volcano. It wasn’t purple. She wondered how the outside of the volcano was purple but the inside wasn’t.
“You coming?” called Purple, his voice echoing. She nodded and ran to Purple, who was waiting at the door. He got out to slender pieces of metal and quickly picked the lock. They crept through the door, into the guardhouse, and out the other side.
Here, there was the clang of metal and shouting echoing everywhere. Purple smacked her leg to get her attention and pointed at where her mom and brother were. He motioned for her to cause a distraction, before creeping off.
Alison could hear her heart pounding in her chest. She was nervous, and didn’t think she could cause a distraction without getting caught
. She took a deep, steady breath and ran out her hiding place, screaming at the top of her lungs. For a second, everyone just stared at her.
Then the shock wore off and they started to chase her. Alison was already tired from walking to the volcano, and she wouldn’t have been as fast as the guards anyways. They quickly got her and brought her to a holding room.
The guards conversed in low voices. Alison strained her ears to try and eavesdrop on them, but she could only pick up murmurs. A minute passed, and then another, Alison’s fear growing every second. Then, bang! Boom! Crash!
“Hi Alison!” Purple yelled, a smile on his face as he appeared in the window of the room, “Come on!” Alison ran over and used Purple’s arm to climb out of the window. Her mom and brother were behind him, her mom with worry written into her face, her brother with a wild grin on his.
“This is so cool Alison!” He exclaimed with giddy energy when he saw her, “Mom did this weird arm wavy thing and boom! We were here!” Alison gave her mom a suspicious look. Her mom glared back.
“We’ll deal with your family drama later!” Purple announced, “For now we need to get out of here.”
“Right,” Alison nodded. Purple led them back the way they came, through the secret hatch.
Outside of heartfire, Purple rounded on Alison’s mom, “If you are a witch, why didn’t you use magic to break out of heartfire? Why did you bring your house here?”
Alison’s mom had tears in her eyes, “I didn’t mean to okay! My mom always told me I was a witch but I didn’t believe her, so I never learned magic. I was just waved my arms around, when boom! I was here. I don’t know what I did!” Purple considered this before turning to Alison and her brother.
“Say kwcurlrw nw,” he commanded. They did, and both of them began to levitate.
“Okay, all three of you are witches. Form a circle and yell Ewryeb ya ri iye ginw! That should bring you home,” Purple informed them. The three of them obeyed, and then Alison felt like she was on a roller coaster. She squeezed her eyes shut, and began to chant in her mind, just end it. Just end it!
Abruptly, she crashed into something. She opened her eyes and saw that she was in her backyard and her house was where it was supposed to be. She had crashed into the old tree in their yard. Her mom and brother had crashed into the fence. The three of them stood up, groaning as they did. They were all covered in bruises from head to toe. Alison smiled at her family.
“That was fun! I want to do more magic!” her brother exclaimed.
Her mom laughed, “Don’t worry Robert. We can go talk to Grandma Elise about learning magic.” Alison just smiled. She was finally home again.