“They’re gone!” Ms Togami squealed.

The morning had come and the guest room was down by two full-sized children. Milk and Mul were nowhere to be seen. Flim, on the other hand was fast asleep on the cramped couch, wedged between two massive back-pillows.

“Milk and Mulberry are gone!”

This time Ms Togami’s clamorous shrill woke everyone left in the house. Flim flopped out of bed, tripped over his own feet and the floor face-first with a hollow thump.

Madam Prostasia and Mathitev entered the guest room a moment later in an incongruous state of calm. They found Flim on the floor, in a muddled state of half-sleep, glassy eyed and yawning. Ms Togami they found an inconsolable state. Her face was white with fear, and her normally perfect high-pony was a mess of fly-aways.

“Have they been kidnapped? Are they Sku-Zo?”

“Nou Nou, my dear girl,” Madam said taking Ms Togami by the shoulders. “Milk and Mulberry, are following one of the pre-determined paths available to them. Don’t worry yourself my little lamb. We four have some very, very important things to do.”

“It’s time to wake the dead.” Mathitev said earnestly.

“Tut-tut my treasure. We need to recover our strength. And the only effective way I know to do that is with a strong tea and some hearty breakfast. What do you say Mr Distil? Are you ready for the most sumptuous breakfasts of all time?”

Ms Prostasia used a simple levitation spell. With that Flim was pulled from the floor, just far enough so that his feet dangled millimetres above the floor.

“Yes Madam,” he squawked. “I’m starving…but please let me down now.”

A few minutes later the four were seated at the ornate dining table in the Madam’s Salle a Manger.

“TrophiChoros,” Mathitev called, waving an old branch in the warm air as soft streams of lilac magic flowed throughout the sun-lit room.

A procession of dancing food bounced above the table deliciously. There were scones with lashings of cream and jam. Eggs in every which way, and bacon, and maple syrup. There were raisins, and apricots and yoghurt. There was porridge, and waffles and pancakes – and young Flim ate them all.

“I’m so hungry. I could eat for days and days.”

“Yes eat my chubby little chook,” Madam said.

“Mmm,” he said, his mouth full of waffle. “This is all great. Got any chocolate?”

“Oh yes,” Mathitev said, sending a bar straight at the boy. It split into thirty individual pieces, which melted slightly and flowed into his mouth between bites of a blueberry pancake.

Mathitev, the Madam, and particularly Flim Distil were happy. Smiling, eating and enjoying a prolonged breakfast.

Ms Togami wasn’t eating, or smiling. She looked between the Madam and her Assistant and frowned deeply, a blend of anger and misery jockeying for supremacy.

“You can’t do this,” she said finally.

She swatted away a piece of toast, and in a sudden win for anger, slammed two clenched fists on the table. The scrambled eggs got scared and dropped to the table.

“You can’t do this!”

“We must do this my silly sausage. Because the alternative is oblivion.”

“Is there nothing we won’t justify with the stories we tell ourself?”

“You weren’t complaining when you got to keep living,” Mathitev shot back.

“Why’s everyone screaming? There’s plenty to go around,” Flim garbled, a mouth full of waffle.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Come now treasures. This is the way of things. I refuse to dwell on the day of his coming.”

Mathitev turned to face Flim.

“I’m sorry Flim. You are more important than you’ll ever know.”

“Fi-Laki!” Mathitex she said, waving that same old branch in the boy’s direction.

The beautiful mahogany floor buckled, twisting itself into a tangle of splintered wood that wrapped themselves suddenly and horrifyingly around Flim’s body.

“Argh!” He struggled. “What’s happening?”

These were the last words that came from Flim, as a large chunk of knotted wood buried itself into his open mouth.

Flim squirmed, a pained look on his chubby face. The bonds of wood cut into his flesh and were so tight it broke one of his arms in two places. He could not scream but his eyes were filled with fear and pain.

“He…or the others like him, always squirm,” the Madam said dismissively.

“Please stop this,” Miss Togami said, tears welling in her eyes.

“Shut up you panty-waisted jellyfish before I end you too,” Mathitev said pointing her branch menacingly at Ms Togami’s face.

“Ale, Ale, es anem. Arot, etieg atsorb,” the Madam sung. Her lungs were infinite bellows filled with potential energy. These were the same lungs that filled the sails of a million ships, that carved the great mountains of the world, that blew the constellations across the skies.

Ms Togami was a coward. She did not say a word as Flims Soul was slowly excised from his body with surgical precision. It floated above him for a moment and with a few further words from the Madam, was eradicated from the Universe.

“Ale, Ale, es anem. Arot, etieg atsorb. Ertaig Ertaig sas emuolak an etesinikex ot solet.”

At least, she thought the pain was gone. Flim was dead.

His body was released from the bonds of his mahogany prison and he slumped forward on the table. Ms Togami ran forward to catch him as he began to slide toward the floor. It was all she could do to keep him upright.

“And now we wait,” Mathitev said matter-of-factly.

Ms Togami did not cry.

She did not deserve to be sad for a boy she did nothing to save. She was complicit. But she held Flim’s body until the room began to darken and a single point of light, a new one, curled its way out of nothing from the soup of invisible forces in the Universe.

The cluster of bosons lowered themselves until they made contact with Flim’s body at the left temple. They grew, and appeared to take on the form of a small creature; a head, two legs and a single sharp-clawed arm. The creature climbed into Flim’s head and lit the back of Flim’s eyes like the approximation of a soul.

His eyes remained open and pained.

“Prostasia. Why have you sought me out again? It’s been barely a decade,” Flim’s mouth said.

“My dearest baby, Dr. Alpha. The She has been emboldened by the acceleration. We may have to remain awake from now on. No sense taking all these short naps.”

Flim’s body pulled itself away from Ms Togami, who tripped over a knot in the couch and fell onto the hard floor.

“Very well Madam. But the beginning isn’t really a beginning if it never ends. We are starting to stretch the definitions beyond all recognition.”

Madam Prostasia rolled her eyes and took a handful of floating Pecans, shoving them into her ravenous face.

“Papa never sleeps and he is currently in pursuit of the One. Papa and his bitch and her monster get closer to achieving their end,”Mathitev said.

Madam Nodded, looking down at Ms Togami.

“Nou-Nou, get up. There are things that need doing, and I won’t tolerate piteous slackers around me, my miniature quail.”

“What do you expect from me Madam? I can’t give any more than I’ve given…I won’t”

“Then you’re worthless to us,” Mathitev said.

“Nou-Nou. I’m disappointed,” Madam said, shaking her head slowly.

Madam Prostasia shook her head in disappointment.

“Destroy her,” Dr Alpha said to Mathitev.

Mathitev pointed her mangled stick toward the Librarian and with a single word “Sko-Tono”. An inky black strand of sludge snapped across the room, like the thick tongue of a hungry frog.

Ms Togami was too quick. She retrieved a shiny metal spoon from the pocket of her knitted cardigan and flicked it at the onslaught of vicious magic careening towards her.”

“K-atop-Rit,” she screamed louder than anyone in the room expected.

The alluvial sediment of inky-death broke into a thousand shards and rebounded around the room. Mathitev jumped behind the table, her arms over her head and her eyes filled with unbounded fear. Even Madam Prostasia leapt away from the evil slurry, lest it blemish her improving complexion. Only Dr Alpha stood against the onslaught, taking a number of bolts to the face and chest, which would have downed a mastodon but recoiled harmlessly to the floor.

Ms Togami was already gone before what was left of the carom of magic had settled into the void.

“Mathitev you foolish child,” the Dr said, shaking his head at her. “Find the coward, and bring her before me. This is not at all what’s supposed to happen!”

Madam Prostasia pulled herself from the ground with the help of some quick magic. She inhaled angrily, and exhaled so forcefully the twelve-seater table flew across the room.

“This is the first time I’ve been worried Alpha-baby. Everything we’ve worked for is starting to look like a sandcastle in a sweet little storm.”

“Don’t get hysterical Prostasia. We are more powerful than the void. We are the bulwark against destruction.”

Dr smiled Flim’s youthful smile, but there was malice in his eyes.

“I’m not being hysterical. I just tire of fighting for all of these ungrateful fools.”

“It’s your job. You know the alternative and it doesn’t feature either of us … or anything.”

“Then let’s get to it - don’t let me keep you from a bit of wanton destruction.”