Rosemary leaned back into the dark gray, felt covered seat. She glanced down at her phone and tapped her feet against the floorboards. The inside of the movie theater was stuffy and warm, in contrast to the rain outside. 

“Hey Char, how much longer will this be?” She said it in her best attempt to sound lighthearted and conversational. Tried not to let the boredom show. Charlotte didn’t respond, still staring straight at the screen from her seat next to Rosemary, third from the back of the theater. 

The movie playing was some live-action adaptation of Cinderella, hence why Rosemary had agreed to see it, but this adaptation failed to live up to the original.

“Charlotte!” That got her attention. “Huh? Oh, another hour.”

Rosemary closed her phone, then opened it again. 10:11. Not even close to when she would sleep, but this movie outing was eating into her gaming time.

“Great, great…Look, I’m going out to stretch my legs. I’ll be back in 10 minutes.” She eased herself out of the chair, a pins and needles sensation shooting up her calves. 

Charlotte turned back to the screen. “Can’t you wait a little longer? My dad says we have to stay together. For safety and all that, you know, since we’re out alone.” Oh, right. Charlotte’s dad. He seemed like a pain to deal with, from what Rosemary had heard. 

Charlotte’s eyes narrowed. “And you’ve been on your phone the whole time, it shouldn’t be that hard to wait another hour.”

Rosemary huffed. “Please? I’ll only be a few minutes.” Charlotte leaned back, crossing her arms. “Well, I guess if you have to.” she said. 

Freedom. Rosemary skipped through the row and up the stairs. Two at a time, for luck. Once at the top, she walked to the door and pulled it open. Light streamed out weakly as she stepped through it and passed through the front part of the building, then out  into the rain. Droplets flew into her eyes and stuck to her hair.

Rosemary strolled around the venue, idly replaying some music in her head. Water beaded on her scruffy turtleneck, sticking to the fibers. After a few minutes, she stopped to take shelter under the rooftop of a sandwich store and saw a strange shape some feet from her.  Rosemary picked it up and turned it over. It was a rubik’s cube, albeit a very damaged one. Maybe someone tried to pull it apart. It was good that they failed. 

The puzzle was more difficult than Rosemary had expected. By the time she had grasped the pattern of how the pieces moved, the movie had ended. She spotted Charlotte in the distance, riding in the backseat of her dad’s car. 

Whoops, look at the time. That was a bit more than five minutes. 

 Rosemary continued working on the puzzle. Her mom wouldn’t give her too much trouble for this, right? She shook her head. No, she’d only be a few minutes late.

  She glanced at her watch. 11:20.  Just a few more minutes and she would start walking home. It was nice, living so close to the town square. She could go anywhere, at any time, and be back home in six or less minutes. The streets were empty at this hour, most people asleep in their homes. The occasional car whizzed by, breaking up the silence. It had stopped raining, the water all pooling through the street vents into the reservoir. 

She reached her house. The light outside was on, illuminating the empty lawn preceding the large, empty mediterranean-style house, scalloped roof tiles dripping rainwater down on her head. Rosemary flipped up a stepping stone and pulled out the spare key. She flicked off the long pink worm wrapped around it and stepped into the house, holding up her phone’s flashlight to the darkness.

Back in her room, Rosemary continued to flip around the puzzle piece. After thirty more minutes, she finally the different shades of purple lined up with each other. The puzzle made a clicking sound as the pieces expanded out, revealing a hollow part. Rosemary reached into it and pulled out a piece of paper. It showed a different pattern the pieces could be aligned to. After a quick search of how similar puzzles worked and a not-so-quick attempt to match the puzzle up to a new pattern, she succeeded. The puzzle popped open again, a different cog opening this time. In it was a king chess piece and a slip of paper. She grinned. 

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“You have passed the test? Hmm…Now what could that mean?” This was…interesting. Go on, mysterious piece of paper. Don’t leave me hanging. 

She looked up, her lips stretching into a wide grin. A life-sized floating mannequin appeared in front of her, the movable kind she’d only seen in miniature before. An ink-like substance dripped out of its joints and was smeared across the place its face should have been. Coooooool. So this was who designed the puzzle.

Her face stared back at her from the ink, frog-eyed with overgrown, greasy blond bangs.

“Well done,” said the mannequin. “Here is your reward for solving my puzzle.”

“Long ago, I created a world. A little land, populated with creatures similar to you 

humans. But it was stolen from me, along with the device I needed to channel my power. Reclaim it, and you can rule it alongside me.”

Ouch. Wondered how that had happened.

A funny memory popped into Rosemary’s head. It was several years ago, on the fourth of July. Rosemary was eleven years old and impatient as ever. Her dad was away, piloting a plane somewhere across the country. Her mom was…busy. With work. Rosemary had been sitting on the porch with a camera, trying to zoom in on the spot where the fireworks would go off when Flora, her older cousin, and Claire, Flora’s best friend, had driven by. 

“We’re going to the park to see the fireworks.” Flora had said. “Want to come?” 

Rosemary had jumped at the chance, and had hopped into the car after telling her mom where she would be. Flora dropped her off by the swing set and she had run up the hill, pushing through crowds to find the best view. Even then, she’d been tall for her age. 

That was when the fireworks started. A small blue explosion first, wisps of it trailing down after the fact, then a large golden one, like a spider’s web. Smaller red pops. She took picture after picture, intent on savouring the moment.

Rosemary shook her head, returning to the present. She turned back to the mannequin. It was an offer she couldn’t refuse. “That sounds incredible! I’ll go. When can I leave?” 

“I need you to go to the location of my portal.”The mannequin reached over, beaming a place into her mind, the old tree by the freeway. And a name, Ib. Interesting choice on both accounts.  “Great. Nice doing business with you. Can I go now?”

The dummy looked down at her with what she could only assume was concern, considering he didn’t have a face. “Aren’t you worried? You’ll be leaving your life here behind.” 

That’s the point, dumbass. Why even talk to me if you’re getting cold feet. Some genie.

“Look, are you giving me the job or not?” she snapped. 

“Of course I am.” Ib said. Where was the voice even coming from? “Good. You won’t regret this.” 

____________________________________________________________________________

Rosemary stared at the strange assortment of things in front of her. Backpack, mini tent, handful of chocolate protein bars. The special kind, with 90% cacao chips. Not the cheap peanut butter chunk bars. She was probably forgetting something important, but life didn’t wait around and neither would she. 

Rosemary walked down the staircase, hiking boots leaving marks on the gray carpet. Three steps from the bottom, she stopped and turned around. Her mom was still upstairs, probably getting ready for work. Someone from school would probably call home around noon, so she had plenty of time to get to the tree. “Bye, Mom!” 

But nobody answered.

____________________________________________________________________________

Rosemary took the normal route to school for the first mile, stopping to wave hello at a passerby. Going through her mental map, she reached the spot of detour, and took a shortcut through a street. It was a chilly October morning, last night’s rain plastering fallen leaves to the sidewalk like little stars. 

After half an hour of biking, she reached the tree. Cars passed by, kicking up puddles. Rosemary pulled off to the side of the road, nodding hello to Ib. If he wasn’t a freaking floating, talking mannequin, this would look too much like a kidnapping setup.  “I’m ready to leave.” 

“Excellent, I-”

Beep beep BEEP. Beep beep BEEP. Rosemary’s phone was buzzing in her backpacket. She fished it out and opened it.

“Hi, Rosemary Fletcher speaking! How can I help you- oh. Oh, hi Charlotte. Where am I. I am, uh, skipping school! Yeah. Look, see you later.” She snapped the phone shut with enough force to crush a finger.

Charlotte. Oh Charlotte. Rosemary was starting to get really annoyed with her. 

Well, better get out of here before someone comes looking for her. 

The dummy seemed to press against space, using his hands to tear a piece of it loose. It was like seeing into a hallway, except there was nothing all around them, nothing but the light at the end of the tunnel.