___

~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

___

We returned to the tunnel, found a lantern, used the compass on my phone, and ran towards the Central Park direction. After over a mile of nothing but bricks and rats, we finally arrived at another unfinished platform. The words 'Central Park' were written in chalk on the wall beside it.

"We're here!" Conner said. "Does anyone see a hatch to crawl through?"

Jack raised the lantern to the ceiling, and sure enough, there was a circular hatch. Only this time it was bolted shut. I might be the only one who could see that because Conner got a ladder and climbed up it. He tried to open the door.

"The door's bolted shut!" he said, making me want to say some sarcastic comment, but I resisted. "We're gonna need a jackhammer or something powerful to get though this."

We looked around for something, with no luck. Red took a seat on the edge of the platform, defeated.

"So, we just ran a mile down a filthy, smelly tunnel for nothing?" she asked, and sprayed her Febreze in the air around her. "This rescue mission isn't going very well, is it?"

The others started to pace around the platform, trying to think of a solution. I stood very still, earning a glance from Conner. But eyes stayed trained on Red's Febreze, an idea blossomed in my mind, and a smirk bloomed on my face.

"Red, can I borrow your Febreze?" I asked.

Without waiting for her to answer, I snatched the can out of her hands. I picked up the roll of masking tape, plucked a long strand of twine from the rope, and climbed the ladder. I tapped the can to the circular door, near the bolts keeping it shut. I broke the tip off the canister, gleaning a gasp from Red. I stuck the twine down the tube.

"Does anyone have a lighter?" I asked.

Jack handed me the matches he had used to light the lantern. I lit a match and set the loose end of the twine on fire. Conner climbed half-way up the ladder behind me and peered up at the door.

"Bree, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Making a bomb," I said casually, so as not to raise alarm. "We might want to take cover- quickly!"

Jack, Goldilocks, and Red jumped off the platform and ducked into the tunnel. Conner hurried down the ladder and I jumped down beside him. We jumped off the platform and ran to the others. We huddled around the corner of the tunnel and waited. I was sure it would work. I heard the fizzling of the spark traveling into the can and then BAM! The canister exploded and I heard the clang of the door falling from the ceiling.

I was the first one to step around the corner to see the damage. A bit more of the ceiling than planned had fallen, but it had worked!

"I saved the day!" Red cheered, and applauded herself.

Jack and Goldilocks rolled their eyes and gave me a congratulatory pat on the back. Conner just stared at me with his mouth hanging open.

"What?" I asked.

"You just built a bomb!" he said in shock.

"And?"

"I just realized what a horrible influence you are," he said. I wanted to tell him that he was the horrible influence, since he was the one who snuck three people through an airport, but I didn't.

I just shrugged. "At least it smells better down here."

We returned to the platform and stared at the fresh hole I made in the ceiling. Conner climbed the ladder first, which only slightly surprised me, and we followed.

___

~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

___

After we were all through the hole which took Red some time, we checked our surroundings.

"Let's search the park to find where the witches went." Conner said. "They could be anywhere or disguised as anything, so everyone keep a sharp eye out. Speak up if you see something even remotely suspicious."

We nodded and formed a tight circle, just like when we searched the library. We found a cement path that lead around the park and followed it deeper into the park. The park was enormous, and each time we passed a directory, we were discouraged by how little ground we had covered. Weirdly, we never spotted a witch or a scout. It was odd to be walking around the park with no one there.

Conner found a discarded map and used it to guide us to the park's center. The closer we got to the center of the park, the stronger a certain scent became.

"Does anyone else smell that?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Goldilocks said. "It smells like gingerbread- fresh gingerbread."

"The witches are probably building gingerbread houses to lure the Boy and Girl Scouts to them." I said.

"If so, that is such a witch cliché." Red said.

"Not all witches are cannibals, though," Conner pointed out. "Whatever they're cooking, I don't think it's houses."

___

~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

___

"Psst!" a woman from under the Bethesda terrace whispered. "Come over here-quick!"

We approached the woman cautiously. From the way she was dressed, I assumed she was a native of the Otherworld, but I couldn't be sure. The woman in pink led us to where she and three other men were hiding, scared.

"It isn't safe to be wandering around the park in the open like that," she said. "If they find you, they'll capture you and take you to their base."

"You must be talking about the witches," Conner said. "Do you know which part of the park their base is in?"

"They're gathered somewhere between the lake and reservoir. On the Great Lawn, I suspect," one of the men said. "Buy they check the park every couple of hours for escapees."

"What are doing in the park so late?" I asked, something not quite right about what they already told us. If they were in the park, they had obviously been here since before the bubble went up, but they could be fibbing and leading us to a trap.

"My husband and I were out for a late jog," she explained. "We used the Seventy-Ninth Street Transverse as a shortcut to get home, and that's when the shield went up. We tried to get through it, but it zapped us."

She and her husband showed us the burn marks on their arms.

"We searched the park for someone to help us, but we saw the witches and hid in the castle," she said. "That's when we met him," she gestured to the man in a janitor suit.

"I was working the night-shift," eh explained. "We tried to call the police, but the phones had no signal. When the coast was clear, we made a dash for the Tavern on the Green."

"That's where we met him," the woman said, gesturing to the man in biker shorts.

"My and my friends were cycling the perimeter and also decided to take a shortcut home. When the shield went up, we hid from the witches in the Tavern on the Green with the other people who got trapped. We thought we were safe, but they eventually found us. We were the only four who escaped!"

"The rest were captured and taken back to the witches base," the woman said. "We've been hiding under the terrace ever since."

The janitor began to laugh, then started to rock back and forth. Not like something was funny, but like eh was losing his sanity.

"You know, the guy I replaced was fired for making wild claims about seeing magic in the castle. And now I'm hiding from witches. Funny how the tables have turned."

"You guys seem like you've been here for days," Conner said. "The witches only put the shield up a few hours ago."

Everyone shared a bewildered look.

"Sweetie, we have been here for days." The woman said.

"What?" Conner said. "How is that possible?"

"Ever since the shield went up, time in Central Park has been moving much slower than time outside of it. One hour in here is a second outside it."

Now I understood why it had taken Red so long to come through the hatch. Alex wasn't just putting up a shield, she was altering time. Whatever the witches wanted to do, they had plenty of time to do so.

___

~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

___

We were officially captured. The witches had come for water for the mistresses, and tricked us into thinking they weren't coming back. They surprised us and took us away. So now we were marching in a very straight line to the base.

As we approached the camp, the sight that lie before me was horrendous. The normally fifty plus acres of flat green land was covered in enormous brick ovens, children making gingerbread men, and other children making weapons. All the children looked incredibly tired, they had been awake for days. It was clear what they were doing. Making an army.

___

~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

___

And...Conner was officially stupid. Again. I don't why it surprised me, though. After we had gotten closer to the camp, Conner had lost it and started running towards the hill his siter was perched atop. He was much faster than the witches and got to the bottom of the hill before they could stop him. Unfortunately, one of the lions fromt eh front of the library stopped him. The lion knocked him across the moat and knocked the air out of him.

Good thing, that momentarily paused the curse on Alex. She yelled for her brother, but was immediately commanded to go back to keeping the shield up.

We were thrown in a cage and left there.

"Conner, are you hurt?" Goldilocks asked.

"I'll be okay," he groaned.

"That was so stupid of you!" I berated him. "What were you thinking? You could've gotten yourself killed!"

I didn't really care that I was letting my feelings show at the moment, he needed to know how stupid he was.

"I knew exactly what I was doing," Conner said, and smiled "Now we know that Morina was wrong. Alex isn't gone beyond return. She's still in there- we can still save her!"

___

~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

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THANKS FOR READING!!!
BYE BOOK-HUGGERS!!!
TLOSGEEK2-OUT!!!