Chapter 18:

Willow got on her fours and crawled under one of the tables and counters. She was much smaller than Michael was, which gave her an advantage that he didn’t have. She looked behind her, craning her neck to the point that it hurt and saw Michael watching her intently. She glanced over at the cook, who was still busying herself, before crawling as quickly as she could under another table.

                She continued to do this, crawling under one table to the next. The kitchen was so big, it took seven minutes for her to get to the other side where the cook was. She eyed the plate of cookies, sitting opposite of her.

                It was too close, if she went for it the cook would most definitely catch her. She crawled quickly to the other side and reached over the table to knock some things down, and then quickly dived under a table to the left. The cook looked back angrily and started to walk away from the cookies to look under the table.

                Shit, Willow thought. Just as the cook leaned down to look under the tables Willow got up and lifted herself on top of a table so that the cook couldn’t see her feet. Before the cook was all the way back up, she jumped down, grabbed a cookie and ran out the room.

                "What in the hell?” She heard the cook yell, probably not knowing who Willow was and what she was doing in the kitchen.

                To her surprise, the cook started to chase Willow. As soon as Willow was outside the kitchen, Michael grabbed her elbow and they both ran the opposite way they had come. The cook only chased them for a few minutes before stopping.

                They were both laughing so hard that Willow could barely breathe.

                "You win,” Michael said, giving her a high five and looking at her proudly.

                She smiled in response, “Thanks. Jasper and I often stole food at night and such, so I have practice.”
                “You’ve had more practice than you think,” she thought Michael whispered, but he was turned away from her so she began to think she had imagined it.

                “C’mon,” he said, gently. Willow followed behind him down the hallway. He passed a hallway and said, “More lighting in that hallway, it is a hallway that leads you to nowhere.”

                Willow paused to look down in the hallway and it took her a minute to see the slight indication of more lighting. It was so small that by the time she saw it, Michael was already halfway down the long hallway.

                She jogged to catch up with him and she caught just as he turned to his right, Willow followed, of course. In this hallway there seemed to be much less doors.

                “I want to show you something,” he said, and stopped at the fourth door to the left. “Close your eyes.”

                Willow eyed him for half a second, wondering if she could trust him enough to close her eyes. She slowly let her eyelids fall, seeing the nothingness in front of her, the darkness, made her feel as if she were wondering, wondering in a room of nothingness. Trying to find something solid with her eyes, and finding nothing at all. She had always hated closing her eyes when someone asked her to, it made her feel so helpless.

                A gentle hand came at the small of her back and she jumped slightly in surprise and pleasure. Michael carefully pushed her in the direction of the door and Willow stepped slowly in. His hand was steady as he pushed her father in and she heard the door close behind her.

                “You can open your eyes,” he whispered, she could feel his breath at the top of her head, it was a pleasant feeling.

                She slowly opened her eyelids, letting her eyes adjust to the different, bright lighting.

                As soon as she opened her eyes, she was blown away. It felt as if her insides had shrunk, as if she were the smallest person in the world, yet she was a giant. “What is this place?” She whispered, too scared to raise her voice as if it were to all disappear if she were to talk normally.

                “We call it the Maps Room, though the technical term is Mapiasath Dormato.”

                The room was what the name indicated, a map room. But the map wasn’t on a piece of paper, it was painted on all the walls, it brought to life in front of her, as if by magic. The mountains stood taller than Willow in front of her, she could see the clouds, the people walking around. She could see the creatures running and feel the wind blowing her hair back. She could smell fresh air, the taste on her lips sweet and pleasant. She was a giant, a giant in a world shrunk down. A map, a real, visual, shrunk down map. Taking it all in gave her a dizzying feeling, she wanted to touch everything, and yet was too afraid to.

                “This map tells you where everyone is at this exact moment. It isn’t real, more of an illusion. Everything has been shrunk down so we can see everything clearly. This is actually all mist, no matter how real it seems.” He walked through the villages and his feet passed right through what seemed like real little houses. The village’s tallest building came at Michael’s lower knee. He then walked over to one of the mountains, which were about his height, and ran his fingers through it. It was all mist, as he had said.

                A tiny, enlarged, 3-D map of the UnderWorld.

                “Of course, we cannot see inside buildings, or inside anything, really, which gives this a disadvantage, but other than that, it brings great use when an enemy threatens to attack.”

                Willow nodded and tried to walk through to him, he was standing in the middle of a plain at the foot of the miniature mountain. Yet, despite the fact she knew it wasn’t real, that it was just mist giving her the illusion that it was all real, she was afraid to step on the mist houses, half expecting them to break down at her feet.

                She walked over so that she was standing right next to him, running her fingertips through the mountain, the mist escaping through her fingers, caressing it.

                “It’s amazing!” She exclaimed, turning in circles to take it all in. “The UnderWorld is huge!” The room was bigger than the library, then the Weapons Room, then the kitchen combined!

                “This isn’t even all of it,” replied Michael. “There are some uncharted territories over there,” he pointed at the West.

                Willow couldn’t help smiling in wonder as she spun in a slow circle to take it all in. “It is—it is just…wow…”

                He laughed, “I thought you might react like that.”

                She turned around to face him, he was taller than her, her nose came to his shoulder.

                “I should probably take you to your room, now,” he whispered, and to her surprise reached up and gently grabbed one her small hairs that stuck out when her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and tucked it behind her ear, his fingertips lightly brushing her temple.

                 He looked at her with almost a caring relief, and Willow could also see a hint of recognition, as if he was remembering something…

                He took a deep breath and quickly dropped his hand, “Let’s go.”

 * * * * * * * *

                "Where were you?" Alicia asked Michael as he entered the library. He had already dropped off Willow to her room, which was diagonal from his. He felt an almost empty feeling in his chest went she closed the door between them, like when Machire had closed the portal between them. He knew he would see her again tomorrow, yet, it gave him no reassurance at all.

                "I was with Willow," Michael said honestly. There was no point in lying, they had all already probably caught something different about the way he was treating her, and, he could never lie to them even if he wanted to. He walked over to the couch and threw himself on, feeling strangely tired.

                Chris looked at him in complete surprise, "With Willow?"

                Chelsea shook her head, looking at him with as much surprise as Chris was, "I knew there was something going on between the two of you! You like her a lot, don’t you?"

                Michael shrugged, “She’s okay.”

                “You’ve met her before, haven’t you?” Alicia said, staring at him with that I-know-everything superior look. And it was true, there wasn’t very much you could hide from Alicia, especially once you’ve known her very long.

                He just shrugged in response, “She seems vaguely familiar.”

                “No,” Alicia shook her head. “It’s more than vagueness,” her lips starting to curl at the corners in a malicious grin.

                “It wouldn’t matter if it was or not,” Michael said calmly. He was a relatively calm person, usually didn’t lose his temper on things, and if he did, he could always hide it very well. But this, this was a touchy subject for him to go on.

                Alicia frowned, “So what? You’re not twenty-five yet,” she murmured. “You could be with her for a while…”

                “At the expense of her own life.” Michael said back, trying to keep his voice level. Alicia knew it was a touchy subject, it was why she was approaching it slowly.

                “That’s just stupid,” she responded, frowning in anger.

                “That’s life for you,” Michael answered. “I am going to bed, now.” He got up from the couch and started heading for the door.
                “When does Katrina return?” Chelsea asked.

                Michael stopped in his tracks, the name giving him a spark of anger even though none of it was Katrina’s fault. “A week after the ball, I think,” he responded, his voice monotone.

                “I guess the sexist pig ought to return sometime,” Chris said. “It seems we have been living in the fantasy of her being gone for too long.”

                “Not you,” Michael responded, his voice lowering to a whisper. “I am the one living in the fantasy of her being gone.” With that, he left, not wanting to continue on with the subject, fearing he could explode at any moment from all the anger that was building up every time he saw Willow, and knew, even though he saw her, could never really touch her.

                The fantasy would die before it would even begin.

                So there was no point in beginning it.