I recognize it immediately. The trembling is all too familiar by now. It starts subtly but grows stronger with every passing second. I reach for the wall to steady myself, but to my surprise, it's unnecessary. I have no trouble keeping my balance. The same can't be said for the four students twenty meters down the corridor in front of the science classroom, where Gnat, Shadow, Slug, and I are nearly buried under a large amount of dirt, tiles, and rubble.
“Uuuuuunghhhhh!”
Reflexively, I step to the side and turn around. Somehow, I have ended up right next to the Flintstones without realizing it. My muscles tense, bracing for a fight, but to my surprise, they don’t even look at me. The eyes of Barney, Wilma, and Betty dart back and forth between Fred and the four students in front of the science classroom, where they… we… almost get killed. Fred’s face is distorted with exertion and pain. Arteries, swollen like garden hoses, pulse in his neck. Sweat streams down his face, back, and chest, drenching his T-shirt. Transforming the corridor into a torrent of bricks and mortar must be costing him an enormous amount of energy, but it’s all for nothing. Despite his best efforts, Gnat, Shadow, Slug, and I manage to escape into the classroom. The door closes behind them… us with a dry, mechanical click.
Slowly, the shaking returns to its source: Fred. He closes his eyes and mumbles something about killing, ripping, and crushing, but his voice sounds uncharacteristically weak. The other three watch in silence—Barney, disinterested; Wilma, frustrated; Betty, worried. Barney is the first to speak. Pointing at the door of the science classroom. “They’re inside, Tonio. That’s not good. You should have stopped them.” Wilma hisses at this overt display of disrespect, but before it can escalate into a confrontation, they are interrupted by a deep, loud groan. Fred’s eyes roll back, and slowly he topples to the ground like a giant tree. Timber!“
“Fred!” Wilma shouts, rushing forward to help him. Barney, still looking unimpressed, doesn’t give Fred a second glance and starts clambering over the giant blocks of rubble and dirt toward the classroom. Betty follows, but instead of climbing over the obstacles, she pushes them away as if they’re made of Styrofoam. Barney tries the door without success and puts his ear against it. “I don’t hear anything,” he says.
Meanwhile, Fred slowly gets back to his feet. “Goddammit. What happened? How did they get in there?” Although his voice is still weak, it’s saturated with violence and destruction. “Why didn’t we?”
“No idea,” Barney mumbles. “They only had to use the door handle, and in they went.” He tries the handle again, but it remains shut.
“This is driving me crazy,” Betty growls, enraged. “I’m gonna tear this door out of the wall. I will…”
“I don’t think so.” Everyone falls silent. “Good.” The voice continues coldly. “She,” indicating the building itself with a casual nod, “wouldn’t appreciate being destroyed even more... and neither would I. You’re working under my protection, but there are limits.”
Even Betty, who was about to tear down an entire wall, stares uncomfortably at the tiles in front of her feet when the vice-principal steps into the light. She briefly glances at the science classroom door without touching it. “It will not open. Not for us,” she murmurs, more to herself than to the four students. “The question is, why? What is Kwant’s plan?”.
Finally, Fred dares to speak up. “But... It’s your school! You’re the—" A minuscule gesture of her hand is enough to silence him. Fred swallows hard. It’s strange to see the colossal, intimidating Fred Flintstone react so timidly to such a small woman.
“I have to think...” Then she sees me—not as if I’m not really there, but like Williams, really seeing me. My heart stops beating. I feel the urge to hide, but there’s nothing to hide behind.
Her face, usually as unreadable as a sphinx, shows utter surprise now, gradually transforming into a deeper understanding. A slight smile curls her lips—the smile of someone who bet on an unlikely horse that won the race against all odds.
Meanwhile, the Flintstones, completely unaware of my presence, wait for the vice-principal to give them instructions and when she doesn’t, Fred finally musters enough courage to speak.
“Eh... what now... miss?”
“Yes... Roberto... Of course, you’re still here... Change of plan. The situation turns out to be more complicated than I thought. Return to your class. You will still be in time for math, if I remember your schedule correctly.” When they don’t move right away, she adds, “I mean, like now!” That does the trick. Fred scrambles up. Supported by Wilma, Betty, and Barney, he rounds the corner, groaning like a wounded boar.
Standing alone, amidst the wreckage of the destroyed corridor, the vice-principal closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and begins to mutter unintelligibly under her breath. Everything, except for herself, becomes blurry and out of focus. I’m not sure what she’s doing, but it must require a tremendous amount of energy because she groans softly between words. After what seems like forever, the corridor comes back into focus. I gasp, unable to believe my eyes. The chaos and destruction are gone. Except for a minuscule crack in the wall next to the science classroom, the corridor is unscathed.
She looks frail and small now. Her face is contorted with pain, when she clutches her belly with both arms and moves slowly toward the corner. She doesn’t even acknowledge my presence as she passes. For a moment I hope she has forgotten me, but then, she turns her head and says, “Not bad, Maxime Kwintens. Not bad at all. This is much more than I expected from you. Maybe there’s some truth to all the stories.”
I can see how much effort it takes for her to ignore the pain, but I don’t let my guard down. It’s like the final scene in a horror movie where the supposedly defeated zombie launches a last, unexpected, fatal attack.
“Uh... okay... thanks... I think... but what now?”
“Indeed, Maxime Kwintens, what now? Your guess is as good as mine. This is new and unforeseen, even for me. Someone entering the Shadow World with body and all? Unprecedented! Evidently, you must have learned something over the past year despite your legendary stubbornness.” She smiles a disarming smile despite her obvious pain. “It’s forbidden to give you advice at this level,those are universal cosmic rules. Let me just say this: I think it might be wise to stay here a little longer. It will surely be better than running around like a headless chicken in your own personal Wonderland. You never know what you might encounter here.”
“What? Not who?” is all I dare to ask.
“You’ll know it when you see it.” And before I can ask another question, she slips around the corner and is gone.
I try to think, but with little success; my brain seems to have short circuited from sheer overload. So, in a rare moment of clarity and compliance, I decide to follow her advice: I will wait. Running around hasn't helped me much up until now, anyway.
I lean my back against the wall, slide down until I'm sitting on the floor, and wait. Of course, I could use this time to think, to figure a way out of this parallel universe mess, but nothing is happening between my ears. I'm just so very tired.
After what feels like hours, I finally see the door handle move down and hear the familiar mechanical click of the science classroom unlocking. Gnat, Shadow, Slug, and I rush past on their way to their next lesson. I could follow them, of course, but what's the use? I know what happens to them next—I was there. As they turn the corner, the corridor becomes eerily silent once again.
Time drags on. Doubt fills the empty space between my ears, but then the door handle moves down again. How is that possible?