VELVETEEN vs. Going Home Again #4
“Ah, Pol.” Torrey smiled up at her, weary and wry. “Everything in this place is based upon the iconography of a world that is not my own. I love your world, I do, but a girl likes to pretend she’s culturally literate, and every part of my surroundings reminds me that I am not.”
“We’re going to fix things,” said Velveteen.
The others turned back to her. She was focused on Jack.
“That’s what you want to know, right? What we’re going to do?
We’re going to fix things. I don’t know how, and I don’t know what the world is going to look like afterward, but we’re going to fix things. ”
“Everything?” asked Jack.
Velveteen hesitated before saying, “If there’s any way to make this all have just…not happened, that’s what I’m going to do. That would mean Jackie would never have needed to save me, and if she didn’t need to save me, she didn’t get erased. Will you still help us?”
“Why did you tell me if you thought I wouldn’t?” asked Jack.
Velveteen shrugged. “I figured you should have a choice, if there’s a chance you’re about to be wiped from existence.”
Jack smiled a little. “I wouldn’t be the selfless spirit of Christmas if I tried to tell you ‘no,’ but I’m not just saying ‘yes’ because of my nature,” she said. “I don’t want to take someone else’s life. There will always be Jacquelines. This world is supposed to have a Jackie.”
“Then lead the way,” said Velveteen.
Jack nodded and stepped off the porch, starting deeper into the village. Torrey followed. As before, Yelena hovered above the snow rather than trying to walk through it, but this time she floated next to her girlfriend, lighting up the air around them.
When Vel stepped off the porch, Aaron was by her side, his feet as firmly on the ground as her own.
She took his hand as they walked, and neither one of them said a word, and neither of them needed to.
* * *
Santa and the Snow Queen were waiting on the steps of the Hall of Mirrors. No one commented on the fact that Santa couldn’t possibly have beaten them there: this was his place, and he was capable of virtually anything.
Looking at the Snow Queen, Velveteen thought she looked even colder than usual.
Her aristocratic features were set into a frozen mask of disdain, her chin raised as she looked down her nose at the warm-blooded heroes in front of her.
Jack reddened and turned her face away, not meeting the Snow Queen’s eyes.
“Well?” Velveteen held fast to Aaron’s hand as she looked at Santa. “Now what?”
“Now you go inside,” he said. “There is a door. It’s not large, or flashy; it’s not easy to find, when you’re surrounded by so many more interesting things. But it’s there. Find it. Open it. Go through. What you’re looking for is on the other side.”
Velveteen stared. “Seriously? That’s it? ‘Go in there and find a door, and we won’t tell you what’s on the other side, but hey, good luck’? That’s bullshit. What are we looking for?”
“We don’t know,” said the Snow Queen. Her voice was a blizzard, and all of them shivered, even Jack, who was no longer cold enough to withstand her mother’s words.
“We are Spirits of the Season, bound to this time, this place, and the door you seek is not available to us. We are not allowed to know such things.”
“What about Jack?” asked Yelena.
“The daughter of the Toymaker is not yet an archetype; she is idea as much as she is flesh, but she exists in your world alongside ours,” said the Snow Queen. “She may go where she will, and the consequences will be upon her.”
Jack laughed unsteadily. “Aren’t they always?” she asked, and looked to Velveteen. “Well? You’re the one leading this parade.”
“So let’s go,” said Velveteen.
The Snow Queen waved her hand. The doors of the Hall of Mirrors swung slowly open, revealing the glittering maze beyond. Aaron bore down harder on Vel’s hand. She paused, realizing that he had never been here before.
“It’s all right,” she murmured. “It’s just the versions of us that we might have been. They can’t hurt you if you don’t touch the mirrors.”
“Because that’s reassuring,” muttered Aaron. He didn’t let go of her hand, and she didn’t try to pull away. They seemed to be taking comfort from each other.
Yelena, watching this, smiled to herself. It had been too long since she’d seen them like this.
Some things were always meant to be, even if they only happened at the end of the world.
Velveteen took a deep breath. “All right,” she said. “Let’s go.”
She walked into the Hall of Mirrors with Aaron by her side. Yelena landed lightly next to Torrey, and they followed their friends through the door. Jack brought up the rear, glancing at her father’s face long enough to see his reassuring nod. She didn’t look at her mother at all.
The doors slammed shut behind her, blocking the group from view.
Santa and the Snow Queen stayed where they were, silent, looking at anything but each other, while around them, the wind howled.
A blizzard was kicking up. For once, it wasn’t clear which one of them was to blame. For once, it didn’t really matter.