42 - The Hole//Lea

Lea believed that she'd come to understand wishes.

To her, a wish was a force more powerful than a dream. A magic that made the impossible possible. For a while, she'd believed that a wish was better than a dream. After all, if you had more power, you were better off.

You could have everything you wanted; even if it wasn't what you needed.

Less than three hours ago, SWAT officers had raided her home. The house she shared with her brother, the house she'd once shared with her mother and father. They had physically taken away her wish. The power she could use to bring her mother and father back. A few minutes later, Alejandra had destroyed whatever hope she'd had left.

Now she was in limbo, with no plans ahead of her. Tomorrow, Monday, was supposed to be her first day back at school. In all honesty, it wasn't in her plans at all. She didn't intend to go, she was all set for finding the final Noiz and taking away Mr. Foley's so they could use the Very Great Thing.

In fact, school was completely off the table. The Noiz had flown into Paradox Park and sunken into the soil in Paradox Hill; somebody had caught it all on camera, livestreaming it on YouNow. Paradox Hill had then opened up into a shadow-like hole. It swallowed the whole park, including the person recording it.

A pillar of pure darkness had emerged from the hole, and now the whole city was under a state of emergency. Even worse was that nobody could find the mayor; Mr. Foley, who a number of people had already blamed for the whole incident.

"Why do you think the mayor is involved?" Lucky Bagley said, his usually gigantic smile turned upside down into a concerned frown.

"He was messing with the occult," a guest on his show said. "You don't mess with the occult in Paradox City, this place is like the Bermuda Triangle inside Stonehenge on steroids. Even Bigfoot and the Chupacabra avoid this place like the plague!"

Three hours ago, a SWAT Team that Navy had ordered at Mr. Foley's behest had destroyed their home.

Two hours later, the mayor of Paradox City had been pulled into a swirling vortex.

"We have to find him, save him from those glorified pet rocks," Navy said solemnly. "The mayor can't have people talking about him like this."

"We're just supposed to listen to you now?" Nora said angrily. "This is all his fault!"

"How was he to know that the criminals who had broken in to private property on more than twenty-five occasions were suddenly right?" Navy argued.

"I don't blame him," Paxton said, having finally left the study. "If I spent enough time around Navy Dempsey, I wouldn't trust anything anybody said ever again."

"I've already apologized for-" Navy began to say.

"Forget it," Alejandra said as she came down the stairs. Waco was right behind her, precariously balancing his walker on every step. "I've told Waco everything, it's time to leave now."

"Allie!" Nora protested. Her sister held up a hand to stop her.

"You see that massive pillar of darkness?" Alejandra said, pointing to the TV. "That's not even her warm-up. She's barely started yet. Paxton?"

"She's right," Paxton said, sitting on the couch and shuffling his papers. "There's a lot of variables; the Noiz need to be at full capacity for her to use them. Assuming I didn't screw up the math, the seal will take about sixty hours to break."

"That's almost three days," Alejandra said. "Forget your whiny mayor, own up to his mistakes, and evacuate the city before then."

"He's not whiny!" Navy protested.

"That's right, Navy," a quiet voice said. "You're the whiny one."

"Ms. Lacombe," Navy said curtly. "I see you're finally up."

"I am," she said, sliding out of the armchair they'd propped her her up in. "I see the Phantoms are all here."

"There's a..." Navy said quietly, as if annoyed by the need to explain the result of his misdeeds to someone else. "Situation."

"What happened?" Deanney said, her eyes widening at the TV.

"It's the hole of Paradox Park!" Waco said, rushing his walker to the TV. "It's alive!"

"The Noiz are about to free a dictatorial witch," Alejandra said. "And we're leaving."

"Leaving?" Deanney repeated, narrowing her eyes.

"It's not safe here anymore," Alejandra insisted. "We have to eva-"

"Shut up."