The Dragon in the Park
Maya's POV
Elena disappeared right in front of my eyes.
One second she was there, trying to warn me about something. The next second, she was gone like she'd never existed at all. Not even her clothes were left behind.
"Elena!" I screamed, but there was no answer.
Sarah looked just as shocked as I felt. "That's impossible. People don't just vanish."
"Maya," Damien said gently, "we need to focus. The countdown is still going."
He was right. The screens around us showed: "NEXT EXECUTION IN 42... 41... 40..."
But I couldn't stop staring at the empty space where Elena had been standing. My helpful professor, my guide through all this magical chaos, had just dissolved like smoke. And I was pretty sure it was my fault.
"I did that," I whispered. "When I started doubting if she was real, she became not real."
"Maya, that doesn't make sense," Sarah said.
"It does if my power is stronger than I thought." I felt sick to my stomach. "What if I've been accidentally creating people this whole time? What if Elena was never a real person, just something I imagined into existence?"
The ancient witch's laughter echoed through my head. "Very good, Maya. You're finally starting to understand how powerful you really are."
"Get out of my head," I said through gritted teeth.
"Why? We're having such fun. Maya, would you like to know what else isn't real?"
Before I could answer, the Void Drake suddenly roared and charged straight at Damien.
"No!" I raised my hands and shot a blast of magic at the creature, but it went right through the dragon like it was made of air.
"The Drake exists in the space between real and unreal," Sarah explained quickly. "You can't hurt it with normal magic."
Damien was rolling behind overturned tables, trying to stay away from the dragon's claws. "Maya, can you do that digital magic thing again?"
I pulled out my laptop, but when I tried to type a spell to stop the dragon, my fingers froze over the keyboard.
"What if Damien isn't real either?" the voice in my head asked sweetly. "What if I made him up to manipulate you? Maya, think about it. A handsome knight from the past who just happens to land in your living room? Doesn't that sound a little too much like a fairy tale?"
I looked at Damien, who was now fighting the Void Drake with his glowing sword, and my heart felt like it was breaking. "Are you real?" I called out to him.
"What?" He ducked under the dragon's wing, looking confused.
"Are you really from the past, or did I create you with my magic?"
"Maya, what are you talking about?"
But I was starting to doubt everything. Elena had seemed completely real until she wasn't. What if Damien was the same? What if Sarah was just another figment of my imagination?
What if I was completely alone and going crazy?
"That's it," the ancient witch purred. "Let the doubt grow. Maya, the more you question what's real, the more control I have over your reality."
The countdown reached zero: "NEXT EXECUTION IN 0... EXECUTION COMMENCING."
Every screen in the library changed to show a live video feed from somewhere in Portland. I could see a family—a mother, father, and little girl—trapped in their car while shadow wolves circled around them.
"No," I whispered.
"Choose now, Maya," the witch commanded. "Come with me willingly, or watch this family die. You have ten seconds."
I couldn't let innocent people die because of my hesitation. I started to step toward the Void Drake, ready to sacrifice myself to save them.
That's when Damien grabbed my hand.
The moment our skin touched, everything changed.
I could suddenly feel his memories flowing into my mind. Not just thoughts, but real experiences. I felt the cold stone of his castle floor under his feet. I tasted the bread he'd eaten five hundred years ago. I felt the weight of his armor, the ache in his muscles after long battles, the grief he'd carried for friends lost in war.
"You're real," I breathed. "You're completely, absolutely real."
"Of course I'm real," he said, squeezing my hand. "Maya, whatever that thing is telling you, don't listen. I'm here. I'm real. And I'm not going anywhere."
That connection between us also did something else. It made my power clearer, more focused. Instead of the wild, chaotic energy I'd been struggling with, I could suddenly see exactly how my magic worked.
I wasn't just changing reality. I was editing it, like fixing bugs in a computer program.
"The dragon," I said suddenly. "It's not trying to hurt us. It's trying to tell us something."
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked.
Instead of typing spells on my laptop, I opened a communication program and aimed it at the Void Drake.
"if creature.intent = communicate, then translation = true," I typed.
Immediately, the dragon stopped attacking Damien and turned to look at me. When it opened its mouth, instead of a roar, words came out.
"Help... me..." the dragon said in a voice like wind through caves. "Trapped... controlled... not... my... choice..."
"You're being controlled," I realized. "Someone is making you do this."
"Ancient... witch... binds... me... forces... me... to... serve..."
"Maya, be careful," Sarah warned. "This could be another trick."
But I could see the pain in the dragon's glowing eyes. This wasn't a mindless monster. It was a prisoner, just like I was becoming.
"Can you break the control?" I asked the dragon.
"Cannot... alone... need... help... from... one... who... codes... reality..."
That was me. The dragon was asking me to hack the magical program that was controlling it.
I started typing furiously on my laptop: "if creature.status = magically_bound, then binding_spell.active = false."
The dragon's eyes flashed brighter, and some of the darkness around it started to fade, but the spell wasn't completely broken.
"Stronger... binding... than... simple... code..." the dragon explained.
"Then I'll write something stronger," I said.
But as I started to type a more complex spell, the screens around us changed again. Now they were showing dozens of video feeds from all over Portland. Shadow creatures were surrounding families, elderly people, children. All of them trapped and waiting to die.
"For every minute you spend trying to free that dragon," the ancient witch said, "I'll execute another group of people. Maya, you can't save everyone. Choose: the dragon's freedom, or human lives."
That's when the dragon did something that shocked everyone. It turned away from me and walked toward the shadow wolves that were still lurking in the library.
"No... more... innocents... die..." it said. "I... will... stay... controlled... to... save... them..."
"Wait," I called out. But the dragon was already allowing the darkness to flow back into it, accepting its magical chains to protect the people on the screens.
That's when I realized something that changed everything.
"You're not the bad guy here," I said to the dragon. "You're another victim."
The dragon looked back at me with ancient, sad eyes. "As... are... you... Maya... Chen... we... are... both... prisoners... of... the... same... master..."
"What do you mean?"
But before the dragon could answer, every screen in the library went black. Then a new message appeared:
"MAYA CHEN. YOU HAVE SERVED YOUR PURPOSE. THE DRAGON IS NO LONGER NEEDED. INITIATING FINAL PROTOCOL."
The dragon's eyes went wide with terror. "She... lied... Maya... she... never... intended... to... keep... the... bargain..."
That's when I understood the horrible truth.
The ancient witch had never planned to honor any deal. She had just been stalling, keeping me distracted while she put her real plan into motion.
And now that plan was starting, whether I cooperated or not.
The dragon began dissolving, not into smoke like Elena had, but into pure energy that was flowing directly toward me.
"Maya," the dragon said with its last breath, "she's not just trying to control you. She's trying to become you."