Doon

insanity.

My best friend was so susceptible. She’d spent her entire life trying to escape into literary worlds, yearning for something or someone to make her feel special and give her a legacy greater than being the neglected daughter of crappy parents. Now that she had Doon, she wouldn’t let it go. Never mind that her quest would ruin our epic vacation and defraud the woman I’d idolized.

And since Vee had guzzled Gracie’s Kool-Aid, I knew she wouldn’t stop until she got to the bottom of Doon. If reading the journal would get this fantasyland out of her system faster, she could have it. Then hopefully we could continue our exploration of actual foreign lands with real Scottish hotties.

Grabbing the book from my dresser drawer, I shoved open my door and headed down the hall to Vee’s room. But it was empty. The overhead light illuminated a square of paper on her undisturbed bed, and I recognized Vee’s tidy cursive even before I could make out the single line she’d written. “K. Gone to check out the bridge—back soon. V.”

Fabulous.

Vee’s neurotic interest in the Brig o’ Doon had her traipsing around the riverbank in the dead of night. What did she think would happen? That she’d click her heels three times and Doon would miraculously appear?

As I jogged down the steps to the main floor and slipped out the back, I realized this might work to my advantage. Vee would never accept that Doon was merely the delusions of an aging mind unless she had evidence. If that meant standing on the Brig o’ Doon with the rings chanting “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” to prove Aunt Gracie’s kingdom didn’t exist, then it was worth it.

I carefully picked my way over branches and rocks until the overgrown trail reached the illuminated path of the riverbank. The thunderstorms that had plagued Alloway the last two days had rolled through, leaving a tiny sliver of moon to guide me in the clear night sky. As I rounded the bend, I spied Vee sitting on a bench a few steps from the old bridge.

Aunt Gracie’s ruby ring sparkled from her finger as she lifted it to the light. The way she gazed at it, I half expected her to crouch over and start crooning, “My precious.”

As I approached, Vee’s head swiveled in my direction, relief shining from her luminous doe eyes. “I knew you’d come.”

“Of course. Remember that time as kids, I spent the whole night helping you search for the second star to the right? Or the time you read that museum story and I cashed out my entire piggy bank so we could hop a bus to Los Angeles and live inside Disneyland? And we would’ve made it if my dad hadn’t busted us.”

Rather than smile, Vee stubbornly shook her head back and forth. “This isn’t like that. I just need to find more proof.”

That was my cue. I pulled the leather volume from my back pocket and pressed it into her trembling hands. “Here … It’s not like I was going to read it anyway.”

Walking past my bestie, I stopped at the mouth of the bridge. Due to the streetlamps, it was as bright as high noon. There was no swirling mist, and thankfully no mythical kingdom in the distance. An unwelcome pang of disappointment registered as I accepted my aunt’s insanity. “What now, Vee?”

In the quiet, she walked up beside me, arms crossed over her chest. “How do you think the rings work?”

They don’t.

But if she needed proof to get to that conclusion, might as well get started. “Why don’t we test them? Right here—right now.”

Vee’s eyes grew wide as I reached into my pocket for Uncle Cameron’s ring and made a big production of placing it on my finger. Then I stepped onto the ancient cobblestones of the Brig o’ Doon.

Nothing happened. Nada—zip—zilch.

Vindication coursed through my veins as I charged to the center of the arch and pivoted to face Vee. “This myth is sooo busted! There are no magical forces at work here. No alternate dimensions or fantastical portals. I’m wearing Uncle Cam’s ring and I’m still right here in modern day.”

With a half turn, I crossed to the far end of the bridge. “At least I believe I’m still in the present. The ultimate test will be when I step off the other end.”

“Kenna, wait—”

Flinging my hand up to cut her off, I stepped onto the embankment with exaggerated movements and turned to challenge my best friend, my hands on my hips. “If Doon is supposed to be my legacy, where is it?”

Under the circle of lamplight, Vee’s crestfallen face had a jaundiced glow. She’d been throat punched by disappointment her whole life. First, her dad did a Houdini act, vanishing into thin air. Then her mom, reverting to her natural state of selfishness, blamed Vee for ruining her life. Finally, Eric cheated on her with a girl dumber than a box of Beanie Babies and lied about it. No wonder she fantasized about escaping into a perfect society that would treat her like royalty.

I hated to shatter her delusions, but better now than after wasting the summer on some fantasy. “Now you,” I said, trying to temper the harshness in my tone. “Cross the bridge.”

Vee stayed put. She shook her head vigorously back and forth as a distant clock began to toll the hour. Although I didn’t count the chimes, I guessed midnight—and the irony was not lost on me.

Several tense seconds passed before Vee spoke. “What if nothing happens?”

“That’s kind of the point, sweetie. Doon’s not real. And I’m not moving until you admit it. I’ll stay here all night if I have to.”

“So you’d rather believe that your aunt was crazy than open up your mind to the possibility that Doon exists?”

Was it Freaky Friday all of a sudden? Had Vee and I switched bodies in the attic? “Do you hear yourself? You’re supposed to be the logical one. What you’re suggesting— you know it’s impossible.”

I expected her to answer defensively. Instead, she lifted her chin, her posture strong and confident as she replied, “This isn’t about what I know. It’s about what I feel, deep inside. It’s about my destiny.”

“You make your own destiny in this world. You can be anything, do anything.”

“Then I choose to believe in Doon.” With a deliberate step onto the bridge, Vee disappeared from the lamplight. As if someone cued spooky special effects, tendrils of mist began to curl over the sides of the Brig o’ Doon from the riverbank below.

In the darkness, I could hear her measured tread on the stones. While I waited, the mists swirled and thickened, devouring the bridge until Vee’s footsteps became muffled and then vanished altogether. Had she paused halfway across?

“Vee? Quit messing around.”

The silence was as dense as the curtain of fog that’d sprung up out of nowhere.

“Vee?”

“Kenna?” She sounded miles away, but I would’ve recognized her panic at any distance.

“Hold on. I’m coming!” Using the wall as a guide, I began walking carefully across the bridge. After a few steps, I lost all sense of relative space. Realizing I could easily pass her in the oblivion, I called her name.

Her reply, while still distorted, sounded closer. “Here—”

I shuffled blindly forward, hands thrust in front of me. “Where are you?”

“I’m here.” Her voice reverberated stage left. Turning in that direction, I stepped toward the center of the bridge. At first there was nothing but impenetrable mist, and then a disembodied hand reached for me. Vee’s hand. Only it glowed blood red—like something from a horror movie. And mine, the hand that reached for hers, burned alien green.

“Ken!” Vee gasped. She pulled me closer until we could see one another clearly in the strange light. “Look!” She lifted our intertwined hands, our rings blazing between our bodies. “This enough proof for you?”

Too much. My lungs burned as my body went momentarily catatonic. I sucked in a shaky breath, wondering at the wheezy sounds coming from my throat. “This is not happening.”

She met my eyes above the glowing rings. “I know you don’t want to believe in anything you can’t see or touch. I’m scared too. But we’re supposed to see this through. I know we are. Do you trust me?”

I wanted to say no, but Vee’s certainty in the midst of the creepiness compelled me to admit the truth.