Page 81 of Barbie: Dreamscape

With a wave of her hand, a table appears next, along with two scalloped chairs. Then, one by one, items begin to pile onto the table: first plates, then a half dozen blueberry pancakes, then pads of maple butter, whipped cream, fruits, and finally, rivers of caramel syrup. I stare at the unfolding scene in wonder, my stomach grumbling.

“Sit, sit,” Lune says, but when I do, I can’t help but think of Robin. We always have breakfast together.

No. Had.

Pink-tipped silverware appears in my hands, and I use it to carve out a piece of this pancake tower. I chew, my tongue smoothing across the sugar-crusted layer in my mouth. “So the things you relegate to Nightmareland… you just… banish them there? Forever?”

Lune nods, her hands curled around a teacup shaped like a blooming rose. “It was the only way to ultimately overcome the darkness that rose up before your mother and Robin left. It’s what saved us. Whenever something dark comes through, we trap it there so it can’t harm us.”

“Oh.”

I think about how I was trapped just an hour prior. And the other shrouded wisps of people, practically monsters, wandering those color-leached pathways.

If I hadn’t found the strength to leave, would I have been like those other people? Lost forever in my misery with no way out?

“You have nothing to worry about, Barbie,” Lune says, sensing my disquiet, putting her perfectly pink-manicured hand over mine. “Not anymore. Nothing goes wrong here, remember?”

That’s what I thought about Heartland. That nothing could go wrong there either, that my existence there was like a dream.

Only now do I realize it more resembled a nightmare.

But this is different. Finally, I know the truth of who I am. And I’m free to explore every inch of my magic, without being trapped in any boxes. Not following any rules except my own.

“So. Where do we start?” I ask, setting my silverware down after finishing the delicious meal.

Lune beams. “In the courtyard.”

With a flash of magic, the balcony falls away… and we’re suddenly back among the hordes of students on the grounds of Dreamlake. The pink waters glimmer all around us.

“Welcome to your first magic lesson, Barbie.”

My stomach flips with excitement.

“Before we do anything else, you’ll need to find the center of your magic.”

“The center?”

She nods. “It comes from a place concentrated in your body.” She motions toward her palm, where the pink glitter has been spiraling from. “Mine is here. Where do you feel yours?”

I chew the inside of my mouth, thinking. Searching for anything like that within my limbs. My necklaces generate magic, but those aren’t truly a part of me, not really…

Focus.

I do. I close my eyes, and I breathe deeply. I let the panic of this journey and the hurt from recent discoveries fall away, leaving behind…

Just me.

Who am I? I’m only just now starting to find out.

I go through every part of myself. My feet, which have normally been curled into heels that clicked musically along the halls of Swancrest. Now they’re in sturdy, flat shoes more suited for learning magic.

My legs, which were mostly accustomed to being folded nicely beneath a desk… but have taken me on this winding journey. Which have run faster than I ever thought I could. Which have leapt and climbed and flown.

My chest, which was once constricted by the weight of expectations and the constant need for perfection… which has opened to the idea of flailing, and failing, and existing in an ever-present state of change.

My hands, which once only held pencils and teacups and raised high in the air to answer questions… now strong from strain, from holding on atop a galloping horse, and trying to claw me up solid rock, and pounding against a golden barrier.

My head, which always rejected any sort of negative thinking before it started, which refused to think outside the boundaries it had been taught, now swims with ideas and creativity and passions that I was too afraid to ever express.