Wonder Never (The Fairytale Diaries #2) Read Online Free Page B

need my help. I came to get you!"
    Alice shook her head. "I need no such thing. Now go! Get out of here!" Anger sparked in her sorrowful blue eyes.
    Josh shook his head too. "I can't do that! Not without you."
    Alice leaned closer so she could speak even quieter. "Josh, you're not safe here."
    His eyes widened. "It IS you! I knew it!"
    "It doesn't matter," she insisted. "You can't save me, and if she finds you, she'll kill you."
    "What? Who?" he asked, his heart beginning to pound.
    "It doesn't matter," she pleaded again. "You must go. Right now! Go back just as you came!" She used one arm to shove him while awkwardly clinging to the baby in the other. "NOW! GO!"
    He glanced down as the blanket slid off the squealing thing in Alice's arms.
    It was certainly no baby.
    Nor could it be called a pig even with its red beady eyes, gnashing yellow teeth, bulbous bald head, and blood dripping from its snout.
    Josh took one glimpse of the writhing monster as Alice thrust it out from her body to avoid its exposed teeth. Then he turned and took his leave at a dead run.
    ***
    In a matter of seconds, Josh took to the trees. He trampled the flowers, causing a flurry of white petals like snow in the summertime, and then crashed into the forest. His foot prints remained in the soft mossy earth from his arrival, and he followed them exactly back.
    His chest burned but he did not slow down. Limbs whipped his face and he felt ringlets of blood on his cheeks. But on he flew.
    It wasn't until the woman stepped out from behind a tree that he paused.
    In fact, she leapt out directly into his path and screamed, "BOO!" Josh stopped so abruptly, he crashed to the ground in lieu of crashing into her.
    Josh clutched his chest, laboriously attempting to catch his breath. He peered up at the woman who was dressed in a lavender pinstriped suit with a lime green vest and bow tie. Shocks of shortish wiry red hair emerged every which way from beneath a tall purple top hat. Her wide eyes were a paler shad of lime green to accent her tie and she wore a crimson lipped smile, fully exposing rows of big white teeth.
    She could've been pretty, if she didn't look so stark raving mad. Josh didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
    "Why… Did you DO that?" Josh panted as he hauled himself off the forest floor.
    The woman laughed. "Why not?"
    Josh growled. "YOU'RE ALL INSANE HERE!" he yelled, the tenuous grasp he still had on his patience slipping.
    She placed her fingertips together in a sort of prayer. "Oh?" she remarked. "I've not noticed a problem. Perhaps the insane one is you?" Her conversational tone chilled him.
    "Leave me alone," he muttered. He shoved by her to take off running.
    "MAYBE THE INSANE ONE IS YOOOOUUU!" she called after him, her spooky unhinged voice drifting up into the tattered night sky.
    The moon seemed to laugh at him. He ran faster.
    ***
    It wasn't long until he returned to the riverbank. He stood, chest heaving, staring down into the water. The reflection of the grinning golden moon shimmered on the surface of the river as it ever so slightly moved.
    Josh raked his fingers through his hair. He had no idea what to do next, consider he had no idea exactly how he'd gotten there. He'd done what Alice said; returned just how he'd come. Except there was no creepy willow tree with candy and soda to send him back to reality.
    Reality. That was just it. Somehow by following Aspen, or Alice, or whatever her name was, he'd left reality behind. He'd begun to think he was dreaming. Wondernever certainly had a dreamlike quality, but somehow he thought it was real. The smell of the flowers was rich. The feel of the river water had been cool and refreshing. When smoke got in his eyes, and when he fell… Those things had hurt him physically. It had to be real. But he hoped beyond measure that it wasn't. Because if he didn't wake up, he didn't know if he'd ever get back to Enchantica and the carnival.
    And then it hit him. He recalled something Emerson Heart