The Music Box: Chapter Forty-One

Emily looked imploringly to Minerva, her eyes growing glassy but adamant she would not let them spill this time. She had to be grown up, tough and ready for anything.

“It won’t be easy, but I think there is a way,” Minerva said, gripping Emily’s hand quite tightly now.

“When Crouch put you in here, he obviously underestimated your resourcefulness and quick thinking. You already seem to have realised that there are certain things you are able to make happen, if you concentrate hard enough. You did it with that rock you gave Topkins that he showed me last night and he also told me about the liquorice that appeared in his pocket.

“Everything here exists regardless of your presence, but it is the nature of this world that your own mind drives the particular way you have encountered it. You have shown that you have an ability to reach its very limits, but you’ve also found that is not enough, that you have not been able to break through beyond these. Crouch expects you will never find a way to escape the box he has made for you, but he has failed to credit your tenacity and willingness to sacrifice everything to get home.

“He was always able to come and go with the secrets he had learnt. He will expect that because you don’t know these, then you shan’t ever be able to get out. But there’s one thing he hadn’t thought of – the one thing that drew you here in the first place.”

Emily cast her mind back to Tabitha’s box, its carved outer beauty and the amazing scenes that awaited within when the lid opened. But as much as these caught her eye, they’re not what truly caught her heart and refused to let go.

“The music.”

“That’s right. Through music. There’s nothing that can take you into another world like music. That’s not even a secret – people living in any world, in any time, knew this. But Crouch was in such a hurry to pack you away and get on with his plan that he forgot all about leaving you this way out.”

Emily thought about this. If it was true, if Minerva’s music was able to lift her beyond this world and back into her own, she would be back where she had wanted to be ever since she got here. Yet her tummy was experiencing the most dreadful twisting sensation and she was feeling quite unwell.

“Minerva?”

“Yes my dear?”

“Will you be able to come?”

“I’m afraid not Emily. As much as I would like to, I am unable to leave. It’s the light. Any contact with natural light and I am fated to perish in an instant, turn completely to dust. I would love more than anything to be there with you when you go home, when Crouch is thwarted in his twisted plans, but, from here, you must show the strength and courage you have shown thus far and do this alone, as nobody but the one and only Emily Button can.

Now, there’s not a moment more to lose – are you ready?”

Emily looked steadily at Minerva and squeezed her hand back.

“I'm ready.”



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to be continued... one day.