But the true horror hit Bella hard when Ursula said the words. It couldn’t be a dream, thought Bella. She’d never admit this to herself. No! There had to be something real going on. Bella could accept she was going crazy, but the severity in Ursula’s voice cut through all that.

“Much more fun than I thought it’d be!” said Ursula. When Bella didn’t respond, Ursula scowled.

She took a step forward. “I said this is much more fun than I thought it gon’na’ be. What’cha’ got to say to that, Bella?”

Bella didn’t move. She sat there frozen, an empty expression on her face. Without thinking, she crossed her arms. That was a mistake.

“Hah! Still rebellious little Bella? Well, I got more love from your dad than you’ll ever’ will.”

Bella squirmed. Instantly, Bella thought, Ursula had found something to prey upon.

“Oh, you don’t believe me? Poor Bella. Daddy can never love someone as much as you? Huh? Well, I’m a witch — ”

“You’re not going to start that again?” Bella put her hand up.

“ I told you not to interrupt!” Ursula said in her metallic witch voice. “And now before you die. I’ll tell you what part of my revenge was. I was shown more love from your father than you’ll ever know! He offered to marry me and leave you behind with your aunt Gabrielle. Bella, Bella, I know when you were born…”

Bella saw ripples of fluttering movement from Ursula’s trunk to her forest witch face. Ursula went on, “…How your daddy abandoned you and your mama’…”

Bella felt a sensation boiling up inside of her. Ursula continued, “…How he wasn’t there for you… When she died — “

Off her seat, Bella sprang and lunged with her right fist swinging for Ursula. Just then, Bella felt something knock her over from the side. Dazed, confused, Bella felt Ursula’s branch limbs pick her up and place her back on the bench seat.

“You’re no witch!” Bella held up her bleeding clenched fist. Her balance was unsteady. “You’re some evil ghost! A dark spirit sent by the devil! You, you, fuggly tree!”

Ursula looked to the ceiling and roared with laughter. Then she faced Bella. “No, Bella. As I said before… We have many names. In your language I am a Forest Witch and a queen. But it doesn’t matter. It’s time for your little life to end.”

Bella scooted back to the end of the bench. Her eyes darted down and saw the doll. It was dark but she could make out some of its features. The doll was breathing? Jeez, Louise! Maybe I am crazy, thought Bella.

But if Ursula had just killed Lula and was to kill Bella too. Even an imaginary death, Bella still didn’t want to spend her last moments filled with terror.

Bella fights for her life against Ursula, the Forest Witch.

Ursula fluttered her branch limbs in front of Bella’s face. Bella put her knees up and curled into a ball. She couldn’t bear to watch. She saw through the space in her arms under the bench across the aisle. The doll was looking at her. It put its little hand up and waved.

The absurdity of the moment, Ursula was literally about to eat and devour Bella, but all Bella’s heart wanted to do was to reach out her arm and wave back to the doll.

Sirens grew louder and more present. “No!” Ursula bellowed in a growling, raspy voice. It was deeper than any bass Bella had ever heard. “I won’t be captured in your realm. Give me your keys.”

Bella looked to the doll when she heard the ignition start and the bus moving. She could hear the ambulances and police outside. She put her hands on the catch for the Emergency Exit window.

Just then, she felt a pain in her chest. Ursula’s limb had stabbed her. “Now sit down!” Ursula roared at her. Bella tried to pull the red tip of the branch out of her, but it was keeping her pinned down.

“Let me go! Let me go!”

“Quiet! I have to concentrate.” Ursula was looking in the direction of the windshield. Navigating the bus from where she stood in the aisle, Bella put both hands on Ursula’s branch limb, trying to wrestle it out of her chest.

She looked down and saw the doll. The doll wore a ring for a crown and his white cape, and a necklace with a gold lock in the center. He had something else too. A large matchstick.

He put his arm forward with the match and nodded to Bella. Then he released the oversized match, it flew straight up from him and landed in Bella’s lap.

“Stop struggling!” Ursula said. The bus gained speed.

Bella reached for the matchstick. Her head snapped back for a moment in surprise. The moment she touched it, the tip glowed a bright red-orange. Instinctively, Bella touched its tip on Ursula’s limb.

Aaarrrgggh! Ursula cried out. A burst of blood sprayed in Bella’s face when from the match tip flowed molten white-gold, like lightning, it surged out onto Ursula’s limb, burning it up. Ursula lurched forward to front of the bus, retracting her limbs. Bella was free.

Just then, Ursula collapsed onto the steering wheel. The bus swerved down an embankment and teetered over. Bella was launched into the air.

Bella screamed. She heard the sound of twisting metal, glass shattering and watched the bus ceiling, then the floor, then the walls, expecting to be ejected or crushed. She dropped the matchstick.

Then, she heard a crashing sound of water and bounced hard against the window and fell back onto the floor. Water flooded the bus and soaked her jeans in pond muck.

“Youuu!” Ursula roared. Her branch limbs picked Bella up, suspending her in the air. “Look at me! I’m indestructible! Now you see stupid child! Just how frail your little human bodies are!”

“Wait, wait!” Bella struggled. “I don’t care what you do!”

Bella saw a tail burst out of Ursula’s back. Born in broken flesh and a spray of blood, it’s red wooden-form emerged and twisted and curled like a whip. A brief moment of clarity filled Bella’s mind when she saw its barbed end lash out, whirling circles in the air towards her.

“You look a lot like him. You know? I see him in you,” said Ursula.

“My father?”

“No.”

Bella looked on with disbelief. First, she heard the thwip! Then felt pressure on her back. Happening more quickly than Bella could understand, more quickly than she could feel. The barbed tip of Ursula’s whiptail pierced out of Bella’s chest.

Beautiful it was, glistening at its barbed tip with the crimson sheen of her blood. Drenching and staining her shirt.

I’m dead? thought Bella. She looked to Ursula’s unforgiving eyes.

Ursula’s redwood jaw lowered. She grinned. “Happy Birthday, Bella.”

Ursula retracted her tail from Bella’s limp body. Bella looked on with dead eyes. She fell backwards, hitting the water. Her face washed over with pond water and her body sank beneath.

With the third-eye, perhaps of the soul? Or the spirit? Or the impression of life itself? Bella saw the mass of Ursula’s trunk move forward and leave.

In final moments, before she was to pass on, Bella replayed Ursula’s song in her ears, but she added her own little spin to it.

♫ I’m a witch! I’m a witch. And you know what that rhymes with! ♫

But then a brief flash of light filled her mind’s eye completely. Washing it out with fiery red-orange glow of the matchstick. In ink-black silhouette she saw a figure swimming above her. It was him, the doll, Rat King.

He swam down holding the torch of his matchstick. His fur undulating back and forth as he propelled himself forward. He extended his little hand and touched the wound on her chest.

A flash of orange-gold light lit up the water. Bella sensed the water receding from her face. Her eyelids closed and fresh air hit her cheeks.

She saw darkness and squiggly designs of flashy light on her eyelids. Like when she’d get drowsy and drift off to sleep. The fuzziness of the squiggles morphed into designs. It was hard to see, but on her eyelids, in black and white, she could make out a faint image of her father’s face.

“Rat’s not always nice, but he’s always fair. He teaches you to never accept help or a favor from anyone. Not unless, you going to give one back in return. Never expect others to do anything for you.”

“But like, dad…” Bella had a hint of youthful annoyance in her voice. “Why would Grandma make him a rat for? Like, what’s the point of an ugly sewer rat teaching you all that stuff?”

Her father chuckled. “Ah! Maybe’s I should’ve explained it better. The way your grandma did. Rat grew up tough. He had to. Fought in the dumpsters for every scrap of food. He went up against other rats and even bigger animals, knocking him around. Everything, he had to do for himself. You understand? That’s what your grandmother was trying to teach me.”

“But, dad, if grandma made it — “

“Rat’s earned everything he has. He wears an engagement ring for his crown that he probably stole,” Antonio chuckled. “And a gold necklace — “

“With a gold lock?”

“Yeah. And it’s real gold, honey. Fourteen karat.”

“And a napkin for a cape!?”

“Yeah, I suppose your grandmother stole it from a restaurant we ate at.”

“And what’s he holding in his hand, daddy?”

“It’s a magic matchstick.”

“It’s a stick of wood.” Bella hissed. “Painted red on top.”

“Papa’, my father, he made it for him. He put it on the doll. Funny guy, I remember he practiced Santeria and did all this rhythmic chanting and he sang. That’s how I learned, I guess. I learned to sing by copying him — ”

“When did grandfather die? You never talk about him.”

The black and white squiggles of her father’s face frowned. “It was a long time ago, baby. He died before you was born. Now try to get some sleep, okay? I love you, Bella.” the squiggle’s mouth said. Then it faded out and Bella saw nothing but darkness.