Tale as Old as Time [National Treasure] ↠ Riley Poole

Prologue | A Fairytale History

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Prologue

A Fairytale History

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"Tell me a story."

Benjamin Gates looked up from his geometry homework on the dining room table to find a young blonde girl with bright blue eyes. Her hair was pulled back into two braids as she stood before  him dressed in pink pajamas. 

He shook his head and looked back at his homework. "Go to bed, Hannah," he muttered, picking up his pencil.

"Ben, tell me story," the little girl insisted with a slight lisp. Her words seemed to be more of a command. But the as the youngest, Hannah was used to getting what she wanted. But geometry homework didn't care if his sister wanted a story.

"I'm trying to do my homework, Hannah," Ben argued, not even bothering to look at her.  The words on the page made no sense. Why was geometry even necessary?

But Hannah was used to getting her way. "Tell me a story."

Ben groaned and pushed himself up from the table. Hannah held her arms up for him to grab her. He picked his little sister up and headed for the stairs. "I'll tell you a story. It's about a little girl who didn't go to bed when she was supposed to. She died. The end."

"No!" Hannah howled as she started to squirm in her brother's arms, but Ben held on tight and carried her upstairs to her bedroom.

Nearly a decade separated Benjamin and Hannah Gates in age and Ben felt like he was always stuck watching his little sister. With their mother mostly out of the picture and their father working, it left him no time to do anything with his life or have any adventures. Once he graduated, Ben planned on getting out of this hell hole and letting adventure find him. There was no way he was going to lead a boring life like the one his father had planned for him.

Still holding onto Hannah, Ben walked into his sister's bedroom. Her floor was littered with clothes she had pulled from her dresser, Barbies, and Barbie accessories. Ben carefully tried to find a pathway to Hannah's bed without stepping on anything. Considering only one Barbie lost her head, he thought himself quite successful. "What happened in here?" Ben asked his sister, not expecting a response.

"I was playing," Hannah said matter-of-factly as if the answer should have been obvious. She was still trying to squirm out of Ben's arms.

Ben rolled his eyes at her response before he playfully tossed her to her bed. Hannah giggled. She liked it when Ben threw her into her bed like that. It felt like she was flying. Once Hannah caught her breath, she crawled to the end of her bed and stood up. "Again!" she giggled as she bounced on the bed.