Selina Rose leads a normal life as a princess: attending balls, tending to her garden, and going to school. But soon enough things start to fall apart.
Nothing makes sense in this princess's castle: the walls seem to hear secrets, the library seems...
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The light of the moving lantern cascaded all around them. When Jim stopped, he slowly shone the light into the dark opening.
"There's..." Jim's breathing was unbalanced and trailed off. "Books?" he said in a surprised tone to himself more than to the others.
Both the sisters stood there uncomfortably, not wanting this to be just a storage place for books. They knew that in the castle, everything had a deeper meaning.
"What kind of books?" yelled Alyssa. Selina's neck shot to the entrance door to the library. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.
"Don't know," Jim's voice rang through the dark opening.
"I think we should go," said Selina authoritatively.
"What?" Jim looked down at Selina as though she was speaking no sense.
"We should go," she said a bit slower. Jim turned back to the aperture, still examining the contents inside. Selina looked back at the entrance. Nothing. Jim placed his lantern on an open shelf and tried to open the door fully with the crowbar. The familiar screeching filled the hall again. But this time the door wrenched open, slamming into the bookshelves. Selina could see splinters of wood falling to the ground. Jim drew the lantern back at the opening and looked inside.
"What the heck?" Jim crawled through the bookshelves and went through the door.
"Jim?" Selina yelled, but there was no answer.
Selina climbed the lengthy ladder as Alyssa followed her.
They had to step off the ladder trying to maintain balance carefully. Selina, closest to the door, put her arm on the bookshelves, bent down, and crawled into the room. Alyssa followed. She could hear shuffling. As Selina stood up, she saw Jim turning pages on books and throwing them on the floor. They seemed to be in a metal box, quite small.
"What are you doing?" whispered Selina.
"They are empty, all of them!" Jim exclaimed, ignoring her whisper. His lantern was a few inches away on the floor as he furiously went through the books. There were identical brown leather books littered across the floor, some stacking on top of each other. Alyssa climbed through and looked at the mess.
It did not make sense. Why would there be a secret vault in the library?
And on top of that, why would it be filled with books, the same books that were all empty?
"Alyssa?" Questioned Selina.
"Hmm," Alyssa looked at the books, staring at one area of the metal box.
"Aren't these like the exact books that Mother gave to us?" stated Selina. Alyssa dashed wildly to the area she was staring at and reached a hand down a pile of books, not paying attention to where her fingers were and reached. She casually pulled out a book and tried to open it. She passed it to Jim. He looked at her pale and put down the book he was currently inspecting. Taking the new book in hand, he tried to open it, but it was in vain. He inspected the book, trying to find a cause but he was disappointed. On the top of the book was a name written in cursive, 'Selina'. He slowly gave it to Selina without a word. She turned it in her hand and tried to open it, but it would still not budge.
It was like it was sealed and permanent and would not change.
Selina slowly looked up at the standing figures before her as the lantern's light blazed in their eyes. Their shadows flickered on the metal walls, cast by the lantern. There was an eerie silence over them.
They did not know how to process this or make sense of it. What just happened?
How did they even end up here?
Selina's body paralyzed her head, going blank.
Did her mother know about this?
Why would she hide such a thing?
The three participants' bodies shook abruptly, with a loud thud from down below. None of them could see what was happening as the room was too far into the wall. A wave of panic filled the air, all moving at once; Jim turned off the lantern in panic, Alyssa quickly walked to the wall furthest from the opening, and Selina clutched the book tightly to her chest. Her finger twinged. That is when she saw it. A book on the floor by her feet with the name 'Alyssa' on it. She quickly picked it up, but as she did, she dropped it because of a thud. She reached down again to grab the book but heard another loud thud. The three finally looked at each other.
Whoever was downstairs must have seen the mess they had made with the books. They must have also more than likely seen the lantern turn off.
"We're screwed," Jim whispered in less than his voice.
They could not go down, no way. They hoped this person would walk away but a cat could not make such a mess.
In the minutes that passed, Selina's head began to pound. They stood in silence for minutes. Alyssa then made her way to the edge of the box, staring off the edge.
"No one's there." She looked back at them.
The trio hurriedly climbed down the stairs, and Jim closed the door behind them as he was the last one on the ladder. Alyssa landed first.
"The books," she turned around. "Maybe, if we put them away, whoever came in can pass it as illusions or dreaming."
Selina landed, heaving.
"Oh yeah? You wanna put the books back on the shelves?" argued Jim.
"I said put away," replied Alyssa. Jim joined them on the floor.
Below the center table was a shelf, where they decided to fit more books.
Although this was not a familiar place for books, it would do for now.
Minutes passed, and the tired kids huddled the books under the table. Selina had the book with her name on the floor next to her, as she slipped books.
When the compartment started overflowing, Jim slid the books under the shelf, so the sisters did the same.
