The Curse of Once Upon a Time

Chapter VIII: Saige the Teller

"There you two are." Daphne said as Serenity and Salvadore walked into the dining room. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the book in Serenity's hand. "Where did you get the book?"

"At the library." Serenity said. Where else would she have gotten it? It was at least good that her lie matched up.

Daphne frowned. "Why is the book so beaten?"

"It's an old history type schoolbook." Serenity said. "So I guess that a lot of kids have probably used it before me. They're always kind of ruined."

Salvadore glanced over at her for a moment. It took Serenity a while to realize that he didn't know what the book was either. He hadn't seen the symbols. He hadn't seen anything on the pages at all. As far as he knew, she could have been telling the truth. That at least kept him from giving away the truth.

Rather than waiting for Daphne to ask more questions about the book, Serenity decided that she could take control of the conversation. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I just wanted to check in with you." Daphne said. "What have you been learning about in school?"

"Oh, you know, the regular stuff." Serenity said. She did not want to talk about what she had and hadn't learned about in school. School was pointless. The only thing it had taught her was how to get ready in five minutes.

Daphne stood up from her seat. "Could I see the textbook?"

Serenity froze. Of course that was what it had been. Daphne knew that Serenity would never actually talk about what she had learned in school. The textbook was supposed to be what she was learning in school. The problem was that there was nothing written in the book. Maybe if Daphne could see the symbols, she could lie about them being something from ancient cultures.

"Uh, it's kind of fragile."

"I'm sure that I can handle it." Daphne said, reaching to take it out of Serenity's hand before she had a chance to protest against it. Serenity bit her lip. There were a lot of things off about the book, two of which being that there was way too much dust and it didn't have a cover. Textbooks always had a cover.

Daphne flipped it open and started looking through the pages. Serenity could see symbols and words written on every single page, but with the rate that Daphne was turning the pages at, she was pretty sure that Daphne could not see them. If Daphne couldn't see them, it couldn't have been something to do with gender.

"There's nothing written in it." Salvadore said under his breath.

Serenity shot him a glare. What was he doing? He didn't know that she could see the symbols, at least, but maybe she could have convinced Daphne that it was something with her eyes and just her being old.

Daphne was quiet for a while. Serenity wished that she would just get it over with and start scolding her. She knew that Daphne was going to be mad at her for lying and she was going to ask questions about the book. Serenity didn't know how to answer any of the questions. It was a book that was beaten down and had been used.

"No, it doesn't." Daphne said, passing it back to Serenity. Serenity braced herself as she took it back. "Excuse me for a moment."

Daphne turned and walked away. Serenity turned to dash up the stairs as soon as Daphne had left the dining room. "Where are you going?" Salvadore asked, following after her. "What is with you and that book?"

"Shut up." Serenity mumbled. She didn't know how much time she had, but she did know she was going to have to get out of the house before the volcano erupted. She did not want to be there for that at all. She didn't need Salvadore distracting her.