The Curse of Once Upon a Time

Chapter X: Demons

Serenity wasn't looking forward to the morning. No aspect of the morning had ever seemed appealing to her, but with the conversation she'd overheard the previous night, she was sure that she was in for some sort of punishment and she didn't want it.

Instead of being up early for breakfast, she stayed in her room till the last minute. She wanted to avoid getting the lecture until after school. She grabbed her bag once she was sure that she could slip by with the excuse that she was late and hurried down the stairs.

"Good morning, Serenity." Arrow said as she came down the stairs.

"Morning." She mumbled. "I have to go. I'll be late for school."

"Come straight home after school, please." He called as she hurried past him with her head down.

She shut the front door behind her and let out a breath as she around. "I wouldn't be so relieved if I was you."

Serenity jumped, turning around to look at Salvadore. "What do you want?"

He walked over to her, holding out a book in front of him. Serenity took a moment to realize it was her notebook. She snatched it back from him, shooting him a glare. "Where the hell did you get this?" She snapped. "Did you look through it? That is a huge invasion of my privacy!"

"I didn't find it." Salvadore said, grabbing her arm and dragging her away from the front door. "Grandmother found it. In the office. And yes, she looked through it."

Serenity's face paled. When she had gone down the stairs to the office, she had brought her notebook with her. She thought that she'd had it in her satchel already, but it turned out that in her rush, she had left it in the office. If Daphne had seen it, then she had seen all of Serenity's drawings.

Worse than that, she had seen the entire alphabet of the Tellers. Serenity had drawn all the symbols and written the alphabet letter they corresponded to and then she had proved that it worked. All on one page.

"Did she say anything about it?"

Salvadore nodded, letting go of her arm and falling into step with her. "You can see things on that book, can't you?"

Serenity glared at the ground. She didn't want to admit to Salvadore that she could see them. "Yes."

"Do you have the book with you?"

"Yeah." She hadn't wanted any chance that somebody else could find it, so she had shoved it into her bag before she left for school. "Why?"

"Because we're not going home tonight."

Serenity stopped walking. What the hell was he talking about? And in what universe was it ever Salvadore that would go against what their parents had said? What was going on? Ever since the stupid book had showed up, there had been nothing but trouble.

"Why not?"

"Because I know what Grandmother will do to you if you do go home tonight."

Serenity's eyes widened. She wasn't even sure that she wanted to ask what that was supposed to mean. "Okay, so what?" She asked. "We're just supposed to ditch? Run away from home? You know that we don't have anywhere to go."

"Not exactly, but I do have a bit of an idea." Salvadore said. "I have a license, a credit card that's connected to Mother and Father's bank account that can work for at least a little, and you have the book."

"What does the book matter?"

"Serenity, you have no idea what you are."

"Why does everybody keep saying that?" She asked. How did they even know what she was? As far as she knew, she was nothing more than a human. She was nothing more than a Wioax, even. She was camouflaged by her last name.