The Curse of Once Upon a Time

Chapter XXIV: To be Continued

Serenity felt as though she could have slept for over 24 hours. She hadn't gotten much sleep in the past days and having Evangeline fight her for control of her own body had drained her energy more than she ever could have imagined it to. If she hadn't been woken up by knocking at her door, she was sure that she could have stayed in bed far longer.

"Get up. Now. I have someone to show you."

"Somebody?" Serenity asked, sitting up and running a hand through her hair. She wanted to flop right back to bed and go to sleep for the rest of eternity. It felt almost like most of it had come from Evangeline. Whatever they had done, they had drained her completely. She wasn't even thinking. She had seen Atlantis the previous day. Who else would Serenity want to see?

"Yes. Up. Now."

"Why so demanding?" Serenity asked, sliding out of bed. She struggled for a moment to find her balance, keeping her hands out so that she might be able to catch herself if she started to fall. She had been in the Teller dimension for what had to be a few days and she still hadn't been able to adjust to it as much as she wanted to. It was far more confusing than she could have expected.

"I'll explain after we leave. I don't want to ruin the interaction." Saige said. "Now come on, please."

"I appreciate the please." Serenity mumbled, following after Saige. They led her down the hall, past their room and to the second room. Saige's house was tiny, but as they had already said, it could be as big or as little as they wanted. Anything that Saige wanted could exist in the Teller realm.

Saige knocked on the door, pausing for a moment and then pushing it open without a second response. Serenity's eyes widened when she realized that Lani was asleep on the bed. Why was Lani there? How had Saige managed to sneak two humans into the Teller dimension.

"See if you can wake her up. I'm going to make some tea. She'll be in quite a bit of pain, like you were." Saige said. They turned and walked away before Serenity had the chance to ask any questions.

Serenity had a million questions. Why was Lani there? She knew that Lani had some sort of connection to the undead world, but she was guessing that Lani was just a medium. But if Saige had gone through all the trouble to bring Lani there, could that be wrong? What if Lani had a demon inside of her too?

Well, what are you waiting for? Go and wake her up.

The voice of Evangeline made Serenity jump. She was positive that no matter how long she and Evangeline were together, the fact that Evangeline existed as just a voice in her head instead of a physical presence would always freak her out.

I have a physical form, you just haven't seen it. I can't exactly take that form while I'm inside of you and I don't plan to while we're in this dimension. It would get all three of us into a lot of trouble. Now go wake her up before I do it for you.

Evangeline might not have been the nicest demon in existence, but they sure did know how to scare Serenity. If somebody on Earth in the human dimension had made the threat to her, Serenity would haven't cared in the slightest, but after learning that Evangeline literally could make her do it scared her.

She moved over to Lani, shaking her shoulder back and forth a few times. Lani remained asleep. Serenity pressed her lips together and then started clapping a few times, wondering if a loud sound might get her to wake up. When she had first woken up, there wasn't much of her that had been awake. She had been numbed. Only her eyes could open. Maybe that was happening with Lani too.

She reached and shook Lani's shoulder a couple more times. Maybe shaking her shoulder could help get blood to the rest of her body and wake her up faster. It seemed to work because not long after she had started shaking, she noticed Lani fighting to open her eyes.