The Castle of Dreams

Chapter 13 - The Hidden Room

Peyton and Baylee had run upstairs, which if you think about it, kind of doesn't make any sense if they were looking for an exit to the building. But they did however find something very important. At the top of the stairs there was dust pretty much everywhere. "Wow, that's alot of dust" Peyton said simply looking around. Baylee rolled her eyes and grabbed Peyton's hand and pulled him further down the upstairs hallway. She tried a door and found it locked, so she tried the next one which was also locked. Most of them she hadn't even bothered to check, and she never would have thought to check the one at the end of the hall if it weren't for Peyton. While Baylee was trying to find a door Peyton walked to the end of the hallway and found a room that had a light on inside. He turned the knob and the door opened. When he pushed it the door swung open to reveal a ginormous library. "Whoa. Hey, uh, Baylee. Come here!" Peyton called to her walking into the center of the room. Baylee came running and when she saw the library she froze in her tracks. "Whoa, this is the biggest library I have ever seen and trust me I've seen some big libraries." She said spinning in a circle to get a look at the whole room. As Baylee took in the view, Peyton noticed her entire mood change. Obviously, after what had happened downstairs, it wasn't the happiest thing they had ever experienced and it seemed to dampen all of their moods, that was until now. Baylee just seemed to glow around the books. Seriously, there had never been a time Peyton saw Baylee upset when their were books around, well that actually depended on what she was reading and where she was at when he was around but still she was still always in a better mood around any book. "This is amazing!! I don't even know what to say." Baylee said walking over to a bookshelf and running her hand across the spines of a row of books. Peyton walked over to a desk that was set in one corner of the room and looked through the stack of papers. Their were letters from kingdoms Peyton had only heard about in fairytales, also some proclamations that had never been presented to the public and lastly an invitation to a ball. Why would someone have wanted to invite King Timothy to a ball? Peyton chuckled at the thought of King Timothy dancing the night away with some girl. "What are you laughing at?" Baylee asked walking over to the desk as well after barely getting over the excitement of all the books. Peyton handed her the invitation and opened a drawer on the desk and began searching through it. Baylee looked over the invitation once and then again and once more just to make sure she read it right. After she had read it for the third time she quickly scrambled for a piece of paper and a pen. When she found one she wrote down the details of the invitation. "Did you find something?" Peyton asked. Baylee nodded and finished scribbling down notes before she explained. "Look, the date on this invitation was from today." She said. Peyton didn't understand and looked at her confused. "Yeah..so?" he asked. Baylee rolled her eyes and pointed to the small piece of paper. "Don't you see? This invitation is from today! It's for a ball at a castle where the king is making the prince choose a wife." Baylee explained. Peyton shook his head. "Sorry, I still don't get it." He said running a hand through his reddish hair and then fixing his little green hat with the red feather stuck in it. Baylee didn't explain any further but she pulled off her backpack and handed it to Peyton. "Find the Cinderella story." She said. Peyton knew better than to ask why. Baylee quickly scanned the room. "Hmm I wonder..A...B...C! Hah!" She exclaimed running over to the section for books that began with C. As she searched for another copy of Cinderella curious to see if it matched the one she had in her backpack. When she found it there were two copies of it. She pulled both of them out. Flipping through them, she saw one copy matched her copy with Casey in it while the other one, thankfully was the real Cinderella fairytale. She put the one she already had back on the shelf but carried the actual fairytale back to the desk flipping through it all the while. By the time she had reached Peyton again she had found exactly what she was looking for and showed him. "Look, the ball. It's for all of the eligible maidens at the same castle or in the same kingdom as in the story!" Baylee said showing Peyton what she was talking about in the book and from the invitation. It was finally starting to make sense to Peyton. "It's like the stories are still playing out, but everything is different. Because Casey woke up in that caslte," Baylee said opening Casey's Cinderella book. "but then why is the ball still happening? If she woke up there it's like her story had already played out but this is saying differently." Baylee opened to the part in Casey's book where Casey had talked to Zackary out by the apple trees. "Huh. It kinda makes sense now, but you're right if it's already happening why is it playing out like this again?" Peyton asked looking over the book and invitation once more. Baylee shook her head, closed Casey's book and was about to put it back in the backpack when she saw the other books in the bag. She set down Casey's on the desk and pulled out Beckett's version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf and opened to the part where Rebecca saved him from the wolf. "Rebecca..the baker said..hmm I wonder if we're supposed to change each others stories on purpose. I mean look at this," Baylee said showing Peyton the picture of Rebecca tricking the Wolf into running down the hill and away from Beckett. "Rebecca saved Beckett where in most versions of this story ends up with the boy getting eaten by the wolf because nobody came to help. The ball in Cinderella is happening..We have to go to that." Baylee finished. Peyton closed the original Cinderella book and set it down on the desk. "Yeah, I'd love to and I'm sure the others would too, but there's only one problem we're still stuck in this castle." Peyton said. Baylee looked around the library once more. "There has to be a way out of here somehow." She said putting Beckett's and Casey's books back in the backpack. While she had done that Peyton had gone back to searching the drawers. The second one to the right was stuck. He pulled at it as hard as he could and it finally came open throwing him the ground. Baylee laughed so hard she almost joined him on the ground. "Oh my goodness, are you alright?" She asked helping him up, still giggling. Peyton accepted her hand and let her pull him to his feet, but he froze when he saw something that hadn't been there before. "Baylee. Please tell you see that to." Peyton said. Baylee stared at him confused. "Wha-" Peyton put a hand on her cheek and turned her face towards the opposite corner of the room. Baylee gasped. "Is that a secret room?" She asked. Peyton grabbed her hand. "Only one way to find out." He said. After making sure they had everything and the notes Baylee had written they walked over to the secret room and went in. Inside they found even more books, tables cluttered with notebooks and quills. "Whoa." they said together. Peyton walked into the hidden room while Baylee closed the hidden door. On one of the tables there were two books. Peyton opened one of them. "It's blank." He said. Baylee walked over. "What is?" She asked. Peyton handed her the book and opened the other one. "This one is blank too. That's strange." He said. Baylee opened the one he had handed her. She flipped through the book. "Maybe whoever was in here last was planning on writing in th- Ahh!" Baylee dropped the book. Peyton looked over at her confused. "What happened??" He asked.
"The book started glowing." Baylee said. Peyton stared at her then down at the book that was on the floor. He bent down and picked it up. "It doesn't look like it's glowing." He said. Baylee shook her head and took the book back from him. "I swear it was glowing. I saw it." She said flipping through it once more. For a moment nothing happened and just as Peyton was about to turn back to the table the book did indeed start to glow. Peyton gaped at it. "See?!? I told you it was glowing!!" Baylee said. The glow got slowly brighter by the second. Eventually, it got so bright both Baylee and Peyton had to look away. At about the same pace it had gotten brighter the glow began decreasing until Baylee was only holding the book she was holding before. Well, almost the same book. The book now had words. Baylee and Peyton exchanged glances and then they stared at the book. Very confused, Baylee set the book down on the desk and both of them leaned over it and paged through it. "These look like plans." Baylee said reading a few lines. Peyton had to agree. The two of them were so engrossed in trying to figure out the book they hadn't heard the hidden door open. "Who are you?" A voice asked. Both Peyton and Baylee looked up quickly suddenly aware that King Timothy may have found them. But this wasn't King Timothy at all, it wasn't even Rebecca's father. Instead two teenagers right around the same age as Peyton and Baylee. The boy had a slightly darker skin tone with raven black hair, he was wearing a purple vest and white baggy pants with patches all over them. The girl on the other hand was short, very short. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a top knot, she was wearing a very short green dress that looked like it was made of giant leaves. But sprouting from her back were fairy wings that sparkled when the light hit them just right. Baylee, Peyton and the two newcomers stared at each other for a few moments before the boy spoke again. "Who are you and how did you get here?" He asked. Baylee and Peyton exchanged glances. "Uh..I'm Peyton and this is my gir- uh" Peyton stopped mid-sentence blushed and scratched the back of his head and glanced at Baylee who was also blushing. So Peyton cleared his throat and started again. "I'm Peyton and this is my friend Baylee, we uh..we stumbled across this castle with our friends and we split up and we found this library and I about fell on my face trying to open that drawer and then we came in here and found this magic book. Now, who are you?" Peyton said. The two newcomers looked back and forth between Peyton and Baylee for a moment before finally answering Peyton's question. "I'm Tessa and this is August, we were sent to pick up that magic book you found along with that other one before King Timothy finds them and destroys us all." The fairy girl said. Peyton and Tessa, as the girl called herself, had a staring contest, whilst Baylee and August both heard the footsteps. "Quick, go Tess!" August whisper yelled pushing the girl further into the hidden room and shutting the door just enough to where he could peek out and see who was coming. As soon as he did however he closed the door all the way as quickly as he could cringing at the loud noise it made. "It's King Timothy. I think he heard the door but it looked like he was searching for something on the desk." August said to the other three. Tessa turned to Peyton and Baylee. "What did you take?" She demanded. Baylee closed the book they were looking at and stared at Tessa. "Whoa. We didn't take anything! Why are you jumping to conclusions that we did something?" Baylee yelled back. Tessa glared at her but Baylee didn't care, it wasn't nice of her to yell at them like that when they had done nothing wrong. "It would have been better if you hadn't found this place." Tessa said crossing her arms. Baylee scoffed at that. "At least we weren't followed here!!" Baylee exclaimed. Tessa stomped her foot and turned to August and began a quick conversation with him, while Peyton got Baylee's attention. "What the heck was that about?" Peyton whispered to Baylee. Baylee took a deep breath and shook her head. "I have no idea, but Tinker Bell sure seems to have an attitude." Baylee said back.
"You know I can hear you right?" Tessa said. Baylee threw her hands in the air. "Whatever! Let's just get out of here and find the others so we can get to that ball." Baylee said to Peyton. Peyton nodded and glanced at the shut door. There was no handle from the inside and from what Peyton could see it didn't look like there was any other way out. "Ah. Don't worry there's a hidden staircase under the rug in that corner that leads down into the main hallway." August explained. Tessa shot him a glance but he ignored it. August walked over to the corner of the room and pushed back the rug showing Peyton and Baylee the hidden staircase. "Wow. A hidden staircase in a hidden room, very original." Baylee said. Tessa walked over and pushed Baylee away from the table. Baylee, not expecting to be pushed away was off balance and fell on her butt. Peyton stepped around Tessa and helped Baylee up. Still holding onto Baylee's hand he then turned to Tessa. "What is your problem with Baylee? She didn't do anything to you." Peyton said.
"You wouldn't understand." Tessa said.
"Try me." Peyton pushed but before Tessa could say anything the hidden door opened and all four teenagers froze in place staring at the now open door. King Timothy was still standing at the desk searching for something. So far he hadn't noticed the secret room, but it wouldn't be long before he would. "Quick, we have to go now." August said. Tessa looked at the table quickly. "Which one were we supposed to get?!" She asked quickly. August shook his head. "I have no idea but if we don't go now Timothy is going to cat- and we're dead." He said just as King Timothy turned and discovered the secret room. Tessa ran over to August forgetting about the books. "Well, are you coming?" She asked Peyton and Baylee. Peyton nodded and started towards the staircase trying to pull Baylee after him but Baylee made a split second decision and grabbed the book that now had words and then ran over to the others. "COME BACK HERE!!" King Timothy yelled. But the four of them had already started down the stairs. Running down the stairs is always a bad idea, but it's an even worse idea in a ball gown running down an already narrow staircase crowded by four teenagers in a hurry. Baylee didn't mean to cause a human avalanche. As she rushed down the stairs behind the others and away from King Timothy she hadn't remembered to look down watching the steps she was taking, so she wouldn't trip. So, naturally because she hadn't remembered that she tripped over her feet and she fell forward into Peyton who fell into Tessa who fell into August and the four of them tumbled all the way to the bottom of the stairs. When they finally came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs they all groaned. "OW! Nice going, Beauty." Tessa groaned. Baylee ignored her and jumped to her feet. "He's not following us down the stairs. That's either bad or super bad." Baylee said. The others got to their feet as well and stared at her confused. "How would that be bad at all? It's good that he's not following us, isn't it?" Peyton asked getting to his feet groaning. Baylee shook her head and looked around the room they were now in. They were indeed back in the main hallway. "Not necessarily, He's most likely found that other book or he's planning on trapping us. He knows we know this door is locked." Baylee explained. Tessa crossed her arms across her chest and tapped her foot against the floor. "That's how we came in smart aleck." She said. Baylee rolled her eyes and gestured to the door. "Then go ahead and try to open the door, miss princess." Baylee said. Tessa didn't answer she just stomped over and tried the door. Sure enough, it was locked. "How did you know that was locked?" August asked. Tessa stomped back over to them. "Because when we first came in it was unlocked, then we found this table," Baylee said walking over to the table. "Which has all kinds of stuff from our past, until Rebecca, realized we had just walked into a trap and she tried the door but it was locked and then she fell through the trapdoor." Baylee said taking off her backpack once more. When she opened it, she slid in the book she had stolen from the hidden room and then slung the backpack back across her shoulders. "Trap door? What trapdoor?" Tessa asked.
"I don't know, it was just a trap door right inside the door. We couldn't open it again so we had to find a different way to find her. Anyways, we have to find a way out of here." Baylee said.
"But, how? I mean we could probably find the others and see if they found a way out but there's a big risk we could find King Timothy instead." Peyton said. Baylee gasped. "Peyton! You're a genious!!" Baylee exclaimed pulling off her backpack once more. August and Tessa glanced at Peyton confused. Peyton caught on after a moment. "OH! Good idea!" He said rushing over to Baylee and accepting the book Baylee handed him while she got one out for herself. August and Tessa both confused and intrigued came over to the table as well. "Oh look, more books." Tessa said. Baylee ignored her and opened Casey's Cinderella story while Peyton opened Beckett's Boy Who Cried Wolf story. It seemed like these were just the two that were the easiest to go to since The Little Red Riding Hood book could follow either Wiley or Rebecca and it would just be completely pointless to check their stories. "Okay, I'm sorry but how are these books going to help us?" August asked. "Simple, if our friends have found a way out we'll know because these stories are following our every move." Baylee explained flipping through the book watching the progress Casey, Wiley and Sarah had made so far. "Where are they?" Peyton asked out loud when he flipped to a spot in Beckett's book that showed both Beckett and Rebecca in front of a lake with two other teenagers. "That's Hector and Grace, they're at the Lake of Tears." August said peeking over Peyton's shoulder. "Wait, they were here? Then how did they get to the Lake of Tears if there's no way out of this castle??" Tessa asked. Baylee closed Casey's book and looked up at them. "What happened??" She asked.
"It looks like Beckett and Rebecca may have found a way out." Peyton said handing Baylee the book. Baylee took it and went back a couple pages looked them over and then flipped through the book the the last pages. "Huh. It looks like they found some sort of tunnel that lead to this lake, and look like I said before it looks like all of our stories have to play out somehow." Baylee said showing the others the pictures of Beckett, Hector and Grace with the witch standing over the unconscious body of Rebecca. "What happened to Rebecca?" Peyton asked. Baylee shook her head and looked at the words next to the pictures but before she could make any progress the doors swung open and The four teenagers looked up. Standing in the doorway, fortunately, was Wiley, Casey and Sarah running towards them. "He's coming!!" Casey yelled just as King Timothy appeared in the doorway.