Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 5)

Ch.53 Special library

At a bakery called 'The Sweet Tooth', Ilene waited at a counter until the owner went up to her. The owner Tara Baker was really Ginger Breadhouse, daughter of the Candy Witch from 'Hansel and Gretel', but unlike her mother, Tara only baked harmless treats for fun and not poisonous treats.

"Hey Ilene" Tara smiled "What can I get you?"

"Just a red velvet cupcake" Ilene said as she tried to hide her sad look.

"What's wrong? Having a bad day?"

"More like days" Ilene mumbled.

"Oh. But hey, whenever you're having a bad day,have some treats to satisfy your sweet tooth" Tara smiled as she handed Ilene a red velvet cupcake decorated with buttercream frosting and hearts sprinkles "I mean you can't say no to treats, but not too much of course."

Ilene gave a small smile as she paid for the cupcake and headed out. But as she took a bite of her cupcake while walking down the sidewalk, she suddenly bumped in Kim which caused her to knock her cupcake into her face as she gave a gasp.

"Oh my God I am so sorry" Kim gasped with guilt "Let me help you with that."

"No" Ilene scowled, remembering when she saw Aidan and Kim kissing in the library as she wiped the frosting off her face "Just leave me alone."

And with that she stomped away as Kim stood there baffled by Ilene's attitude.

"Yikes" Macy walked up to her "What happened?"

"I accidentally bumped into Ilene which caused her cupcake to splat into he face" Kim said "But when I tried to help her she just scowled at me and walked away."

"Well Ilene does have a bit of anger issues, but I thought she would get over that soon."

"I guess not, she also told me that I should leave her alone."

"What do you expect, her mother is the Queen of Hearts, and she's always in a bad mood too."

"Yeah" Kim agreed "But I wonder what she's mad about this time."

________

As the sun was getting lower, Elena and Olivia were heading down the sidewalk when Brooke went up to them.

"Hey guys" she smiled "You would not believe what I just found."

"The author?" Elena guessed.

"The location of Bella and Brutta?" Olivia guessed.

"No, but this is something you need to see."

Pretty soon they arrived at a mansion that was near the woods as they entered and headed down a hall.

"What is this place?" Elena asked.

"Just an old mansion of Storybrooke" Brooke said as they came upon a dead end "But I was looking around here earlier and found this."

She then went to a candle holder and pulled it down like a lever as the wall slid open to reveal a secret room.

"Whoa" Elena and Olivia gasped as they walked in to find themselves in a small library.

"A library" Olivia gasped.

"Not just any library" Brooke said as she went to a shelf and pulled out a book "Check this out."

"That looks like the book you found" Elena said.

"Only it's blank, they all are."

She then opened the book and flipped through the pages to show that it was blank.

"This place is full of potential storybooks" Brooke said.

"Then maybe this is the author's house" Elena said surprised.

"Oh my God" Olivia gasped as she looked at the books "This is incredible."

"All of these books are saved for future authors" Brooke said.

"Hey just to be clear" Elena said "You don't know what happened to the last author?"

Brooke gave a sigh "Sorry I don't."

"Well what do you know about the author?"

"Well, I do know that it doesn't matter who the author is, whether it's a guy or a girl, sometimes authors can be as young as 16. There's been many author's throughout time, like Lewis Carroll for example, the true author of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', being an author is not a person, it's a job. And every author has a great responsible."

"Which is?"

"To record, to create the greatest stories of all time and record them in storybooks. It's gone back to the man who watched shadows dance across the cave walls till now. Many have had this sacred job, great women and men who took the responsibilities to record these stories."

"But how do they become authors?" Olivia asked.

"The greatest sorcerer of all chooses the next author, Merlin."

"Merlin?" they gasped.

"The one and only" Brooke smiled "Once he's chosen an author, he sends them to the fairytale world where they record the stories, and then they go to the Narration World where I'm from where they give us the scripts and we narrate them. Without the author, we wouldn't be able to narrate, and if we can't narrate, there wont be a story. And even though it's our jobs as narrators to follow the narration rule, I like to break them and narrate my own story."

Elena gave a small laugh "You little rebel."

"What can I say?" Brooke smiled "I love a good story."

"So you really don't know what happened to the last author?" Olivia asked.

"No, he just disappeared and no one was able to find him."

"Well that's okay I guess" Elena said "Even though I really wanted to meet him."

"Sorry, you can't."

"That's fine. And uh, I think we should be going, it's getting late."

"You guys go ahead, I'm gonna stay around for a bit."

"Okay, we'll see you tomorrow then" Olivia said "Bye."

"Bye" Brooke said as Elena and Olivia left.

After they were gone, Brooke sat at a desk and reached into her purse and pulled out a fold up piece of paper as she unfolded it and read the note that was written on it.

You're one of the most amazing people I've ever met, I'm so glad I met you :) - Wendell

As she read the note, she felt her blood boil as she tore the note into pieces and tossed them in the trash can. She then gave a sigh as she crossed her arms and slumped in the chair with a sad look on her face, thinking about her painful history that she never wanted to talk about ever again.