Ever After

Chapter Twenty-Two

I was in a dark room, and there was only one light in here. It shone from above, but I couldn't tell where it came from. I walked over to the light and directly underneath it, was a podium with a book. It was big and brown, and had intricate designs made from metal in a silver color. There was no writing on the cover.

I opened the book to a random page, but there no writing. I touched the page and ink exploded from the center binding of the pages. Pictures and words formed on the pages, and I didn't read the words. The first thing I saw was my mother drawn in a picture on the page. The picture was zoomed in on the backside of her, but her head was turned around to face whoever was looking at the picture. She wore a beautiful blue dress and her blond hair was in a braided bun. She was holding a book in one hand, and had blue mist coming from her hand. Was she casting magic?

Before I could examine the picture more, the page turned, by itself. And on the next page, three woman were standing in a row, one in front of the other two. Again the page turned by itself, and there was my father wearing a brown tunic and robe, in front of a door that led into a lush forest, holding a child. I looked at the child closer, and realized the dirty blond hair and blue eyes were mine. That was me. I was wearing a darker blue dress similar to my mother's, and was clutching to my father.

The page turned again, and the next picture showed my mother, casting magic at a giant purple dragon spitting out green fire. I wanted to turn the page again, to see what happened next. But then the book shut, the room disappeared, and I woke up on my makeshift bed, in my cell.

I blinked my eyes to get rid of the black I saw, and shook my head to stop my dizziness. Adam, Belle, and Rapunzel were still sleeping. But when one of the guards started banging on the bars, they all woke up.

"Time for breakfast you filthy rats." He said, and dropped tray after tray to Adam, Belle and Rapunzel. When he reached me, he put the tray down gently and pushed it to me. I had a different, better meal than the other three. And when the guard left, I was so tempted to eat in all, but my friends needed it more. I picked up two of the bread rolls, and rolled it over to Belle and Rapunzel. I still had some meat, rice, and cheese. But I gave Adam some of my food. We all shared my food, and for once in a while, my friends weren't starved.

When I finished the food I saved for myself, I heard the noise of the door opening and shutting, saying that someone was coming down. I prayed that it wasn't the Evil Queen. But when the person arrived in view, I would have preferred the Queen. Jett stood in the hallway, in the center of all four of our cells. If I wasn't locked up in this cell, I would have punched him in his sorry face. Adam and Belle shot him daggers from their eyes, and Rapunzel refused to look at him. Even though he was looking at her for a while.

"What the hell do you want." I snapped.

"I just came to see how you guys were." He said almost concerned.

"Wow, you actually almost sound convincing." Belle said sarcastically. Jett opened his mouth to say something, but closed it back up.

"Why are you working with her?" I asked.

"Because she has someone I care about, okay?" Jett answered.

"You know she doesn't" I said. He looked at me confused.

"What are you talking about?"

"I heard her talking about how they are duping you. She doesn't actually have your sister. They're just using you." I explained. He looked stunned but shoved his hands in the pocket of his vest. "I know you want to find your sister, but she doesn't have her. You have to trust us." He scoffed and turned around and walked away. But stole a glance at us before leaving.