The Red Queen's Daughter: Book One

Chapter 7: The Book

She leads me to a room across from the armory. The door, of course, is white, but my name is written on it in fine print.

"Why is my name on the door?" I ask her. Her smile goes to a frown. "You, really don't remember, do you? You were so young, three or four years old. You and your mother still lived here, this was your room." she says.

I try my best to remember, and thank goodness I do. "Yes, I do remember. It's just... finally coming back to me." I say.

She opens the door to my old room. My eyes practically pop out of their sockets. The room is big, has a queen bed with royal blue bedding, matching carpet, a vanity, white walls with beaautiful lavender swirls, and if I look up, I see a huge purple-royal blue flower. There is also a big closet and two windows. And to top it off, there's a balcony if I need to get away from everything."Wow, this was my room?" I gasp. My aunt nods her head. "This is your room. Royal blue and lavender because they're your favorite colors. There's also a bathroom through that door," she tells me, pointing to a door a few feet away.

My aunt, the White Queen, exact opposite of my mother. I love her more than my mother.

Then it hits me.

"So, how long can I stay?" I ask my aunt.

"As long as you want, as long as you need. I've missed you more than anything, Nicole. It has been so long since the last time I saw you. You were five when... something happened, and your mother turned into the Red Queen. But that doesn't matter. It matters that you're here. I'll bring you some tea, OK?" she says with a smile. I nod my head. She leaves.

I sit on my floor and feel the carpet. It's my room now.

Nick walks in my room. "Hey, cousin," he says. "Hey, cousin," I say, repeating his words. He sits in a chair next to my closet.

"Do you know what happened between our mothers?" I ask him, looking up from the carpet.

He shakes his head,"No I don't. But, there is a book somewhere in the library called 'Collision'. It tells you all that happened between our mothers. The problem is, no one has ever found it. It's hidden somewhere in the library. We can go find it... and read it."

I stand and shake my head and say,"Well of course we're going to read it, what else?"

"You are something, Nikki," he says.

"I've never been called Nikki, out of all twelve years of my life I've been called Nicole." I tell him.

"Whatever, let's just go and find that book. Later, we can't read it now."

"Why not?"

"Mother doesn't want me to read it, no one, in fact. So, we read it secretly.

Lying to my aunt, that's the last thing on Earth that I would ever do. But, I need to know what happened. "Ok," I say.

"Okay, but when I come and get you at midnight, don't be grouchy," he says with a smile before leaving my room.

*****

I'm having just about the best dream ever when I hear a soft knock on my door. I hop out of bed and put on a white robe with royal blue roses. My white nightgown hangs on the floor.

I open the door and let my eyes adjust to the dark. "Nick. Nick are you there?" I whisper into the air. "Yeah, sorry about the dark, I'll light up the torch," I hear Nick say.

Soon I see a flicker in the dark. Blue fire, I didn't think it was possible. "Blue fire, is that ipeven possible?" I ask, repeating my thoughts.

"Somehow apparently," Nick says. "Let's head down to the library."

While we're walking down to the library, I realize how much I look like Nick. It's kinda creepy, actually. Same sapphire eyes, dark brown hair, same rounded nose. "It's creepy how much we look like each other," I say, once again repeating my thoughts. "Yeah, it is. If I were somebody else so we could look at both of us, I would mistake us for brother and sister!" he says, laughing. I start laughing, too. We immediately shut up because we remember we're supposed to be quiet.

After a few twists and turns, we reach the library,"Here we are," Nick says.

The library is huge, I mean, HUGE.

"I've been told it's behind a book called,"Cars: Vehicles of the Uplanders. Cars seem so stupid, why don't people just walk or send a messenger up there, weirdos." Nick tells me. "Yeah, no kidding? Why don't they just upset off their lazy- you know what? That's not why we're here. We're here to find the Cars book then the book Collision." I say.

We search for what seems like hours before I finally find the weird Cars book. "I found it! I found it!" I whisper yell.

"Great!" he whisper yells.

I pull out the Cars book, and there it is. The book Collision. "Yes, yes yes! I found the Collision book! Yay!" I hold up my hand. I've seen a book about signals the Uplanders use. He's supposed to smack my hand, too. Apparently it's called a high five and people use it when something cool is accomplished.

"What?" he asks. He's as clueless as I am about doing this,"I guess you're supposed to smack my hand. The Uplanders use it when something is accomplished, weird, right? It's called a high five, I guess," I tell him. He shakes his head, smiles, and jokes,"Don't do that ever again. You hardly know your own language."

I smack his arm. He smacks my arm back. This goes on for a while before I finally say,"Immature cousins, classic. Now let's read that book."

I open the book under a blue fire torch and start reading:"Not long ago, about 12 years, there was a battle between who got to keep who.

To start about 35 years ago, to healthy, beautiful babies were born. One had silky white hair and sapphire blue eyes. She was named Annamarie. She later became the White Queen.

The second baby was born with silky red hair and brown eyes. She was named Carmen. She later became the Red Queen.

What all went wrong and turned the Carmen evil? The parents of the beautiful babies gave Annamarie everything she ever dreamed of having, for she was born a favorite.

Carmen, poor Carmen never got anything she wanted. She was the one sitting in the corner.

While she was sitting in the corner, her revenge was being plotted, she told herself that she would kill the innocent, and get revenge on her sister someday.

One day, Annamarie got married and had two healthy babies. One boy, and a girl. They were beautiful like their mother. They also looked similar to her." I'm puzzled. My aunt had two children? "Two children, I thought you were her only child?" I say. Nick just shrugs.

I continue reading,"The beautiful children still live on today. They're names were, and still are, Nick, and... Nicole."