Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 13)

Ch.36 Nervous thought

After communicating with Lauren and Amanda, Brooke could already feel her hope rising a bit, knowing that her friends were doing everything they can to look for her.

"So they really are looking for us?" Danny asked.

"Yeah" Brooke replied with a small smile "They're doing everything they can."

"But do you really think we're in Shadow High?" Delilah questioned "Because from what I remember, Shadow High is made up of words, and I don't see any words around. So either we're not really at Shadow High, or it's been somehow remade."

"Well wherever we are-" Danny said, "There's no chance of us breaking out, our only hope now is to wait for a miracle."

"A miracle huh?" that familiar voice spoke as they turned to see Lydia walking down the hall between their cells "It's always fascinating when a miracle happens."

"Well look who it is-" Delilah announced with a mocking smile "It's the Queen Bitch herself."

"Queen Bitch huh?" Lydia smirked, "I like the sound of that."

She then went up to Brooke's cell and leaned against the bars.

"I see you're back up again" she observed, "I suppose you couldn't stand the rats running all over you huh?"

"I'd rather have the rats run over me than for you to talk to me" Brooke scowled.

"I just wanna have a small talk."

"Well I'm not talking to you" she growled while avoiding eye contact.

"Fine, you don't have to talk, I'll do the talking then. You know Brooke, when I was about your age, I too never liked following the rules of Narrating, I always thought Narrators should have the ability to help the characters. It's always been so cliche, Narrators narrate a story, ends in happily ever after, or not depending on what the story is. But you see Brooke, we have some things in common, and it's always nice to talk to someone about common interests."

"Just shut up" Brooke growled while clenching her fists "I am nothing like you."

"I mean sure we have our differences-".

"Oh you think?" Brook doubted as she sprang up from the straw bed and stormed up to Lydia "Let me tell you a little something Lydia, you may think we have something in common, and part of it you're right, but the other part you're dead wrong. What you did back then nearly destroyed everything, and that goes to show how purely evil and heartless you are. All you care about is yourself and getting what you want, you don't even care for your brother do you?"

"On some occasions" Lydia replied with a slight frown.

"Well hear me out Lydia, I am nothing like you. Now I don't know what you're planning on doing to me and my friends here, but whatever it is, I hope you make it quick because I am done with this suffering."

Lydia didn't say anything as she just stared into Brooke's eyes.

"Your suffering will soon be over" she finally replied in a mumble "That is, of course, until I decide when. But until then, I have a little something for you."

She made a full-size mirror appear in Brooke's cell in front of her. Resting against the stand, the Gothic looking mirror stood clearly in front of the young Narrator, showing her gloomy reflection.

"A mirror?" Brooke questioned puzzled "What's this for? To watch myself die?"

"You'll know it when it happens."

"Hey Queen Bitch-" Delilah suddenly spoke, "Can I ask you something?"

Lydia turned to her cell as Delilah walked up to the bars.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, "What made you want to do this horrible thing?"

"Yeah" Danny agreed "Why Lydia? Did something happen like in your past that made you want to do something this sinister?"

Lydia didn't reply, and after a moment of silence, she disappeared, leaving them unanswered.

_________

Now in Olivia's room, Elena and Olivia sat down on the carpet part of her room while leaning against her bed with 4 books surrounding them; The storybook, the book of Shadow High, Destiny's diary, and their unfinished scrapbook.

"You know I thought we'd be surrounded by textbooks and notebooks and going all crazy for final exams and tests," Elena noted, "But instead we're not even close to doing any of that."

"Hey I'm surprised you're still passing all your classes," Olivia remarked.

"Only because you've been helping me study."

"True" she shrugged in agreement when she gave a sigh while picking up the storybook "Alright then, let's see what we can find in here."

She began to flip through the book as Elena searched through the book of Shadow High. But while doing so, she suddenly stopped when a thought came to her. 

"What?" Olivia asked when she noticed her roommate's changed facial expression.

"Oh uh, it's nothing" Elena assured.

"Seriously?" she doubted "You expect me to believe that? Come on, you know I'm better than that, what's wrong?"

Elena gave a small sigh while setting the book down.

"Earlier today at school-" she began, "Mira told me something, last night she had a nightmare."

"A nightmare?"

"Of me turning evil again."

"...Oh" she replied shocked.

"And you know how she believes that dreams are always trying to tell you something? Well she told me that she has this bad feeling that, well-".

"That you might become evil again?"

She sighed "Yeah."

"Well, you know not all dreams come true you know, some dreams are just plain random."

"Yeah but nightmares are usually signs that are trying to tell you something, most of the time it's because of stress, but this-".

She hesitated "What if I do become evil again?"

"Well then we'll bring you back, we've done it before, we can do it again."

"But what if there is no way?" she mumbled.

"I refuse to believe that. I mean remember when Mira used to be evil? She changed, and the same thing happened to you, and I know we can do the same thing if you do turn evil again."

Elena looked down at the storybook and flipped to the page that showed an illustration of her during her Evil Queen stage when her heart turned black in order to protect everyone from the darkness.

"It wont happen again okay?" Olivia assured, "I'm sure of it."

But that just made Elena more nervous. What if it does happen again?