Kingdom Keepers: Once Upon a Dream

Chapter 32

A/N: Hello everyone! Firstly, so sorry for missing last week, and for the unusual posting day now. Things have been hectic as I've been trying to navigate and cope with all of the closures and changes happening with the Coronavirus.

Secondly, I have a few chapters left to publish, and, in an effort to help out, I'm going to try to publish the remaining chapters once a day so that if you're a fan of this, you have something to keep you company over the next week.

Thirdly, I'd like to give a special shoutout to TrinityEdge20 on fanfiction . net for all of their kind reviews!!! I am so appreciative!

That being said, I am so incredibly sorry for this chapter. Enjoy!

Willa and Dell's jaws dropped as the doors to the elevator they were standing in opened up. Sitting in front of them was an entire apartment, fully furnished and decorated like someone had just been living there yesterday.

"Whoa!" Dell exclaimed, practically leaping inside. "This is incredible!"

He immediately rushed to a nearby table and started looking at what was on top.

Willa, meanwhile, could hardly think as she slowly stepped into the room. She'd never heard of this before. How could it be possible that this place had always been laying here, in the highest peaks of Cinderella Castle? She'd read everything there was to read about Disney secrets, and she was sure this wasn't one of them. She was in awe; it was incredible.

"Willa you've gotta see this!" Dell exclaimed, and she was snapped out of her trance.

Dell was beaming, and pointing at a row of books. Willa hurried over and bent down to see them, her worries momentarily forgotten. When she saw what he'd been pointing out, her heart skipped a beat.

The spines of the books were faded and dusty, the pages clearly yellowed, but she could still make out the titles clear as day: Alice in Wonderland, Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Jungle Book...

Willa had never felt so enchanted. She reached out her hand and moved her fingers across the row so that they just barely brushed the spine. She felt tears start to come to her eyes. There were no clues to tell it to her, but it was like something deep down knew what she was seeing.

"Do you think these are the original copies that he referenced when he was making the movies?" she asked, completely focused on the sight in front of them.

"I don't know," Dell said. "Maybe."

She could hear that his thoughts were aligned with hers. Caught up in her excitement, she turned her head to meet his eyes, and they smiled at each other. Just then, she remembered what she'd told herself before, and stepped back.

"There's some boxes over there," she said quietly, motioning to the other end of the room. "You stay here and I'll go check them out."

They were silent again, acknowledging the plans with only a nod, and Willa walked away, wandering slowly as she looked around. She ran her hands along the top of the couch, picking up dust as she went. This place was both everything and nothing like she'd pictured when reading the books. Truthfully, she'd never really conjured up a full image of it, but as she looked around, pangs of familiarity sprung up, harder and harder to ignore. That notion made her feel nauseous.

While she was lost in thought, Dell had found himself opening a drawer on the side table where the books were. In doing so, he'd found a pile of pictures, and as he sifted through them, his excitement only grew: there were Polaroids of Walt Disney with his kids, signed documents about rides at Disneyland, old park tickets...