The Mind Behind The Beanie || ✔

More Suspicions Begin

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A horn sounded through the graveyard. Everyone turned to the chapel and saw a man dressed in a ceremonial lederhosen blowing a trumpet on the porch. Noon had arrived and the readings were about to begin. The crowds of people scattered across the the cemetery grounds migrated toward the front steps of the chapel, eager to hear the untold stories of the Brothers Grimm. Conner and Bree walked over together and regrouped with Mrs. Peters and the Book Huggers.
The Book Huggers ranted about what they wanted the stories to be about and Conner chuckled when Lindy said that she wanted to hear what had happened to their favorite characters. He laughed as if he knew, but he couldn't. ^Could he?^
"Is something funny Conner?" Mindy asked, with her accusative tone. Conner turned a little pale but recovered well and said.
"Oh no, I'm just excited too," He said with a shrug. ^Nice come back Conner, but you can't fool me.^ I definitely knew there was more to that laugh.
A lady emerged from back stage and received a warm applause from the crowd. Apparently she was a bit of a celebrity there. She greeted the people in German, French, and then English.
After she greeted them, she then told them about the chest and the stories, and started to read the first story in German. Bree only wanted to hear the story in English, so she tuned out the speaker and fiddled with her bracelet. She could feel Conner getting more and more excited as the lady read it in French. When she finished reading it in French, she could literally feel Conner's smile next to her boy, he must be excited.
"The first story is called 'The Curvy Tree'," she announced.
Bree turned her head so fast to Conner, that she could have gotten whiplash. His face was bright red. He gasped so quickly and hard that he started coughing. Bree stared at him suspiciously, ^could it just be a coincidence?^
"How funny," Conner said out the side of his mouth when he had caught his breath. "That's the name of my story. What a coincidence."
"Yeah, a coincidence...." Bree said. Her suspicion started to fade, ^it could just possibly be a coincidence.  Yeah, that's what it was.^

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After the first story was read, it was clear it was no coincidence. That was almost the exact same story as Conner had written for English class. ^But how could he had known a story that wasn't even discovered yet? What? How? When? Where? Why? Who?^ All those questions, and so many more were swirling in her head at that moment.
"How amazing," Conner said with a very guilty chuckle, Bree could hear it. "I came up with almost the exact same story as the Brothers Grimm, I must be a better writer than I thought." He fake laughed and smiled, fake congratulating himself.
^Yeah. That's right, he was a better writer than he thought, but this was different. He knew a story that the Brothers Grimm wrote like, two hundred plus years ago. How did he know it?^ Again, her mind was still full of unanswered questions. At least the Book Huggers hadn't read his stories, or otherwise, they might threaten to kill him if he didn't  spill the beans about this. Honestly, the thought wasn't far from her head either. I mean she had researched how to murder someone successfully before, and she had written many a novels about it. ^Wouldn't be too difficult.^
She thought about possible answers to her many questions while the lady read the second stories in German then French. When she got to English, Bree was ready for a distraction form her thoughts, unfortunately she didn't get one.
"The second story is called 'The Walking Fish'," the lady said and paused for a second.
^What?!?! Another 'coincidence'?How coincidental can coincidences get?^ Bree shook her head, she had to be dreaming, or at least imagining it.
"Wait a second, did she just say the second story was called 'The Walking Fish'-" Bree began, but before she could finish her question, the lady started reading the story.

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Everyone made 'awwing' sounds at the sad ending, not Bree though. She also didn't hear Conner make a sound. Both of their mouths were dropped open by the end of the story, they both knew that this was not a coincidence.
"Wow, another coincidence," Conner said to Bree, but she didn't respond. She was to shocked, this boy was way more complicated than she thought.
Mrs. Peters and the Book Hugger said something to Conner, but she was to deep in thought to even hear what they were saying. She saw Mrs. Peters pat Conner on his back out of the corner of her eyes, and then Conner turned his gaze to her. She just looked at him with a 'please explain, this is preposterous' look. He just looked down at his feet and shuffled them back and forth.
The lady said something about English speakers being patient, or something and started to say something in English. Bree turned her attention back to the woman, and not her thoughts, she needed a distraction. Hopefully this wouldn't be another physic plagiarism story that Conner had already written.
"This must be a very important story if it was tied with a different ribbon from the rest," the lady said, and Bree noticed that it was tied with a red ribbon, not white, interesting. "The last story is called, 'The Secret Castle'."
Even though Conner didn't sigh, Bree could practically hear him sigh on the inside. He even slumped a few inches in stature. He took a daring look over at Bree and she pierced her eyes into his, not letting him forget about the other two stories.
As the lady read the story, Bree could see Conner's pulse start to quicken. The story finished with a warning for a certain castle that someone was going to harm, and Bree saw Conner's face turn completely white as the lady said, "Hoping that someone one day would recognize the story for what it was, not a fairytale, but a warning in disguise."
Their was a long pause before everyone realized that that was the end of the story. They all started clapping, but their applause was as confused as their faces. Apparently no one got the story like Conner had gotten it. He was still standing there, with the same unnaturally white face staring of into the oblivion.
It looked like he knew that something was wrong with the ending of the story, and it had something to do with him. It might, but Bree might never know that. He certainly looked as if something was terribly wrong.
The lady said something about that being all, but it was apparent that Conner wasn't listening to a word around him. Bree tried to nudge him, but it looked as if he didn't even feel it. Maybe she should ask him if something was okay, as he had just looked around expectantly, but only to look down again in disappointment. His eyes didn't even might hers when he looked up.
"Conner are you okay?" Bree asked him, very concerned, but tried not to let it show. "You just went from bright red to pale white in a couple of seconds."
"I'm fine," Conner responded, definitely lying to her. "It's just that story...it was just so...strange..."
"Was it coincidentally close to something you were planning on writing?" She asked him playfully, trying to lighten the mood, it didn't work.
Conner was looking right at her, and despite her previous thoughts on him might having a crush on her, or her having a crush on him, it seemed like that wasn't important to him anymore. He looked like he needed to do something now, but he couldn't and was fighting the urge to run and do it. He also looked like he needed to save a loved one, but was just watching them die. He gazed into her eyes for the rest of the readings, and then just looked at the floor when they walked back to the van.

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THANKS FOR READING!!!
BYE BOOK-HUGGERS!!!
TLOSGEEK2-OUT!!!