27B (COMPLETED)

Chapter Eleven ~ (Above, Little Red)

This chapter is dedicated to Zoe.

Mollie...
Present Day...
Mollie arrived at Märchen, stumbling with the rush of world travel. She was outside the beautifully familiar Märchen sign that she had known since she was little. The crowd was thinning in the market, and most of the stands were closing. She went up to a woman about her age with two little girls, tugging at her apron and whining. "Acadia! Stop it, you're so annoying," the older girl said to the younger one. The woman slapped them both lightly on their arms. "Indie and Acadia, please. This is our last stop, and mommy is very tired. I need you to stop hitting eachother,"
Her voice had an exasperated, dry tone, but Mollie approached her anyway. Her eyes, however, told a different story. They weren't dry, tired and annoyed. They were a golden hazel, and they were filled with light and happiness. She had beautiful copper hair that spun from her bonnet in vibrent curls. "Hello, ma'am. How do you do?" she asked, curtsying to Mollie and nudging her children to do the same. They obliged grudgingly. but only dipped halfway before the little one reached over and tugged at the older one's hair, sending her into a frenzy of ranting and raving at her little sister, who cowered in fear.

"I am fine, thank you," Mollie replied, curtsying. "I need some help finding my son though. He is seventeen, and has hair like mine. Green eyes, big smile. His name's Ethan. Any chance you've seen him?"

The woman thought for a second, then said, "Is he that peasant I spoke to earlier? He had on brown suspenders and was barefoot, and he looked dirt poor. He said he was looking for Gretzel Palace, and there's rumor goin' round that he managed to wake princess Harper, but I ain't believing none of it. I mean, that rumor's gone around too many times, sort of like the boy who cried wolf,"

Mollie didn't know who princess Harper was, but she suspected it was the name of the girl on the brown paper.

"Could you describe him?" Mollie asked, raising her eyebrows. "Sure. He was exactly as you said. Red hair. Freckles. Around 17. Good lookin'. The whole bit. I'm sure it was him, you both got the same eyes," the woman said, looking down at her two children who were throwing dirt and gravel in each other's hair.

"Do you know if they are still at Gretzel Palace?" Mollie asked the woman, who's children looked as if they wanted to leave. "I think so. I've gotta go, the little scrungies are gettin' restless," she said, gesturing to her kids. Mollie had never heard of children referred to as "scrungies" before, and she thought it was funny. "Okay. Thank you," she cutrsied again, then left.

💠💠💠

Present Day...
Ethan...
I gripped the bottle in my hand, my teeth gritted and my face pale. Harper looked back at me and saw how disturbed I was, and she came back up the stairs to see if I was okay. "Ethan, what's the matter?" she asked, glancing down at the vial in my hand. I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed the back of my neck.

Harper took the vial from my hand and unrolled the little brown paper. She read it, and put her hand over her mouth, tears suddenly brimming in her eyes. "How come you didn't tell me you had it?" she asked, re-reading it. "I forgot I even did. I was looking for you, and when that Wizard guy gave it to me, I just shoved it in my pocket without hardly reading the paper.

"We could bring Sadie back," she whispered, holding the vial. "Did you even read the instructions?" I shook my head, and she read them to me, her voice smooth and even until the very end.

"Dear owner of this vile. This is a very, very powerful item you have in your hands. In a few other worlds, people are still trying to find a way to bring deceased people back to them. Like Earth, Saturn, and maybe Pluto. We haven't had much communication with them over the years. Luckily, we have found a way to conquer death and even reverse it. But, this potion includes a lot of dark magic. And once you make the choice to use dark magic, you may never turn back from the evil choice you have made. Some people have been able to turn it around and begin using good magic again, but they almost always eventually turn to black magic once more. So be careful, my dear, desperate friend. Be very, very careful,"