Ever After High: Secret Storybooks

Chapter Nine: Cerise Hood

I tried hard not to fall asleep while Blondie, Hopper and Duchess read Hansel & Gretel. I know they were trying hard to make it seem exciting, with Blondie pretending to be the candy witch, Duchess being Gretel and Hopper as Hansel, but it was terribly boring for me.

The sun was going down, and tonight was supposed to be a full moon. On the nights of a full moon about a day or two a month, I like to be in my room and sleeping before sundown. It's just easier to resist the wolf instincts that way. The plan hadn't originally been any different for tonight- I got all my thronework done as quick as I could and prepared to eat dinner early, but then... Daring Charming asked me to come tonight. I wasn't sure if it had been a date, and I don't know if I would have come if I knew the answer to that was yes, but something inside me told me to give it a shot.

The darker it got, the more my feet felt like running, my eyes probably got more golden, and my other senses began tuning out. I was almost trying to force myself to fall asleep. I knew it was rude but I didn't want anyone else to know. I also didn't want to be another Cinderella story. I wasn't about to get up and run from the prince without any explanation at all other than "I really must go."

The story switched to Maddie reading Goldilocks, which was a bit more interesting considering it was Maddie but she started speaking in riddling after a few minutes. Nobody understood why, since the book was written completely in english, but she's Maddie. Never question Maddie Hatter.

I shut my eyes and squeezed them tight, imagining I wasn't here right now to calm myself down. Suddenly, someone touched my hand with theres. I got a tingly, mushy, girly, unwolfy feeling when I looked down and noticed who it was. Daring had his hand over mine, and he wasn't moving it. I was running into more and more issues the more time passed, but I couldn't summon the will to get up and leave now.

*

When my eyes opened again, my ears were processing a chunk of a weird version of Peter Pan that Cedar was reading. My head was tilted, and was leaning on something. Or, rather, someone.

Biscuits, I thought, noticing it was Daring's shoulder that my head was against. I shot away, preparing my sleepy feet to get up and run with the rest of me. They wouldn't move.

Cedar stopped mid-sentence, noting that the rest of the pages were ripped out. Nobody knew what else to do, so she shut the book with a large slam.

BAM, and there was a flash of bright light. I couldn't see anything and nobody could see me, but I couldn't run. I might've blacked out.

*

There was a knock at the door. I couldn't remember anything, just that there was a knock at the door. I tried to get onto my feet, remembering that I'd been unable to move them a few moments ago. Or, had it been a few moments ago? I stood from something wooden- but not a campfire log bench, a miniature wooden chair. When I stood to my full height, the ceiling was only a few inches from my head. I tried pulled my hood to my head- but there wasn't a hood. Overcome in instant panic, I searched for something to cover my head with. There was a cloth on the table, and when I picked it up to see if I could use it, a mirror gave me a reflected visual of myself at the moment. According to the mirror... I didn't have wolf ears. They were just regular ears. They looked rather small, and they felt cold. I couldn't hear as well as before I'd fallen asleep. How does something like this happen?

The knock on the door became more persistent.

"Oh. Okay, um, I'm coming," I said, but it came out in a higher pitched voice that was more singsongy.

I twisted the tiny doorknob of the tiny cottage I'd woken up in to reveal an old woman on the other side of the door. Her hair was graying, but the red streaks in its obvious old-black coloring were evident. There was a heart painted over one of her eyes, and she was Wonderlandian-style short.

"Lizzie?" I asked. My raspy voice didn't come out again, but instead a voice similar in tone to Apple White's, but still somehow recognizable as mine.

"What? Cerise? Is that you?" She said, exciting me. "Where are we?" I didn't feel alone and scared anymore.

"What happened to you? Why are you old?" So many questions ran through my head.

"I don't know, all I know is I'm supposed to give you this apple," Lizzie said, sounding confused. I was surely confused. Good to know I'm not alone.

"Oh... Okay. Thanks," I took the apple and took a bite, and suddenly things became clearer. By clearer I mean that I was losing control and again slipping into a sleep. This one death-like, only to be woken with true love's kiss... Sound familiar?