Once

Thirty Six

"Elle, we have to be realistic. It's happened to Russell and Jax now. Two people who happen to be your friends. We can't rule out the possibility of either me or Sellan being next."

Elle felt a cold chill wash over her. As much as she'd like to pretend it wasn't a possibility, what Maggie said was entirely true. First Russell, then Jax. Elle was almost beginning to feel the events in Farway were beginning to deliberately target her friendship group. How else would you explain the fact that two of the stories had happened to her two oldest friends, out of every person in the whole town?

On the other hand, she and David had spent half an hour yesterday picking apart the names of everyone she knew, searching for some sort of clue or a link to one of the stories. It was crazy that they hadn't thought of Jax's name - but then, they'd been thinking of that story being linked to a boy, which might have thrown them off. And even now, try as she might she simply couldn't find any sort of link for the names 'Maggie Cutteridge' or 'Sellan Dabrowski.'

A group of other students passed by, heading toward the school gates. For most Year 11s this was their final exam, and they were classing this as their last official day at Farway High. There was a jubilant sort of atmosphere, lots of hugging and celebrating, lots of people making plans, a few dramatic girls sobbing into each other's shoulders. In the group that was passing by, Rose Bryers was chatting animatedly to a couple of boys. On a mad whim Elle suddenly jumped off the wall and dashed over to her.

"Rose!"

Rose whipped her head round, momentarily stunned, then suspicious when she saw who had called out to her. They'd been in the same class since they were seven but Rose and Elle had never come close to being what you might call friends.

"Yes, Elle? Did you want something?"

Her tone was dismissive, and immediately Elle felt she was making a mistake. Nonetheless, she was here now.

"I just wondered if you'd heard from Letty," she said.

Rose rolled her eyes ostentatiously.

"God, her. No, I haven't. Not a call or a text or anything. She hasn't even posted anything since Saturday. It's weird. It's like she's just vanished off the face of the earth."

"What do you think happened to her?"

"Nothing happened to her. She's run off with someone, hasn't she? That's what her parents say. Probably shacked up in Elkington with some gross thirty-year-old accountant or something. Which is, like, fine, obviously, if that's what she wants. I just thought she might have told me about it."

"But... she didn't come in this morning either, did she? I saw her seat was empty in the hall. I'd have thought, even if she had run away, that she'd at least turn up to do her last exam."

Elle didn't know what she wanted Rose to be - suspicious, outraged, horrified? Maybe just for her to see that what had happened to her supposed best friend wasn't normal?

Whatever she expected she didn't get it. Rose just said:

"If she wants to throw her whole future away for some guy, that's on her. It's nothing to do with me."

She turned as if to leave, but at the last moment suddenly whipped back.

"You've remembered my party tonight, right?"

Elle was surprised. As a rule everyone in the school was invited to Rose's end of year parties. She just never expected to have a personal reminder extended to her.

"Yeah, I remember."

"You're all welcome, y'know. You and your - friends."

Elle couldn't help but notice Rose's eyes flicker over her shoulder, where she knew Maggie and Sellan were still sitting on the wall.

"We'll be there, Rose."

"Great. And hey, bring that new guy, too. What's his name, David or something?"

Elle's face took on a tight, knowing aspect; internally she was thinking, Ah, I see. Thought this seemed a bit too good to be true.

"Sure, Rose. I'll be sure to bring him."

Rose flashed her a final smile of dazzling white teeth, then she and her friends took off toward the gates. Elle turned, just in time to see David, Jax and Russell joining the others.

"God that was painful!" Russell moaned. He flashed Elle a grin as he said, "I suppose you didn't have any problems?"

Elle shrugged.

"It was fine."

"Yeah, I bet it was. Hey, what are you doing talking to Rose Bryers?"

"I was asking if she'd heard from Letty."

Russell frowned.

"But you know she hasn't, right? I mean, you're the only person in town who actually knows what happened to her."

"I know. I just wondered if she'd thought about it at all. If she was worried about it."

"And?"

Elle shook her head.

"Another case of the curse of Farway," she said.

Maggie had been searching for something on her phone, but at this moment she said, "That might not be all, Elle."

Her tone was suddenly serious - serious enough for the others to crowd in eagerly.

"You remember yesterday, when we split up the stories to research them?" Maggie said. "I have to admit I was only sort of taking it all in, but just now, when you went to talk to Rose, something came back to me. Something we should definitely have thought of before."

She turned her phone so the others could see it. It was open on a page about Sleeping Beauty.

"First line," Maggie said.

The first line began: Sleeping Beauty, or The Little Briar Rose, is a folktale of European origin about a princess cursed to sleep for a hundred years, when she pricks her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel...

Rose Bryers. Briar Rose. Maggie was right. Another insane thing they should have seen a mile away.

And what's more, other things were now rushing wildly into Elle's mind - her own sleepiness that morning, surely more a clue than a sign of her own exhaustion. All weekend she'd been exhausted to the point of collapse, but her nights had been fretful, constantly waking - not a dull, heavy slumber like she'd had last night.

And then her own words, spoken only a few minutes before: I could sleep for a hundred years...

"You're right, Maggie," she said. She was surprised by how confident she sounded, and indeed how solemnly the others nodded back at her. "It must be her. I don't see it yet, but I'm sure I will soon. But I tell you one thing I am certain of - it's going to happen at her party. It's going to happen tonight."