Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 5)

Ch.68 Drawn door

Later that evening, with the prison book in her hands, Brooke stood outside of Wendell's office when he suddenly came out from the office and headed off down the hall. She started to follow him without him catching her as they headed out the building. But just when Brooke was going to open the book towards him, Wendell suddenly held his hand towards her as she felt a strong force push her into the building as the book fell out of her hands.

"Thought you could sneak up on me huh?" he smirked as he held her against the wall "You should know it's never a good idea to be messing with me."

Brooke tried to break away, but the force was holding onto her strong.

"Hey what's going on?" a voice asked as Wendell turned around to see Brooke's parents.

"Oh" he said surprised as he dropped Brooke "Hi Mr and Mrs Narrator, I just had to move Brooke away cause there was rat."

"Don't believe him" Brooke frowned as she got up "He's working for the Evil Queen."

At that point her parent's eyes widen as they turned to Wendell.

"What?" he said as he tried to hide his guilt "Do you honestly believe I would work for the Evil Queen, I mean come on, she scares me."

"He's lying" Brooke scowled as she picked up the book "He's been lying ever since I first met him, he's a traitor that's who he is."

"Oh please, why would I betray my own friend."

"I am not your friend! You betrayed me and broke my heart! And now, I'm not gonna let you betray all of us."

And with that she opened the book towards him as he began to feel himself being sucked in.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted.

"Protecting everyone from you!" she yelled as she watched him get sucked into the book as she quickly closed it.

She then pulled the key out and locked the book as she sighed in relief.

"Brooke" her mother said surprised "What's going on? Why did you do that?"

"Remember the guy I told you about that I met in Boston?" Brooke said "That was him."

"What?" they gasped.

"He came here to get revenge on me."

"What for?" her father asked.

"I may of taken something away from him, and also kind of scarred him with magical ink. But he really was working for the Evil Queen, and I had to protect everyone from him, cause he was a threat to all of us."

"Oh Brooke" her mother said "You protected us."

"And now I gotta hide this book somewhere."

"Don't worry" her father said "I know where. Come on."

And with that Brooke followed her parents to a hiding spot to hide the book from the biggest threat.

Inside the mansion, Brooke searched through the secret library looking at all the books hoping to find an answer to where the Illustrator was when Elena and Olivia entered.

"Hey Brooke" Elena said "What are you doing?"

"You would not believe what I just discovered" Brooke said.

"What?"

"Yow know how there's the Author? Well turns out there's also the Illustrator."

"The Illustrator?" they said.

"Who else would of drawn the pictures? The Illustrator is just as important as the Author and the Narrator."

"And you're telling us this because...?" Elena asked.

"Well Meeshell told me that the Illustrator used to work with Wendell before he met me, but being his traitor self, he trapped the Illustrator somewhere and I'm looking for her?"

"Her?"

"Yeah it's a she, and I was thinking that maybe she can help me with Wendell."

"But you have Pandora's Box" Olivia said "Isn't that enough?"

"I know but, I feel like I need an extra hand, especially since the Illustrator and I both have something in common with Wendell. And plus I really want to meet her, I never knew there was an Illustrator and I really want to meet her."

"So what are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to see if I can find something in here that can tell me where she is, but I found nothing."

"Have you looked in your book?" Elena asked as she opened the storybook that was on the table.

"Yes but it doesn't say anything about the Illustrator."

But as Elena flipped through the pages, she suddenly felt something on one page.

"Brooke" she said with a wondering look "Is it me, or does this page feel a bit thick?"

"What?" Brooke said as she went to Elena.

"This page feels thicker than the others" Elena said.

Brooke felt the one page and another page, Elena was right, one page did feel thicker than the other.

"That's weird" she said confused.

"Hey wait a minute" Elena's eyes widen as she looked closer at the thick page "I think I see a little crack, it looks like this page is glued to another page."

"Olivia hand me that letter opener" Brooke said as Olivia handed her the letter opener.

Brooke then slid the opener into the crack between the two pages and began to saw away the glue that held them together. She sawed all the way until she was able to open the pages to reveal a drawing of a door on one side and a blank space on the other.

"Oh my God" Olivia gasped.

"What is this door?" Elena asked.

"I don't know" Brooke said, until a thought came to her "Wait a minute, I think this door is the one the Illustrator is trapped in."

"Really?" Elena said surprised.

"It has to be, why else would it be hidden? We gotta find it."

"Where?" Olivia asked.

"Let's search the mansion, I haven't searched through every room here, maybe the door's here, come on."

So the girls started to search through the mansion, but weren't able to find it. So they gave it up and went to the 'Wonder diner' where they saw Meeshell talking to Danielle.

"Meeshell" Brooke said "We found this drawing in the storybook."

She showed Meeshell the drawing of the door.

"It was glue to another page so we think it's the door the Illustrator is trapped in."

"Wow" Meeshell said amused "I think you could be right."

"Yeah but we looked all over the mansion and we couldn't find it."

"That's because the door isn't there" Danielle said as everyone turned to her.

"Wait what?" Brooke said "How do you know this?"

"I'm fairy, I know everything about our world, even the Illustrator."

She then pointed to the picture.

"And this door" she said "Isn't just an illustration, this is the door, the Illustrator is trapped inside the book."