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

Ch.76 Bandit princess

(Flashback) In Boston, inside of an apartment, Wendell was reading a book when he heard a knock at the door, he opened it to see Delilah.

"Hey" they both smiled as they went into a kiss.

"So do you have it?" he asked.

"Yep" she said as she came into the room "Right here."

She pulled out the storybook and placed it on the table and opened it to a page with a drawing of a door.

"So why did you want me to draw this door?" she asked "And why didn't you want me to make it real?"

"It's because I was thinking we should add a new story to the book" Wendell said.

"A new story?" she said surprised "Can we do that?"

"I'm sure we can. I mean it's not like we're changing anything."

"Oh that's true. So what's the new story about?"

"It's about a girl who gets trapped in this mysterious door where there's nothing. And a group of friends go on this journey to find her."

"Wow" Delilah said amused as she looked at the door drawing "Sound original, so who's this girl?"

"Why?" Wendell smirked as he picked up his notebook and magic quill "You of course."

"Wait what?" she said as he started to write in his notebook.

And at that point Delilah felt herself being sucked into the door. Now gone, Wendell gave a sneaky smile as he looked at the door drawing.

"Sorry Delilah" he smirked "But it's over."

After that Wendell glued the door page to another page and then got in his car and drove off. But as he drove down an empty road in the woods, Merlin suddenly appeared in front of him as he was forced to stop. Merlin motioned him to get out as Wendell gave a sigh before stepping out of his car.

"Hello Merlin" he said with a fake smile "Nice day huh?"

"How dare you?" Merlin frowned "How dare you change the story?"

"You really do know everything huh? Well, I only did that because it makes for a better story, I mean think about it, it's boring, it needed something different."

"Where is Delilah?"

"Somewhere where you'll never find her" Wendell smirked.

"Return the quill" Merlin ordered "You are no longer suited for this job, you have abused all the rules and lied. And for that, you will be sent back home."

"What?" Wendell gasped "No! Anything but home!"

"Sorry Wendell, but you must be punished."

And with that Merlin used his powers to send Wendell home as the magic quill fell onto the road.

As Brooke and Delilah headed through the woods, they soon came upon what appeared to be a hideout in a tree.

"Are we where I think we are?" Brooke asked.

"Yeah" Delilah said "We're at Apple's hideout."

"Is she here?"

Delilah stuck her head into the hideout.

"Hello?" she called, no answer.

"What are you doing?" a voice asked as they turned around to see Apple who was dressed like a bandit girl.

"Apple?" Brooke gasped.

"How do you know my name?" Apple asked.

"It's a long story. But we need your help."

"What do you need my help for?"

"Well, this is going to sound crazy, but we're in a story and we need your help to get out of it."

"...What?" Apple said confused.

"I think I should explain" Delilah suggested "Apple, everyone here in actually trapped in a storybook called 'Heroes and Villains', it was written by my ex boyfriend who I really want to kick his ass right now. And the thing is, everyone here is not who they really are, like you are not really a bandit girl, you're a princess and the daughter of Snow White."

"I was a princess, that is until the Queen took my family away and I was forced to live here in the woods, I have to steal my own food and my face is on a Wanted poster, the Merry Men were suppose to be on Wanted posters, but not anymore cause the Queen had them executed!"

"Damn this Queen is really ruining everyone's life" Brooke said.

"Why else is she called the Evil Queen?"

"Wait the Evil Queen is ruling this place?" Brooke said surprised.

"Well actually everyone now calls her Queen Mira, she made herself young so she can rule. She is just horrible."

"Tell me about it" Delilah agreed.

"And look" Apple said "I'd love to help, but I don't know what I can do."

"We need your help to find my ex boyfriend, the Author of this story, he's the only one who can send us back."

"Uh, Delilah" Brooke said with a worried look "There's something you need to know. Wendell isn't the Author anymore."

"What?" Delilah gasped.

"Since he broke all the rules, the quill doesn't have magic anymore unless it finds it's new Author."

"So we can't get out of here until we find a new Author?" Delilah gasped "That can take forever, and this story is gonna be over by sundown, we'll never make it."

"I know" Brooke sighed with disappointment "If we had Raven right now she can use her magic to help us. But I read in the story that she's gone."

"Well, not exactly" Apple confessed with a guilty look.

"What do you mean? Isn't Raven Queen dead because you let her down and that's like the main reason Mira is ruling?"

"No" Apple sighed "The truth is, Raven's still alive."

"What?" she gasped.

"What happened was when the Evil Queen started taking over, Raven tried to go against her, but when she did, she felt this dark magic take over her, and because of it she destroyed a town and killed some people."

Delilah and Brooke stood there with shock.

"Raven couldn't control herself until I managed to get the dark magic out of her" Apple continued "But she was afraid that it'll happen again, so she decided to hide while I told everyone that she was dead."

"Why would you do that?" Brooke asked.

"Because I needed to protect her" Apple said as she started to feel her eyes water "She doesn't want anyone to find her, even me, we haven't spoken to each other in years."

"Have you even tried looking for her?"

"I already know where she is, she's on an island in an abandoned tower, but even if I wanted to see her I can't because I don't have a boat."

"Well we gotta find her" Delilah said "She can be our only hope to getting out of this place. And we need to hurry before sunset, because I read the epilogue of this story-".

"There's an epilogue?" Brooke gasped.

"Anyway, it says that in the squeal, the savior turns evil, so that means Raven turns evil."