Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 13)

Ch.9 Rising suspicion

After Brooke left the house with the Golden Gorilla, Terrence went over to the 'Wonder diner' where he spotted his sister Darling sitting at an outside table on her phone. Ever since he noticed Brooke's sudden eye change, he needed to tell someone about it, someone he knew would believe him.

"Hey sis" he greeted while walking up to her.

"Oh hey Terrence" she greeted back in a smile "Please join me."

He took a seat in the chair in front of her as she set her phone down.

"So Aidan just texted me saying that Elena and Olivia got the Golden Gorilla" she began "So we finally have all the items we need to break the curse?"

"It appears so" he gave a small smile when it quickly faded "Although there's one thing I wanted to talk to you about, when Brooke came over to see the Golden Gorilla, I noticed she acted kinda strange, I don't know how to explain it but, she seemed to be really focused on the Golden Gorilla, it's like she didn't take her eyes off of it. But not only that, when she was heading towards the door, I could of sworn I saw a flash of yellow in her eyes."

Her face lit up by the sound of that.

"Now I don't know if my mind was playing tricks on me, but I'm pretty sure I saw yellow in her eyes. And those eyes seemed really familiar to me, not good familiar, bad familiar."

"Whoa" she remarked "That is strange, and yellow eyes do sound kind of familiar."

"Darling-" he said a bit nervously "I'm starting to think something's up, and I don't know if we should trust Brooke with the Golden Gorilla, and the other items. I don't know what's going on with her but, I'm not liking it."

"Did you tell everyone yet?"

"No, I don't even know if they'll believe me. I could be wrong though, but I'm not sure."

"Well do you know where Brooke is now?"

"Well she said that she was going to keep the Golden Gorilla safe until further notice, but I don't know where she keeps the other items, or if that's what she's really doing."

"You guys talking about Brooke?" they turned to see Danny and Delilah heading towards them.

"We are" Terrence answered.

"Did you notice her behavior by any chance?" Danny asked "Did she seem strange at all?"

"Yeah why?"

"When we saw her, she was acting really weird" Delilah explained "At first she was looking around as if she's never seen Storybrooke before, and not only that, when we talked to her, she literally said 'Yes, I am Brooke'."

"What?" the siblings questioned confused.

"I know, it's so weird."

"You think that's weird?" Terrence put in "Just as Brooke was about to leave the house after getting the Golden Gorilla, I could of sworn I saw a flash of yellow in her eyes."

"What?" they gasped.

"Now I don't know if I was just seeing things, but I'm pretty sure I saw yellow in her eyes, and they seemed really familiar to me."

"Yellow eyes?" Danny began to think "Where have I heard of that before?"

"Wait you said she has the Golden Gorilla?" Delilah asked Terrence.

"Yeah, she said she was going to keep it safe."

Danny and Delilah gave each other looks, looks that Terrence and Darling knew wasn't good.

"We gotta go" Danny announced to them "Let us know if anything happens."

After they headed off, Terrence and Darling sat there wondering what was going on.

"Should we be worried?" he asked.

"Not at the moment, let's just see what happens."

________

As soon as Danny and Delilah arrived at Brooke's house, they looked around to see if they could find her, but no sign. Having no other choice, they went up to the front door and knocked.

"What creature has yellow eyes?" Danny wondered as they waited.

"It could be anything" Delilah shrugged.

"Well whatever it is, I'm not liking it, and we need to know what's going on."

All of a sudden they heard footsteps from behind as they turned around to see Brooke who was still holding onto the Golden Gorilla.

"Uh, hey Brooke" Danny greeted with a fake smile "We were just looking for you."

"And we see you have the Golden Gorilla" Delilah pointed out.

Brooke didn't say anything as she just stared at them.

"Hey um-" Danny began as they slowly made their way towards her "Can I have a look at that?"

But as he reached his hands towards the Golden Gorilla, Brooke gave a small hiss while taking a step back. And at that moment, they both knew something was definitely wrong.

"Okay that is so not Brooke" Delilah whispered to him.

"I am Brooke" Brooke suddenly spoke.

"No you're not" Delilah declared "Brooke would never hiss at us and keep something important away from us. Where is Brooke?"

"Somewhere dark" a female voice suddenly spoke as they turned around to see Lydia and Noah.

They were both dressed in modern clothing, and neither Danny and Delilah recognized them.

"Um, who are you?" Danny questioned.

"I'm Noah" Noah greeted "And this is my sister who I assume you two know."

They turned to Lydia who gave them a small smirk and a look that answered their question.

"You're Lydia aren't you?" Delilah remarked in shock.

"Looks like you two do know about me" Lydia sneered.

"Where's Brooke?" Danny demanded as he pointed to the other Brooke "Because I know she's not the real one."

"Like I said, she's somewhere dark."

"Where?" he growled while feeling his blood boil.

"Even if I tell you, you can't get her back, where she is is impossible to get to."

"Tell me where she is now!" he snapped.

"Or you'll what?" she doubted in a smirk "Use your magic on me? Go ahead, I dare you, but we both know you're not as powerful as me. Heck I'm more powerful than anyone in this town. And soon everything and everyone in this town will be gone just like that."

"You can try all you want" Delilah scowled "But everyone will fight back to take you down."

"They can try all they want, I do love a good challenge. But unfortunately, I can't have you two spill the beans about me to everyone."

And with that she waved her hand up as Danny and Delilah collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"They wanna see Brooke again?" Lydia sneered "I can make it happen."