Elizabeth flew out of the portal and landed in the middle of a forest. She stood up and brushed herself off. She stood right outside of a cave, she didn't know what type of horrifying creatures could be living there so she passed it, and kept on walking. She soon came across a weird tree that had a curved trunk and curved branches.
"Maybe this tree will work?" Elizabeth said. Her phone soon rang, it was her ex husband Ben. She sighed and sat against the tree and answered the call.
"Elizabeth, where are you?" Ben asked.
"I'm with my Dad."
"Did you take Charlie?"
"Of course I did."
"Elizabeth why didn't you tell me?!" Ben yelled.
"Ben you moved out, I have custody over Charlie. I can do whatever I want. I don't have to tell you everything, you have no control over me!" Elizabeth yelled back.
"Elizabeth, I had to call the police."
"Ben why did you do that?"
"I went to surprise Charlie at school, and they said that she wasn't there. I went to your house, you weren't there. I called you, I've texted you. It's been days! Why haven't you answered?"
"I've been busy. I'm sorry I haven't."
"Elizabeth, this is it. I want custody of Charlie. I don't believe your a fit mother. You can't take Charlie out of school for days without an excuse, you don't bother to tell me when you want to take her away, and lastly you don't have a job." Ben said. "You haven't had a job since our divorce."
"Ben please...Charlie is all I have." Elizabeth said wiping away her tears.
"Once you get your life together, you'll be able to see her. Bring her home now Elizabeth." Ben said and hung up the phone. Elizabeth sat against the tree and just cried. Charlie was all she had, and was the only good thing to come out of her relationship with Ben. She sometimes even wishes that she hadn't even met Ben. Every since they met he was always so controlling over her.
Elizabeth's Flashback
It was the middle of her senior year of High School and Elizabeth was walking out of her high school to go home.
"Hey you!" Someone yelled from behind her. Elizabeth stopped in her tracks and turned around. The person who yelled at her came running down the hall and stopped in front of her. He was very attractive and had brown messy hair, and olive skin.
"Can I help you?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, are you Elizabeth Bailey?"
"Yes, and you are?"
"I'm Ben Black. I'm captain of the wrestling team." He said. "I was wondering if you could help me."
"Oh yes I saw your wrestling match the other day with my friends. What do you need?"
"I need help with my homework. I'm not that good at math, I was wondering if maybe we could get together sometime and you could help me?" Ben asked.
"Of course, you can come over to my house now and we can get started." Elizabeth said.
"Thanks a lot. Your a life saver."
Ben and Elizabeth walked outside to Elizabeth's car. In the passenger seat was Matthew on his phone, and Carrie was in the back seat reading her fathers newest book. Ben opened the passenger door, and Elizabeth sat in the drivers seat.
"Who are you?" Matthew said looking up from his phone.
"I'm Ben, sit in the back." Ben demanded.
"You don't tell me what to do." Matthew said. "Lizzie who is this?"
"This is Ben, I'm tutoring him, sit in the back Matt."
Matthew groaned and rolled his eyes. He got out of the car and sat next to Carrie in the middle seat. Ben sat in the passenger seat and Elizabeth started the car. Just then a young girl about Carries age knocked on the back seat window. It was Carries friend Zoey. Zoey had dark skin, curly brown hair, and brown eyes. She wore a dark purple blouse and a pair of dark blue jeans and a pair of white sneakers. Carrie rolled down her window.
"Carrie, is that your dads new book?" Zoey asked excitedly.
"Yes it is!" Carrie said excitedly. "But I can't tell you anything about it."
"Ugh! Why? It doesn't come out until July!"
"I'm just reading to see if it's good...and it is!" Carrie said with the biggest smile.
"Oh my God, I can't wait to read it! Just tell me...do Alec and Brandy get together? I love Connie and King Arthur's relationship, but I need more on Alec and Brandy's relationship."
"Me too. They're my favorite couple, even if they aren't official yet." Carrie said. "Want to come to my house and tell my dad? Maybe he'll listen to both of us. Maybe he'll add more, because I mean they're talking in this book, but they're not talking talking. You know?"
"Oh I know, and I would love to come!"
"Are you getting in? Because I have homework to do." Ben said in an annoyed tone.
"Fine, dude." Zoey said with an eye roll. "Matthew, can I sit in the middle please?"
"Yes, because you said please." Matthew said and looked at Ben with an annoyed look.
"Guys, we have to go." Elizabeth said. "Zoey come on in."
Zoey climbed into the car in the middle seat, and Elizabeth drove the car to their house.
At the Bailey house, Bree and Conner were in the kitchen toasting with glasses of wine.
"Here's to you, and your golden globe nominations." Bree said and smiled.
"Thank you." Conner said and smiled at his wife. They clinked their glasses and took a sip.
"I'm so proud of you." Bree said and smiled at her husband.
"What if I don't win?"
"I'm sure you'll win. You made an amazing movie. It's the best book to movie movie I've ever seen, and you know I'm telling you the truth. I never lie, and if you don't, they'll be other awards." Bree said and took another sip of her wine.
"Thank you for helping me with this. If I win, this is yours as well. You helped me through this process." Conner said. "We're a team. Forever and always."
"I love you Conner Bailey."
"I love you too, Bree Bailey." Conner said and kissed her. Soon their kids and their friends came in and found Conner and Bree kissing.
Elizabeth cleared her throat loudly. "Um, Mom, Dad." Bree and Conner looked at their kids, and immediately stopped kissing.
"Hi kids, and Zoey. Who are you?" Bree said and pointed to Ben.
"I'm Ben. Your daughters tutoring me in math." He said as they walked over to them.
"Oh, well it's nice to meet you." Bree said, "You guys can study in the study room upstairs."
"Thanks mom." Elizabeth said and led Ben upstairs.
"Congratulations Mr. Bailey! I read about your nominations during lunch." Zoey said and sat on one of bar stools in-front of the kitchen island, and Carrie sat next to her.
"Thank you Zoey." Conner said.
"Now let's talk about your books relationships." Zoey said excitedly.
"While you do that I'll be upstairs in my room." Matthew said and walked upstairs, walked into his room and closed the door behind him.
In the study room there was three desks. One for Carrie, one for Matthew and one for Elizabeth. There was also a couch and a coffee table in front of it. A fridge full of water and juice and shelves full of healthy snacks. Ben and Elizabeth were on the couch getting their books out of their bags.
"So your doing Statistics?" Elizabeth asked holding the homework in her hands.
"Yeah, and it's so confusing."
"It's not as bad as calculus." Elizabeth said and smiled at him. "I can help you with this though."
"Thank you, your a life saver."
Elizabeth put her hair behind her ear and almost started to blush.
"You know your really cute." Ben said.
Now Elizabeth really started to blush and she bit the corner of her lip.
"Really?" Elizabeth said and smiled.
"Yeah, your eyes are this amazing blue color. You just get lost in them." Ben said and smiled at her. He then spontaneously kissed her on the lips. Elizabeth was shocked. She had never been kissed before and she really liked it. The kiss lasted a few seconds.
"Wow." Elizabeth said breathlessly.
"Hey I have to go, can you do that then give it to me tomorrow?" Ben said and grabbed his backpack.
"Sure." Elizabeth said still in a trance.
"Great, I'll see you tomorrow." Ben said and kissed her on the cheek and left the room.
Downstairs, Zoey and Carrie were obsessing over the book.
"Well, I think you should add more Brandy and Alec moments. I need them together Mr. Bailey!" Zoey said.
"I agree Dad. I think the book would be way better with it. All they do is talk in this one, but we want them talking talking. We think they're the best couple in the series." Carrie said.
Bree and Conner looked at each other and smiled, then looked back at the kids.
"I'll see what I can do." Conner said and took the book from Carrie. "Besides the talking talking issue, was it good Carrie?"
"It was amazing. Your best yet! You should make that one into a movie, you'd win an Oscar for sure." Carrie said. Ben then came down the stairs and walked to the front door.
"That was a short study session." Bree said and walked over to Ben.
"Yeah, my mom said I have to go home and help with chores." Ben lied. "It was nice meeting you guys."
"Bye Ben." Bree said and led Ben to the door and closed the door behind him.
She thought to herself, something about him wasn't right. Her mom instincts were telling her that she shouldn't trust him. So she went straight upstairs to the study room. We walked inside and found Elizabeth at her desk doing Bens homework.
"That was short study session." Bree said. Elizabeth turned around in her chair to face her mom.
"Yeah, he had to leave." Elizabeth said.
"Yeah, I noticed. Who's homework are you doing?" Bree said and walked up to her daughter.
"Ben's. Mom I know what it looks like. But he didn't know how to do it, so I'm doing it for him." Elizabeth said.
"Elizabeth he's using you. You do notice that right?" Bree said and pulled up a chair and sat next to her.
"No I'm helping him. Mom I know what I'm doing. Can you please leave, I have a lot of work to do." Elizabeth said and went back to doing her work.
"Ok, but if you need anything or need to talk, you can always come to me." Bree said. "Ok."
"Ok." Elizabeth replied not looking at her mom.
Bree's mom instincts were right not to trust him. The two started dating not long after that, and Elizabeth doing Ben's homework didn't stop. Elizabeth was so in love with Ben she would do anything just to be with him. Even sneak out to a high school party in the middle of the night (that Ben forced her to go to). Bree and Conner tried to make them break them up, but couldn't. When the school year was almost through Ben started cheating on Elizabeth. She was heart broken, but went back to Ben anyways, but they soon broke up because a long distance relationship wouldn't work during college.
They soon got back together once they were finished with college and moved in together. Ben forced Elizabeth to stay home and clean the house, and not get a job. Bree was against Elizabeth listening to him, and she hated that her daughter wasn't sticking up for herself. So Bree took matters into her own hands and forced her daughter to move back home. Elizabeth got a job painting for a design company, something that she loved to do and went to school for, and she soon got her own apartment. Bree and Conner were so proud of her, but it didn't last long. Ben got a job at a Law Firm, and convinced Elizabeth to take him back and to marry him. They soon planned a wedding, and a few years later they had Charlie. Elizabeth's motherly instincts soon kicked in and didn't agree with the way that Ben was treating them, so that's when their relationship ended with divorce.
Present Time
Elizabeth sat and cried and cried until a man about her age walked up next to her.
"Hey are you ok?" He said and sat right across from her.
"I'm, I'm fine." Elizabeth said and looked up. The man had dark blonde hair and dark brown eyes. He wore a red royal guards outfit, and black shoes.
"You don't seem fine." He said.
"Who are you?"
"I'm a royal guard in the Corner Kingdom. I was patrolling the area when I heard you crying." He said. "Are you ok? Did something hurt you?"
"No, well my ex husband did. But I won't explain the long and boring story to you." Elizabeth said while wiping her tears away and they both stood up. "Actually can you help me?"
"Sure what do you need?"
"Can you tell me how old this tree is?"
"This tree has been here every since my father was a boy." The man said. "It's pretty old, and clearly a very unique tree."
"I know it's a weird request but I need a branch from it."
"Why do you need that? Are you a fairy or a witch?"
"Well, it's a long story, but I'm not from here. This time or this world. I need the branch for a spell my aunt is making to help this world."
"So your a fairy. Only fairy's help this world. Plus your way to beautiful to be one of those witches." The man said and smiled. Elizabeth smiled him, appreciating the compliment.
"Thank you, but I just got out of a really bad relationship, and I'm not even from here."
"No I didn't mean it like that. I just did as well and I'm not ready to date anytime soon. So, are you from the Otherworld?" The man asked.
"Yes."
"I've always wanted to go there, I've heard stories and it sounds amazing."
"It is, and I'm kind of in a rush, so can I please get the branch?"
"Anything to help this world." The man said. He took out his sword and cut off a tiny branch from the tree and gave it to Elizabeth.
"Thank you so much." Elizabeth said and put it in her backpack.
"Where are you going now?"
"My next stop is the Otherworld I think, then home. I have to get one more thing." Elizabeth said.
"I'll come with you."
"No, I think I'll be fine."
"You said something was going on, you could use a royal guard with you."
Elizabeth's instincts were telling her that she and the others might need him to help fight, plus there was something about him that made her feel something. Something she hadn't felt in a long time. Could it be love? She didn't know.
"Ok, but after I'm going to have to bring you back." She said.
"Deal. Oh and by the way my name is Nathaniel."
"My name is Elizabeth."
"So where to next Elizabeth?" Nathaniel asked.
"I know it's weird, but I need to get a pen from an author."