Country music blared from the truck, and Molly was thankful for the noise since it covered the sounds of her footsteps. Molly hurried, grateful for those years she’d run track, and raced toward the gates. She looked over her shoulder. Bea’s back was turned to her as she headed toward the house.
It was a struggle to stay out of the light cast by the pickup as she sprinted through the gates behind the vehicle. As the gates closed behind her, she dodged across the road and stood in the darkness until the truck had driven out of sight. Across the street, she could see the front doors of the house open and close, and assumed Bea had gone inside.
Aside from the moon hidden behind the clouds, Molly was cloaked in total darkness. Shivers raced up and down her spine, and she would have given anything to be anywhere else in the world. Fishing her phone from her back pocket, she used the flashlight to brighten the path before her. She bolted down the road as fast as she could. According to Dr. Meyer, Owen and his father would be back within the hour. She didn’t want to run into them on the road. They would only catch her and take her back to the house.
Uncertainty made Molly’s heart race. She had no idea where she was or where she was going. How long would it take for her to come upon another house or vehicle? She ran faster and faster, determined to put as much distance between herself and the house as possible. Just then something changed in the atmosphere. The chill in the air was shockingly colder and the wind blew all the trees in the same direction. Molly felt as if she were being chased, and she moved even faster.
Just when Molly thought she could see a light in the distance, something threw her to the ground. She groaned, feeling as though she had collided with a wall. She shone her phone all around her, but there was nothing there. She got up again and tried to run, but the same thing happened. Molly fell to the ground after hitting something that felt like a wall of glass. She knew exactly what it was. The barrier was real.
Frustrated, Molly screamed and banged against it, hoping it would break or that someone on the other side would hear her. She had no such luck. Her luck changed from bad to worse when the headlights from the pickup truck appeared.
Molly scurried off to the side of the road. She needed some time to rethink her options. Did she even have any options? She obviously couldn’t leave the way she wanted to, but she didn’t want to go back to the house. She couldn’t stay out in the woods either.
There was only one option that might get her what she wanted. If she couldn’t physically leave, she had to somehow get Ms. Bea to let her leave. She could convince her that she was an awful choice for the job. Ms. Bea would have to let her go, and then she could find the girls another teacher.
The pickup truck rambled by, slowly playing the same music it had been playing when they’d left. Molly was relieved when the truck passed her, but it stopped a few yards away. Molly took in a deep breath that she held, afraid they might hear her if she breathed. The driver’s side door of the pickup popped open. “Need a ride back?” It wasn’t Owen’s voice. This voice belonged to an older man. She wondered how he had seen her.
She stood frozen in place, saying nothing.
“There’s wild animals around here,” the man added. “Why don’t you go ahead and get in?”
Putting one foot in front of the other, Molly made her way to the pickup. She crossed over to the passenger’s side. The door popped open, and Owen stepped out. “Again? Didn’t I warn you about the barrier?”
Molly scowled at him even though he probably couldn’t make out her expression in the darkness. He sighed and opened the door wider. “Get in. You shouldn’t be out here alone. You never know what’s lurking.”
Molly was angry. Even though Owen wasn’t the one she should be angry with, she was furious. She brushed past him and slid onto the seat. The two men climbed back inside, sandwiching her in the middle. She folded her arms across her chest, very aware that she was pouting like a child. She didn’t care. All she wanted was to go home. As much as her mother may have annoyed her, she would have given anything just to talk to her at that moment.
Owen’s father offered his hand. “Name’s Donald.”
Molly only grunted. She knew she was being rude, but that was the least of her worries. Donald shrugged and took off toward the house. They rode along in silence for a moment until Donald spoke again. “Don’t worry, darling. Everyone goes through this stage. They try to run away a couple of times until they finally realize there’s no way out of this place until the curses are broken.”
Owen laughed. “I will say she takes the record though, Pop. No one has ever tried to escape twice on their first day.”
Donald gave off a hearty laugh. “True, son. They tend to wait at least a few days before they drum up the courage to make a break for it. This one here is pretty brave.”
“I’m glad the two of you find this so amusing,” Molly snapped.
Owen fell silent, but his father spoke. “There, there now. We’re not trying to make light of your predicament. We know this must be a huge shock for you, but we also know that there are many great things about the academy. Just enjoy the luxurious arrangements while all your dreams and desires are catered to. Whatever you want, Bea will get it for you.”
Molly balled her hands into tight fists. “Sure, everything but freedom. The prison may look like a palace, but that doesn’t make it any less of a prison.”
“If you say so,” Owen said as they turned onto the driveway. Once they pulled in front of the house, Molly could make out Ms. Halifax’s thin frame standing before the great doors. Her hands were on her hips, and she tapped her foot irritably.
Donald whistled under his breath. “Uh-oh. Looks like you have to deal with old Mildred. Don’t worry. Her bark is meaner than her bite. She’s not as bad as she would like everyone to think.”
Owen moved to let her out.
“Don’t be too hard on her,” Donald called to Ms. Halifax as Molly stepped out of the pickup. “We were all new once.” Molly couldn’t imagine Ms. Halifax being a new anything.
Ms. Halifax waved his words away. “You just mind your own business, Donald.”
Donald chuckled to himself. “Good night, Mildred.”
Molly approached Ms. Halifax, awaiting her fate as the pickup truck disappeared around the side of the house. If Molly hadn’t been preoccupied with trying to escape, she would have asked them where they went every Monday night.
“Inside,” Ms. Halifax said curtly, turning on her heels. Molly resented the fact that she was making her feel like a little girl even though the woman was old enough to be her grandmother. She followed Ms. Halifax to her bedroom, where she closed the door behind them.
“Hopefully after this stunt you will learn to stay put. You are not going anywhere no matter what you do, so just give it up.”
Molly sat on the edge of her bed. “You can’t just lock people up like this. It’s illegal. This is kidnapping, and just because she’s a fairy, that doesn’t make this okay.”
Ms. Halifax was unmoved. She glared at Molly and shook her head. “I knew you were a mistake. The generation you come from is so selfish. All you think about is me, me, me and what you can get out of something. On top of that, you lack courage. You’re afraid of everything.”
Even though it had only been a day, Molly had had quite enough of Ms. Halifax. “You can’t just lump people all together in one group. You don’t even know me enough to make a statement like that. I’m selfish because I don’t want to be locked away for the rest of my life in some house where the teachers before me have grown old and withered away? I’m selfish because Bea lied to me and got me here under false pretenses? I’m selfish because I’d like to be able to call my family to let them know that I’m okay? I promise you that letter Bea sent is not going to appease my mother.”
Ms. Halifax glared at Molly. “When you leave the gates, you open yourself to great dangers. It’s already been explained to you that you cannot pass the barriers. Ms. Bea would like to meet wi
th you first thing in the morning before breakfast. She will explain everything to you then, and it will make more sense as long as you have an open mind. Get some sleep. You’re going to need it.”
With that Ms. Halifax left Molly alone. Although Molly tried to heed the woman’s advice to get more sleep, she stayed awake all night. It was impossible to shut her mind off knowing she was trapped in a world that was too fantastical to exist.
9
The following morning Molly received a very formal invitation from one of the housekeepers. The invite was printed on very thick, pink paper with beautiful calligraphy. Molly had always been jealous of people who could write so beautifully.
The invitation read:
Dear Molly Dillinger,
You are cordially invited for breakfast with Ms. Bea in her office at 8:00. All your breakfast favorites will be served. Please come with an empty belly. We will dine and answer all the questions you have about Everly Academy. I look forward to seeing you soon.
Headmistress Beatrix
Molly sighed as she made her way to the shower. She knew it was going to be a long morning, but at least her questions would be answered. As the warm water washed over her tired body, she wondered how she was going to convince Bea to let her leave. Somehow Molly was going to have to reason with the woman and get her to understand that she was in no way, shape, or form what those girls needed.
After her shower, Molly slid into a casual red dress and ballet flats. At 7:58 she made her way to Bea’s office. From down the hall came the sounds of the girls gathering for breakfast. In the distance she heard Allison shrieking, and a sadness tugged at her heart.
Molly straightened her dress and knocked on the door. “Come in,” called a cheerful voice from the other side. Just the day before, Molly had thought Bea was so sweet that she couldn’t melt butter, but now she knew better. She entered the office with her defenses up.
A small table had been set up in the middle of the office. The round table was covered with a beautiful cream-colored tablecloth made of lace. Two silver domes sat on the table. Molly took a seat across from Bea.
Bea smiled brightly, but Molly didn’t return the smile. She didn’t take too kindly to people who kept her imprisoned. Bea’s smile faded. “You’re upset with me. You have every right to be.” She gestured toward the covered food. “Why don’t we dig in and I’ll explain everything.”
Molly had been prepared to explain how she wasn’t hungry, but since she’d skipped dinner the night before, she was famished. Aside from that, the food smelled heavenly.
Molly removed the dome to reveal heart-shaped pancakes, sausage links, and strawberries. Without any hesitation, she picked up her silverware and dug in. Bea watched her eat hungrily while she took dainty little bites. The pancakes were the best Molly had ever tasted, even better than her grandmother’s. They were light and fluffy and melted in her mouth.
“The food is wonderful here,” Bea said as Molly scarfed down her last sausage link. “Whatever you want to eat, no matter what time of day—”
“Stop it,” Molly snapped. “You can’t use that to make me feel better about being kept captive here. I demand you let me go immediately.”
Bea took a sip of her coffee, watching Molly over the brim of her mug. “I can’t do that. I know the way I got you here was wrong, and I’m sorry for that, but I will do anything for my girls. They need you. We need you.”
Molly wiped the corners of her mouth with her napkin. “Need me to do what? I don’t know how to break curses. I’m not a witch. I’m not a fairy.”
Bea nodded. “I know. But you are what they need. I haven’t had a chance to explain everything to you. That’s because there’s a lot to take in. There are two ways the girls can break their curses. One way is hidden in various fairy tales. We’ve been combing them like crazy, but we still haven’t come up with anything. We need someone new to take a look at them. Someone who is new to this, who has a different way of thinking. Someone who knows the fairy tales forwards and backwards. Ms. Dillinger, I don’t need you to teach these girls math or literature, or science—they know everything there is to know. I need you to break the fairy tales down and look for clues that may help them. Then there’s another way to break their curse. The way we’re trying to avoid.”
Molly felt even more overwhelmed than she had before, and she’d thought that was impossible. “What’s the other way?”
“When the witches cursed the children, I cast a spell to soften the blow. I made sure the witches would never be able to kill them. That only made the witches angrier, so they added an addendum to the curse. Anyone who had fallen under their curse who kills another cursed person would automatically get an elixir to set themselves free.”
Molly’s full stomach churned, and she wished she hadn’t eaten so much so quickly. “You mean any of these girls could break their curse and be free by killing another girl?”
“Yes.”
“B—but the girls wouldn’t do that, would they?”
“Isleen is capable of anything. As for the others, there was a time when I would have said no way, but the closer we get to time running out, the more fearful I am. You never know what a person will do in a time of desperation when their life is at stake. We must keep that from happening. I can’t have them turning on each other.”
Molly sat back in her seat. “When does their time run out?”
“On the one hundredth blood moon. Since the curse was cast, there’s been ninety-nine. We’ve been studying the stars and the moons and the patterns. The next one could happen anywhere between now and three months.”
“Okay,” Molly said. “So, we need to study fairy tales and find the clues on how to break the curses, and we need to do that ASAP because no one knows for sure when the next blood moon could be.”
“Exactly. And the sooner the curses are broken, the sooner you can leave. The sooner we all can leave.”
Molly had in no way, shape, or form accepted the fate that was being forced upon her, but she was very aware of what she was going to have to do. She had to play the game while planning her great escape. In the meanwhile, she’d try to help the girls as best she could, but there was no way she was staying there. “Okay,” Molly said. “I’ll do the best I can, but I can’t make any promises.”
After breakfast with Bea, Molly headed down to the great study to meet the girls. She knew she was going to have to explain why she’d tried to escape once again.
The familiar murmur of girls chattering came from the other side of the door. Molly felt queasy, but she clenched her teeth and made her entrance. The room fell silent. The girls were in their usual comfortable positions, staring at her. Allison seemed much calmer than she had the day before. “Did she tell you? Everything?” Isleen asked.
Molly took her seat. “Yes.”
Isleen stood and folded her arms over her chest. “Good. Now let me tell you the real truth. There are five elixirs left, clearly not enough for everyone. There are five princesses here—you do the math. Bea is a fairy sworn to protect royalty, not them.” She threw a disdainful glance at Jolie and Scarlett.
Scarlett narrowed her eyes. “Izzy, don’t start that again. No one feels that way but you. Ms. Bea tells us all the time that no one is more deserving of an elixir over anyone else.”
Isleen turned to Lily and Marina. “I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. You guys, help me out and stop trying to be so nice. Marina, your father is the king of the entire freaking ocean! Don’t you think you should get precedence over a filthy bear or some poor girl who stumbled upon a witch’s house in the woods? Her father was a lowly woodcutter, for crying out loud.”
Gretchen leapt to her feet. “Shut your mouth right now! Don’t you ever speak ill of my father again! That tiara on your head means nothing to us. You are so entitled.”
Molly held up her hands. “Girls, let’s calm down.” She knew exactly what Bea was talking about, and Isleen was indeed going to be a problem. “We
won’t have to worry about the elixirs if we can find the clues in the stories.”
Everyone groaned. Dru tugged at her dark curls. “But Ms. Dillinger, we’ve been doing that for ages. We always think we’ve found something and then we hit a dead end.”
“Yes,” Oriana agreed. “If I have to look at another blasted fairy tale, I fear my eyes will bleed.”
Molly echoed Bea’s words. “But I’m here now. Maybe I can find something you guys haven’t seen yet.”
“Maybe. Or you’ll run away again . . .” Isleen said bitterly.
Molly didn’t want to promise the girls she wouldn’t try to get away again because it was already a given, so she ignored the comment. Standing and turning behind her, she examined the wall of books. Ceiling to floor, taking up an entire wall, the giant shelf was covered with books. It even had one of those sliding ladders librarians used to climb to reach books that were up too high. “Where did you all leave off?”
Oriana stood beside her, examining the books. “On that shelf are multiple copies of all the fairy tales, Grimms’, Hans Christian Andersen, etcetera. There’s also books about geography and astronomy. Bea updates them all the time for us so they’re current. We’ve been through all our fairy tales with a fine-tooth comb, but we haven’t been able to find anything we need. We left off on Allison’s. Alice in Wonderland is a very intricate story, and it’s been hard, seeing as though Allison can’t tell us much of anything.”
Molly looked back at the girl sitting on the floor staring vacantly at the ceiling. She nodded and stepped forward. She ran her index finger over the spines of the books on one shelf until she found a thick book titled Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
Molly remembered doing a report on the author and the story on Storybook Day when she was in the fifth grade. She’d dressed up as Alice. Back then she had the hair for it. Her mother had made her a blue-and-white dress and brought her a new pair of black baby-doll shoes. “Lewis Carroll is the pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson,” she said to herself. “The original title was Alice’s Adventures Through Wonderland, which was later shortened to Alice in Wonderland in 1865.” Molly remembered the hours she spent memorizing the facts written on her index cards.
Everly Academy Page 8
