by Liz Dejesus
“Shh, calm down,” Bianca said and then gently patted Ming’s hand.
“What was that?” Ming whispered.
“I don’t know. But whatever it is, it can’t get inside. The wards my mom put in place should keep them away.”
“What do we do?”
“Call my mom and tell her to come to the museum,” Bianca instructed. The best thing she could do was give Ming something simple to do to keep her from having a panic attack or a nervous breakdown. She wasn’t sure which one was worse.
“Okay, okay,” Ming whispered between pants. Her hands trembled as she pulled her cellphone out of her purse and dialed Rose’s number.
“Hello? Rose? It’s Ming. Bianca and I heard something.” Ming nodded and said “uh-uh” several times. “No, tell Ferdinand to stay put. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
“So?”
“She said she’d be here soon.”
“Nothing else?”
“Well…Ferdinand wanted to come too, but I’d rather he stay at your house. He’ll be safer there.”
Bianca tried not to smirk. That was proof enough that Ming did have feelings for the prince.
“Damn it. Is she coming alone?”
“No, she’s bringing Terrance with her. Your dad is staying with Ferdinand.”
“Okay.”
“So, what now?”
“You stay here. I’m gonna go and take a look. Hopefully, I’ll see something.”
“Oh no. I’m not staying alone.”
Together, they duckwalked to the gift shop window. There were broken shards of glass everywhere. Bianca spotted a large rock in the middle of the gift shop. The witches were testing the defenses. The wards would keep magic out, but they could still break the glass.
Bianca used the little rug that rested in front of the cash register and quietly placed it over the broken glass. They crawled underneath the broken window and took a peek outside. Ming gasped and was about to scream, but Bianca acted quickly and covered her friend’s mouth. She put her index finger to her lips and gently shushed her. Ming nodded, but her eyes were wide, almost as though somehow, somewhere in her head, she was unleashing the scream Bianca had silenced. Reluctantly, Bianca let go of Ming and took another look out the window.
“Oh my God,” Bianca whispered.
Now I understand why Ming wanted to scream.
All around the perimeter of the museum, where the invisible wall lay, there were hundreds of snakes. All of them trying to slither their way past the wards. It looked as though the snakes were pushing themselves against it. Luckily for them, the snakes couldn’t make it through. With every ripple, the snakes managed to push themselves a little closer to the museum. Some of them had managed to get their snouts through the ward. One of them bared its fangs and attacked the wall of energy.
Bianca looked past the multitude of reptiles. Elda was close by; there was no other explanation. She wondered what hateful words the witch was saying in order to get the poisonous snakes to come out of her filthy mouth. Then she spotted her. Elda was across the street, underneath a busted streetlamp, with Blair, the third witch whose name Bianca never learned, and Rebekah standing beside her.
Ming covered her ears and hid under the window, as if that would somehow keep her safe from harm. “What do we do? What do we do?” she hissed.
Crap, that’s a good question. There is no way Mom can tackle all of that on her own.
“Let me think…” She let out a small gasp. Apple seeds. “I wonder…”
“What? You wonder what?” Ming cried.
Bianca ran to her purse and pulled out the red velvet sack. She reached in and pulled out a seed. She was hoping that sheer dumb luck would lead the way this time around. When she opened her hand, what she held was a ruby red apple seed.
“Red, it is,” Bianca muttered.
“What are you doing?”
“You want the lie or the truth?”
“Ummm…truth?”
“I have no freakin’ clue.”
“Oh God, help us.”
Bianca carefully cracked the seed open, and a tiny teardrop of blood landed on the palm of her hand. The blood shimmered and danced until it stretched and pulled.
“What is happening?” Ming asked.
“The lie or the truth?”
“Lie.”
“Magic.”
“Cool. Truth is, you have no idea what you’re doing, right?” Ming said.
“Correct again.”
“Figures.”
The drop of blood pulsated to life. First veins appeared, quickly followed by tendons and muscles. A tiny beating heart, then skin, hair, and a white empire dress…until there was a woman the size of a Barbie doll standing on the palm of Bianca’s hand.
“Holy crap,” Bianca whispered.
The woman looked exactly like Snow White. Just as she remembered her. Jet black hair, pale skin, bright blue eyes, and perfect red lips.
“Is that…?” Ming pointed.
“Yep.”
“Snow White?”
“Snow White,” Bianca echoed with an affirmative nod.
“This is twenty different kinds of crazy, B.”
“I know.”
“Remind me to list them to you one of these days.”
“Okey dokey.”
Mini Snow White looked around and asked Bianca, “What will you have of me?”
Bianca thought it was odd that she should give orders to her, but stranger things had happened. “There are snakes trying to breach our ward. There’s too many of them for me to take care of. Can you help?”
“I can assist you, but it comes at a price.”
Bianca’s heart skipped a beat. “What kind of price?”
“An hour of your life.”
“What do you mean?” Bianca frowned.
“Magic comes at a price. Always has, always will.”
Bianca looked out the window. An hour of her life in order to save the museum and everything her family held dear. It was worth the risk.
“Let me get this straight… Every time I use one of these seeds, it takes away an hour of my life?”
“That is correct.”
One tiny detail that wasn’t mentioned in Snow White’s journal, but it was a price she was willing to pay.
“Fine. What do I have to do?”
Mini Snow White cupped her tiny hands and said, “Breathe.”
Bianca took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She watched with amazement as the air around her swirled and shimmered into a little ball of light. The number one appeared for a moment, and, with a flash, it went into Snow White’s miniature doppelganger’s cupped hands.
“Whoa,” Ming whispered.
“Yeah…that was crazy,” Bianca said.
“The price has been paid. I will gladly assist you.” Mini Snow smiled sweetly.
Mini Snow White climbed out the broken window and walked confidently across the lawn toward the multitude of snakes. The boldness she exuded made Bianca forget that she was only twelve inches tall. Mini Snow suddenly burst into flames, and every snake she touched turned into an Sshaped pile of ashes.
“What the what?” Ming shrieked.
“That. Was. Awesome!” Bianca shouted. “I wanna learn how to do that.”
Mini Snow White then turned her attention to the museum’s ward. She placed a pale hand on the invisible wall and turned it into a bright blood-orange half sphere of fire. Every reptile that had been trying to get through immediately burst into flames. Painful hisses and shrieks that filled the air. Luckily, the museum wasn’t in a highly populated area. Otherwise, the neighbors would surely complain about the noise. In the distance, Bianca saw four shadows vanish into the darkness.
I guess they didn’t see that coming.
By the time her mother and Terrance arrived, almost all of the snakes had been vanquished and the ward returned to its invisible state. Rose pulled into the museum parking lot in her old, navy Chevy Cavalier. Her jaw dropped.
Everywhere her eyes fell, there were ashes and fried snakeskin. Terrance struggled with the car door and finally managed to get out of the vehicle. He scanned the parking lot in search of Bianca. She could see the worried look on his face. He visibly relaxed when he locked eyes with her.
Bianca waved at her mother from the broken window. “Mom!” she cried.
Rose searched for her daughter, and once their eyes met across the parking lot, Bianca saw the relief in her mother’s eyes as well.
“What did you do?” her mom asked as soon as she rushed into the museum.
“I used one of the seeds,” Bianca replied sheepishly.
“Really?”
“I panicked! Can you blame me?” Bianca waved her arms toward the now-dead snakes. “Seriously, Mom. We were surrounded.”
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Bianca nodded.
“Stay where you are. I’m gonna look around. And I mean it. Stay. Where. You. Are.”
“Staying here. Gotcha.” Bianca gave her two thumbs up to let her know she’d received the message loud and clear.
Rose turned her attention to Terrance and asked,” Do you smell anything?”
He stopped and took a long deep breath. His nose wrinkled, and he walked a few steps until he stopped at the broken street lamp, but then, as if he were following the ghost of Elda’s scent, his eyes traveled to the forest.
“They were all here. Watching. They left minutes before our arrival. They’re long gone by now. But I have a feeling they’ll return,” he said.
“What’s going on?” Ming asked.
“Terrance is trying to sniff out which way they went.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot he’s part wolf.”
“Yep.”
“I hope your babies aren’t born with tails,” Ming teased.
“Even if they are born with tails, they’ll be the most beautiful babies in the world because they’ll be Terrance’s and mine.”
Ming rolled her eyes and let out a long exasperated sigh.
Rose hurried into the gift shop.
“Start from the beginning,” her mother said.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Rose sat down on the counter and said, “Try me.”
Bianca did the best she could to explain everything that happened.
“Where’s Terrance?” Bianca asked when she’d finished.
“Outside, looking for more clues. Killing any snakes that could be lingering. The last thing I need is for someone to get bitten by one.”
Something rustled nearby, and Bianca followed the sound until she reached her purse. It was Mini Snow White trying to climb back inside the velvet bag. She was normal again—if you could call having a miniature version of your great-great-great grandmother normal. She was also covered with ashes and soot.
Bianca slowly bent down and met Mini Snow White’s piercing gaze. She was intimidating even at that stature.
“Hi.”
“Hello,” Mini Snow White said with a kind smile.
“Need a hand?”
“Yes, please.”
“Thank you for your help by the way.” Bianca opened her purse and pulled out the red velvet bag.
“My pleasure.”
“How did you do that?”
“Magic,” Mini Snow White said with a mischievous smile.
“But…”
“With many, many years of practice, I have no doubt that you will be able to achieve great things.”
Bianca opened her mouth to ask yet another question, but thought against it. She knew that she would never get a straight answer, no matter how she formed the questions.
And as if she had read her mind, Snow said, “Don’t worry. You will find the answers to all of your questions soon enough.”
Bianca nodded and then opened the velvet bag. Mini Snow White shimmered, and before Bianca could utter another word, she turned herself back into a ruby-red apple seed. Bianca picked up the seed and gently placed it back inside the velvet bag.
“Amazing,” Rose whispered.
Her mother shook her head in disbelief and said, “Come on, let’s go home.”
“Are you sure? What if they come back?” Bianca asked.
“Don’t worry. They’re not coming back tonight. They’re probably somewhere rethinking their strategy. I just wish we could have tracked them. We’ll come back tomorrow, and we’ll be ready for them.”
“If you say so. Ming, do you wanna come over my house, or do you want Mom to take you home?”
Ming chewed on her bottom lip for several moments as she thought. “I’ll go to your house.”
They gathered their things and locked the museum for the rest of the night. They met up with Terrance by the car.
“Anything?” Rose asked.
“No. They disappeared halfway into the woods. I think they used magic to hide. Only my grandfather knows how to follow magic. Unfortunately, that is a skill I have yet to learn,” he said.
Rose patted him on the shoulder gently. “All in good time.”
Sixteen
Rose was right. Rebekah and the others didn’t return to the museum that night. In fact, they stayed away for two whole days. Rose and David stayed in the museum, and they didn’t see or hear anything.
Late the next afternoon, Bianca and Terrance got a few things packed so that they could spend the night at the museum. It wasn’t Bianca’s idea of a romantic date, but it would be the first time in a couple of days that she would get to be alone with her boyfriend. That evening, Bianca decided to change things up, and instead of the Snow White Room, they camped out in the gift shop, where Cinderella’s glass slipper rested on its plush royal blue pillow. It had been Rose’s idea to put some of the more famous fairy tale items in the gift shop in order to attract shoppers into the store.
The mirror and a dried up burgundy rose from Beauty and the Beast.
The straw basket from Little Red Riding Hood.
Navy blue feathers from a bird that supposedly belonged to the swallow from Thumbelina.
A lime-green teacup and tomato-red saucer that belonged to the Mad Hatter from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
“So, in a few weeks, I have to go back to school,” Bianca said. “It’s my senior year, my final year of high school. I really want to graduate…get my diploma and all that stuff,” she explained.
“Yes, of course. I understand.” He gave her a sad smile.
Bianca wrung her fingers until she thought the skin might come off. She stammered a few times until she managed to get the words right. “I get lots of breaks throughout the school year. You….can…You can come visit me, or I can go and visit you. Whatever you want to do.”
Terrance nodded.
Bianca sighed and hunched her shoulders. “I know. It’s not going to be easy to keep this going. I can keep hoping for something to go missing at Prince Ferdinand’s castle just so you and I can spend some time together.”
That was the first time Terrance actually smiled since they’d started their awkward conversation. Bianca sighed. She knew that it wouldn’t be easy to maintain their relationship when they lived in different dimensions. But as she looked at her charming, one-of-a-kind boyfriend, she knew in her heart that she wasn’t going to give him up…ever. At least not without putting up a good fight.
“Hopefully it won’t come to that. We’ll figure something out.” He leaned over and kissed her on the lips.
Her heart skipped a beat and butterflies fluttered in her stomach. She closed her eyes and let herself fall into his arms. She knew he’d catch her should she fall.
Terrance gently pushed her away. His body was tense, a complete change from how he’d been only moments before. He took a deep breath. His dark brown eyes moved rapidly from side to side, as though trying to pinpoint the exact location of the smell.
“They’re here,” he whispered.
Why does it always happen when I’m around? What the hell is that all about? I must have
epic bad luck.
“Crap,” Bianca hissed.
He smirked and said, “Yes…crap. Come on. Let’s go outside and see what they’re up to,” he suggested.
Something in the pit of her stomach told her not to go outside.
“I don’t know…”
“We’ll stay within the safety of the ward. We can’t do much of anything from in here,” he argued.
“Hang on.” She picked up her cellphone and called Rose. She explained the situation.
“What are the odds?” her mother cried. “I was there for two nights straight, and nothing! Damnit, stay inside.”
“Okay.”
She hung up and ran her fingers through her hair.
“What did she say?” Terrance asked.
“To stay inside.”
He grunted in frustration. “Is that her answer to everything?”
“Sorry?” Bianca shrugged.
“I’m going to take a look outside. We should at least know where they are.”
Again, the strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Ter, I have a bad feeling about this.”
He kissed her on the cheek and said, “It will only take a moment. I promise.”
Bianca groaned. She knew that she wouldn’t let him go out on his own.
“Just for the record? This is a monumentally bad idea.”
“Noted.”
Bianca grabbed the red velvet bag and pulled out an onyx seed.
“Black it is.” She closed her eyes and swallowed the tiny apple seed. She felt a strange chill run up and down her spine. When Bianca exhaled, the air around her swirled and shimmered just like it happened the first time; only this time, the number two appeared and then vanished with a flash of light.
Another hour of her life…gone.
“All right. Let’s go.”
Once they were outside, Bianca could tell that Terrance was on edge. Almost as if he was looking for an excuse to fight with someone. Then she remembered that he was used to being able to go out whenever he felt like it. It must not have been easy for him to be cooped up inside her house.
He’s so much like his father. Claire’s words echoed in her mind. She had said those words to her last week. To Bianca, it felt like a lifetime ago. She couldn’t believe the strange adventure her life had turned into in such a short amount of time. Would she be able to finish her senior year of high school without some type of Everafter drama following her into this world? The last thing she needed was to fight a fire-breathing dragon in the middle of her calculus class.
