Once

Thirty One

For the second time in two days Elle found herself heading through town toward the Farway Collection.

It had been David's idea. He'd pointed out, rightly enough, that their best line of defence was for all of them to refresh themselves on these fairy tales that none of them had read or even thought about for ten years or more. And since the Farway High library was distinctly lacking in any sort of source material on fairy tales, they'd all agreed that the public library at the Collection would be their best place to start.

"And we can call in on Mr Luzlic, while we're there," Elle had pointed out. "He'll want to know about -" She shot a quick glance at Russell, "- about last night."

So there they were, heading along the edge of the town square toward Church Street. The first gleaming windows of the Collection building could just about be seen up ahead, reflecting the brilliant blue of another perfect sky, all of them sparkling like diamonds.

Maggie and Sellan had been walking a few paces behind since they left school. Their voices were lowered and Elle couldn't hear what they were talking about. She got the feeling she didn't want to know. But they were with her, anyway. That was enough for now.

To take her mind off it she focused on the conversation Russell and David were having just ahead of her. David had the list of stories in his hand - the one Mr Luzlic had given them the day before.

"Well," David was saying, "we know the three that have come to life already. There's been Goldilocks, Rapunzel, and er -"

Russell, noting his discomfort, prompted him:

"And Little Red Riding Hood. You can say it, you know. I mean, it's not like I asked to be cast as a gullible little girl who gets eaten by a wolf."

David grinned at him. He, like Elle, was clearly relieved that Russell was at a point where he was sort of willing to joke about it.

"OK," David went on. "So we know those three. That leaves these seven left. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rumpelstiltskin, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel and Snow White. I sort of know about a couple of these already. How about you?"

Russell shrugged.

"I kind of remember all of them. I don't remember much about The Frog Prince, but I do know most of the others. This may surprise you, but I spent a lot of my childhood watching princess films."

"You amaze me," said David, giving him another grin. "But don't be too sure. I did a quick search with Elle on the way home yesterday, and the original versions of some of these are way darker than you'd expect. Like in Cinderella, did you know the stepsisters have to cut off bits of their feet to fit them in the shoe? And then in the end they get blinded by -"

"Having their eyes pecked out by birds. Yeah, I know all that. It's in Into the Woods." When David gave him a confused look, Russell added, "The musical? Stephen Sondheim? Honestly, straight boys have absolutely no sense of culture."

Elle smiled. She was glad to see them like this - chatting and joking so easily. She had worried at various times over the course of the past few days that each of them had some sort of problem with the other one. She was glad to see them both on the same page, for the time being at least.

At that moment Jax, who had been storming ahead like a general leading her troops to war, called out:

"Here we are!"

She'd already disappeared through the glass doors of the Collection before anyone could catch up with her.

The minute they were inside, Elle stopped. Something was wrong. She felt weird - cold all of a sudden, despite the blazing heat under that wall of solid glass.