Luminari

Epilogue

The moon in the sky was big and round lighting up the night sky with the help from the thousands of little lights glowing in the city, the sky was so bright there were hardly any stars. Brandy knew they were up there, and she looked for them while she sat on the balcony on their apartment. She could see so many stars at her grandpa's house, but she could see even more from the palace of Luminari, the world was so dark that the sky lit up with over ten trillion tiny dots of twinkling light, it was the prettiest thing she had ever seen.

Everyone underestimated Brandy, everyone put her down thinking of her as just a stupid little girl that didn't know what went on around her, but she knew everything. 

She had woken up when Bailey came into her room around noon to make sure she was alright. She waited until he left to follow him out of the door then she stayed at the top of the stairs hidden behind the wall. She overheard the conversation Bailey had with their grandpa about Luminari being only a dream, but Brandy was sure it had been real two people couldn't have the same dream.

When Bailey ran upstairs to check his grandpa's room Brandy hid in the closet, when Bailey couldn't find Seth, he ran back downstairs, and she silently followed walking on the tips of her toes the slippers on her feet muffled the sound of her footsteps. She waited at the bottom of the stairs and listened to the sound of Seth's voice and the conversation the three of them had about keeping everything a secret from her.

She had to admit the fact that finding out none of them trusted her hurt, but instead of revealing the fact that she had heard everything she silently slipped back upstairs, she went back into her room leaving the door a crack open so they wouldn't hear her turn the knob and slipped into her bed pretending to be asleep.

Then Bailey came into her room just a few seconds after she closed her eyes. She pretended to have had a crazy dream and told him all about it. She was waiting for her brother to tell her it wasn't a dream, but he only nodded and told her she was right his face turning bright red from the lie. Seth even came to visit her but pretended to be a regular dog and acted as if he didn't talk and as if they had never seen each other before.

Brandy's parents soon came back, and she pretended to be really excited to see them, even though they had been acting strange lately and she got the strange feeling something bad was going to happen. Bailey was acting weird too was it because he had lied to her or, was he hiding something.

Brandy waited outside as her parents pulled into the driveway she stood there waving at the car, her grandpa and Seth came out the front door followed by Bailey who looked like he was about to cry. Brandy ran up to her dad and threw her arms around him at the same moment Seth knocked down their mother. Brandy almost cried when she saw how happy Seth was to see his sister, she wanted her mother to recognize Seth but how could she, Seth was a dog and even if she did remember her brother she surely wouldn't think of a big fluffy dog.

Her grandpa invited everyone inside for drinks and their dad told them to go pack their suitcases. Brandy reluctantly went upstairs and put everything away in her suitcase when she heard her dad shout that Seth was in the attic. She peered around the corner of her door frame and watched as her dad chased Seth down the hall.

Brandy was overrun with curiosity what could Seth have been doing up there, once her dad had disappeared down the stairs, she opened the door and climbed up the ladder. The attic was dirty and dusty, and barley lit just one little window was lighting up the whole place. She looked around for something out of place and saw that a colorful shoe box sat half closed on top of a large dirty trunk, everything else in the attic looked like it had been sitting there for years but the shoe box was brand new not a speck of dust on it.

Brandy crawled across the floor careful not to fall through the ceiling and picked up the shoe box, it was full of strange little items and colorful bottles, She recognized the ring in the corner of the box as the one she had been wearing, the one the prince gave her the day before their wedding, but why was it up here in a box, perhaps her grandpa didn't burn everything after all.

She heard footsteps on the stairs and froze she shoved the ring in her pocket and peeked through the crack in the attic door and saw that it was only Bailey he went into her room, and she quickly climbed down the ladder and shut the door. She heard him searching through her room and stepped into the doorway. He questioned her about where she had been and after telling him a lie about being in the bathroom the two of them went downstairs.

Brandy noticed that her parents were acting strange in the car and even stranger when they got home. She noticed they weren't talking to each other, and that Bailey was sitting at the kitchen counter watching them, she sat at the table and pretended to play with her Legos when she was really spying on everyone.

Brandy couldn't fall asleep, so she laid in bed with her eyes half open watching Bailey who was staring at the ceiling his hands folded in his lap. He got up and went to the bathroom and after a long time he came back with a huge smile on his face he punched the air excitedly and climbed into bed still smiling to himself.

After she was sure Bailey had fallen asleep, she snuck out of bed and slowly opened the draw to her dresser she pulled it all the way out and dug through the very back she found a purple sock hiding in the corner with a pink sock shoved inside. She pulled the pink sock out of the purple sock and pulled the ring out of the pink sock. She shoved the ring in her pocket then left her room. 

She walked down the hall and out into the living room where she went out the glass French doors and onto the balcony. The balcony hung high above the streets and overlooked the crowded city. She was surrounded by dozens of potted plants set up around the balcony with random lawn accessories placed among them. 

Brandy sat down on the edge of the balcony sticking her legs in between the bars and stared up at the moon, she pulled the ring out of her pocket and looked at it sadly holding it up to the moonlight. How long would she have to pretend she asked herself. Why wouldn't Bailey just tell her it wasn't a dream didn't he trust her. 

She let out a sigh and watched as a large barn owl soared through the night sky casting a shadow on the moon. He flew up to the balcony and landed on the railing. He stared down at her with his very large and round golden eyes. She stared at him for a while frozen in fear, he didn't move a muscle and stood as still as a statue for what seemed like hours then suddenly, he flew away. 

Brandy wasn't sure what happened yesterday, why it happened, or how it was possible, but she was sure of one thing. It was absolutely one hundred percent not a dream.

THE END