TAKE ME OVER | HENRY MILLS [1]

IV. fear of magic

Chapter Status: Edited. 

Tahlia.

"Sis, wake up," June hisses.

She shakes me awake, I groan, slowly prying my blue eyes open.

"What?" I question groggily.

"Follow me," she whispers.

I give her a confused look before getting out of bed and stretching, automatically seeing myself in the round mirror that Dad hung on the wall last night. I follow her out of my room and we tiptoe to the brown door, staring at it in awe.

"Should we go in?" I ask quietly, looking at June, she shrugs in response. "Well, you woke me up so I deserve to see what's in there," I state bravely.

Despite my tone of voice, I don't feel brave, I feel as confident as the lion in the Wizard of Oz. I slowly stick my hand out and wrap it around the brown doorknob, twisting it and pulling open the door. A dark set of stairs is the only thing you can see, there's no light switch, so I run into my room and grab my large black torch. I turn it on and it brightens the darkness, but I can't see what's at the top.

"Maybe there is an attic," I mumble.

June and I exchange a glance before beginning to climb the creaking stairs. When we reach the top, we are met by another similar looking brown door. I open it slowly, the creaking noise almost unbearably loud, before feeling around for a light switch. My fingers hit a bump, of which I flick and watch as the room lights up. How we can't see this room from the outside despite its the various windows is both puzzling and terrifying.

"Mum was right, this place really is magical," I admit as we step into the room, looking around.

"How so?" she asks as she picks up a book from a dusty desk.

"You can't see this room from outside," I remind.

"Are you sure?" she questions worriedly.

"Yeah, you can't see that window from outside," I repeat, pointing to the window next to her, her eyes widening.

"You're right," she gulps. "Maybe this place has magic! Maybe Mum and Dad grew up in a place with magic and they hid the room so no one could find it!"

"Do you know how crazy that sounds? There is no way this place has magic, magic doesn't exist!" I snap.

"How else do I explain it? Maybe it's not Mum and Dad who hid it, maybe the person that lived here before us had magic and hid this room, I mean, look at these books, there about this place called The Enchanted Forest and Neverland!" June rambles. "It's crazy, I know, but it's not impossible!"

I don't reply, thinking. Magic, what else is in this town? Fairytale characters? That's when it hits me.

"Fairytale characters, this place is full of fairy tale characters, that's why Mum said Emma was Snow and Charming's kid, that's why there's magic!" I shout, sounding quite ridiculous.

"We have to ask them about this" June decides.

She begins to leave, but I grab her arm and turn her to look at me, placing my hands on her shoulders.

"No, we can't tell them we know until we know more about this place, we could be completely off, let's just go looking around for a bit until we're sure," I decide.

June nods in agreement, "let's look around after breakfast, we should probably get to know the town first before we make any more ridiculous accusations," she laughs uncomfortably.

"Don't tell Mum and Dad about this place until we've done our research, maybe these books can help us find what we're looking for," I instruct, nodding my head at the books on the desk.