1st 5 Pages May Workshop - Brown

Name: Angela Brown
Genre: Middle Grade Fairy Tale Smash Up
Title: ONCE UPON A SUMMONS

Chapter One

Dreading Dots

Whoever said words had power, well, I’d like to sock them right in the arm. Big time! All I did was make one wish, and not even a good one. Things went crazy! I guess that’s what I get for wishing at all.

It started as I paced my bedroom, still wearing one of Mom’s girly designs, some strappy dress – thing. I folded my arms. “I can’t believe they did this to me!”

I glanced toward my Justin Timberlake poster. He sat forward on a couch, elbows on his knees, gazing down at me. Any other day, I’d stare at his cute-but-kinda-bad-boy look, catch myself before drool dripped to the floor, then move on. Not this time. I was too busy wondering if there was a law against twelve-year-olds being bridesmaids.

Come on, Case! Think!

I walked and thought, back and forth, until a fit of dizziness tipped the room sideways. “Whoa…” I stumbled over to my bed. “That was weird.” My stomach twisted and my breath got stuck in my throat. I put my hand over my tummy, waiting for that queasy-belly-cartwheel to happen. A really long minute passed before my stomach settled. Then I remembered to breathe.

With the nausea gone, I pulled dad’s volume of fairy tales out from between my mattress and box springs. Lorealia, my favorite book in all the world. Not that he knew I had it. I wonder why he hid it in the first place? None of that mattered. I just needed to read someone’s happily ever after since my sister’s wedding stole mine from me.

“Saturday was supposed to be my day. Basketball at the Sports Jam, not playing replacement bridesmaid. Not fair and not cool! I wish I was far away,” I grumbled. “I don’t care, anywhere but here.” I half-laughed after saying it. As if it would actually come true.

Wiping a tear from my cheek, I curled up on the bed, snuggled close to the book. When I flipped the cover open, my bed rattled. The headboard knock, knock, knocked against the wall. I hopped off with a squeak just as it stopped. The book did a shimmer-glow-bounce and thunked to the floor.

I jumped back. My bedroom door clicked loudly when the lock slammed into place. I gasped…but that’s it. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t anything.

The book flipped open. Glitter, like tossed confetti, shot into the air and showered down. The pages fluttered back and forth.

My legs trembled, no longer stuck in place. Wobbling backwards, I turned around and wrapped my fingers around the knob, twisting and pulling. I chewed my bottom lip then remembered the jolt of the lock jamming home. I balled my hands into fists and bang, bang, banged against the door.

“Mom! Mom!” She had to hear me. She had to. Please!

I stopped when a soft female voice called out. “S.O.S. Fairy GIT to Fable Ranger. Fairy GIT to Fable Ranger. Please, we need your help.” Her words faded on an echo.

I spun around, finding the book open to the first page. The spoken words filled the usually blank page with chicken scratch, all straight lines and hard angles. I barely made out, “Touch here to confirm.” A red dot hovered over the page, winking in and out.

I crept forward. Not because I wanted to. Some invisible hook, rope, or both pulled me closer to the book. Honestly, I wanted to run the other way or pretend it was all a dream.

Or a nightmare.

I shivered in my skin, so afraid of what was happening, and worse yet, my own body’s reactions. My brain screamed to hide in the closet. I told my legs and feet to turn the other way. Blast it! Turn any way but toward the book and hope things went back to normal all on its own. But I knelt down, reaching a quivering hand closer and closer and closer still.

“What am I doing?” I gritted through my teeth. “Stop it! Stop it! No!” I couldn’t pull back. My hand had a mind of its own.

What would happen when I touched the red dot?
 

Chapter Two

A Rose I Suppose

Before my finger met that red dot, I couldn’t help wondering if everything was some crazy punishment from the parent gods.

Okay, look, parent gods, I’m sorry I ran upstairs instead of listening to whatever else mom had to say. I totally get I was wrong. Yeah, and about stealing – I mean – borrowing dad’s book and all…sorry about that, too. I’m really, really sorry.

I tilted my head toward the ceiling, begging to go back in time. I’d go straight into the studio, no fuss, no nothing – anything to make the nightmare end. And be the perfect bridesmaid. Yeah. I swear on my Justin Timberlake posters.

The parent gods weren’t listening. Or they had nothing to do with what was happening. I would’ve taken the parent gods over creepy-voice-from-the-book, though. At least I could talk to them, or bore them to death with one of mom’s lectures on the history of cotton.

I got irritated with my body’s complete disregard to run away screaming. Now I know how mom feels when I don’t do what she says.

Despite my grunts and struggles, my skin touched the dot. I bowed my head and closed my eyes, not sure what to expect. The red circle suctioned to my fingertip, digging into every groove of my fingerprint. It didn’t hurt, but my stomach dipped.

Then a needle pricked me.

That did hurt.

My eyes sprang open. “Ow!”

The female voice returned, sending goose bumps up my arms. “Identification confirmed. Fable Ranger verified. Transport to Lorealia commencing.”

“Fable – transport – what? Just let me go!”

With those words, the red dot let go. It dropped to the page with a jingle of bells, bouncing high overhead, growing wider and rounder.

Everything happened at once.

My door knob turned. Not locked anymore? When did that happen? The hinges creaked as it was pushed inward.

I couldn’t move, still stuck beside the book. I really, really, really needed my body back.

The red dot, now a red blob, collided with the ceiling.

Mom walked in. “Case, we should’ve told you earlier that--”

Her words drowned beneath a garage-band version of ringing bells and crashing cymbals.

I finally got control of my body, locked my gaze on mom’s brown eyes and reached out for her. Her face broke into a mix of extreme-worry and disbelief at what she saw. She stretched her arms toward me. Her shout blended into the kaleidoscope of noisy chaos.

But it was too late.

A tunnel of red rose petals fell around me like a funneled waterfall. Mom disappeared. My room – gone. Nothing but me and a swirling darkness.

I had no fear of the dark. Spiders? Scary. Snakes? Ugh! Wriggly and scary. But not the darkness, not since dad and I beat up the last monster that tried to hide in my closet. Dad was pretending, but he really knocked that little troll thing out. It hadn’t come back since. That was six years ago.

In that rose petal darkened moment, that anxious little girl in me returned with every bit of fright. I screamed and screamed and screamed some more.

Nothing changed.