home

search

The Bookmark

  Jace and Tula Hutchinson were two 15 year old siblings. Jace stood at 5 foot 4 and had spiky bonde hair atop his head. He was a very sweet, kind person and very smart. Unlike his sister, who was what you would call a goth. She had jet-black hair which she almost tied into a ponytail at the back of her head, and always wore a black top and black shirt along with her black boots. Jace was wearing a blue shirt with some grey jeans this particular day. The two kids were in their room that they shared, cleaning it up as rubbish day for the month was coming and their room was the messiest.

  "Remember, check every spot" Their mother told them, poking her head in the door.

  Their mother, Julie, was a pretty woman. She was tall, which is where Tula got her height from, she had long curly blonde hair that travelled down her back. She was always a bright, happy woman with not a care in the world. But she hadn't been lately. The three had recently lost someone close to them; Marcus, the kids' father and Julie's husband. He had been killed in a car accident two months ago. Jace and Tula seemed to be the ones coping the best, as Julie seemed more down and out it than Tula in her happy state. But she trudged through it.

  "Don't worry, Mum, we will" Jace told his mother as she continued walking.

  Jace and Tula continued bagging junk they didn't want anymore. Tula threw out all her pretty princess toys and DVDs that she owned as a child. She didn't know why she even used to like those. Jace threw out all his nightights and Tazos and everything he used to collect as a kid. As he searched, he knelt down and pulled a shoebox out from under his bed. He opened it up, and found things he had put away from when he was 6. He found a rare holographic Pokemon card, a soft toy from a show that had been cancelled some years ago, some shoelaces that he had no idea why he was so obssessed with from when he was 4. But then he saw it. A book. It was a small book that had been covered with dust from all these years in that shoebox. He blew the dust off and read the title. "My Child's First FairyTales".

  He noticed there was an old scraggy bookmark in one of the pages. He opened the book to the page and read the title of the story. He gave a slight smile as he sighed. Tula noticed her brother's sigh and crawled over next to him.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  "What's with you?" She asked, "I thought you liked cleaning"

  "I do," Jace replied, "It's just, I found this"

  He closed the book onto his hand that was holding the page with the bookmark to show Tula the cover.

  "A fairytale book?" Tula asked in disgust, "You still have that?"

  "Of course," Jace told her, "It was my favourite book as a kid!"

  "And the dusty bookmark was your favourite too?" Tula asked her brother sarcastically.

  "No, that's there so I'd easily find my favourite fairytale," Jace explained to her, "Hansel and Gretel"

  "Handle and who?" Tula asked, having not read a single fairytale in her lifetime.

  "Hansel and Gretel," Jace replied, "It's about these kids who-"

  "I'm sure the story's thrillng, but is that bookmark supposed to do that?" Tula said, cutting her brother off and pointing at the bookmark.

  Jace stopped in his tracks and looked down at the bookmark as Tula did the same. It was sitting perfectly in between the pages of the book, but the dust had all disappeared from it, without Jace even touching it a bit. Not only that, it was flashing a bright white. Jace and Tula sat there staring at the flashes. One flash. Two flashes. Three flashes. Four. Five. Six. Eventually it reached ten flashes and stopped.

  Jace and Tula blinked a few times, the bright light affecting their eyes' vision. When they were finally able to see clearly, they noticed the book, along with the bookmark, had disappeared from Jace's grasp. The two sibings looked up and noticed they were no longer in their room. They were sitting on their knees in some woods. They got up and brushed the dirt off their clothes, looking around.

  "Where are we?" Jace asked no one in particular.

  "Dead, probably," Tula said dryly, "This place looks like what church says heaven is like"

  "You pay attention in church?" Jace asked his sister, surprised.

  "Only the parts that intrigue me" Tula replied.

  "Church has never mentioned woods before!" Jace yelled.

  "Yes, they have" Tula stated.

  "When?!" Jace asked.

  "'Dead as, Thore Woods'" Tula said, using air quotes, "Direct from that thing the priest reads"

  Jace sighed and realised what she was referring to. It was a verse in the Bible that went along the lines of "Do as thou would..". At that moment, they heard some birds chirping in the trees above them. They both looked up and saw some pretty white doves sitting on a tree branch. The two doves didn't notice them but kept chirping to each other. The birds then began flying away from the two kids.

Recommended Popular Novels