Beyond: Snillotia Trilogy Book One

by Donna Wagner

  Anna nodded, understanding. “Evan, you should sit down again. This is a long story,” she started.

  As they all relaxed, Anna started to explain, much the way she had when she’d first met Tim. Evan’s face didn’t show any reaction. Tim couldn’t tell if he believed her or not. When Anna finished the short version of everything that had happened to them, Evan finally spoke, and his question surprised them all. “So, my name is Nave?”

  Tim laughed. “That’s the only question you have about everything you just heard?”

  Evan shrugged. “Well I already saw Anna disappear and if that’s real then everything else must be too,” he paused, thinking, “Wait, Tim. Your mom’s books. Does that mean they’re true?”

  “Well, we don’t actually know. We think maybe she made some of it up, but based it around stuff she did know, about Snillotia, where she grew up.”

  “Actually, Tim,” Anna said, “what you said in English class made me think. You said your mom told you these stories when you were little, before she wrote the books. So, I think you may know how the story ends, even if you don’t remember it. It sort of clicked for me when Mrs. MacDonald explained the assignment. I think if you actually think about the story and how you think it may end, it might actually be the same ending your mom intended.”

  Tim frowned. He hadn’t been expecting her to say anything even remotely like what she said. “But even if that’s true, how would we know?”

  “I didn’t think that far ahead,” Anna admitted, “I just thought that you may actually know how the story ends. I have a feeling knowing how it ends is important and will help us figure out what we need to do next.”

  Tim didn’t know what to say, he had actually been thinking about something else that had stuck in his mind from English class. “That girl, Ashley, had a good point. Authors usually have notes and things they use to keep track of ideas when they write their stories. Besides, that manuscript Goldie brought to us was typed. My mom had a laptop, but it wasn’t in her Y room when we found it, was it? I don’t remember seeing a laptop there.”

  Anna thought back to when they had discovered his mother’s Y room. She shook her head. “No, I don’t remember seeing one either. Do you know where she usually worked?”

  Tim shrugged. “It was always different. Sometimes she had her laptop on the table in the dining room and sometimes she sat on the couch with it.”

  “So, it’s possible that her laptop was still here when the house was packed up.”

  Tim nodded. The Rebels wouldn’t have known to take her laptop. At least he didn’t think they would have. Tim pulled on the string that was around his neck, pulling the key hanging on it out from under his shirt. “What’s that?” Anna asked.

  Tim looked at the key and sighed. “Adam told me when the bank foreclosed on the house and put it on the market, it was as is. That means everything- all my parents’ things and furniture were left here for the new owners. Adam and Myra kept some of the furniture but packed up all the smaller items and put it into a storage locker for me. Adam had said he always hoped he’d be able to give it to me one day. He gave me the key a few months after we were here, right after you stopped talking to me. He thought maybe I’d want to be able to look through their things. I haven’t wanted to. I still don’t.”

  “I don’t think we have a choice. We need to go see if your mom’s laptop is there.”

  Tim nodded, sadly. He looked down. Somehow, he and Anna were holding hands again. He hadn’t even realized they were. He also realized he didn’t want to let go. He looked at Anna. She looked back at him but didn’t acknowledge anything about their joined hands. “Should we go now?” she asked.

  Tim glanced at Evan, remembering he was in the room. He gave Tim a small smile, which surprised him. Evan was Jason’s best friend, so Tim had thought he’d be mad Tim was holding Anna’s hand. Then he remembered Anna’s question. He didn’t know exactly where the storage facility was. Adam had told him, but all he remembered thinking was that it wasn’t somewhere he could walk to from here. “We need to drive there. It’s too far to walk.”

  Anna sighed. It annoyed her that although they had both gotten their licenses the month before, they did not have a car. Adam let them borrow his car though, if they really needed to go somewhere. They would have to wait till he got home from work. Anna looked at her cell phone. “Wow.”

  “What?”

  “It’s later than I thought. Adam will be home in about an hour.”

  Before Tim could reply, they heard a click.

  “Hey! Are you guys hiding in here?”

  They heard Peter before they saw him. As he entered the room, he nodded, as though he was proud of himself. “I figured this is where you’d go! I told Monsieur Laurent that you got sick and went home. He said you can make the test up after school…” Peter’s voice trailed off and his eyes narrowed.

  Tim followed his cousin’s line of sight straight to his and Anna’s hands. “I see,” Tim said softly.

  Anna looked at Tim, confused. Tim shook his head slightly and pulled his hand from Anna’s. Anna, who had actually been aware they’d been holding hands again, let go reluctantly. Read him, Anna. He knows you have a boyfriend. Now he thinks because he saw us holding hands you’re not being fair to Jason, which means you’re not the kind of girl he thought you were.

  Why would he care?

  Tim raised an eyebrow at her. “I was showing Tim one of my new powers I discovered. Want to see?”

  Tim saw hope flash across his cousin’s face as he nodded, then left just as quickly as he realized what Anna had said, with Evan in the room. “Evan knows everything, now,” Tim told him.

  Before Peter could respond, Anna disappeared again. Peter looked around, confused at first, and then he smiled. Anna reappeared. “Now watch Tim.”

  Peter looked at Tim, as Tim took Anna’s hand again. He saw the expression on Peter’s face when they both disappeared. Anna brought them back a few seconds later. “That is so neat! You can make anyone disappear with you?”

  Anna nodded, happy Peter seemed like himself again. “Children? Are you home?”

  They all turned toward the secret door. Grandma An was calling for them. “We better see what’s going on. They usually don’t come looking for us unless something’s happened,” Tim said.

  They left the secret room and found Grandma An near the staircase. “Oh! You better come to my rooms,” she exclaimed, when she saw them, “Something is very wrong!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  After saying goodbye to Evan and promising to let him know if they found anything in the storage unit, Tim and Anna went to see what Grandma An was upset about. As soon as Tim reached the kitchen, he knew something was wrong. The door to Grandma An’s rooms had changed. Instead of matching the house, like Goldie had made it, it looked like the doors back in Storage. Grandma An opened the door and ushered them inside. Once in the room, Tim also noticed the spiral staircase Goldie had included so she didn’t have to leave the rooms connected to Storage was completely gone. “Did Goldie come back?” he asked, hopefully.

  Grandma An shook her head. Grandpa Leumas was napping in a recliner in the center of the room and Grandma Eilime and Grandpa Siul were sitting at a small table in the corner playing cards. “The stairs are gone!” Peter exclaimed, loudly, waking Grandpa Leumas.

  “Children! Something is happening!” he said immediately, upon seeing them standing in front of him, “Things are disappearing, sometimes staying gone and sometimes coming back. We can’t figure it out and our attempts to contact the gup have been unsuccessful.”

  “Where are my grandparents?” Tim asked.

  “Upstairs.”

  “Peter, please go get everyone.”

  “When did this start happening?” Anna questioned.

  “This morning, sweetheart,” Tre said as he and Einna joined them.

  Tim let out a frustrated sigh. “It’s just like Goldie’s medallion. That disappeared too. Somethin
g must be wrong with her. We need to get her to come back.”

  “We’ve tried calling for her, Tim,” Einna stated.

  “Well, maybe if all of us try together, she’ll be able to hear us.” Anna suggested.

  Tim nodded in agreement, willing to try anything. They couldn’t lose their connection to Snillotia through these rooms, as slight as it was. They all joined hands in a circle. “Okay, on three, we’ll all say her name at once. Ready? One, two, three-“

  “Goldie!”

  For a moment they just stood there in silence, hoping for something to happen. Then they heard a voice. It was a voice that sounded both young and old at the same time, however it wasn’t Goldie. “The royal rooms will be returned to Storage where they belong. Please remove any belongings and people from the rooms immediately.”

  “This is Queen Anna of Snillotia. I demand my rooms stay where I choose.”

  “As do I, King Mit of Snillotia.” Grandpa Mit said in a loud voice, as he entered the room, “I heard him speaking upstairs, as well,” he explained.

  As everyone else filed into the room, the voice spoke again. “I, unfortunately, answer to a higher power than you, Your Majesties.”

  The voice, however, was now in the room with them. Tim looked around and then saw the source. “Who are you?”

  Sitting on an ottoman was a very portly black pug dog. “I am Phelan. The Custodian of Storage, whom you refer to as Goldie, should never have brought these rooms to this world. It takes a great deal of magic and is forbidden. We were not aware of her transgressions until today. However, now that we know, the magic must be reversed. We cannot sustain the amount of magic needed for them to remain, as the Custodian is no longer.”

  “What? What do you mean she is no longer? What happened to Goldie?” Anna cried.

  “I do not know what happened to her. I only know that her connection to Storage was severed and she sent the remaining magic she possessed to create her successor,” Phelan stated.

  “To create her successor? You mean, Goldie had a baby?” Peter asked.

  “Not in the way humans refer to it. If a Gup chooses to create another, it is something entirely done with magic, as gups are our magic. When the successor was created, we could no longer sense “Goldie”, which is most difficult. The successor has no one to train her on how to control the Storage. It is causing problems.”

  “There must be something we can do to keep these rooms here. I’m sure you are aware of the problems in Snillotia. It is unsafe for us there and we must remain here and retain this connection.” Grandpa Mit stated.

  Phelan did not appear to be moved by the situation. Finally, he sighed. “I can send the successor to you. If she agrees to use her own magic to keep the royal rooms in this world, I won’t stop her. Good luck.”

  As he was speaking, he faded from site. Everyone was silent for a moment then Grandpa Cire started laughing. “Oh, Tim, my boy! Before I met you, I thought gups were imaginary monsters and now I’ve met two! Who would have guessed?”

  Everyone joined in the laughter. “Hi!”

  They all tuned at one to the new voice. It sounded very young, although very much like Goldie. A small pug puppy sat where Phelan had sat a moment before, quivering with excitement. “I’ve never met humans before! This is so exciting! Phelan says you need my help, but you want me to break the rules! I shouldn’t break the rules. I’ve been told my creator was bad and broke the rules all the time and I should not be like her, but I am just so excited to meet humans!”

  Anna smiled. “I’m Anna. What’s your name?”

  Some of the excitement dimmed from the young gup’s eyes. “I don’t have a name.”

  “Why not?” Peter asked.

  “When a gup creates a new gup, they usually stay with them and give them a name. My creator just sent magic to create me and I’ve never met her. So, she was not there to give me a name.”

  “We know your creator and that doesn’t sound like her-”

  “You know her? Can you tell me about her? Please? I know she broke the rules and that is bad, but I still want to know all about her!”

  “Well, we met her a few years ago. She told us her name was Goldie and she’s helped us a great deal. She even saved our lives,” Anna explained, referring to herself and Tim.

  “She’s our friend. We’ve been worried about her because she left and we haven’t been able to reach her,” Tim added, sadly.

  They explained everything that had happend, and the part Goldie had played. “That’s why Goldie was keeping these rooms here for us. Will you please help us, too?”

  After a moment, the puppy replied. “Okay. I’ll help you the best I can, but you have to help me too. Can you please give me a name?”

  Anna smiled again, “Of course, we’ll give you a name. Let me think. How about Fey?”

  “I love it! Thank you!” Fey replied, once again full of energy.

  She closed her eyes and opened them again, slowly. The spiral staircase reappeared, along with a few other things. “I have to go back to Storage now, but if you call me in these rooms, I’ll hear you!”

  They thanked her and a moment later she was gone.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  Shortly after the excitement ended, Adam and Myra arrived home from work. Tim explained everything that had happened to them and watched as Myra breathed a sigh of relief at missing the appearance of more dogs. “I also decided it’s time I looked at my parents’ things,” Tim said, slowly, “Can you take me to the storage locker after dinner?”

  “I can’t tonight, Tim,” Adam responded, “but if you don’t want to wait until another night, you can borrow my car. I’ll text you the address, so you know where to go.”

  Tim nodded his thanks and left to find Anna. She was in the office sitting at the computer. “Adam’s letting me borrow his car. We can go check out the storage locker after dinner.”

  Anna didn’t answer him right away. Then he realized she had earbuds in and that she looked like she’d been crying. “My life does not revolve around waiting around after school for you!”

  She paused for a moment. Her face turned bright red. “No! Tim has nothing to do with anything! Neither does Evan! He’s your best friend and you know he’s gay! You need to stop being a jealous jerk and trust me!”

  She paused once more, and then spoke again. “I can go where I want to. You do not control me!”

  Anna clicked the mouse and roughly pulled the earbuds from her ears. “I’m sorry, Tim,” Anna sighed, still slightly blushing, “Jason started a video chat with me, apparently, just to fight. He wasn’t happy when he found out I left school early with you and Evan. I was going to attempt to do our English assignment tonight. I want to be able to come up with my “ending” to the story before reading any of your mom’s notes.”

  “If we find anything in that locker,” Tim paused, “I can go by myself if you don’t want to come with me. It’s okay.”

  “No! I want to come!”

  “Okay. I don’t want to cause any problems between you and Jason, that’s all.”

  Anna grimaced, slightly. “I don’t know how much longer there is going to be a me and Jason, honestly. He’s been acting so different lately. It’s like he’s changed.”

  “Not that I like the guy, but I’ve got to point out that he’s always acted this way to everyone but you and Evan. Plus, you have changed too. With your powers developing and the fact that you actually acknowledge my presence now,” he added, jokingly, “Jason must think the same thing about you.”

  Anna was quiet and Tim thought maybe he’d said too much. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m being too hard on him.”

  “Not that I want you to start ignoring me again!”

  Anna smiled and responded in his mind. Never.

  “Anna! Tim! Dinner’s ready!” they heard Peter calling.

  “Let’s go eat, so we can go search for that laptop!”

  “Wait!” Tim said, as they were leaving the room.
“Evan’s gay?”

  Anna rolled her eyes at how oblivious Tim was about certain things. “Yeah, he and Ollie- Oops!”

  “Ollie? Oliver Nichols?”

  “I wasn’t supposed to say anything. Ollie hasn’t told anyone yet. He’s afraid of how his mom will react. I only know because Evan was upset that he can’t tell anyone that they’re dating.”

  “Oh,” Tim didn’t know what else to say and they’d reach the dining room.

  At dinner, everyone was talking about Fey. All the women thought she was just the cutest thing they’d ever seen. Overall everyone was very relieved their rooms could remain. Tim didn’t talk much, as he wanted to finish eating as quickly as possible, but he told himself that as relieved as he was to have a living connection to Snillotia again, he was still worried about Goldie. He meant what he’d told Fey. Goldie was his friend and he was determined to find out what had happened to her.

  As soon as he was finished eating, he looked at Anna and saw that her plate was clear, as well. Ready?

  Anna looked at him and nodded. They both quietly left the table. Tim nodded to Adam as he left the room. He was grateful they were escaping unnoticed. The grandparents were wonderful, but he didn’t feel like having a group discussion about looking through his parents’ things. He knew his mother’s parents would want to see everything eventually, but Tim wanted this time alone first. He knew Anna would be respectful of that.

  Tim grabbed the keys off the hook by the door and pulled up the gps app on his phone. It was only a 15-minute drive. As they pulled out of the driveway, Tim felt a heaviness settle on his chest. Anna left him to his thoughts as he drove and before he knew it, they were at the storage facility.

  After a few minutes, they found the right locker. Tim pulled the key from around his neck; however, before he could unlock the door Anna stopped him. “Look!”

  There were scratches all around the lock and it looked like someone had tried to use a crow bar to get the door open. “We should tell the man at the front desk. This looks fresh.”