The familiar design sent shivers down my spine. Where have I seen this? I wonder. But my mind is blank. I put the key into my pocket and jog down the attic stairs to the kitchen.
“Hey kiddo,” dad says as soon as he sees me coming down.
“Did something happen in the attic?”
I freeze, “No?..” I replied.
Dad eyes me suspiciously, “Anyways, I made your favorite, spaghetti and meatballs!” My stomach growls but really, I don’t feel hungry.
“Thanks dad, you’re the best.” Dad smiles his sad smile. He always tries to make me happy ever since mom died. Grande was her name. We don’t know what happened, we never even located her body. So we just concluded that she died,.. peacefully.
“Anyways, I’m going off on a business trip, okay? No sleepovers and going off to parties, got it?”
He says, as he sets the dinner counter. “Dad! I’m not 16, I’m still 14. Plus you really think I’d go off to night parties?” I reply, rolling my eyes. Dad laughs, but then turns to me all serious.
“I just want to protect my baby girl. And plus, I wasn’t able to get Kenya the babysitter, so you’ll be all alone for a few weeks.”
“Dad, first off, I’m old enough to be in the house by myself. And second, I don’t need a babysitter! I’m not a baby!”
“Well, if you say so, now eat your dinner before it spoils.”
“Bye dad! See you in a few weeks!” Dad waves from the car. I lock the door and go around the house locking doors, when I come across the attic stairs opened. I don’t remember either dad or I putting down the stairs for the attic. Odd.. I wonder. I climb the stairs to the attic. There are two strange things I notice first. One, all the boxes are moved to the side and arranged so delicately, as if someone came in to do that. Two, there is a lock to a mysterious door I’ve never seen. That’s when the key in my pocket starts vibrating. I reach to get and finally understand. I’m supposed to put the key into the lock! Nervously, I put the key into the lock and the door glows blue. I open the knob and see a glamorous sight. There is a whole new world right behind this magical door. I think for a few seconds before stepping into this blue sparkly world. The door closes shut behind me.
“Welcome to Aquamarine City, where all your dreams come true! I’m Amelia, what’s your name?” A girl in blonde hair with a blue skirt and white top says.
“I-I,” the blonde girl is still looking at me, waiting. “I’m Evelyn, Evelyn Grande,” I finally say. The girl’s face goes pale, but just for a second.
Finally she says, “That’s a very beautiful name, Evelyn. May I call you Eve for short?” She looks at me with innocent eyes.
“Sure?” I say. I wonder if her hesitation had to do anything with my name? I wonder.
“Great! I’ll show you the city.” Then she pulls my hand and off we go to see this wonderful, magnificent blue city. Wow, this is one nice city. There were small modern houses, all blue in one area. While the other had small shops in all blue also. And there it was. The tallest building, right in the center of the city, possibly as tall as the Eiffel Tower. It was a modern, yet old fashioned, blue skinny tower that had crystals attached in a beautiful way. I wanted to scream, Oh My God, but kept my mouth shut, so I wouldn’t attract any more citizens. Amelia led me back to the modern house area, where we finally approached her house. More beautiful than the others, possibly.
A woman comes out from the door, “Looks like you brought a friend,” she says. She was in a blue apron with a white dress, her voice, as soft as silk.
“Hi mom, this is Evelyn, but you can call her Eve for short. I found her near the door..” At this one moment, Amelia’s mom’s eyes widened.
“Well come in Eve, I’ll get you something to wear, or else people will think you’re very strange and perhaps crazy.” Eve looked at her outfit. She had a plain orange sweatshirt with black leggings. She looked around her and even Amelia. They were all wearing different shades of blue and white. She could admit that she stood out from all the citizens.
I follow Amelia into her house. Inside there were two staircases leading to the second floor. In the middle of that was a blue crystal chandelier. “ Hon, do you mind waiting a bit downstairs. I have to retrieve the clothing, I’ll be back!” Then she hurried upstairs.
Once she had left, “OMG, I love your house, it’s so lovely and so neatly organized,” I exclaim.
“Thank you so much, and um.. I forgot to mention this before but I do have an older brother, Matt. He’s one year older than me, so that explains why he’s almost always babysitting me. But really, I don’t need one, I’m not a baby!”
“You got that right, my dad tried to contact one of my former babysitters, but like I’m not a baby! So, I’m pretty glad that she wasn’t able to come.” At the mention of my dad, Amelia stopped and looked like she just saw a ghost. Thankfully her mom, Carol came downstairs just before it got more awkward. The mom, also known later on, Carol, came down with the clothes.
“Try these, Eve, I’m pretty sure this is your size. Go try it out in the bathroom, to the left and straight down.”
“Thank you so much Mrs. Carol.” Then she walked down to the bathroom.
It has now been a few days, living in this city. Amelia’s family is nice. And I’m starting to like Matt. I’ve made a few friends, Julia and Mark. Julia is open-minded, and easy to talk to. However Matt on the other hand, is…what’s the right word,.. Uncommunicative. I feel like he’s hiding something from me, but I can’t get to the bottom of it. They’re both neighbors, too. Oh and I finally saw the emperor, Emperor Nero. He seems awfully soft and warm-hearted. He said that I looked familiar, but he said he was probably mistaken. Wonder why he thought I looked familiar.
“Good Morning, friend.” Amelia says with her face almost on my face.
“Aaaahhh!” I scream.
“Are you okay?” Amelia asks, “you were sweating and panting, did you have a nightmare?”
“Yes, I think so?” I reply, “I’ve never had a nightmare before. It felt like I was there but then I woke up, so I wasn’t ever really there, I guess.”
“So, what happened in your dream?”
“Well, I met my mom. She looked so pretty. But there’s something odd, she told me to trust my instincts but then she disappeared. And you woke me afterwards..” I respond.
All of a sudden, Amelia jumps up from my bed, “I have to go help my mom with breakfast, see you!” Then she quickly leaves the room, closing the door behind. I hear her rushing down the steps as if she’s late. Did I say something wrong, I wonder.
I quickly brush my teeth, and get dressed. I’m halfway down the stairs when I hear Amelia and her mom talking, well really, whispering. “She was found near the door, so she must have found the key. We must protect her from you-know-who,” says Amelia’s mom.
“Of course, anyways, can you add chocolate chips into my pancake?”
“Sure, baby.” Protect me from who? Who is this ‘you-know-who’? I walk down the stairs and find Amelia setting up the counter and her mom putting chocolate chips into a batter.
“Good Morning, darling, how did you sleep? I heard you had a nightmare?” I look at Amelia, I eye her my why-did-you-tell-her-look. She looks at me all innocent and eyes back, I’m-sorry.
“Good Morning, well yeah, I did have a nightmare last night. Ooh, well guess I’m lucky, we’re eating pancakes.” But deep inside, I had lost my appetite.
“Oh, good. Why don’t you go help Amelia set the rest of the table, while I finish up the pancakes, hmm?” “Of course, Mrs. Carol. And thanks again for letting me stay.” She nods and goes back to finishing the pancakes. They’re both acting like nothing is up, it must be all an act.
“So, why did you rush down, back there?” I whisper to Amelia once I know that her mom can’t hear because of the sizzling.
Slightly red, Amelia answers, “What do you mean?” looking at her brand new heels. Then she says, “Mom, it’s about time we tell Evelyn” Her mom turns around, she eyes Amelia.
“Tell me about what exactly?” I say.
“Sit down, and you’ll know the real truth of Aquamarine City.”
“You see, Emperor Nero wasn’t always mean.”
“Emperor Nero is mean?” I ask.
“Yes, your mother is still alive.”
At the mention of my mother, I sit up straighter, “She-she’s still alive?”
“Yes, up in Emperor Nero’s palace. And that’s why he thought you were familiar, because you have the face of your mother, darling. Amelia and I recognized you because you came from the door, your mother’s home back when you were just born. I believed you knew what you were coming here for, that you were going to save your mother. But it’s okay if you don’t know your plan, because me and Amelia have a plan.” She looked at Amelia and her daughter smiled back.
“Wait, so Emperor Nero is evil?” I asked.
“He wants your key to go into the real world. You see, Emperor Nero once lived in the Real World, but then his parents abandoned him and tossed him into his attic, which is now your house,” I was shocked at this point. “He found this mysterious door and saw this world, he crowned himself emperor and got power. He even made a lock with a key for the door, so his parents would never find him. He went out into the real world to look for people, his friends. However, when he finally got them all settled, he accidentally locked the door with the key on the other side. The real world. So you see, he didn’t want to go through these evil things but he had too. He wanted to go back to his parents, maybe. But now he has to trick people and manipulate people to get the key.” Carol sighs at the end. I match up all the clues, and that’s when I realize that the familiar design on the key was on my mo-and then black.
The next time I wake up is probably sometime around noon. Amelia is placing a wet towel on my forehead. Her mom is making hot tea in the kitchen.
“Amelia? What happened?”
“Are you awake Evelyn?” Note-to-self- this is the first time Amelia has used my full name, this must be a serious matter.
“Ye-Yeah, but what happened?”
“You fainted 2 hours ago, you were saying mom’s wedding over and over for the last hour.”
My eyes widen, “Yes, I remember, the design on the key was on my mom’s wedding necklace. See,” I slowly pull out the key from my pockets, thankful that it’s still there.
“The key is made with Alexandrite and so was my mom’s wedding ring and necklace. This has to be a clue! Can Emperor Nero be my dad?” At the thought of evil Emperor Nero, my stomach flips, and I feel my breakfast finding its way up. But I told my brain to push it back down.
“No, no way, I mean, it can’t be because Emperor Nero is just Emperor Nero, he’s no one in disguise.” Amelia answers.
“Yes, she’s right. Even though he is very evil, he would never disguise himself. What I’m dreading is inviting him over to our house.. tonight. He might try to find the key. After all, it’s a matter of time, he’s found out that you’re the one with the key. He might try going up stairs to check the room, or even ask about the key, you never with him.”
“We better get ready for the guests, Emperor Nero and his two favorite colleagues, Leo and Peter, and let’s try to find a place to store that key of yours.”
“Emperor Nero is coming tonight!” Amelia shrieks.
“Amelia! Lower your voice, We’re all near each other, not 1,000,000 miles away from each other!” Mrs. Carol scolds.
“Sorry,” Amelia says, obviously embarrassed at her outburst.
“But, I can’t believe you would invite Emperor Nero in this house, the house with ‘the girl’ in it.” Amelia put two fingers in the air for ‘quotes’.
“Yes, and I am genuinely sorry, but come on! We have a lot of cleaning and cooking to do!”
We’re still cleaning ‘our room’ when Mrs. Carol comes in, “Girls! We have to dress, we only have two more hours to go and we have to cook!”
“Only two hours!” But then Amelia quickly rushes to the closet to pick out 2 dresses, 2 necklaces, and more accessories. She hands me my pile and says, “Here, you can change in the bathroom, down the hall and to your left.” I quickly go to the bathroom and change. On my way back, I hear a rustling sound. As if someone is moving around, looking for something. I go towards the sound and realize that someone is in the guest room. I look inside and see.. Emperor Nero. He’s looking through the drawers, looking for the.. Key. I quickly and softly go to ‘our’ room and close the door behind me.
“You know,..” I say slowly, “Emperor Nero is in our house! Looking for the key!” Amelia stops and turns pale.
“What! You’re kidding!” She whisper-screams. “I’ll call mom,” she says, reaching for her phone.
“Mom,” she says once her mom has answered, “Emperor Nero is in our house!” We both wait for a response when we hear the door open. We turn to the door and then – black.
