The Stolen Chapters (29 page)

Both Kiel and Owen stared at her in surprise. “But your father!” Owen said.

“Doyle's file was wrong,” Kiel told her. “You can't just give up!”

“You know he's out there, Bethany,” Owen said. “Doyle couldn't explore
all
the worlds . . .”

“I can't keep letting this make me crazy,” she said, staring at the table. “I've been looking for him for, like, half my life, and I'm no closer now than when I started. It's just too big a world, and I've got no leads. But beyond that,
look what I did
. I almost set loose a horrible, evil boy on the entire fictional world.” Realizing what she said, she blushed deeply, then gave Owen an embarrassed look. “Sorry. You know what I mean.”

“No, he's the worst,” Owen said.

“I don't hate
anyone
, and I hated him,” Kiel admitted.

“I'm so with you on that!” Bethany said, almost smiling.

“Okay, we get the point,” Owen said, trying not to sound as irritated as he felt. “Can we get back to your dad? You're really going to just let it go?”

“I think it's past time,” Bethany told him. “It's like Kiel said. I'm not sure I even know who I am without that. I can't just keep living the same story. I have to find my own now.”

She went silent, and for a moment no one spoke.

“I was actually thinking about writing, maybe,” Owen said.

“About Charm?” Kiel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No?”
Owen said, probably a bit too fast to be believable. “I have some other ideas. Maybe they already exist on some fictional world somewhere, and maybe they don't. But I thought it'd be fun to just see what happened, see where a story in my head goes for a change. Hopefully, I won't mess up too many fictional characters' lives
that
way. Or at least in any way they're not meant to be.”

Bethany smiled. “You're definitely going to have to let me read it.”

That idea sent a chill down Owen's spine. “Uh, we'll see.”

Bethany turned to Kiel, and for a moment it looked like she wanted to say something. Finally, she just shook her head. “When do you want to go back?”

Kiel's face dropped, and he looked more miserable than Owen had ever seen him. “Right now, if that's okay. I'm not sure waiting will help.”

Bethany nodded slowly and stood up. “I'll go get the book.”

As she walked away, Owen reached out and hugged Kiel, who hugged him right back even harder.

“I'm going to miss you,” Owen told him. “You're always going to be my favorite hero.”

“You're a true friend, and I couldn't ask for a better one,” Kiel said. “You've lived my life, Owen Conners, and that connects us. Like brothers, only closer. I hope you read of my adventures someday and imagine yourself by my side, as that's what I'll be doing.”

Owen sat back, his eyes wide. “That's . . . a good way to say good-bye.”

Kiel just winked.

When Bethany returned, Kiel stood up, and together they walked farther back into the library. Owen let them go, giving them a chance to say good-bye by themselves. At one point he thought he heard the book hit the floor, but it was several minutes before Bethany returned, her eyes wet. She didn't bother sitting, instead nodding toward the front door.

“Let's just go,” she said. “I don't really want to be here anymore.”

Owen nodded and led them outside. As he locked the library door, he glanced up at Bethany, who was crying without any sort of embarrassment now. “You okay?”

She nodded, then shook her head. Owen stood up and hugged her tightly until she let go, then stepped back. “We don't have to jump into books to be friends, you know.”

She smiled, sniffing through her tears. “Of course we don't. Our friendship just won't mess up anybody's stories from now on. Maybe we can just see some movies and do normal things for once.”

“Video games too,” Owen said.

Bethany laughed at that. “Just no jumping into them.”

Owen's eyes widened. “Can you . . . do that?”

Bethany's laugh died, and she gave him a death look. “Owen Conners, do
not
even think about it!”

B
ethany sat in her bedroom, collecting all the books she'd accumulated over the years. Some she'd be keeping, like
Goodnight Moon
and
The Little Prince
, just for emergencies. Most, though, she was going to give to Owen for the library.

She didn't need the temptation.

Still, there was
one
last thing she had to do. She still owed someone a thank-you.

The green sun of Argon VI warmed Bethany up as she slowly floated to the ground behind EarthGirl. “Hey,” she said quietly, knowing Gwen could hear her from miles away.

EarthGirl turned around faster than the speed of sound and shouted in joy. “Bethany!” She immediately hugged Bethany hard enough to crack a mountain in half. “You're back! Did you find your father?”

“No,” Bethany said quickly. “But I did realize I had something that might help
you
.”

“Help
me
?” EarthGirl said, giving her a curious look. “But how?”

Bethany took Gwen's hand in hers, smiled, then jumped them both out of the book.

The two of them landed on Bethany's bed, and Bethany turned to the shocked Gwen with a finger over her mouth. Gwen looked like she wanted to scream in surprise, but she just nodded silently.

Bethany went to the door and listened to hear if her mom was still up. She could hear the TV still on downstairs, so Bethany grabbed Gwen's hand and walked her quietly down the stairs, then out into the kitchen.

“You're still up, Beth?” her mom said from the living room at the front of the house.

“Yeah, just going to get a snack and look at the stars for a bit,” Bethany said loudly.

“Okay, but only for a minute. You've got school,” her mom said.

Bethany started to leave but realized Gwen was staring in the direction of the living room in amazement. Right. Bethany quietly led her to the door, where they could both see Bethany's mother sitting on their old couch, watching some late-night news show. Gwen's eyes began to water, and Bethany quickly pulled her back into the kitchen, then out the back door into her fenced-in yard and the cool night air.

“This is . . . this is Earth?” Gwen said, one tear slowly sliding down her cheek. “But how?”

“I'm a time traveler, remember?” she said. “I sometimes visit here. That's my . . . my adopted mom. I just thought you'd want to see what your home planet looked like.”

Gwen swallowed hard, tears flowing quicker now. “Would . . . would
my
parents—”

“No,”
Bethany said, probably a little too quickly. “No,” she repeated, more gently this time. “This is still a hundred years before your time.”

“But . . . but we can save them, then!” Gwen said, gesturing to the houses all around them. “We can save
everyone
!”

Bethany sighed.
Of course
EarthGirl would want to save her planet. Who wouldn't? “It's already happened in your future. If we changed it, then you wouldn't exist to help me save it, you know? It'd be a paradox, and that'd explode the entire universe.”

Gwen shook her head. “I don't accept that. There's
always
a way, Bethany. We just have to find it! You traveled through time, and we both have superpowers—”

“Not here,” Bethany pointed out. “Try flying.”

Gwen gave her an odd look, then leaped into the air, only to immediately drop back down to the ground. “No green sun?” she said.

“It's yellow, actually,” Bethany told her. “I need to take you back now, but I just wanted you to see what Earth was like. It's not much, but I hope it helps.”

Gwen reluctantly nodded, then faster than Bethany could react, Gwen threw her arms around her and hugged her tightly. “I can't
begin
to thank you for this,” she said. “Not even a little bit.”

Bethany nodded, getting choked up herself, then led Gwen back into the house.

“Get some sleep now,” Bethany's mom said, and Gwen froze in place.

Bethany looked at her, then gestured for her to go ahead.

“Okay, I will,” Gwen said, just loud enough for Bethany's mom to hear.

“Okay, good night then, sweetie,” Bethany's mom said, and Gwen almost giggled, even as tears fell down her face.

Bethany quietly walked them both back upstairs, then took Gwen's hand. “Close your eyes,” she told EarthGirl, and when she had, Bethany touched the open page of the book and jumped them back to Argon VI.

As the heat of the green sun beat down on them again, Gwen opened her eyes, and floated into the air, twirling slowly in circles. Finally, she hugged herself tightly, then turned to Bethany. “I can never repay you,” EarthGirl told her. “Never ever, Bethany. But let me at least show you
my
home here.”

“I . . . I need to get back to my own time,” Bethany lied. “Got to get to bed. You heard my mom.” She smiled.

Gwen nodded. “If you ever want help looking for your father . . . or with anything at all, you don't even need to ask. I'm there.
Always.
We're partners now, like detectives. And partners support each other.”

“I think I'm good, actually,” Bethany said, looking up at the bright-green sun in the sky. “I don't know why, but all of a sudden . . . I think things will be okay.”

N
obody wrote “The End” in Story Thieves:
The Stolen Chapters
, and placed it on his shelf. While that was taken care of, things were progressing much faster than he'd like, and he needed to be prepared.

And that meant taking another quick trip.

He turned the page, pulling fictional reality apart, then stepped through to what he knew was just another story, but looked like an entirely new world, this one foggy, with cobblestone streets and gas lamps smelling of kerosene. The
clip-clop
of horses alerted him to someone coming, so he quickly created clothes and a face, making himself resemble an average citizen of Victorian England, then stepped out of the street.

It didn't take long for him to find who he was looking for.

A man in a deerstalker hat and brown coat was speaking to a group of children, mostly young ones, but a few a bit older. Right in the middle was a boy covered in dirt, whispering something into the man's ear. The man dropped some coins in the boy's hand, and the boy quickly burst out of the group as the other children gathered around the man, hoping for more of the same.

Nobody stepped into the way of the boy with the coins and grabbed him by the back of his shirt, pulling him to a stop.

“You would be one of Sherlock Holmes's irregulars, would you not?” he asked quietly.

The boy stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and gave him a suspicious look. “No one here knows that name.”

“Neither of us are from around here, are we, Owen Conners,” Nobody said, and for just an instant flashed his normal, featureless face at Owen before returning to his Victorian disguise.

“Nobody,”
the fictional Owen Conners said, his eyes lighting up. “I was wondering when you'd show up!”

“You knew I'd come?” Nobody asked, a hint of a smile playing over his reforming face.

“Of course,”
Owen said. “I saw you walking away with the Magister's textbook at the end of
Story Thieves
, so of course you'd come for me, too. I mean, it didn't say for sure that it was the Magister's textbook, but it had to be. And that meant I was next!”

“And why would you think I'd do that?” Nobody asked.

Owen just smiled. “We're not in the book right now, are we?”

Nobody looked up, directly at you, the reader, then turned back to Owen and shook his head. “No one can see you.”

“Then I think you're not Bethany's father, because you're secretly her enemy,” Owen said, whispering in spite of Nobody's assurances. “I think you're putting together a group of her worst enemies to take her down. Like the Avengers or the Justice League or something, only evil.”

“And you would want to fight against her, then?” Nobody asked, raising an eyebrow.

“As long as I get to take down my nonfictional self, too,” Owen said, his eyes narrowing. “I owe Nowen big time. Him and that idiot, Kiel.”

“So you've learned nothing,” Nobody said, and reached out to the boy. Owen just watched in confusion as Nobody's hand touched his arm, at which point he screamed. The scream cut off instantly as Owen's mouth closed on itself, while his flailing arms and legs began to retract into his body.

Moments later Nobody held just a small ball in his hand, which he put into his pocket. “Of the two Owens, I thought I'd be doing this to your nonfictional self a lot sooner than to you,” he said, almost sadly. “You disappointed me, fictional Owen.”

With that, he stepped into an alley, then pulled the pages of Victorian England apart, and stepped back into his own library. He deposited the fictional Owen Conners into a jar on a shelf, next to a copy of a math textbook, before sighing.

“Things are happening much too fast, Bethany,” he said, staring at the copy of Story Thieves:
The Stolen Chapters
. “You're causing more trouble than I can keep hidden.” He sighed, then opened a new, empty book titled Story Thieves:
Secret Origins
, and put his pen onto the first page.

“I suppose there's nothing for it. It's time that you meet your father.”

Liesa Abrams Mignogna stared at the pages, wondering what James Riley could be thinking. Was he actually saying that he was a character in the Story Thieves books? Was he crazy? Was this some sort of ego thing, putting himself in a book?