Chapter Text
Chase knew, in perspective, that he should be traumatized right now.
Like really, really traumatized, if he’s being honest.
After everything that happened only two days ago, with the book world ending, the pages disintegrating, and him and his friends nearly dying, all he found in his heart was a genuine excitement for the next story.
What was wrong with him?
He put everyone in danger— the keys, his cousin, a child, Buddy— and yet he still felt this stupid anxious energy to get into the next book as soon as possible. Why, no one will ever know. Certainly didn’t have to do with a grumpy goth waiting for him within the pages (that he may or may not have kissed).
Fortunately (unfortunately), Deacon was adamant that Chase wait it out until the next book, no matter how much Chase begged.
After all, they didn’t want another drowning book incident.
And so, two days later, after the begging and pleading that Deacon clearly didn’t understand, Chase’s cousin finally relented.
“Fine!” Deacon finally huffed, throwing his hands in the air. “You win, Chase, we’ll go into a new book.”
Chase paused in his pleading at Deacon’s feet, on the floor of his bedroom, and glanced up. “…huh?”
“You’ve been whining for two days now and I have to admit I'm finally freaking sick of it,” Deacon explained, reluctantly helping Chase to stand. “Although I’m not even sure why you’d want to go into a new one considering… everything.”
Chase blinked. “Dang, Dorkin; your caving skills are getting more beneficial to me by the day.”
Deacon pouted at that before turning to rifle through the pile of books Ms. G had given them.
“I’ve thought about it a lot, Chase, and I realized we haven’t been in any other book genre.”
Chase perked up at this.
“And so, I realized that Ms. G happens to have a genre that’s not fantasy thrown into this… very mismatched pile of books.” Deacon scratched his head as he held out the book.
Chase snatched it up immediately and gasped in delight, “Deacon, how’d you know I like mystery?!”
“Maybe ‘cause I’m your freaking cousin and closest friend,” Deacon muttered.
“Nah, I have closer friends than you, like Prunella.” Chase waved his hand vaguely, “Hey, this isn’t a murder mystery, is it?”
“No it’s— hey, what did you just say about Prunella?!”
“Someone say my name?” A voice asked behind the two.
“Prunella,” Chase greeted, still examining the book, “I was wondering when you’d come by to bother us again.”
“Hey, I had, like, the most traumatic experience ever two days ago. You can’t judge me for taking a break from my little summer gig.”
“Excuse me, it’s my summer gig, actually, and—”
“Guys…” Deacon mumbled, pinching his nose, “you’re giving me a headache, seriously.” He pulled down the attic door and started to climb up the ladder, calling for the keys to wake up as he did. Chase and Prunella watched him go.
Prunella was all business as she turned back to Chase, her arms crossed, “what book is this one?”
“One you’re not going into,” Chase sassed.
Prunella only stuck her tongue out at him as he handed it over. She examined it and said, “oh yah, this is the one that my mom totally bought at a random thrift shop not far from here. Think it’ll be good?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t read it yet.”
“Guys, c’mon!” Deacon yelled from the attic. “Keys are awake!”
Chase immediately scrambled up the ladder, finding Silver, Goldie, and Bronze all stretching. Well, Goldie and Bronze were; Silver was already torso-deep in a Cheeto bag.
“Morning, guys!” Chase greeted them, “we’re finally going into a new book again!”
“MmMmf mmmf mm mf!” Silver yelled over her shoulder from the Cheeto bag.
“She’s saying ‘Deacon filled us in,’” said Bronze usefully.
“Ah. I was going to ask, hah.” Chase smiled, watching as Prunella scrambled up the steps after him to rush over to Goldie.
“Greetings, young Pru!” the key shouted happily.
“Hi, Goldie,” Prunella picked him up and smiled down at him.
Chase watched them exchange a few words for a moment before turning to Deacon. “Did you skim through the book yet?”
“Uh, yah— we won’t have full notes this time; I wanted to actually keep it a mystery. Might heighten our enjoyment and therefore the narratonin levels.”
“Aww, you want me to enjoy myself,” Chase grinned.
“Ourselves,” Deacon corrected. “And I have a feeling you’ll enjoy yourself regardless.” He squinted his eyes at Chase suspiciously, “something tells me me you want to see a certain someone.”
“Hah!” Chase laughed nervously, eyes wide open, “hahah! What! Noooooo, who even— hah!”
Deacon rolled his eyes and turned towards Prunella.
“Hey, kid, let’s pick a separate book for you today.” Deacon said as Chase continued to make excuses behind him.
Prunella groaned loudly, placing Goldie onto the ground gently, “but I want to do the weird looking mystery book!”
“No, kid,” Chase and Deacon said in unison. They both knew how dangerous books could be, now.
Prunella sighed forlornly, accepting her fate. “What book is it this time…”
Chase grabbed a book at random, bringing it over to the younger girl. “Uh, you’re doing…” he grinned, “does another Lovalorn book work for you?”
Prunella slowly smiled widely, “maaaybe…”
With Prunella now in her Lovalorn story, Deacon and Chase started to get ready to go into their own book. Deacon was skimming it, his brow furrowed.
“Let’s start off easy—” Chase started, “how does reading the synopsis first sound, instead of skimming through it?” He snatched the book from Deacon’s hands.
“Hey—!”
Chase flipped the book over, frowning as he read the back cover. “Hmm… looks to be a mystery about a key… blah blah blah…”
“You aren’t even trying!” Deacon exclaimed, grabbing it back. “At least pretend like you are.”
Chase snickered at Deacon’s reaction, then sat himself down to listen to Deacon talk.
Between the two cousins, the keys were eating breakfast (Silver was onto her third bag of chips).
“Hmm…” Bronze pondered to himself, holding a small chocolate chip cookie in his hands. “You reckon this will be a good book? We’ve never gone into a mystery before. Silver? What do you think?”
Silver finished her chewing, swallowing noisily. “Ah— I’m sure it’ll be fine. A new genre never hurt anyone! Right, Chase?”
Chase turned to her, clearly uninterested in what Deacon was saying about the book. “Yah! It’ll be fun!”
Bronze just watched them skeptically. “Well, as long as it’s not a murder mystery or anything like that…”
Chase shook his head quickly, “Nah, it’s some mystery about a missing key or something.”
“A missing key…” Bronze frowned, “now where have I heard that one before?”
“Hah! Funny, cause you guys are missing keys, too.”
“No,” Bronze said, “it’s—”
“Okay!” Deacon slammed the book closed, placing it in his lap. “I think we’ve got enough information to know what this book’s about. Basically, the master of the manor, Madam Lilith, lost a key. Apparently Everly, the heroine, stole this key. Seems to be that Lilith is the villainess and is trying to hide something from the other residents of the manor.
“We don’t know what this is, so the heroine and her best friend are trying to find out where this key leads to,” Deacon finished.
“So… what does Lilith think about Everly stealing the key?” Chase asked cluelessly.
“Um… clearly Lilith doesn’t know? What kind of question was that?”
“I don’t know, you didn’t elaborate!”
As the two continued to bicker, Bronze turned to Silver. “It sounds… almost familiar, doesn’t it?”
“Hmm?” Silver hummed, “I’m sure it’s fine. I don’t recall a story like this.”
Bronze only frowned and turned away as the cousins finished their argument.
“And that —” Chase finished, “is why you don’t get along with horses!”
“How did you even get to that conclusion— you know what, no, we’re not talking about this. Let’s just enter the book.” Deacon sighed, facepalming.
“Yay! Let’s stop wasting time. Any last minute things to tell me?”
“Actually, yah, there’s one—”
“That was a rhetorical question, nerd, let’s just go already!” Chase fist-bumped the air excitedly.
Deacon sighed in resignation, then turned to Bronze. “Hey, give me a good outfit this time, please?”
Bronze just nodded vaguely. Deacon trusted that it probably meant he was going to get an average outfit at best.
Silver was already stretching, and with a pop, her silver key-form appeared onto the pile of books she was sitting on. Bronze followed suit soon after.
Chase grabbed Silver and set the book up on its stand. “Okay, here goes nothing! Eat up, book!”
And upon entering the key, Deacon and Chase disappeared with a flash.
Chase came into appearance on a chair in the middle of a library. Something about it felt familiar as he glanced around it, although he couldn’t quite put his finger on as to why it did.
Books lined the towering shelves, and small cushions laid around the room. It almost looked modern in comparison to the usual libraries in most fantasy books.
He looked down at himself; another stunning outfit from Silver. Chef’s kiss.
There was a person sitting next to him; their body was dressed head to toe in a butler's outfit. They didn’t look at him; instead, they sat tensely, as if they were expecting some oncoming bad news.
Chase turned to stare at the other person next to him, a guy with an average appearance, and wondered who he was supposed to be.
The contemplation didn’t last long, because as soon as he thought it, there was another flash as Deacon replaced the person.
Deacon glanced around him, brow furrowed. “Huh. A library.”
Chase just nodded, about to respond to his cousin when he heard… shoes tapping… on the ground outside the door…
And suddenly, Chase remembered his nervousness from earlier.
“Shit,” he whispered, his eyes widening. “Ah, crap.”
“Wha—!” Deacon yelped as he watched Chase abruptly stand up from his chair, and promptly jump over it to the back of the library.
“Deaconnnn hide meee—”
But it was too late. Buddy slammed the door open (him and his stupid dramatic entrances), and just stared.
He seemed a little clueless as he watched Chase scratch at the locked backdoor of the library like a caged animal.
“What did I just walk into…”
Deacon, just as clueless, helplessly tugged on Chase’s shirt. “Chase… what is going on…”
Deacon paused, then he suddenly rounded on Buddy, throwing his hands in the air as he realized the reason Chase was so terrified was because of the person right in front of him. “What did you guys do in that book?!”
“What do you mean what did we do? Clearly it’s all Chase— it’s always Chase.” Buddy turned away from them, pouting as he crossed his arms. He didn’t meet Deacon’s eyes as he said it.
“What’s that mean?!” This time Chase whirled around on Buddy, seemingly shocked at his response, “you also ki—!”
But he didn’t finish, because Buddy just held up a hand, his eyes not meeting Chase’s and his cheeks turning pink. “You guys should leave.”
They all suddenly paused. Staring at Buddy, Chase and Deacon just stood there, shocked at his response.
Then Chase turned bright red in anger, “wha— huh?! After everything, you just tell us to— what?!”
How could Buddy say that? Chase thought, After all the events that went down in the last book, all he does is tell us to leave?!
Chase had never felt this furious, this heartbroken in his entire life!
Before Buddy could explain himself, Chase roared, “how could you?!”
And Buddy just started stuttering, seeming to have realized what he had just said.
Waving his arms frantically around his head, he stammered, “W-wait no! It’s not ‘cause of that, it’s because—!”
“No more excuses, Buddy!” Deacon suddenly yelled, angry at the boy who had clearly somehow hurt Chase's feelings. “Why did you say that!”
“Because you shouldn't be in this book!”
There was another long pause filled with an awkward silence, only penetrated by the sounds of heavy, panting breaths.
Then a small voice coughed pointedly nearby them. “Uh… Madam Lilith? Everly? Candor? Am I… missing something?”
Buddy straightened his back, immediately getting back into character. He turned to the person, “Olive. Er— yes, I was here for a reason.”
Olive nodded for him to continue, so Buddy went to the front of the library once again. Chase and Deacon shared a glance before warily making their way back to their seats, facing Buddy as they did.
With the sudden outburst coming to an end, Buddy sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, pulled himself together, and stood up straight. “Okay, back to business— ahem.”
As Buddy got back into character, Chase sank lower in his seat, arms crossed over his chest, and glared at the boy he had kissed just two days ago. Of course, Deacon didn’t know this, so all he could do was stare at Chase with a face that held both pity and confusion.
Buddy was explaining, “someone took my key. I’m not sure who it was, but I need it back. As you all know, it’s very important to me. As such, I want all of you on the lookout at all times.” Chase noticed that he said all this in a manner that was different from his usual way-too-in-character self. In fact, he seemed reluctant to do so. “Find my key before I get mad.”
The whole time Buddy was speaking, he kept stealing glances at Chase, who in turn retained furious eye-contact until Buddy would quickly look away.
Once Buddy finished, Chase stood up from his chair, not even wincing as it scraped along the floor. Buddy let him go, holding his own arm in resignation as Chase marched out the room. With Deacon following sheepishly behind, they turned the corner after Chase threw open the doors. Once they got as far away from Buddy as possible through the maze of hallways, Chase suddenly stopped.
He stood with his back to Deacon, his teeth gritted, his fists clenched, and his face hidden from his cousin.
“Chase…”
But Chase didn’t respond. Instead, he tried to calm down.
It’s okay, Chasey, He thought to himself, it’s okay. Buddy is just being… Buddy. He’s just stubborn. It’s not because of the kiss. It’s not, it’s not, it’s not…
After taking a few deep, panicky breaths, he straightened his spine and turned to Deacon, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
“Let’s just… get this book over with.” Chase sighed.
“But you wanted to do a book so badly…” Deacon pointed out hesitantly.
“Well, yah!” Chase said, as cheerfully as he possibly could. “Because we obviously have to gather nerratonin for mom, so, you know… we should go into a book?”
Deacon frowned but nodded, seeming to be going along with Chase for his sake. “Right…”
They continued walking the hallways, no destination in mind. They talked about nothing in particular; mostly it was Deacon trying to get Buddy off of Chase’s mind. Chase appreciated that.
They were doing fine for a while, passing the dining room, then their sleeping quarters, and many other rooms. However, they came to a sudden stop when a panting breath approached behind them.
As soon as they turned around, Buddy immediately stopped his half-jogging after them and posed. Chase rolled his eyes. Always trying to have a dramatic entrance, he thought, somewhat endearingly.
“Er— I knew I’d find you here,” Buddy started.
“Yah, right,” Deacon muttered, “go away, Buddy, you made Chase sad.”
“Wha— no, he didn’t! I don’t get sad over Buddy of all—!” Chase abruptly stopped talking when Deacon shoved his hand over Chase’s mouth, his protests turning into muffled words.
Buddy, on his part, looked actually apologetic, for once, which amazed Deacon and Chase enough to stop them from starting a cousin squabble right then and there. Deacon slowly took his hand away from Chase’s face.
Buddy, quickly schooling his expression, started, “look, I didn’t mean all that in the way you guys thought, back there,” he looked away again; for some reason, he could not meet Chase’s eyes at all today. “I’m not… mad, or anything,” he glanced quickly at Chase meaningfully, but immediately his eyes darted away, “there’s something you guys don’t want to find out about this book—”
“This book?” Deacon demanded, “why this book? What’s important about it?”
“I just told you, I don’t want you guys to find out!” Buddy griped, “how did you even get your hands on this thing?”
“A thrift sto—” Chase started, before Deacon once again covered his mouth.
“Chase!”
Chase just licked the palm of his hand in response.
As Deacon shook his hand in disgust, Chase leveled Buddy with a glare so distrustful that even Buddy flinched.
“What is it about this book that makes you so scared, Buddy?” Chase narrowed his eyes, “how can a random book we found have anything to do with you?” Chase contemplated for a second, but before he could get to any conclusion, Buddy interrupted his thoughts.
“Chase, I know what this looks like, but I promise it’s not because of… that.”
“Yah… ‘that.’” Chase said miserably. Of course he can’t say it outright. What was I thinking?
“No, Chase, I’m serious— ”
“That’s enough,” Deacon cut through, “we’re staying in this book, and that’s final. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to our rooms.”
Buddy watched helplessly as the two walked away from him.
“Thanks, Dorkin,” Chase whispered once they were out of ear-shot.
“Don’t mention it,” Deacon sighed. “Just… tell me later what’s going on with you two, and I’ll call it even.”
Chase winced, but he agreed softly, his cheeks turning slightly pink. Deacon definitely won’t like what Chase will have to say.
They made it to their rooms, and there they found a different person.
“Oh— uh, Olive, right?” Chase greeted, “uh— is there a reason you're in front of the bedroom marked ‘Everly?’
Olive eyed the two thoughtfully. “Hmm,” they hummed, “yes, I need to talk to the two of you. It’s about time that you both know what is truly going down here.”
Chase and Deacon just smiled at Olive. Clearly, this was another character in the book. Olive would do well to explain everything they needed to know about the story.
But what the character told them next shocked them down to their core. “You need to get out of this book,” Olive said promptly, “Now.”