The test was supposed to take more time, so that left me with most of the day off. Back home (and in one of my nicer dresses), I decided to read some more books but I ended up taking a wrong turn somewhere. I ended up on a side of the estate I had never seen before. It was less decorated with plain white walls and less portraits. Even the long rugs were more boring, they were an ugly green with less intricate patterns than the ones in the rest of the house.

Just as I had decided to turn back I noticed a shapeless blob out of the corner of my eye. My first thought was that the illusions from the maze were following me but closer inspection revealed a flailing mass of cloth.

I stared, completely convinced that it wasn’t real. Reaching out, I tugged on the sheet revealing a kid. I took an involuntary step back. The kid had orange hair. Even when she looked at me with eyes identical to the maid, all I could see was the girl that had stared at me while I fell down in the maze. Ridiculous, they looked nothing alike and Leanne was not a real person as far as I knew. 

Far too late I realized that the girl was looking at me in horror. I held out the sheet but she did not take it. I guessed her deer in headlights act had something to do with me. As I was wondering what to say, the girl let out a small squeak bowing so low that she fell forward. I frowned. 

I watched as she hurriedly stood up dusting off her little maid dress and passing a hand through her hair.

“Good afternoon Lady Anastasia!” She half shouted. Baffled, I took another step back.

“Leanne,” I whispered knowing full well that there was no way that was her name. I also didn’t expect her to hear me but the immediate frown on her face let me know she did in fact hear.

“I have actually been informed my name is Larissa.” There was something wrong in the flat way she said that. Maybe I was imagining it but I also heard doubt but it didn’t make any sense, did she not believe her own name?

“Why would you need to be informed of your own name?” I asked almost jokingly. I didn’t expect the jolt of panic that showed in her face. 

“I’m sorry. I can’t talk for very long. I am behind on my chores and my mother told me not to talk to you. She said to avoid you at all costs in fact.” She finally grabbed her sheet. It was quite big, it dragged on the floor as she attempted to run away. “I got so many things to catch up on, most of which I am being forced to repeat for some reason.”

Yeah, something she said was resonating in my head in a way I didn’t quite understand. I followed down the hall. 

“Repeat? You didn’t just have to repeat the same four days or anything?” Again, I said it as a joke but the way she immediately flinched and started to walk faster told me something. 

“I just think,” I went on speeding up as well, “That it would be quite the coincidence if we both just happened to live the same four days and yet no one else has given the smallest inkling that anything went wrong, right?”

In one of her quick steps, she stepped on the overly long sheet and fell, tangling herself up in the fabric again. Waiting for her to fight her way out of the cloth prison, I took the chance to properly look around at both ends of the hall. No one was around, good. 

“I don’t know what any of that means.” She said emerging from the sheet. Her face was not convincing. It was too blank, almost practiced.

Still, I didn’t see the conversation going anywhere. Even if my brain told me something was off about Lea-Larissa, my eyes told me nothing other than this is the main character of the novel and she probably thought I went out of my way to antagonize her. That would explain the guarded tone she was using. 

I took a few steps back.

“Fair enough, I must have confused you for some else. How silly of me, there was no way we could ever know each other.”  I turned and began to walk away.

Yeah, something was starting to make sense to me but it felt like I was getting a clue in a puzzle I was not currently trying to solve.

I retraced my steps and after a bit more wandering I ended up in the library. I picked up a book at random, opened it at a random spot and attempted to read. No good, I couldn’t focus. I put the book back. When I got back to the table, I decided I would prefer to sit on one of the sofas. I initially sat down but I must have fallen asleep at one point because when I opened my eyes, Larissa was in front of me. I looked around. We were in the library. I don’t know why I had expected myself to be in the weird room with no door that I had once talked to Anastasia in. I hadn’t had that dream in a while and yet, hadn’t Anastasia said we talk every day?

I sat up. If I had dreamt of Anastasia, I would have known.

“Do you want to hear something odd?” Larissa nervously looked over her shoulder. What was over there, the door? She didn’t lock me in, she can’t have. Why would the protagonist do something weird like that?

The seconds passed slowly before what she said registered. She asked me a question.

“How odd are we talking about?” Something about her was throwing me off, and I was yet again reminded of the brown eyed girl which still did not make any sense. 

“I…” She broke off and cast another panicked glance at the door. It was still closed, silent, very door-like. I waited for the odd thing.

She closed her eyes, a pained expression on her face. 

“I have a bunch of memories that do not make sense. No, that is not quite right. I remember things that are impossible. When I sleep, I see people that never existed. When I tried to tell my mother, she called it a premonition and told me to never tell anyone but I don’t think that’s quite right. What I see isn’t the future, I am almost sure it is the past. There are three of us and we are in a vehicle of some sort. Next to me is a person, and although we don’t resemble each other very much, I know she is my sister.”

Something was definitely off, as she stumbled through her paranoid sounding speech I could visualize the car.

I was driving. To my right was-

A ringing filled my ears. For a second all the color drained from the library, instead of shelves, I saw two people. They had no features, just silhouettes made of pure gold, a man and a woman and they were watching me. 

The colors snapped back into place. The library coming back into focus. And yet, not everything went back to normal. The ugly thought that Larissa brought with her stayed and so did the image of the car and of my sisters. I could see them clearly, similar pale features but one of them, Leanne was covered from head to foot in freckles. Leanne was the blond kid I saw during the test and although it didn’t make any sense to me I knew she was also Larissa. Yes, she was in the car with me and when I got pulled into this world! She must have been taken too but did that mean that our other sister was here too? Was Nadia a part of this world now too? Out of the three of us she was the only one that knew the story, she must be doing just fine wherever she was. 

“I remember something similar.” I didn't mean to say anything. Watching the colors of the library fade, I wondered how likely it would be for me to pass out.

“Then do you know why the last four days repeated? Did something happen? Is the story not progressing the way it’s supposed to?” There it was. The reason for Larissa’s panic and the reason she had locked us both in the library. 

“I died.” I shrugged at the look of horror on Larissa’s face. “I entered the maze to get into the Golden whatever school and set some things on fire. My last memories are of falling and then waking up and redoing the last four days.”

“Do you think that would happen again if something were to happen to me?” Larissa looked down at her wrists. Somehow, she seemed more panicked than before.

“I wouldn’t go out of my way to test it out, just in case it doesn’t work a second time.” I watched the color leave the book covers. 

“What else am I, are we supposed to do!” Was there a touch of hysteria in her voice? I wasn’t sure, with the colors gone her voice was starting to sound a bit faint.

“Oh, the original Anastasia made a deal with Faramund, something about a better ending. I assume the story keeps going until this better ending is reached and me dying in the maze is definitely a bad ending for Anastasia… It was probably a good ending for a few people” I chuckled.

“So that’s it, we play out the story and then what?”

Maybe I was imagining the fog descending over everything or maybe the library was getting a bit cloudy.

“Yeah, pretty much. Not sure about after…” Even my own voice was starting to sound muffled.

I blinked. The fog had taken over my vision and maybe I was losing my mind but there were voices in the fog. 

“That’s quite enough for now.”

“Focus on the story.”

A woman and a man if I had to guess but when had they entered the room? I wanted to raise my hands to clear away the fog but my arms wouldn’t move. 

The next thing I knew I was laying down on something soft. I opened my eyes.

The colors were back, unfortunately. I was in my dreadful pink room, in my bed and alone. The memories from the library flowed in slowly and out of order. From the jumble, one thought took shape. I wasn’t the only one forced to live out a stranger’s life. My sister was here and it was quite likely my other sister was here too. I was almost shocked by how relieving that thought was. I guess on  some level I thought I alone was surrounded by fake people. I took a deep breath and gazed in the direction of the window. I saw nothing but black. It must be night time. Maybe if I went to sleep, I would get close to the end of the story. 

Yes, worth a shot.