Castlem: Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Charlotte O’Conner was sitting on her bed, reading. She was waiting for her mother to call her for lunch.

“Charlotte!” her mother’s voice brought Charlotte back to earth.

“Charlotte!” repeated Chester the parrot in a screechy voice. He could be so annoying sometimes.

Charlotte got up and went into the dining room. There, the aroma of homemade bread and soup washed over her. She walked into the kitchen, and Charlotte saw that her mother was busy cutting bread and putting it on a plate. Many people said that Charlotte was the spitting image of her mother. They both had blond hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion.

“There you are, Charlotte,” her mother said, turning around. “Do you know where your father is?”

“Um, I think he’s down in the basement, fixing something,” was Charlotte’s reply.

“Yes, of course. Will you go fetch him?” Charlotte went to do so.

Down in the dimly lit basement, Charlotte’s father was fixing a bookcase. Charlotte entered and walked down the cold, stone steps.

“Father! Father! Father!” Charlotte shouted over her father’s hammering. Finally Mr. O’Conner looked up and smiled at her. He had a cheerful face with black hair and brown eyes.

“Well hello, Lottie. What is it now? Is your mother suffering a dreadful headache because of the noise?” he asked.

“Oh no, nothing like that,” Charlotte hastily replied. “She just wanted me to tell you that lunch is ready.”

“I'll be up in a minute.”

“Okay. Hurry up, though.” With that, Charlotte left.

After lunch, Charlotte went back to her room. She plopped on to her bed and picked up her favorite book.

This book was titled The Mystical Magic of Hidden Worlds. It was written by Abigail Penner, who was Charlotte’s favorite author.

Charlotte resumed reading The Mystical Magic of Hidden Worlds. Even though she had read it many times before, she never became bored of it. Ms. Penner made each hidden world seem so real because of the way she wrote. Charlotte could think of no other way to reach the hidden worlds that by reading The Mystical Magic of Hidden Worlds.

Whenever Charlotte read, she seemed to enter each of the worlds. She once tried to describe them like Ms. Penner, but Charlotte could never quite mimic the style.

That day, Charlotte was on the last chapter. After she was finished, she started to close the book, when Charlotte realized something. The book was thicker that before!

“This is very odd,” Charlotte thought to herself. She flipped to the back of The Mystical Magic of Hidden Worlds and, to her amazement, Charlotte saw a chapter there that had not existed before. The title of the chapter was, “A New Hidden World.” Charlotte read on, intrigued.

That whole new chapter was a bout a hidden world called Castlem. As Charlotte read, she found that she could not stop. The words just seemed to draw her in.

When she finally reached the last page, the final words were, “To be continued...” All of a sudden, Charlotte was no longer in her room. She was sitting in a lush forest, and the book was still in her hands.