CHAPTER 6

It’s Coming from Inside the Castle!

As soon as Cerise reached the castle, the first thing she noticed was that it was completely dark inside. That’s odd, Cerise thought. Where is everybody? Where is Dexter?

“Dex… Dex! Where are you?” she called.

“C-C-Cerise? Is that you?” Cerise looked around and saw Dexter the Beast in the garden, peeking out from behind what appeared to be a wall of books—just like in her dream!

“Dex, what’s going on?” Cerise said.

“I had to get out of the castle,” Dexter told her fearfully. “The staff has the night off, and with you gone, I was all by myself.”

“I’m sorry I stayed away so long,” Cerise apologized. “But I was feeling a little homesick, and I met some girls who were playing bookball, and I just lost track of time—”

“Never mind that,” Dexter whispered. “We have bigger things to worry about. Someone is inside the castle!”

“What do you mean someone?” Cerise whispered back. “You don’t know who?”

“No. I heard all these creepy scratching noises around the castle, and I knew it wasn’t the staff—or you! I got scared and I ran out here. After a little while I tried going back inside.…”

“And?”

“And then I kept hearing the strange noises, and I didn’t want to stay inside to find out what they were. So I made my little fort out here.” He took Cerise’s hand. “Come on in. I made it big enough for two in case you showed up.”

Cerise shook her head. “We shouldn’t stay out here all night. That’s silly, and besides, it’s going to get cold. Come on, let’s go back in.”

“But, Cerise, whoever it is, they could be dangerous. We don’t know anything about them or what they want—”

“Maybe… but it sounds like you’re getting ahead of yourself,” Cerise said gently. “Besides, you’re the Beast. Whoever it is, they’ll be scared of you. Remember, I taught you how to growl and howl.”

Dexter nodded. Slowly and quietly, they made their way back to the front door. Besides the fort, Dexter had stacked even more books in front of the door as a barricade. Cerise gave Dexter a look, and he shrugged his shoulders as if to say, What? I was scared!

After they silently moved the books, Cerise peeked her head inside the castle. It all seemed fine and fairy quiet. But then, to her surprise, she heard lots of scuffling and scraping. She turned back to Dexter. “Okay, maybe you were right—somebody is in there,” she whispered. They both tiptoed inside. Dexter grabbed a lantern near the front door. They had just taken a few steps when they heard a tremendous CRASH coming from the kitchen. Dexter shrieked, making Cerise jump a little, and then he dropped the lantern. The lantern shattered!

Cerise’s eyes flashed, and she growled so deeply that the hairs stood up on the back of Dexter’s neck.

“Cerise, is that you growling?” He could hardly believe Cerise was so scary!

Quickly, Cerise regained her composure. “Oh, uh, whoops. Sorry, Dex. I was just trying to scare whoever else is in here.”

Dexter let out a nervous little chuckle. “Well, it worked! Keep it up. Meanwhile, let me see what I can do with this lantern.”

So as Dexter tried to fix the lantern, Cerise paced and growled. After a few minutes, Dexter declared, “Got it! And look, I was able to up the wattage on this, so the light should be super bright now.”

“Okay. On the count of three, then,” Cerise said. “We charge, and you turn on the light. Ready?”

“Ready!” Dexter agreed.

“Okay. Here we go. One… two… three… lights on! GRRRRR!”

Cerise and Dexter both stomped and charged as Dexter turned the lantern on the intruders.

“Aaaagh!” Dexter yelled, while at the same time Cerise burst out laughing at the scary “intruders”—two baby deer, a family of fluffy squirrels, and little mice were snacking on a bowl of berries and nuts they had knocked off a table.

“Oh, sorry, little fellas.” Cerise knelt down and put her hand out for the animals to sniff. The baby deer stared at her with wide eyes as Dexter dimmed the lantern. Cerise scooped up a handful of berries and offered them to the deer. The squirrels and mice realized there was nothing to fear, so they continued eating the snacks scattered across the floor.

Dexter chuckled. Cerise turned to look at him. “What’s so funny?” she asked.

“We are,” he replied. “Scared of some baby animals!”

Cerise laughed. “Well… they could have been scary intruders,” she said. “I still think we were fairy brave to come in and charge them—even if they were just a bunch of cute animals.”

“Agreed,” Dexter said. “Now let’s whip up a midnight feast in honor of our bravery and defending the castle! It’s just the two of us, so you don’t have to worry about servants or cooks or fancy manners. We can just relax and be ourselves.”

Cerise nodded happily. She suddenly realized she was starving, too! Once again, Cerise thought that even though this fairytale wasn’t hexactly what she was hexpecting, it was still a pretty fun adventure.