Chapter One
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Never Ending Story. I'm just playing with the world and the characters. However, Rhiannon is my character. (How many original characters do I have?)
Summary: When Rhiannon's world gets too harsh for her to handle, she escapes into a fantasy world created by the books she reads. But her whole life changes when she finds a slightly different book
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Rhiannon lay curled up on her bed, a book lying open in front of her. She was trying to read, but the shouting coming from downstairs was bothering her.
He's drunk again, Rhiannon thought to herself, biting her lip. She glanced towards the door of her room, and wished yet again that it had a lock on it.
Rhiannon grabbed her pillow, and held it over her ears, trying to drown out the noise. It didn't work, though. And even if it had worked, she still would have been able to hear them shouting in her head.
I wish that they weren't so predictable, Rhiannon thought. I wish that my father didn't drink so much. And I wish that my mother didn't keep on goading him!
Finally, despite the shouting coming from downstairs, Rhiannon was able to slip into sleep.
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The next morning, Rhiannon made her way slowly through the streets, going to her school. She was dragging her feet as she didn't particularly want to go to school that day, though she supposed that at least it was better than staying at home with all the rows going on.
There's not much to choose between either of the places, Rhiannon thought as she crossed a particularly busy road. Home and school are as bad as each other.
Rhiannon glanced to her side, then ahead of her, then to the side again, and stopped.
There was a bookshop.
Ok, that wasn't very surprising in itself. There were quite a number of bookshops in the town. But what was surprising was that Rhiannon couldn't remember having seen this particular bookshop before. And she walked this route to and from school every morning and afternoon.
I suppose that I could have just missed it before, Rhiannon thought. But she didn't think that that was very likely. After all, she bought books whenever possible. She loved reading.
Rhiannon hesitated. She would be late if she delayed too much longer.
On second thoughts, maybe that's not too bad an idea, Rhiannon decided. I don't really mind being late for school. Unless, of course, they ring my parents...
That thought was almost enough to make Rhiannon continue on past the bookshop and go on to school. But she was too curious about this bookshop that she hadn't seen before. So she pushed open the door and stepped in.
The shop had that almost musty smell which nearly always accompanies old books. It was fairly bright inside, but not as bright as the outside had been.
Rhiannon looked around at all of the books, not noticing the old shopkeeper at first. At least, not until he spoke.
"Oh, another kid," the old man grunted. "Come to get your sticky fingers all over the books and vandalise my property, I suppose."
"I'm not," Rhiannon replied quickly. "I just came in to look at the books. I like reading."
"Hm." The shopkeeper didn't look very convinced. "Shouldn't you be in school now?" he demanded.
"Um, I guess so," Rhiannon answered. "But... I don't really want to go to school. And I can't really stay at home..." She bit her lip and looked down, hoping that the shopkeeper wouldn't ask for reasons.
"Well..." The shopkeeper's eyes softened slightly. "It's hardly my place to tell you whether to go to school or not," he said. "Feel free to look around as much as you want." With those words, he placed a book on one of the shelves, and then moved off into a different section.
Rhiannon hesitated, then moved over to the shelf the shopkeeper had placed the book on. She took the book down, and saw that it had a strange circular-shaped design on the front.
"The Never Ending Story," Rhiannon read.
Rhiannon moved to a chair and sat down. Opening the book, she glanced down at the pages.
Suddenly, there seemed to be a bright light coming from the inside of the book itself. Then, everything went black.
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