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Back How to Disappear Completely Save as PDF
Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21
  25. 22
  26. 23
  27. 24
  28. 25
  29. 26
  30. 27
  31. 28
  32. 29
  33. 30
  34. 31
  35. 32
  36. 33
  37. 34
  38. 35
  39. 36
  40. 37
  41. 38
  42. 39
  43. 40
  44. 41
  45. 42
  46. 43
  47. 44
  48. 45
  49. 46
  50. 47
  51. 48
  52. 49
  53. 50
  54. 51
  55. Acknowledgments
  56. About the Author
  57. Back Ad
  58. About the Publisher

I feel like someone has punched me in the stomach. I think about everything I went through at school after Edie’s text. I can only imagine how much worse it would have been sixty years ago, before you could google vitiligo and find out what it really was.

But that’s no reason to keep a child locked away from the world. I feel heat rising in my cheeks as I imagine Gram trapped in Morning Glory Cottage, forced to live behind her curtains. All because of something she couldn’t control. The same something that’s happening to me.

The pages of my mind flip back once more to the snowy afternoon when I’d run into her room to find her staring out the window.

I don’t want you to ever feel like you have to come, do you understand? she said. I want this house to be a happy place for you.

Because it hadn’t been a happy one for Gram. Morning Glory Cottage had been more like a prison. And Gram had been just like Rapunzel, locked up in her tower.

“Madeline?” Fina asks softly. “You said that it was Emma’s gram who came up with the story about the fairy princess captured by goblins and a world that’s been cursed with darkness. But that’s—that’s the story from The World at the End of the Tunnel.”

An electric jolt goes through my heart. The World at the End of the Tunnel had sat there that snowy day, right on Gram’s lap. Along with the shoebox containing the picture of her parents, the book of poems, and the sketchbook.

A sketchbook full of fairies and gnomes and palaces. I had thought they were drawings Gram had done of the charmed folk in the Spinney.

But what if they were creatures from the Goldengrove? Characters from The World at the End of the Tunnel?

Barely able to breathe, I look over at Madeline. Glistening tears are gathering on her cheeks. The wrinkles on her face catch them like silver fish in a net.

“When your gram lost the last of the color in her skin, her parents rejoiced. She was normal again.” Madeline spits the word out. “They told everyone she’d miraculously recovered from her illness. It had been so long since anyone had seen her properly, no one even noticed that her skin was a different color. Besides, it would be pale, wouldn’t it, after months and months stuck inside? The curse was broken. She no longer had to live her life by night.