_Each child is born with 3 lies. Use them wisely, or you might be in trouble. Once the lies are all used up, you must tell the truth. If you refuse, you _**_die_**_._

Chapter 1

——————

I’ve never lied. Unlike most, who use all 3 lies as children. My mother always told me to tell the truth and never waste my lies. And I listened. Even if That means the truth is brutally honest. Even when the truth cuts so deep it bleeds.

Like the time a girl asked me, “Does this outfit looked good?” Of course I wouldn’t waste a lie on that. So I told her the truth, “No. It looks like a 3-year-old tried making you look like a clown.” And she ran off, crying. Some people just can’t handle the truth these days.

A random girl walked up to me, “Saela?”

“Yea? Do I know you?”

“No, but can you answer my question?”

“Maybe. What is it?”

“Okay, what’s my favorite color?”

“Girl, I don’t know! I can’t read minds!”

“Oh. I’m sorry, Saela.”

And she walked away. That was so random. I don’t even know that girl. I was just trying to go on a peaceful walk.

When I got home my sister ran towards me with her arms wide open for a big hug! Mom was smiling behind her, stirring something in a big bowl.

“Saela! Look what I’ve made for you!”

Esiya handed me a paper with a colorful picture.

“Do you like it? I thought it was the best I’ve made!”

It was a purple and blue flower with green all around it. It was very detailed, surprising for a 7-year-old! It was really the best piece of art she’s given me!

“Esiya, it’s so beautiful! You’ve really improved!”

“Really? You’re not lying?”

“Why would I waste a lie on an amazing picture? That’s just stupid.”

“Yea, it really is. Thanks, Saela! You’re my favorite sister!”

“Esiya, I’m you’re **only** sister.”

“Yup! And that’s why you’re my favorite!”

This girl is something else! I’m so glad to be her sister.

“Hey mom?”

“Yes, Saela?”

“Are you making dinner without me?”

“Yeah, sorry Sae! Should’ve been home earlier.”

I laughed and walked into the kitchen while putting my hair up. I saw a strange book opened on the counter. “Mom, what’s this?” She rushed over and quickly closed it, the bowl balanced on one of her hands. “Oh it’s nothing!”

“Why would you waste a lie like that? What is it?”

Esiya had already left the room.

“Saela, it’s nothing. Just don’t worry about it.”

“Stop lying to me. You’ve lied twice now. I doubt you have any lies left now. You would’ve told me if you’ve never lied. Now tell me the truth.”

“I can’t. It’s not safe. I’m sorry, Saela”

I walked out the kitchen and up the stairs to mine and Esiya’s room. Esiya looked worried. Tears filled her eyes.

“Esiya? Are you okay?”

“Were you and mom fighting again?”

“Not fighting. Just arguing.”

“About what?”

“Uhm. I don’t exactly know. Mom just told me it was nothing and that I shouldn’t worry about it.”

“Oh. Is she hiding something?”

“I think so.”

Chapter 2

**——————**

Mom is usually asleep by midnight. Then I’ll be able to find that book.

I went downstairs, slowly so the steps wouldn’t creak too loudly. Where would my mother put something she wouldn’t want me to find?

“Saela? Is that you?”

I almost gasped at the sound of my sister’s voice.

“Esiya? What are you doing? It’s past midnight!”

“I heard noises and I didn’t see you in our room.”

“Wait. You heard me?”

“Yea? Is that bad? Was I not supposed to?”

“Uhh… yeah it’s kinda bad. You’re fine, but we just have to make sure mom doesn’t wake up.”

“Oh! Okay! So what are you doing exactly?”

“Earlier, when you went up to our room and before mom and I were arguing, I saw a book on the kitchen counter and it was like mom was trying to hide it from me. So I’m gonna find it.”

“Don’t you think that’s a bad idea? What if she doesn’t want you to see it for a good reason?”

“Oh well. Maybe she shouldn’t hide things from her children.”

I saw Esiya’s bright blue eyes looking at me weirdly in the dark. “What if it’s for our safety?”

I ignored her and started opening all the kitchen cabinets. No books in any of them. Not in the drawers either. What about the fridge? “Esiya, do you think someone would put a book in a fridge?”

“No. Unless there’s like a secret thing behind it or something.”

“I’m gonna check.” I opened the fridge and saw a little dot. I tried wiping it away, thinking it was just some dirt or food because the fridge was dirty. The bottom of the fridge opened up. It was a button? “Uhhh… Esiya?”

“Yeah?”

“What if I told you we had a secret basement in our refrigerator?”

Chapter 3

**——————**

We climbed down the ladder leading into the basement. Of course Esiya made me go first.

When I got to the bottom, it looked like a big dirt hole. But with a concrete floor.

There were tons of shelves with tons of books, files and papers everywhere, and a fancy desk right in the middle.

Esiya and I started walking in the small area.

“What the- what is this place?”

“Don’t ask me! You’re older.”

“Whatever. Help me check all these shelves for a brown, blue, and yellow book. By the way it’s a stinky book.”

“Do I get anything for helping you?”

“Uh… you get to possibly know secrets that mom is hiding from us. I hope.”

“Okay, fine I’ll help.”

Everything was so dusty and it smelled like dirt and dust. Obviously.

“Uhhh, Saela?”

“Yeah?”

I turned to look towards her. There were blue sparkles and a yellow streak swirling around her.

“You might wanna come here.”

I walked, quickly, over to her and saw the book on the shelf. “Esiya. That’s the book.”

“What? Don’t you think mom would hide it better?”

“Well, we still found it, didn’t we?”

“Yea…”

“Exactly. Now, we’ll take it upstairs to our room and read it while mom’s gone.”

**Chapter 4**

**——————**

Mom went to work early today. I found this note on a kitchen cabinet when I went to make breakfast:

_Saela,_

_By now you’ve probably found that book. I heard you last night. Don’t tell your sister ANYTHING. I work early today and won’t be home until late tonight. Don’t read the book. I need you to trust me. And tell your sister nothing. _

_Love you girls,_

_Mom_

How does she know. Esiya already knows about it. No point in trying to hide it from her.

Mom is hiding something from of us. We will read that book. No matter what. I need to find the truth about the 3 lies and why my mom is being weird and lying to me.

I grabbed the _Cheerios_ box from the counter and the milk from the fridge. That fridge would never be the same again. I washed a bowl and poured the _Cheerios_ in. Then the milk. I’m not one of those weirdos that pours the milk first.

_Creak_

The second to last stair creaked as my sister stepped on it. I turn around to face her and she was wrapped in a yellow dust cloud. The same yellow I saw when she found the book.

“Esiya… are you holding the book…?”

“No…why?”

“Uhh don’t you see the yellow around you?”

“What!? What do you mean?”

“Don’t you see it? There’s this yellow cloud all around you!”

“Uhh… I don’t see it.”

“That’s weird… it’s gotta be something with that book.”

“Are you sure it’s there? Your not lying?”

“Oh it’s definitely there… Why would I waste a lie like that?”

“I don’t know! Your a bit weird sometimes… But why’d you ask if I had the weird book with me?”

“When you found it there was the same yellow thing around you. Except it was like a spiral with sparkles. Not… _this_.”

“Wait- that happened and you never told me?”

“I thought you saw it too.”

“Uhh… that’s kinda weird. But anyways, can we read that book? I wanna know what it is. And then maybe the yellow stuff will go away.”

“Yea, about that… Mom wrote a note to me . She heard me last night and knows I have the book. She told me not to read it or tell you anything. Still wanna read it? Mom’s not home.”

“Actually? Why? Why can’t I know about these secrets!”

“I’m wondering the same thing, Esi.”

“We’re gonna read that book. I don’t care what Mom says.”

**Chapter 5**

**——————**

We ate breakfast and went upstairs to grab the book. The yellow around Esiya had went away while we ate. We still don’t know what it is or what it means.

Esiya opened our bedroom door and looked where we last put the book, in our closet, on the highest shelf. It wasnt there. Mom must’ve found it before she left for work. But how? How did neither of us wake up if she was in our room? Esiya was thinking the same thing, “Do you think mom took it?”

“Yeah but how would she be able to take it without waking us up?”

“Uhm… I don’t know. But the book is gone. Now what?”

“Come on.”

I grabbed my sister’s wrist and pulled her with me into our mom’s bedroom. “Do you think she’d hide it in here?”

“Her own room? No. Why would she do that?”

“She knows that we- or at least I, know where her secret hideout is. And if she were to put it back in there, then we’d know exactly where it would be. And she always tells us not to go into her room.”

“You’re right! But where would it be? Under the bed or something?”

“Nope. The corner table. In the second drawer on the back wall.”

“How do you know that?”

“I have my ways.”

We headed to the corner of our mom’s room where there was a tall table with drawers on it. It took up the whole corner and had drawers on every side of it. I knew exactly which one the book was in. “Esiya, stand back a bit. I need to move this.” She took some steps back and I started to push the table out of the corner until there was enough space to open the drawers. Right away, I saw the yellow dust cloud around the second drawer.

“Hey, Esiya? Can you see that yellow around the drawer?”

“What yellow? Saela, what do you mean?”

“Okay. You know how I saw that yellow cloud around you this morning?”

“Yeah?”

“You couldn’t see it, but I could. I don’t know what it is but I think I’m the only one that sees it.”

“That’s just not fair. What’s so special about you that gives you the power to see some weird dusty stuff? Actually that’s pretty lame.” She rolled her eyes at me. Of course.

I opened the drawer with the yellow dust cloud around it and the book was open inside of it:

_Whom ever must read this page mustn’t leave this room. You’ll be trapped forever in this book, for it is The Book Of Truth. Lies be contained and truths fall out. These lies are given all around. But not for you, Saela._

…

Saela got trapped inside the book and Esiya ended up with her in few days. Their mother was The Keeper of Truths and Lies and had begun the system of the 3 lies. She was glad her children were gone. She’d always called them “mistakes” and wished their father had taken them instead. Now she could rule the world and control people when they had no lies left.