The End is Only the Beginning

Prologue A: Promises

Prologue A: Promises
Peyton Charming
*please note, Peyton is a boy*

Promise: a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen.

"People can surprise you," my mom always said. As children, my sister and I thought we had a lot to complain about, but we had no idea what would be coming when we were older. I know I'd never given my mom's advice more than a second thought, and my sister was even worse about this. My mom's words took on a whole new relevancy in high school, and we had failed to prepare ourselves.

Cali Cassidy hadn't forgotten Queen Cerise's advice though. Cali's mother, our Aunt Ally who was known to the world as Apple White was mom's best friend, and was a living embodiment of constant surprise in her youth. You could say that, for a kid who had her whole future planned out before she was born, she was rather unpredictable. It wasn't that way, I was told, until she was our age, but her daughter always remembered this. Coming from a damned family in which you could never trust someone you thought you knew, Cali learned fast.

Aunt Ally told Cali, Cherry and I that if she had listened to what people told her about herself, she would've ended up married to my dad, probably unhappy and none of us would exist. I was glad this was not the case.

Late one August midnight before the start of Legacy Year, there was a soft knock on the door of my bedroom. Light glowed from the lamp through much of the room. I was laying on the floor on my back with my legs outstretched against the wall and a pillow under my head. "Come in," I said, turning a page in the book I was reading.

Cali entered, wearing black shorts and a faded red Fifth Destiny tee, her loose blond curls tied in a messy ponytail. I was not surprised to see her. Cali often spent nights and days to weeks at a time with my family especially when her parents took vacations, or one of them did, at least. "Reading, Peyton?" she asked, having taken note of my nose in a book.

Cali and I were on that level of understanding where, on a summer night, she didn't expect me to be out partying like you'd expect for, well, someone like me, I guess. "Yeah, it's pretty good," I said of the book. When I looked up from the pages, I noticed Cali's unusually worried features. "Is everything okay, Cal?"

Cali settled herself right-side-up next to where I laid on the floor, but didn't respond to my question.

After a long silence without a response, she half-heartedly whispered "he's gone again." I knew she meant her dad. Cali's tearing brown eyes behind black-framed glasses were fixed on the sky outside my window.

I gazed out where she did at the deep purplish blue summer night, knowing I would miss it. However, the stars in the night sky are the same wherever you are and whenever the time of year, so at least that was consistent. I stayed optimistic, but I knew it was hard for Cali to stay optimistic at a time like this.

Cali's dad's side of the family is not from Ever After, and there's always something shifty-shady going on with them. Sometimes he just leaves without a trace, ranging from a harmless couple of hours to an endless months-long nightmare. "I'm sure he's okay, he always has been. Until we know for sure, you've got a shoulder to cry on."

Cali did. Her face wasn't red or puffy and she was silent, but the tears rolled off of her cheeks and onto the fabric of the tee shirt on my shoulder, where she rested her head.

I wanted to take her mind off of it, but I didn't know how. My mind wandered for a while until it found something worth talking about.

"School is in two weeks," I said, "that should be a good distraction, no?"

She nodded without lifting her head from my shoulder. "I was hoping that he'd be around for my first day of high school. I wanted this year to be different, not the same as all the ones before it," she sighed.

"Try to look at it as a new beginning," I advised, feeling her eyes on me.

She straightened up now and shook her head, and her loose curls danced. "I knew you would say something deep like that."

"I didn't mean for it to be deep."

"It was about as deep as a child's imagination."

"That was deep."

Cali blushed and looked away, before repeating what I had already said, "I didn't mean for it to be."

"School won't be so bad. We're going to learn so much about ourselves and our friends. And I'm sure they'll be plenty of guys for you and my sister to obsess over," I poked fun, trying not to be so deep among the already drowning mood.

She rolled her eyes but then said "well, you're not wrong, at least in Cherry's case." She paused again and didn't say anything for a few minutes. I heard her heavy breathing again, and I knew she was trying to keep herself from crying. "Promise me something," Cali whispered. I slid around so that my back was to the wall and I was right side up again. Cali looked me straight in the eyes. Hers blazed passionately but also sadly. "Promise me you won't ever just disappear on me."

Though what Cali spoke of seemed like a brainless thought, I knew she wasn't messing around about it. "I promise," I answered, and we secret handshook on it.

New characters in this part: Peyton Charming, son of King Daring Charming and Queen Cerise Hood/Badwolf-Charming. Cali Cassidy, daughter of Apple "Ally" White