The Protagonists

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Sam

Everything was peaceful at one moment-birds were chirping happily, the stars were starting to become evident in the darkening sky, and the leaves were rustling in the slight, April wind. Sam had calmed down in the time Oliver, Maya, Nana, and Joel were in the castle; he no longer felt anxious, panicky, or paranoid-instead, Sam felt completely calm and tranquil, not a care in the world. At one point, he recognized one of the songs the birds were chirping and he started to hum along, carefully leaning against one of the trees.

The next moment however, everything changed. All together, the birds stopped chirping, the stars stopped happily twinking, and the wind became more violent, like a sudden storm was approaching. Instead of the sound of the birds chirping gleefully echoing throughout the woods, the sound of an intense explosion erupted through the air, causing the singing birds to fly away into the sky. Sam gasped as he realized what the sound was-the highest tower of Beast's castle had crumbled, the pieces of the structure lying around everywhere like pieces of glass. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed two figures jumping out of the falling tower; they were too far off in the distance to recognize. "Oliver!" He yelled, pushing himself up and sprinting up the stone staircase leading up to the castle.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," he repeated over and over again, pleading for his best friend to still be alive and perfectly unharmed. "He's fine," he told himself as he burst in through the castle doors. "Oliver is perfectly fine."

He was instantly pushed over, his head nearly slamming into the hard wall behind him. "Sam!" He looked up to see Annalise, of all people, to be standing there, worried sick.

"Annalise!" He yelled, wrapping his arms around her in a quick hug. "Were you here in the whole time?" Annalise shook her head, smiling weakly. "I was Nana," she replied. "Iris told me I was Nana and took my memory. And the whole red hair and blue eyes thing was just a disguise she made me put on, since I was about to become the Intellectual Consort's companion and all."

"I'm just glad you're okay," Sam whispered, looking around quickly-the room was spotless, as if an explosion hadn't gone off moments before. "W-What happened?" He puzzled.

"I don't know," Annalise replied, grabbing his wrist and pulling him forward away from the entrance. "Joel and Merten went upstairs to check on Oliver and Maya." Sam's heart rate increased and he felt himself become quite dizzy. "Wait, they were upstairs when it happened?" He asked, his hands becoming clammy.

"Yeah," Annalise nodded, noticing Sam's sudden mood change, "but I'm sure that they're fine. I mean, we're talking about Maya and Oliver here-they're the toughest two out of all of us. They might have been safe from the explosion though. Don't just assume that they were inside the exact room it happened in."

Sam nodded, taking in her soothing words. She was right; he was assuming things, which was something he was not normally good with. Annalise smiled at her ability to cheer him up for the time being and pulled him up the set of stairs and into the dining room, where they were moments before the explosion. "Merten's really excited to meet you," she told Sam, trying to cheer his mood up even more. "She's the main leader of the Intellectuals; in fact, she's the one who helped Maya create Die Märchen in the first place. So that means that the creator of this entire dimension, loves us, the new-generation Intellectuals."

"New-generation?" Sam asked, following Annalise through another flight of stairs. "Aren't we the first generation? This dimension is fairly new, is it not?" Annalise nodded slowly and shrugged. "I guess so," she replied, "but Maya, Iris, Flynn, and Stacie were all here way before us, so they seem like the first generation."

"Hey," Sam laughed, "there are four of them and now there are going to be four of us." Annalise obviously rolled her eyes at Sam, continuing to pull him up the stairs to where she saw Merten and Joel go. "This is a big place," Sam observed, feeling out of shape and tired. "How does Beast get through this place?"

"With perseverance," Annalise replied, giggling at her own joke. Sam rolled his eyes at her foolish joke, just as she did to him before. As she made it to the top of the lengthy, never-ending staircase, Annalise abruptly stopped, Sam carelessly crashing into her back. He pushed past her to see what she was staring at.

Gasping, he looked down to see the stairs had stopped completely-if he or Annalise had taken another step, they would have fallen into the debris of what was once the tower; it was a long way down, so they would have surely gotten injured. The debris on the ground was not what Annalise was looking at, however; instead, she was intensely staring above them-a small piece of the room somehow still remained after the deafening, terrorizing explosion-at the remainder of the tower's small, miniscule chamber. Merten and Joel hovered over a pile of debris by what was once a window, briskly whispering to each other. Sam's heart fell to the floor as he realized that Maya and Oliver were nowhere in sight; looking at Annalise's dim, solemn face, she must have been worrying about the same thing. "W-Where's Oliver?" Sam questioned, capturing Merten and Joel's attention.

Sam only blinked and we was suddenly standing beside Annalise in the same, broken room Merten and Joel were in-Merten had levitated them. Sam's heart remained on the floor as he realized that Merten and Joel were not staring down at debris of the fallen tower.

No, they were standing in front of Maya and Oliver's stiff, lifeless bodies.