A collection of random content from yours truly centered around the fantastic Books of Beginning trilogy by John Stephens. (The Emerald Atlas, The Fire Chronicle, and The Black Reckoning). This series is amazing, underrated, and has my heart.
This...
A/N: This is a short story that will eventually have three parts. It will have more of a plot then anything I have done in this oneshot book before. It will also be an incredibly dark AU, so this is your chance to turn back. You have been warned.
Background: Takes place about a year after the ending of the Black Reckoning. Kate is 16, Michael is 14, and Emma is 13. They have been living with Richard and Clare for a year, and all of them have been having trouble dealing with their loss while trying to live a normal family life, but none more than Kate.
Content: Angst, Pain, Suffering. Insanity and Hallucinations. Trouble for the Wibberlys. Kate x Rafe but in a darker way than usual. This entire story is actually quite mature and dark compared to what I typically write.
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Part One: Down The Rabbit Hole
"I'm worried about Kate," Emma said, barging into her brother's room and sitting down on the bed while he let his pen fall and spun around in his desk chair.
"I am too," Michael replied, "I wrote Wilamena asking if there was anything magical that could calm her and she said she would get back to me. I'm still waiting on a response."
"Mom and Dad keep saying nothings wrong and she'll be fine once she's readjusted. That we all had trouble with this at first and it's just harder on her," Emma said with a large amount of scoffing that suggested exactly what she thought of her parents' theory.
"It's been a year," Michael said, "and things have only gotten worse. This isn't something that's just gonna fix itself."
"Try telling them that," the young girl commented. She loved her parents, or at least she was coming to, but they were acting so foolish for a matter that concerned one of their children.
Michael sighed, "they have unrealistic expectations about how it should be now that we're all back together. Some of those will take time and some are just impossible. We used to have them to but we had to readjust our thinking pretty quick with all the danger following us anywhere."
"And because we had Kate to help us cope," Emma added.
Silence fell, uncomfortable, heavy silence. Michael and Emma has always looked to their older sister for strength - for many years, she had been the only parental figure they had. Now, without her to guide them, they felt lost and helpless. Not to mention the fact that it hurt to see Kate suffering under the weight of so much trauma, and to see the strongest person they know in such a pitiful state shook them to their cores.
Michael put his head in his hands, "I don't know what to do or how to fix this. I don't even know how we got in this mess at all!"
