"This is how the story goes," he said. "This is how the story goes."

You can't change fairytales. You're not supposed to. Fairytales have perfect endings. You can't change perfection.

The term "fairytale ending" has come to mean that when something happens, and it is an ending of some sort, it is perfect, because fairytales are our ideals of perfection.

And this is how a story goes.

This is how the story goes.

..

Her hair drifted down to cover her face, hiding the natural beauty of her eyes.

"Don't," the ghosts that surrounded her whispered. "Tuck it away."

She obliged, but only because the wind threatened to blow against the back of her neck and make her cold if she didn't. The wind was evil in that way, but the wind also was beautiful in every other way- it could make things float, could make random paraphernalia fly.

Cammie Morgan was a Whisperer. She could communicate with anything that humans regarded as nonexistent, and could also talk to transparent or translucent beings.

And she was on her way out into the city, as she did every day.

Whisperers and the other Clans people that lived inside the kingdom were required to leave the kingdom at least once a week. Most lived out in the human world, but children under the age of five had to live with their families in the kingdom until every member of the family was over six years of age. This was mostly just to secure that the child could grow up with Clan principles implanted into his or her soul at a young age.

Cammie lived outside of the kingdom, but she visited often because the rest of her family lived there.

She was not visiting her family this once, only because her main goal was to mingle with other Clans people in the city today.

The Clan consisted of six major leagues. There were the Whisperers, those like Cammie. There were the Silent, those who had sworn to an oath of silence at the age of 16 and left the league they were born into. The Silent could think-speak, what mortals would call ESP. They were carefully selected because of how important they really were.

There were the Imaginative, who thought of important concepts and ideas that were transcribed into material things. There were the Creators, who created what the Imaginative thought of, but they also created items of their own to be sold at markets.

There were the Dreamers, typically leaders, who were like the Imaginative. The Dreamers had visions, ideas that they were passionate about- no materialistic items. That was the only real difference between the two.

There were the Mysterious, who could control things with the force of their hands. They tended to keep to themselves, chose not to use their powers often in front of other Clan people.

There was one more league, the Ominous. They had turned towards the evil light and had a goal to recreate the kingdom, remodel it in the Ominous beliefs. The Ominous had one of the six major league powers, but used them in a dark way to bring havoc within the kingdom. They were not permitted to leave the kingdom, in fact they physically could not.

The Elite were those who had either trained for years and years, or had been born into an Elite family. The Elite mastered all skills, therefore they weren't considered a league but just... there. If you weren't born into an Elite family, then you had your normal league, and had to be selected by a leader Elite in order to start training to be an Elite.

It was no surprise that everyone wanted to be an Elite at some time in their life, because being an Elite meant that you were the best. It meant you had privileges that not everyone else had. It meant you were different, that you were special, and that people wouldn't judge you because you were different. It meant that it was okay to be different.

Cammie skirted around people on phones, people with heavy bags, and people who were trying to look busy but weren't really so they walked fast and ignored everyone around them.

Cammie wanted to be one of them. Without powers. Without powers that restricted her not just some of the time but most of the time. Could that be considered normal? Normal to them, but normal to her?

Maybe.

..

"Hello," the elderly shopkeeper said to Cammie at checkout. Cammie replied, only echoing the woman's words slightly softer with a more willowy tone. She looked up from her shoes only briefly to examine the shopkeeper, trying to determine if she might be part of a Clan. Their eyes connected briefly, and Cammie recognized the extremely brisk flash of light that reflected from the woman's eyes as a Creator's. Cammie bowed briefly, showing respect to the elder as all Clan youth were required to do.

The woman smiled approvingly and handed Cammie her bags. "Have a wonderful day, sweetheart."

"Thank you," Cammie said as she took the reusable bag with her back outside into the city.

She passed countless other Clans people as she walked through crowded streets and crossed busy intersections, none of which who were Whisperers like herself.

Apartment 518 was hers. She gained mortal money by working a job as a freelancer, but sometimes she was able to receive money like you did in a Sims PC game cheat- typing in a code into the game system to get the money. For her, it was playing her parents and older siblings the right way- saying the right words at the right time. Not exactly the best way to become rich, but she didn't use it often and only used it when freelancing was slow.

..

She had learned ever since she was a child that new things could be dangerous. New things could hurt. New things were usually best to stay away from if you were young.

Cammie felt older though, safer with age.

So she took the risk of taking a new path through the city, one that twisted through dark alleyways, dark forests, dark hallways.

It was interesting how the ghosts didn't even try to stop her.

Almost like they encouraged her. It sounded like they were encouraging her, so she followed their whispers.

Keep going. Walk this way. More this way…

She wanted to ask questions, but couldn't.

And then her thoughts changed.

From

I'm safe here

immediately to

Something's wrong.

She bumped into another figure, strong and wide.

"Cameron Morgan, I presume?"

..

Her eyes were big with fear as she stared at the boy in front of her.

"What are you?"

He looked back at her with the same amount of intensity.

"You're not part of any Clan-"

"Yes, I am."

His voice sent shivers down Cammie's spine.

"But you probably didn't know that another Clan existed."

She drew in a deep breath before asking, "Are you an Ominous?"

The boy smirked. "Maybe. You don't know that." He paused before shaking his head. "But to answer your question, no."

She blinked, three times in rapid succession. "What are you, then? Imaginative? Mysterious?"

He shook his head. "Manipulator."

Manipulator?

Cammie pulled a knife from her bag, the knife she always kept in her bag in case she encountered an Ominous.

"Tell me what you do."

Her hand shook, she was scared. She felt as if the boy in front of her should be more scared than herself.

But the grin that spread across his face slowly made her drop the knife when he said,

"I can change your thoughts."

..

Cammie proceeded the conversation with extreme caution. She asked simple questions, common questions, questions that avoided what she really wanted to ask.

"Who are you?"

He bowed at the waist, almost as if he was mocking her. "Zachary Goode at your service, m'lady."

"How old are you?"

"20."

"Where's your family?"

"Dead."

"Why aren't you in the kingdom?"

He raised an eyebrow at that and leaned closer to Cammie as he answered. "Now why would I go there? Am I obligated to live in the kingdom, Cameron?"

She shook her head.

"Why are you here?"

Zach smirked. "Business."

"Vague answers aren't appreciated in the world, Zachary."

"Call me Zach."

"Then call me Cammie," she retorted.

"Alright, Cammie. Maybe not in yours," he said, raising an eyebrow, "but definitely in mine."

"And what makes your world so different from mine?"

He smirked again.

"My world is where we keep secrets." He looked around before lowering his voice. "Secrets with the power to kill."

That scared Cammie. So she backed away slowly, but with amazing speed Zach lashed out and gripped her arm.

"Let me go!"

"Cameron, look at me. I won't hurt you."

She turned to face him, his eyes finally full of fear. "Don't tell anyone you saw me. To you I am no dead. Nonexistent. I was never here. I was only a part of your imagination."

Cammie thought that Zach, as a Manipulator, would just manipulate her thoughts to forget about him.

But he didn't.

Maybe because he actually wanted her to remember.

Maybe because he would see her again.

Maybe because he didn't want her to forget him.

..

What Cammie didn't know that he was the last Manipulator existing.

She didn't dare try to find out more about the previously unknown to her Clan.

Still, the word was etched into her memory, and whenever she felt that any part of it was slowly drifting away, her mind would rev up and only recall the Manipulator.

Cammie had more questions.

Countless more.

..

She couldn't find him anywhere.

And when she did, he told her that he had found her first.

"You're not allowed to find me. I find you first, you know I'm always watching."

His words should've sounded like a threat, should've sounded like something scary.

But it was oddly comforting- probably because he manipulated her before she had a chance to feel scared.

"You have more questions."

He smiled.

"Fire away."

He seemed oddly prepared for most of the questions, except for one:

"How?"

"How?"

"How. How did Manipulators come to be?"

He pursed his lips and leaned towards her.

"There's a story behind everyone and everything."

..

The memories were massively dangerous things.

The one of the girl, the one of the boy.

The one of the mother, the one of the father.

The one of the swirl that tore through the town.

The one filled with death, anguish, and the painful cries of aching children.

They all died in the spectacle.

It happened because each Clan was at fault.

All were fighting with one another, and it seemed like there would be no end.

Until a mystical force killed one child from each Clan Head.

The mystical force was the forgotten clan.

The Manipulators.

Most would have thought that the Manipulators could have just changed the minds of the Clan Heads.

But you see, the minds of the Clan Heads could not be changed. For the Clan Heads had developed an immunity, if you will, from the mental powers of the Manipulators.

So the Manipulator Head had to change their thoughts by evoking something both physical and emotional to end the mentality of war.

Death.

The death of a daughter, the death of a son.

And all grieved, ending the war.

That was how the Ominous sparked. The siblings of those who had died all turned Ominous.

They went on ruthless rampages, mass murders through the kingdom, trying to find all Manipulators and kill them all. It was their revenge for the Manipulators taking the people they loved.

Very few survived. And those who did moved to the city, hoping to find safety.

..

Zach did not tell Cammie the story. He knew she wouldn't understand.

But he did tell Cammie about how his family was murdered by Ominous- he just avoided stating a reason behind it.

"Why won't you tell me the story?"

"I don't want to hurt you. I told you I wouldn't hurt you."

"Telling me a story wouldn't hurt me-"

"Yeah. It would."

"But-"

"Can you trust me?"

"What?"

"Can you trust me, Cameron?"

It seemed that he called her by her first name whenever he had something incredibly important. She nodded and left him to go back to her home.

Manipulator. I wonder what he's hiding.

..

The Manipulators were banned from the kingdom, twenty years after what was then called the War of Clans. The Clan Heads wiped away all memory of the Manipulators from everyone, essentially took away their existence. They forbid anyone to ever speak of Manipulators.

Those who were Manipulators felt betrayed.

They had saved their world.

And were being blocked out of it.

Was that fair?

Well, the answer was blatantly obvious.

To the Clan Heads:

It was.

..

"Can you tell me the story today?" Cammie asked Zach, sitting together on a bench.

"No," he replied, still casually reclining on the bench.

Cammie sighed and stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"Home."

"Why?"

"There's nothing I need from you." She trailed off, and realized something she hadn't thought of moments before.

"Why did you come to me?"

A brief look of confusion flashed across his features before he fully understood the pressing question that had lingered so long in the back of Cammie's mind.

"I came to you because you're special."

"Everyone's special," she countered, stepping back towards him. "So why me?"

Zach didn't think he would have to tell her so soon.

"Maybe we should go somewhere more private."

..

They went to her apartment together, and Cammie had a feeling that what she was about to be told was yet another dangerous thing.

Once the door to her home was closed and they were sitting across from each other in her living room, Zach started giving answers.

"I'm the last of the Manipulators."

"Okay."

"So I need-"

"No." Cammie suddenly stood up, out of fear. She thought she knew what he was going to say next.

"No?"

"No! Of course not! I'm not going to let you use me for… Reproduction purposes," she whispered.

Zach burst into laughter, holding his sides as he gasped for air.

"I don't need you for sex," he said, saying the word so casually that it still scared Cammie. "I need you because when I was looking through Manipulator records, it said that there was only one person who could apparently break the bond that shuts Manipulators out of the kingdom. And that person, is you."

"Me?" She mumbled. "Now why would I save the Manipulators when there's only one of you left?"

"Because," the green eyed smirker started, "it can also bring an end to the Ominous."

Cammie Morgan had learned the most dangerous secret of all.

She had the power to take down an entire Clan.

And she didn't understand it one bit.

..

"You've got to be kidding me."

"I'm not, though."

"How can I bring an end to the Ominous?"

Zach sighed. "You don't get it, do you?"

"No, I don't!" She almost yelled out of frustration.

"Have you ever noticed a rift between you and other Whisperers? Or maybe a rift between you and other Clans people?"

And she realized that she had, before.

"No," she replied, even though it was true.

"No?" Zach repeated, one eyebrow raised. "I doubt that."

"Fine. I have." She rolled her eyes.

"Remember what I said before? About you being special?"

Cammie nodded, still not getting the point.

"You have a power. It's a power that has the capability to tear down the Ominous, and your family name was in the Strife Scrolls."

"The… Strife Scrolls?"

The term was unfamiliar to her.

"What is this so-called power of mine?" She asked.

"Your power? You're more powerful than the Elite-"

She cut him off there with a laugh.

"Wow. You're hopeless. There's no one more powerful than the Elite."

She smiled, expecting his face to show that he was kidding.

But Zach's face was completely straight, finding no humor in the situation.

"That's true. No one's more powerful than the Elite… Except for you. You have the ability to not only whisper, but you have the potential to learn every Clan power there is, as well as Ominous and Manipulator. That's why I'm here- I'm the last Manipulator who can teach you the power of Manipulation."

Cammie finally understood. "You're very important, then, aren't you?" She questioned, to be answered with a nod. "But you're more important than me."

"So when do I get started with training?"

Zach looked away. "You should wait until you're 21."

"WHAT?!" She cried out, shocked to find out he wanted her to wait three more years.

"But-"

"Don't argue with me on this."

"Why not?! You've told me everything now, there's no reason why we shouldn't start now too!"

"Cammie." He stood up, took her hands, but didn't use his Manipulator powers to change her mind. "The Strife Scrolls? They also warned of you getting badly injured if you tried to combine the Manipulator power and Whisperer powers because of how closely they're actually integrated. At least if you're older, you'll have more tolerance for pain."

"How dare you," Cammie whispered. "How dare you think I don't have tolerance for pain. My aunt and her husband were brutally murdered by the Ominous four years ago in front of my own eyes. The Ominous went to their house and threw a hatchet at my uncle, but then Aunt Abby ran in front of him, not having enough time to push him down. And then Uncle Eddie..." Cammie trailed off, not able to finish. Zach's eyes were suddenly darker.

"What was your uncle's last name?"

"Townsend," she answered, indifferent.

..

Edward Townsend was the second to last Manipulator.

And he was Zach's dad.

..

"... The Ominous killed… Your uncle?"

"They did."

Zach suddenly didn't care if anyone got hurt in the process of Cammie's training.

"We need to take the Ominous down before they hurt someone else."

Waiting was no longer an option.

But Cammie Morgan now was.

The Strife Scrolls had foretold of a destiny.

And Zach hoped that he was helping it come true.

..

My first fantasy story? I guess. RFRF (Read, Follow, Review, Favorite) and leave me any concrit or reviews or whatever!

~Mia

Also I may or may not continue this. Who knows?