I was driving home from class the last week of March. I'd stayed a little later and stopped by the library to get some books. Spring break was about to start and I needed reading material. On my way back, a freak storm came out of nowhere, which is, sadly, fairly normal here. It got stupidly dark for 6:00pm and the rain was so hard I could barely see the road. Of course I was on back roads and the road dropped off a few good feet on either side. I made sure there was no one else around before pulling out my phone and leaving my mom a message saying that I was looking for somewhere to pull over, I'd try and wait out the storm, and if I wasn't home when she got there that's why.

I was still driving, still looking for a place to pull over where I'd be able to get back on the road later when someone came at me barreling down the center of the road. I pulled the wheel to the right trying to go around the idiot when I felt my car tipping. My heart stopped and I swear I could feel adrenaline flooding through me. I threw myself the other way but it didn't work... my car fell over the side of the road, and landed a good fifteen feet away. After crashing through trees and falling about ten feet down, I was pinned... and of course my phone was now out the window in the rain.

"Shit..." I breathed. I tried to slither out from under the steering wheel, but it was no use, and all it did was send a shooting pain through my everything. I hurt... like, a lot. It hurt to breathe. Half frozen rain was pelting me in the face, as my window was now in shards - wait, frozen. "Jack!" I tried yelling, but it came out more like a croak. I winced at the pain my speaking had caused. "Jack, please..." Please hear me. I sat there, stuck and realized that no one was coming, no mortal anyway, my onlyhope was Jack. I believe in Jack Frost. I believe in Jack Frost... I believe... in Jack Frost... It was harder to breathe now, and I struggled to stay awake. No! I wasn't about to die before reaching twenty. I was not going to die before seeing the world... before leaving nowhere.

Then, I realized something.

For years, I'd promised whoever was listening, whoever would listen, that, if I could get magic one more time, I'd live the rest of my life the same as everyone else. I'd have a mundane job, never leave Niles, MI, settle down get married have kids... if only I could have magic once more. I realized that I got magic, my promise was coming true. Since I'd met Jack, I'd worked at my mundane job, I'd stayed in Niles, and I'd gone to community college... in effect settling down... I'd just always thought the rest of my life would have lasted longer. Turns out I was wrong.

Tears crept out of my eyes as my vision dimmed.

Being dead was weird. I was vaguely aware of what was happening back by my body, but everything was a blur of the colors and the sound was warped and kind of distant. It was like looking through a cloudy kaleidoscope , but underwater. I wasn't pinned in my car anymore, I was sort of next to it, but I couldn't tell exactly where. After sitting for a few moments I saw a blue and white blur drop in from the direction of the sky and land by me.

"Tori!" It was Jack's voice. I saw him reach down and do something, before pulling something out of the dark blur that used to be my car... I think it was me. "No... no!" Jack curled into a ball and sat for a minute. Then he jumped up and started yelling at the sky. I looked up and saw that the moon was out. Tsar Lunar... Many. I'd never realized that, if Jack was real, so was the man in the moon. "Bring her back! Make her immortal, like you did with me!"

I heard Many reply. His voice was deep and velvety... and calm. "Why?"

"Because she deserves it! She doesn't deserve to die now!"

"Why do you say that, Jack Frost?"

"Because she..." He paused. I was stunned at the conversation these two were having. Jack wanted me to be immortal. "She hasn't had a chance to do one tenth of what she's capable of. She has the makings of a guardian. She cares about kids. She likes making them smile. She hasn't done what she was meant for yet..." Jack had sounded defeated as he said every word. He sounded just like I had when my heart had broken when I couldn't see him, back when we'd first met. How I would have felt if I'd not been able to see him after the summer.

"I know you've seen her, Many. You see everyone, especially strong believers. She's the strongest I've felt in decades, if not centuries. How can you just let her die?" Tsar Lunar did not reply.

The next thing I knew, my eyes were snapping open. My real eyes, I was back in my body. Jack was still staring at Tsar Lunar, looking furious and desperate and sad beyond words, and yelling his head off. I heard Many's voice in my head, "Your name is Story Tale... welcome back." I gasped. Not because I'd heard him, not because I was immortal, I wasn't that stupid as to not realize what had happened. I gasped because... the legend that I was, was what I'd always thought I would be.

Jack whipped his head around. "Tori!" He ran over to me as I sat up. "You're okay!"

I looked around at the scene. My car was mangled, my stuff strewn around. I looked down at myself. My clothes were almost as wrecked as my car, but there wasn't a scratch on me, nor was there a bruise. I wasn't in pain at all. I really am immortal. "Not exactly, Jack."

He looked at me, confused, and said, "What do you mean?"

I held out my hand and said, "It's nice to meet you, Jack Frost. I'm Story Tale, the spirit and feeling of stories" I smiled gently. Jack still looked confused. "I died Jack... Many brought me back."

Jacks expression changed. I couldn't read it, there were too many emotions in it to describe. He hung his head. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner, I'm sorry you..."

"Why are you sorry? Jack... I'm immortal. I'm the spirit of stories! Jack, I can do everything I've always wanted to do, waited to do - I don't have to wait anymore!" I reached around and ripped the Omni-Pod off of my back. I stared at the device that had kept me alive for the past fourteen years, almost to the day. "Jack... I'm not diabetic anymore." I started laughing so hard I cried. "I'm not diabetic anymore! I don't give a shit that I had to die for it... this is worth it! I can see the world now. I can take as much time as I want because I have eternity! I can become Jenner, or at least his personal job anyway. I can save the world's magic before humans destroy it in their stupidity. I can see it all... I can experience it... and I don't have to worry about anything! I can spend the rest of eternity writing my own story!" I was standing now. I was elated. "Jack, that's all I've ever wanted, was to write my own story, and not have to imagine the entirety of it. To experience it firsthand. Thank you!" I nearly tackled him, as I launched myself at him in a hug.

When I finally let go of him I turned towards the moon. "Thank you, Tsar Lunar. For giving me my one wish." I was crying. Tears of joy, but I was still crying. Jack looked at me with a mostly amazed expression, though there were a few other emotions in there as well. A smile slowly grew on his face.

"So, what do you wanna do first? I mean, you are immortal now. What do you do when you find out you can do anything, no consequences?" Jack asked me.

I said with little hesitation, "I see the world." Jack and I stood up. He offered me his hand and I reached out to take it. "Oh, wait!" I went back over to my car and broke off the side-mirror. I held it up and took a look at myself. "Hmm... I thought more would have changed." I looked mostly the same, skin tone was the same, features the same. My eyes were now black as opposed to dark brown. My hair was tri-tonal now, though. Where it used to be brown (dyed a reddish color), it was now peppered with black and blonde strands. The blonde was like the color of old paper. From far away it'd probably look metallic as a whole. I noticed where my veins could vaguely be seen, they were no longer a blue color, but black. "Hmm." I picked up a shard of glass from my window and pricked my finger, and sure enough, the blood oozed out black... like ink. I lifted my finger and sniffed. Gone was the metallic smell of blood, it smelled like ink now. I snorted.

"What?" Jack said.

"I have ink for blood... how weird is that?"

He shrugged. "No weirder than a man made of Dreamsand or a seven foot tall bunny that can talk and carries boomerangs." I laughed along with him.

"True." I gathered up a few of my things from their strewn about positions, emptying my bag and re filling it with the few things I wanted to keep. I then took Jack's hand. "Can we go back to my house first?"

"Are you sure about that? Tori... you shouldn't see your family so soon after... you know how this works."

"I know." I did. They'd grow up, grow old. They'd die, and I wouldn't. "I just want to get a few of my things. I don't know all my powers yet, so I don't know what I'll need... plus there are a few things I want to keep. I also want to get all my money from the back after it opens tomorrow, so we have to stick around long enough for that." I looked down at myself again. "And I need a change of clothes. It would not do well for Story Tale to meet other immortals dressed like a bum. And I need to start spreading my story... no one's gonna believe someone in a t-shirt and jeans is the spirit of stories."

He laughed at my tone, which was a joking one. "Well, after your house what're we gonna do. We'll still have, what, twelve hours to kill?"

"I have no idea. How about we make it up as we go? That'll make for a fun story."

We were at my house, Jack had snuck me in through my bedroom window. I'd crept down the stairs and closed my door, partly to keep the cats out, partly to keep anyone else from overhearing any disembodied voices. "I keep forgetting that I'm invisible now." I said to Jack as I packed a few bags.

"Not to every one. So, what's Story Tale gonna look like?"

"Well, we have a few options for that." I said walking over to my closet. I pulled out a gothic style dress that was actually a costume. "For when I need to look... eccentric. You had the cloak and vest for years before your uniform change. I plan on changing when I see fit." I grabbed my green winter jacket, and my boots, stuffing them in a bag with my pajamas. I put the dress in the bottom of my suitcase. I grabbed a few tank tops and other shirts, a few pairs of shorts, two pairs of jeans, non-hobo styled ones, and a pair of flip flops and put them on top of the dress. On top of those, I put a few long sleeved shirts , another pair of boots, a pair of sandals, and a pair of sweat pants. In another bag I put the few keepsakes I was going to take with me. My sketchbooks, a few other pieces of my art, my jewelry and jewelry making supplies (I figured I could sell those over the years, somehow), my quill pen made from a real feather, some of my favorite books out of my personal collection: Just Ella; Arabian Nights; I, Coriander; Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales; Wreck this Journal; Swan Sister; Scary Stories to tell in the dark, More scary stories, and Tales to chill your bones; the three books I owned of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series; book one in the Shadow Children series; all my books in the Pendragon series; my Harry Potter books; Holes; and Acheron. I also had my I-pod and charger, as well as a flash-drive with all the pictures I'd had saved on my computer, as I was leaving that. The last of my keepsakes were pictures of my family and real friends. Oh, and one stuffed animal; a horse that'd I'd named Cowboy years ago. I'd had him as long as I could remember, he'd been there through hard times, I figured he still should. One last thing I took was my guitar, Meizie.

While Jack was taking my bags out of the window I snuck downstairs and into Caeden's room. I went over to his bed and gently shook him awake, secretly relieved when my hand didn't go through him. "Caeden. Bud wake up, it's me."

"Huh?" he said still mostly asleep.

"Bud, listen... I gotta go away for a while... for a long while. I'm... I'm going with Jack."

"Can I come too?"

"No, bud... I'm going with Jack 'cause I'm like him now... I'm... I died bud. I'm like a Guardian. I just have to take the oath." I smiled at him, trying not to cry. Why was this so hard? "I love you bud. Tell anyone you want about me. I'm Story Tale now. I'm that feeling you get when you're really into a story. Book or movie. I'm that feeling that authors and artists and musicians get when they're creating their art, their stories. I'm the magic that you can find in stories... so don't ever stop loving stories, ok? If you do that then I'll always be here." I hugged him and went out into the hallway. Jack was standing at the bottom of my stairs, arms folded and staring at me.

"Story."

"I had to say goodbye Jack. Wouldn't you have said goodbye to your sister if you'd had the chance?"

He sighed but nodded. "Yeah... Alright, lets, go."

Before we left I wrote a note, my own sort of will-and-testament. It read:

Mom,

I'm sorry I had to go. I know you're gonna miss me. Know this: Tori Rodriguez may have died, but I'm still alive. I am stories now, just like I always told you. Know that I can finally live exactly as I always wanted. I just can't live here. You need to let go, but please don't be sad. I love you I really do... but I can't be here anymore, not for me, not for you. I told Caeden goodbye... don't worry about him, he knows that Story Tale will always be with him so long as he never stops loving stories. Give him my Ronald McDonald doll. Give Ruby to a diabetic girl who needs her. Give Angel to someone who needs her too. Do that with all of my animals. Give my clothes away. Sell my art if you want, or keep them. Make sure grandpa's bear stays in the family. Tell dad and Chris I love them. And Mellissa, and Nick, Michael and Richard too. Grandma, Chase, Alyssa... all of them. I took some of my things with me, things I needed to keep. You don't need to have a funeral. Just a memorial for who I was. Make sure to celebrate who I still am. Tell stories, read books, sing songs, watch movies... anything to do with a story, do it, as often as you can. And make sure to have fun while you do it. Smile. I love you mom.

~Story Tale, your daughter who always was part of a story.

I wiped tears from my eyes as I placed the note on my bed, "Mom" written in metallic green marker so she'd be sure to find it. "I didn't think it'd be this hard." I said to Jack.

"I know."

I took one last look around my room, painted all the colors of the rainbow, filled with a lifetime of trinkets and clutter. I heard my cats scraping on my door and knew that my mom would wake up to let them up to my room. I made sure my light was off before I turned to Jack. "Lets go." We jumped out my window, buoyed by the wind so our landing was soft. Jack flew back up and closed my window. I grabbed my bags as Jack grabbed my suitcase, his staff tucked under his arm. "You don't happen to have an extra room at your place do you?"

"Yeah, crash as long as you need." I'd been joking. His acceptance of me, his willingness to help, made me speechless which is a rare occurrence for me. "My place is kinda cold though. So you might need that jacket of yours."

"South Pole?"

"No, a little farther north actually, but yes, Antarctica." He held out his free hand to me once more. "Shall we?" I reached out and took his hand. The winds lifted us into the air, Jack leading the way. As we flew I managed to forget about my feelings for a moment as I took in the feeling of flight.

After dropping off my things we flew back to Niles, by then the sun was rising. "Three hours 'til the bank opens... what you wanna do?"

"I don't know. You wanna try and figure out what your powers are?"

I turned his trademark wicked grin against him then. "Oh. Yeah."

I ran deeper into the woods we'd landed in, coincidentally, right behind my old high school, and close to one of my friends houses. Jack right on my heels. I found a clearing and stopped in the middle. Brandywine creek was on one side of the clearing, highway visible through the trees on the other side of it. I took a deep breath and lifted my arms. I am Story Tale. I am stories. I am a story. I am the writer of stories. I can make any story a reality. Anything is possible when you create a story. I started telling myself a story out loud. "I am Story Tale, a story that was once a girl. Once, stories were everything to me, now they are everything I am. As Story Tale I have wings. They are beautiful, made of thousands of pages from books, of sheet music, of artwork... of stories. The pages gather and form to my back, never falling apart until I am ready." As soon as I was done a swarm of papers, fluttering in a breeze, came towards Jack and I. They did as I'd said. They formed wings that plastered themselves across my back, like a second skin linking the pages to me. I had my eyes closed but saw all this with my imagination. I felt the papers as they molded to my back. Once the rustling of paper had quieted I dared to open my eyes. I glanced over my shoulder and my jaw dropped.

If you'd ever seen Naruto Shippuden, and you'd seen Konan's paper wings, you'd have an idea of what my wings looked like. But only an idea. My wings were made of books from the library, artwork done by the students, and sheet music from the band and choir classrooms... they were amazing. Looking like a collage of colors, music and words. They were huge, at least fifteen feet across. Yet they were light as a feather... or, rather, a piece of paper. In my wildest dreams I'd never imagined my wings to be as incredible as this, and I'd imagined some beautiful wings.

If the look on my face was anything, Jack's face was far more priceless. To say the least, he was stunned. A smile of pure joy grew on my face as I said to him, "Let's see what these can do!" I took off. I soared, higher and higher. Jack zooming beside me, blown along by the wind. Soon the ground was miles below me and I stopped and hovered, Jack did the same. As we smiled at each other his face suddenly became worried.

"Story, what are you thinking?" I said nothing, just kept smiling. "What are you planning?"

"Now you see how others feel when they see a prank on your face." I said as I let the papers go and immediately began to plummet through the air.

"STORY!" Jack's shout rang through the air behind me as I fell. I started laughing as the ground raced towards me. A mile. Two thousand feet. A thousand feet. Eight hundred feet. I began pulling the papers back to me. They re-grouped as I continued to fall. five hundred feet. Four hundred feet. Two hundred feet. Fifty feet. At fifteen feet above the ground I snapped out my wings and soared over the wimpy trees that tried to call themselves "woods".

I dove lower and maneuvered between the trees, flying faster and faster. I tried doing that sideways flight between two trees and clipped my wings against them. My wings shattered and I started falling towards the ground. "There's a pile of pages for me to land on!" Suddenly there was, and my fall was less threatening. I landed on the pile, dead center.

I poked my head out of the pile just as Jack came streaking out of the sky towards me. "What the hell was that!" I shook my head as bits of paper fluttered out of my hair. "What possessed you to decide to just fall out of the sky!" I stood up and walked out of the pile, picking out stubborn bits of paper that hadn't come out on their own. "You don't know how your powers work yet, you're just learning, you could have hurt yourself!"

I smiled at him. "If I recall correctly, you flew right when you discovered your powers. And your landing wasn't so spectacular either." I turned to the pile of papers that I'd just exited. "Thank you. You can all go back now." One by one the papers fluttered of to go back into their books or wherever else they were when I'd called them. "I've imagined that fall thousands of times. I've been imagining it for almost as long as I've been waiting for magic. I've been waiting for wings even longer." I was still smiling. "Jack, I just had the time of my life, stop killing my buzz. I thought you were the Guardian of Fun."

"I am, but you forget, I've seen immortals die before... Sandy, to name one. I saw you die last night, I don't wanna see it again in as many days."

I sobered. "I'm sorry..." I smiled again. "But that was pretty amazing for my first solo flight."

"It wasn't bad." I swatted him on the arm and we both chuckled.

"Well, the bank should be opening in a little while, wanna walk there?"

"I think I've had enough of you flying for one day."

I laughed again. Then I sighed. "Shit. I just though of this. How are we gonna get the tellers to see me? I many look acceptably different, but I'm still invisible to people who don't believe in me."

"Don't worry, I have a plan."

We were waiting out front of my bank, which was going to open as soon as they unlocked the doors. "You ready?" Jack asked me. We had to time it right. Jack had to keep blowing some of his special snow over them and I had to keep talking or they wouldn't see me. One of the tellers came and unlocked the doors.

"As I'll ever be." I took a breath and opened the door, Jack following behind me. Jack started an almost imperceptible snowfall over the teller as I walked up to her. "Hello. Are you having a good morning so far?"

She blinked a bit, like she was confused. She looked at me as if she hadn't noticed someone was standing there, which she hadn't. "Oh. Hey, Miss Tori. You're up early."

I'd made it to the counter and was opening up my wallet as I said. "Yeah. I need to make a withdrawal."

"Alright. How much did you need?"

"Everything."

She looked mildly surprised for a moment but did it anyway. There was no reason not to trust me. "I like what you did with your hair, by the way."

I smiled at the compliment. "Thanks... I like it to." She handed me my money and I waved good bye. Jack and I walked out the doors.

I put my money in my wallet as Jack said, "She'll be confused later when they look at the security cameras and don't see anyone there." He was laughing.

"I'm more worried about how people are gonna react when they find my car, but no me... You saw all that blood. The cops are gonna know that I died. There's gonna be a manhunt for me."

"Don't worry about it. It's not like they'll find you."

"I guess..."

"Hey, so. Now that you've severed all ties... where do you wanna go?"

I hesitated. I'd wondered for years, that, if I could go anywhere, where would I go first. I closed my eyes. "I think I'll start close... Lets go to Ellis Island."

Over the next few years I traversed the world. As I went, I learned how to use my powers. I could call any type of story to me, and use it in any way I needed. I also noticed that, whenever I was near someone completely entranced by a story, I was drawn towards them. I'd found myself living the stories I'd always read, for, when I read a story now, it quite literally came to life around me. There were times that I'd find a bruise where the hero had been injured. Every time I came across a musician playing, be it street corner or stage, when I hovered near to listen, they became enraptured by their music. Have you ever seen someone totally engrossed in the song they're playing? It has it's own sort of magic... and trust me, their playing drew crowds.

And with artists. If I went by anyone with a remotely creative bone in their body they instantly dove into creating their story. On whatever was near them. I was in bliss. I was surrounded by stories of every caliber. Just as I'd always been, but these were so much more powerful. I felt my soul lifting and dancing with every story I passed... and they were everywhere.

Jack often came by when he was near for any of his winter or Guardian duties. And when we were both in full-on happy-mode... there were nothing but smiles near us. I was making hearts dance within stories and he was making fun chase all fears away. To be completely honest, dozens of Disney songs could have been my soundtrack for those first few years as Story Tale. From For a Moment, to When will my life begin (Reprise), to Stories. I was the happiest I'd ever been.

I'd seen Ellis Island, New Orleans, Egypt, Paris, Rome, Venice, Scotland, Ireland, India, the Great Wall of China, Tokyo, Madagascar, the Grand Canyon, Times Square - on New Years Eve, Machu Pichu, Puerto Rico, the Northern and Southern Lights... everything I'd ever wanted. It was only topped by flying. I flew everywhere. It was almost second nature to call stories into my wings now-a-days. It never got old. Each time they formed into my wings I felt the stories, the emotions behind them. Each time I created my wings they were different, they were usually about the same size and shape, but the stories that made them up were never the same...

As the years passed, I could feel belief in me grow. Even if no one knew that Story Tale was behind it, they still believed in the feeling they got when they experienced a story. I asked Jack, once if this is how he felt all those years when people said it was him that brought winter, but didn't really believe in him. "Sort of. It was kind of like a sour feeling. It was false belief, unknown belief. What you're feeling is ambient belief. Belief in what you are, without knowing why or who. I was the opposite. They knew my name but didn't believe."

By the time six years had passed I'd made my way back to the United States. The fly-over states to be specific. To those who don't know, fly-over states are the states in the middle of the U.S. that are almost nothing but farms and corn-fields for miles. That's where Niles, MI lies. At the edge of the fly-over states. It was summer and I was a few cities over from Niles. Every night for the past week I'd flown to my old house, waiting to go in and see Caeden. Every morning I'd flown off somewhere else, too nervous to go farther than the yard.

Finally I worked up enough nerve to stay past dawn. I waited around until about noon. My mom was off at work, so was Chris, my step-dad. Nick, my younger step-brother had moved out a few years back, so Caeden was home alone. I stayed outside for a little while, peeking in the windows after he woke up. He sat inside all day. At first he watched T.V. but later he started to read a book. I started when I saw what book he was reading. It was Shaper, one of the books I'd left behind. It was about a kid who's dog had died and was learning to love a new dog. I looked in at his room and saw all of the other books I'd left behind. They were far more dog eared now than they had been when I'd left. I made the page he was on flutter. Caeden frowned and flipped back to his page and kept reading. I pulled a loose paper towards the window and hat it stick there. Caeden put the book down and went over to the window to pull the page off and put it back.

I pulled the page again. Again, Caeden put it back. This time I pulled multiple pages as well as a picture of the two of us from when he was a baby. He froze, staring at the picture. "Jack? Are you messing with me?" I pricked the end of my finger, and began writing on one of the blank pieces of paper.

"Hey, bud."

Caeden balked. "Jack, this isn't funny."

"It's not Jack... it's me." I painted an arrow pointing to the picture of him and I. "It's me, bud."

He stared at the picture in utter shock. It was of when he was about a year old, I'd put him on my shoulders and was carrying him around. Mom had decided to take a picture. Both of us had huge, goofy smiles. My nose was wrinkled up and he only had one tooth. It was one of my favorite pictures of the two of us... I guess it was one of his favorites too. "Tori?" He didn't sound like the sixteen year old he was, he sounded like the ten year old I'd left behind.

"Believe I'm here. Believe in Stories... in your sister."

"Tori? Where are you?"

He looked frantically around his room, trying to find out where I was. I felt a jolt go through me. Almost like adrenaline. Belief. I took a breath and said, "Hey, bud. Turn around."

He froze with his back to me. He slowly straightened, eyes still on the opposite wall. "Tori?" He turned around slowly, eyes towards my feet. After turning to face me fully, his eyes started traveling upwards, as I took a few steps towards him. He saw my scuffed boots that I'd treasured - and that he'd stole and worn once round the house. He saw my skinny jeans that I'd worn often. He saw my TMNT shirt that he'd thought was the coolest thing ever the first time he saw it. I stood with my hands on my hips as his eyes found my face, barely different than before, with only my eyes and hair different, even then only a bit. On his face was the expression of desperate hope. The expression I'd had when he'd first told me Jack Frost was outside six and a half years ago.

I smiled at him and said, "Do I get a 'hello'?" He threw himself at me in the tightest hug we'd ever shared. I kissed his forehead, just like I'd always done when we'd had a hello, which was a hug and a kiss.

He was crying into my shoulder as he said, "I missed you." Just like he'd always said when we'd had a hello.

Tears slid out of my eyes as I said, "I missed you too, bud."

We spent the rest of the day catching up. I told him of the adventures I'd had over the past six years and he told me how life had gone here. Turns out, Jack had still come to visit after I'd left. It wasn't as often as before, but he'd come once a month in the winter. Caeden told me about how he was a sophomore now - at my old high school no less. My two favorite teachers were still there, and he'd taken the same art class as me, had my favorite art teacher. He told me that he spent half his time at the library. Even though he had trouble reading the books, he did anyway, the stories were too enticing to him. I couldn't help smiling at that.

You see, Caeden has Achromatopsia, which is a genetic eye issue, where you get bad glare issues, you are sometimes partly colorblind, if not fully, and have slight dyslexia from it. That's why it's hard for him to read. It touched me that he read books even though it was hard. It touched me that he would do it, because I was his sister who always loved stories, and because I was Story Tale.

He told me that Nick had gone off to college and that, after I'd left, Mom had gotten a new job, one where she could spend more time with him. So had Chris. They still had to work most days, but they had every weekend off and a lot more sick days now. He said there was a scholarship now, in honor of me. It was for any Brandywine student that showed a true love of stories, as I always had. It wasn't a full ride, just a few hundred dollars, just enough to cover supplies. It was only about three years old, my classmates, the ones that had graduated with me had set it up. They actually held fundraisers at local libraries to fund it.

I thought it was odd they'd do a scholarship for me, I wasn't the first to die in my graduating class, but I was the second. I hadn't been that popular when I was at school, and it was a small school. I'd actually had more friends among the staff than among my peers. It's not sad. I actually preferred it that way, too many of my classmates were drama-filled children that I honestly found a waste of my time. That's why I befriended the staff. He said that "beer ghost", a character from humon's Scandinavia and the world comics, which I'd been obsessed with, and had drawn on nearly every board at school when I'd been there, made regular occurrences too.

It turns out, my mom had taken it the hardest. She hadn't spoken to my dad since I'd left, or to any of his family. She'd kept each and every one of my former pieces of art, be it a drawing, a card, of a piece of writing, she'd kept it all. She'd given away all my stuffed animals but one, a wolf pup I'd gotten on one of our vacations that I'd named Silky. I'd bedazzled it's ears to give it earrings. I'd loved that dog when I'd first gotten it, but over the years, I'd grown away from it. It did, however, remind me of all the vacations we'd taken. It turns out she kept a few of the little trinket's I'd cherished at some point too, a crown my grandma had gotten me at a renaissance fair, a pair of costume wings I'd worn one year for Halloween, and my last Halloween costume, Cheshire from Young Justice that I'd made from scratch.

Before I knew it, 6:00pm had rolled around, and my mom was due home at any minute. Caeden noticed the time before I did. "Crap, it's six!" I looked at him surprised, I'd never heard my brother cuss before. He noticed my reaction and said, "Tori, I'm sixteen now. Don't be so surprised."

"Yeah, yeah, okay. But you're still my baby brother, just because you're old enough, doesn't mean you should cuss. And just because I do, doesn't mean you can around me."

He smiled. "Okay." He kept smiling at me.

"What?"

"I missed that. You chastising me."

I put him in a mock choke-hold as I said. "Glad to hear it!" He struggled and I finally let him go, both of us laughing like we used to. Then I sighed. "I guess I'll get going."

"Wait!" He paused. "Don't you wanna see mom?"

"Caeden, I can't. She won't be able to see me... and... I'm not Tori anymore. I'm Story. Six years have passed, and I'm still nineteen, even if I feel twenty-six. The only reason I could talk to you is because you're still a kid. And because you were, honestly my favorite. You were my brother, the real one. And not because you were the only one related to me by blood. You're my brother because of how we feel towards each other. You think I could have done that with Nick?" I bumped shoulders with him. "You and I were close."

We sat for a moment before he said, "Do you have to go? Can't you stay the night, or something?"

"Wouldn't it be weird, you being the only one who can see me?"

"No, we could just watch movies or something in my room. Or even better, your room."

"Huh?"

He got up. "Come see." He led me up to what used to be my room. As I turned around off the landing I gaped. The walls were still the same colors they'd been the last time I saw them, even the pink. The wall my closet used to occupy was now covered with shelves that held books, movies and games galore. My old bed, a futon, was still there, and there were two more chairs and a bean-bag chair on the floor clustered around a T.V. way bigger than the one I'd had. All my old trinkets were gone, as were most of the rest of my things, but I could see that my family hadn't tried to completely erase me. "This is my game room. Whenever I have friends over, we play games up here. Same with movies. I also keep a lot of my books up here too, cause, you know, my shelves are way too small. All the movies are up here now."

"Whoa."

He looked at me, suddenly nervous. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not. It's not my room anymore."

As I sat down on my old bed Caeden said, "Alright, so we cam watch movies here, and, tonight, you can sleep here."

I laughed. "You're treating me like a guest."

"Am not!" Though we laughed, inside I realized that I was. I was a guest in my own house. It's not my house anymore. I'm not the girl who used to live here.

"What movie you wanna watch?"

"Hmm... How about Sinbad?"

I smiled. Caeden had picked one of my old favorites. As far as movies went, Caeden and I had always watched a handful of the same movies over and over. Sinbad was one of them, along with Treasure Planet, Road to Eldorado, Quest for Camelot and any good Disney or Pixar movie. "Works for me. I haven't seen that since I left."

He looked at me, surprised, as he put the movie in. "Really? Mom and I watch it all the time. And the other movies you and I used to watch..." He sat down next to me as the previews started up.

As the movie, itself started, I said the lines as Eris did. She always had been my favorite villain. "Wake up, my beauties. Rise and Shine. It's a brand new day and the mortal world is at peace... but not for long. Just look at them. I pull one tiny thread and their whole world unravels into chaos... Glorious Chaos..." I'd always loved Eris' monologues. Even after six years I still knew them by heart.

Caeden smiled next to me. "Movies have been quiet since you left... I missed that too."

My smile was a rueful as his.

After Sinbad we'd watched ParaNorman and then Treasure Planet. My favorite scene in Treasure Planet had always been when Jim is on his solar surfer in the beginning and dives, pulling out right before he hits bottom... what I'd always dreamed of. Prior to dying I'd always had mixed feelings about that scene. Whenever I'd watched it, I'd felt my soul lift, and the fifteen second scene seemed to last hours. Aside from my soul lifting I'd felt euphoria and longing and, when the scene ended, I'd felt a sense of bitterness. Knowing that the scene was the closest I'd ever get to that fall... But I'd lived it now. This time, the scene brought a smile to my face, as I remembered my own fall. This time there was no bitterness, no longing. Only the assurance that I could recreate my fall anytime I wanted.

It was about two in the morning by the time the movie ended and Caeden had fallen asleep near the end of Treasure Planet. The part where Silver and Jim part ways hit me differently now. Now this was the scene that brought longing and bitterness. I felt like Silver. I couldn't stay, I knew that. I didn't belong to Niles anymore. Even if there was someone I cared about that I was leaving behind. I knew that, this time, Caeden wouldn't feel like I'd vanished... this time, he'd know I was there, no matter if I wasn't around physically.

A snore erupted from my brother, who was slumped across the opposite side of the futon, head against the wall. I smiled as I put a pillow under his head and walked over to the window. Quietly, so I wouldn't wake him, I said, "I'll see you later, bud." I opened the window and jumped out, making sure the window closed with a note for Caeden stuck in the opening. I gathered my wings and flew south and west. I spent the night on the Gateway Arch, a place I'd visited once while alive.

The next morning at about 9:30, a paper airplane found me atop the Arch. About a year ago I discovered I could send messages. By writing the message out on paper and folding it into an airplane, I could launch it and it would find whoever the message was for. I'd told Caeden in the note I'd left that if he did the same, the plane would find me. His note read: Mom's gone, so is dad. Come by whenever.

I crumpled the note and jumped off the Arch, wings fluttering together as I fell. I was about halfway down the Arch by the time I made my first down-stroke. It took me about thirty minutes to make it back to Niles, and that wasn't even my top speed. I alighted on the roof of my old house, right above my old bedroom. I slid in through the window I'd left the night before. Windows were a lot more low-key when you're immortal.

I drifted down the stairs, lightly hopping off the top step and landing lighter than a feather on the bottom one. I took a few steps around the corner to see where Caeden was and saw him in the kitchen, making himself a bowl of cereal. He turned and saw me, nearly dropping his bowl in surprise. "Tori! I liked it a lot more when you made noise."

I laughed and said, "Yeah, well... I'm a bit different now, you know."

He snorted. "That's an understatement." He gestured to the pantry and asked, "Are you hungry?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm good." He paused and stared at me open mouthed. "What?"

"You're always hungry. I've never heard you turn down food in my life."

I chuckled. "I don't need to eat that much anymore, bud. Ergo, I'm not usually hungry. The last few years, I've only eaten when something was too good to pass up... Cereal just doesn't fit the bill."

"Okay, now, that's weird."

"I'm immortal, my blood is now ink, I can fly... and you think it's weird that I'm not hungry all the time?" I laughed.

"Ha, ha," he said mockingly. He took another bite of cereal. "So, what do you wanna do?"

"We're on your time, you choose." I sat down on the chairs that were still there from when I was alive.

"Can, I ask you a few things?"

"Shoot."

He finished his cereal before he started in on the questions. Putting his bowl in the sink, he turned to me and said, "I know you've been traveling, but... What are you now? I mean, immortals, at least legend immortals, all have something they're the legend of. Jack's the spirit of winter, so he doesn't really count, but North's Santa Clause, Tooth's the tooth fairy, etc... You told me that you were Story, but what does that mean?"

"Well, I'm Story Tale. I am stories. I'm the feeling when you're really into a story, weather you're creating it or just experiencing it. I can control existing stories too. That's how I can fly."

"Did you take over for anyone? Was there another Story Tale before you?"

I took a breath to answer... and then paused. "I don't know."

"Why did the Man in the Moon bring you back? Not-that-I'm-ungrateful-or-anything!"

I giggled at his rushed second sentence. "Because Jack asked him to. Well - more like he yelled at him and had to convince him but, still... I think he would have brought me back anyway. I mean, it's high time that there was a legend immortal for stories."

Caeden looked stunned. "Jack... Jack asked him to bring you back? Why - why did he do that?"

"Well... What he told Tsar Lunar was that I deserved it. That I didn't deserve to die before doing one tenth of what I was capable of... But, that's what he said. I don't know if that's really why or if that's just what he told Many to try and convince him. I don't know if that's why Many brought me back, either." Serious moments weren't what I was used to with my baby brother... but he wasn't a baby anymore. "I feel like I'm doing what I was meant to do. I feel like, as Story Tale... I'm finally... alive."

After a few moments of silence following my last statement, Caeden spoke up again. "So, have you met any other immortals?"

"Yep."

"Who?"

"Jack Frost." He gave me the same look he'd given me the first day we met Jack, when I'd said Santa and then North. The I'm-not-stupid look. I laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. No, other than Jack I haven't met any others yet. It's only been six years..." As I said that last sentence, I realized just now much I'd changed, how quickly accepted being immortal. I used to freak out about how long I'd been alive. On my nineteenth birthday I looked at my friend and said, "Do you realize we're gonna be twenty next year... two decades old. We've been on this planet for two decades. That's a long time!" And yet, now, I was writing off six years as if it were nothing.

"But I thought there were a lot of you guys?"

"There are, at least, from what Jack's told me. Most of them stay within their own pockets of believers. I don't really blame them, they're protecting themselves. As far as I can tell, only a few dozen of us actually travel. Sandy, Tooth, me, the seasonal immortals, Jack of course, and a few others that have mostly ambient belief."

"What's ambient belief?"

"Ambient belief is where people believe in what you are, or your legend, without believing in you."

"Does that mean... you have ambient belief?"

"Yep."

He was confused by my nonchalant tone. "That doesn't bother you? That no one believes in you? It drove Jack crazy."

"It's different, with me. People knew Jack name, but didn't believe in him, like when adults say that Santa brought presents, but don't believe what they're saying. People believe in the feeling they get when they're in stories, even if they don't realize it. I don't mind that no one knows my name. Besides, I have you and Jack to talk to if I get lonely."