Frost and Stories

by AnnaMae411

At nineteen years old, I'd thought magic had left me behind. Magic was for kids, and I wasn't one. I thought I was too old... and it killed me. Then my brother and I met Jack frost. After meeting Jack, my life changed completely. I died and became an immortal. I became stories. I was finally alive. However, life as an immortal wasn't exactly what I'd expected. (reviews appreciated)

32. Buster Call

I guess I should just stop saying sorry about wait times anymore, huh? I'm sorry, really I am. I've been working off and on on a story that's gonna take place after this one, an off-shoot... that I have to wait until this is finished in order to publish it. Too many spoilers. Anyway, 2/3 of why there's been an indefinite space between chapters for the past while is because I was finishing up college - and guess who's diploma finally came for associates in applied arts and sciences? Mine! I now have my graphic design degree that's been eating up my life for the past four years. Now that I don't have to worry about balancing school, work, and life, I've had time to actually finish this goddamn chapter that's been collecting dust for I don't even know how long. Regardless here it is, I really am sorry for the wait, I'm hoping to turn out around one chapter a month if everything goes well, but, fair warning, in a month and a half I'm getting my first appartment so it may be a bit rocky for a while. Other than that, there's gonna be a few time skips coming up because nothing of real interest happens to Story for the next so many years.

In the past eleven years since I'd discovered that my peers were disappearing from under my nose, I'd been better at responding to messages asap. I'd also tried my best to spend more time with Jack. He shouldn't have to have the winds checking up on me. Plus I kinda didn't want him too. I understand why he did that - if I were in his shoes I'd probably do something similar - but I didn't want to feel like someone was watching me all the time. I mean I know that the winds sort of do, but they do that with everyone, so it doesn't bother me. But Jack was my best friend and he shouldn't have to find ways to feel like I'm spending time with him, I should be actually spending time with him... I knew what it was like, to be honest. To want so badly to spend time with someone - anyone - even someone in particular, but you can't, you do whatever you can think of to feel like you are.

That's part of why I started writing my own stories back when I was mortal. Of course I didn't know it at the time, but I was lonely. I'd been an only child for all of my developmental years and basically the only kid in the neighborhood. I didn't have any real friends until high school, and I didn't care about what most of my peers at the time put great stock in. Put all of that together and you have a recipe for poor social skills with people your own age. I could talk to older people perfectly fine, and I got along with kids like I was one of them. People my own age though... not so much. So in order to feel like I had a group that I belonged in, I read copious amounts of novels and short stories and series. All of which held individuals who I felt deeply connected to... they were my friends. They were my friends when I had none in the real world.

Eventually, they gave way to my own characters. My own creations for the stories that I wrote. These people were simultaneously my siblings and friends and children and soul-mates... all while being parts of me. I spent so much time writing my stories because it was where I belonged and where I didn't feel alone. It was the only way that I could think of to not feel alone. Of course, now I had real friends. Ones who's loyalty I hadn't had to imagine or create.

Not only friends, but believers and family. Elizabeth was fourteen now and every bit as much of a weirdo as her parents had been at her age - it was a family trait. She still believed in me but I knew that my time with her was ticking down. However, she was doing a great job of acting as my agent, per say. She was tracking down other kids who believed in magic as much as she did - and then introduced them to me. Contrary to what a lot of my peers thought, I hadn't put her up to this, she'd thought of it all on her own. And I was proud of her. I mean really, how come you never thought of that?

I sighed at my inner voice's observation. Elizabeth looked up from her homework, the question on her face. I shook my head. "Nothing. Inner Voice was just being snarky."

She smiled and giggled a little. "Isn't it always?"

"Pretty much." I smiled back and got up from the chair I'd claimed. I looked over her shoulder at the sheet of math problems and groaned. "Ugh, why do they keep making math more and more complicated? Like, you never use anything other than basic math unless you're an architect or a scientist or something." I sighed again, though this time it was at the ridiculous lengths that the government was going with the education.

"It's not that hard." She pointed at the next problem. "See? You just -"

I held up my hand to stop her. "If you're going to try and explain common core math to me then you may as well be speaking Klingon."

"You're not even a Star Trek fan."

"Exactly my point. Believe me, Lizzie, this," I pointed at the paper. "Is the least of your worries."

"Yeah, but the better I do, the better my grades will be. The better my grades are, the better choice of schools I'm gonna get. And if I want to get into Stanford then I'm going to have to ace everything for my entire life."

I laughed. "Lizzie, you're fourteen. You still have a few years before you have to decide."

"I already decided, though." She set down her pen - yes she used a pen on her math - and spun her chair around to face me. "I want to go to a good school. I already did the research, Stanford's the only one on the west coast."

"But there's also a lot of schools on the east coast, as well as scattered in between."

"I want to be close to you, though."

That made me blink. I was speechless for a millisecond as I absorbed that tidbit. I then had to formulate my thoughts enough to respond. I'd also been trying to think before speaking as of late... for the most part it wasn't working. "That's not a reason to move across the country."

"You told me that you always wanted to go to school in California. And you've told me so many stories about life out there and so much about the west coast... I want to see it too. And I want to be able to see you more often. You're my only aunt - except for Aunt Brooke, but she's not as cool as you. I see you two times a year at most... and you only stay for a week before you leave..."

Oh no, more guilt trips. I cringed in agreement. "I know, you're busy, and it must seem boring here." She gestured around her room. It was the same one she'd always had - Caeden and Tanya had never moved after having her. "When all of your friends are Immortals and they all have such amazing houses I'm sure this is pretty dinky."

"Are you kidding me? You live in Chicago. You've seen Niles when you've visited everyone else - that's dinky. Sam's house is smaller than Grandma and Grandpa's house," It was so weird to call my Mom and Chris 'Grandma and Grandpa' but they were. "Mine is barely bigger. Jack shares his house with four other people," Another immortal had taken to living at the sanctuary about eight years ago. He seemed to get along pretty well with the others, though Korri still spent more time at Ken's than at Jack's. "One of whom is a full grown dragon - albeit a runt. Shady has tourists pouring through her house on a daily basis. And I think that Annie just lives above the club or something. Our houses may seem extravagant on first examination, but most of us are pretty normal."

"You live in a tree-house... that's grown out of the tree. Jack lives in an ice palace. Shady lives in a Scottish castle. And Annie lives at and runs the only club for Immortals in the entire world, which you've described to me as well as taking pictures. Not to mention the North Pole, the Warren, the Tooth Palace, Dreamsand Isle, the Temple of Ra, Eden, Berzee, that temple where Mosy lives, and every other Immortal's home that even you haven't seen yet. On top of that, your house is in the middle of a national park, amongst some of the oldest trees on the planet."

"There are a lot older trees."

She shot me a look. The same one that I gave to people when I told them that their bullshit wasn't going over very well. "Why are you trying to keep me from living by you?"

"I'm not. I don't think you should decide so quickly about something that you have years to mull over, and I don't think you should be thrusting me or anything to do with immortals in general up on a god-level pedestal."

"Why? You guys are amazing."

"Extended life-spans don't warrant that much praise."

She shook her head violently. "That's not what I mean." When she looked at me her eyes were shining. They were shining like someone's does when they're talking about something they truly care about. "You guys have magical powers, live longer than anyone else on the planet, and you have the most amazing homes... but you're still human. You guys have flaws and you make mistakes - Jack's the best example right?" I winced a little at that. Almost everything I said to Lizzie came back to bite me in the butt eventually. That kid would be a great lawyer if she wanted to. "But you guys still help people, you still do your jobs - and you do them better than anyone else ever could. You guys are inspirational en mass, let alone individually." She turned back around and picked up her pen. "More people should know about you for that reason alone." After a second she went back to her math as if I wasn't there.

I hadn't worried about Elizabeth losing belief in me her entire life. I knew the day would come but until it came I wasn't going to think about it. I'd deal with it when it happened. So I knew this wasn't an 'I forgot you exist' thought-I-wasn't-there, it was an I'm-preoccupied-with-my-thoughts kind. However, what she said got me thinking. Not the inspiration part, no. It was how she said more people should believe in us. No, it was know about us. I went and laid down on her bed, kicking my feet up as i did.I'd been thinking similarly for the past decade or so. People were getting to the point where they were starting to think that there were other things out there. They were starting to find truth to what they had always assumed was myth. They'd even found the ruins of what they thought was Atlantis - I'd gone there to see for myself but I couldn't make heads or tails of it. However, it did make sense that part of it was under the Bermuda Triangle.

Regardless, people were opening up to the idea that things might not be as they seem. Which, to me, sounded like the perfect time to try and introduce Immortals to the masses. Or, rather, re-introduce them. I just couldn't think of any ways that I could do that by myself. I'd tried to get Jack in on it, but he didn't have any ideas either. "Do you have any ideas?"

"What?"

"On how to educate people about us." She paused in her scribbling. Well, her handwriting was better than mine, but you know what I mean. She set her pen down before turning her desk chair around to face me.

With a dumbstruck face, she responded. "Are you serious?" I nodded. "You're asking me for advice on telling the world about immortals. Really?"

"Yeah, you're smart. You care. And you spend more time in today's world than any of us do. What's the best way to wake it up?" She just sort of stared at me with a blank expression. "Look, I've been thinking about this since before I was immortal. The world hasn't been ready. But, the movie kick-started things, it got people thinking that maybe, just maybe, we exist." I sat forward, planting my feet on the floor instead on her headboard and bracing my arms on my legs. "Now, almost 30 years later, people are finally..." I sighed. "Starting to believe in us. Not just kids."

I thought back to how every one of my believers left me at puberty - rarely longer. "Atlantis is real. Other planets can support life. The garden of Eden is in between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Science proved all of those, so people accept them as reality. they believe that they're real when they used to think they were tall tales and legends. That proof is allowing people to entertain the thought that other legends... might not be. I want to show them that they're right... I just, don't know how." I sat back a little.

"U- um..." She blinked a lot, I think to try and order her thoughts. She took a breath and puffed it out. "That's, that's a good question." She rubbed the back of her head before shrugging. "Social media post?"

-

It was late November. The mall was literally crawling with people - most of them under the age of eight and accompanied by their parents. The line stretched for about a hundred feet, all of them waiting for a chance to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. I was standing amongst the 'elves' that were basically crowd control - most of whom, I could tell, would rather chew their own arm off than have to listen to one more screaming kid who was throwing a temper tantrum. North had swapped places with the usual Mall Santa, wearing the classic red suit with white fluffy trim as opposed to his usual garb. He plucked at the cuff of his left sleeve and grimaced momentarily. "This suit is even more itchy than one from last week."

"What do you expect? They're made to look like a Santa Suit, not function like one."

"Is no excuse!" He grumbled at me under his breath. The fact that he had to wear the Mall Santa Suits was pretty much the only thing he disliked about switching places with the guys that got paid to do it. When he wore what everyone expected to see, they could see him. It was kind of like how you don't recognize someone when they're not where you expect them to be - only the opposite. The kids knew exactly who he was, but the adults had no clue that the switch had been made. "I look ridiculous."

"You look like Santa."

"I do not look like this." He faintly gestured to his outfit.

I chuckled at him. "Yeah, well, most of the world still thinks the Coca-Cola version of you is the most accurate one."

He waved me off, lightening a moment later when the next kid was walked up to him. The kid scrambled up into his lap, grinning at him with most of his teeth missing. North smiled at the kid with more kindness than you would think a former Cossack could possess. "Hello, Johnathan." The kid gazed at him with wonder shining out of his eyes. You could almost see the kid's thought of 'he must be real, he knew my name!' "What did you want for Christmas this year?"

"Can you bring me bareries dis year? All the persents mom an daddy give me never have any."

North smiled down at him again. "Oh, and how many batteries do you need?"

"Hm..." He screwed up his face, thinking. "A bazillion!" The woman i assumed was his mom laughed from the line.

"I will bring all batteries you need, Johnathan." North leaned down a little. "I will also bring something special." The kid grinned and jumped off of his lap, running back to mom. North had been doing that all day. Answering the kids in ways that let them know he was listening, then making them even more excited trying to figure out what he'd bring for them.

In the past few years, North had been giving kids less of what they wanted and more of what they needed. Like, instead of giving them their upteenth barbie doll, he gave them an old fashioned doll that they had to take care of - to teach them to value the ones they had more and not destroy their toys. Or instead of getting them a horde of bionicles, he'd give them one of those erector kits. Same concept but more creativity involved. Sometimes he'd give a book on ideas for using what they had in better ways. He was trying to get the wonder back into playing with their toys instead of kids having them for the sake of having them, and expecting more just because it's Christmas. He was trying to bring the season back to the way it used to be. Which meant that Johnathan was probably going to be getting a toy that didn't need any batteries to work.

The next kid looked nervous as the woman I assumed was her mom nudged her towards North. He smiled at the little girl, waving her forwards. "Do not be afraid. I do not bite." She looked up at her mom again, who smiled and told her to go on. She hesitantly climbed into his lap, looking almost scared. "What is your name?"

"Alyssa."

"What do you want for Christmas, Alyssa?"

Her lip trembled. "I miss Lucy." North and I glanced at her mom, who mouthed 'Our dog died' back at North.

"What was your favorite thing about her?"

She sniffed and wiped at her eyes, which had started tearing up. "She's not there when I come home anymore. She used to jump at me when I opened the door and give me kisses."

North gave her a sympathetic look. "Well, Alyssa, I cannot bring Lucy back for you. She is beyond me and my powers. But she will always be with you, and so will I. What you remember about her, that is what she left for you to keep. To hold on to. I know it is hard." North wasn't speaking with sympathy, but with empathy. I knew that he was speaking from his own experiences and memories. "Lucy would want you to be happy when you remember her, not sad."

This wasn't the first kid North had to cheer up. I never remembered anyone being sad to see Santa when I'd been a kid. Maybe the world had changed or maybe I'd just been too happy to see sadness. More and more kids these days were waking up to the adult world and how hard it was. It wasn't right. The adults were blind and the kids could see. That was the problem with the world. The adults were the ones that needed to wake up, they're the ones that could make things happen. They were just too blind to do anything. And too many of them had forgotten everything they knew was real and right when they were kids.

I sighed as Alyssa climbed off of North's lap. "I'm gonna go wander the mall, I'll see you later North." He nodded, hiding it with a smile to the next kid.

I slipped away, staring at the line of kids that reached back four whole stores. I looked at the antsy kids, crying babies, uninterested teens, and tired parents. I rolled my eyes after the thirtieth teenager I saw on their phone waved off their younger sibling. Whenever I'd spent time with Caeden when he was that age I'd paid attention, at least to an extent. If I took him somewhere it was to spend time with him. I walked to the nearest store that had an overhang at the entrance and hauled myself on top of it. I sighed again, dropping my bag off of my shoulder and rubbing the back of my neck. I'd been out and about for the past three weeks and I was starting to get tired. I didn't really like sleeping anywhere that wasn't owned by an Immortal unless it was Lizzy's room. I'd crashed there a little over two weeks ago before I'd left and had been wandering since. I'd been making my way to legends, stopping at random on the way. I'd stumbled upon North in Ohio not long after I'd left Cedar Point, having rode everything for free of course. Well, actually I'd stumbled upon one of the yetis who had shown me where North was setting up shop.

I cracked my neck, groaning while I did. I was gonna need to crash sometime soon. Sam's was an option, ever since my first - and only - hangover we'd both been cool with staying at each other's places... even though Sam didn't get out that much. But I'd been relying on him a lot lately, and my own sense of reckless independence was demanding that I find somewhere else or suck it up. So this overhang was starting to look real inviting. However, I wouldn't sleep here if my life depended on it. It may be the world I grew up in but that felt a little too much like being a hobo. So instead I pulled out my sketch pad and started drawing. There were countless life models walking around and I still had trouble with a few things now and then.

I was so absorbed by what I was doing that it took me a while to realize that there was another artist sitting on a bench not too far away. He was scribbling furiously in a notebook far grubbier than mine. I left my stuff where it was and hopped down, dodging people as I walked over to where he was. I glanced over his shoulder to see what he was sketching and my jaw almost hit the floor. He glanced up towards where I'd been sitting and this confused look hit his face until he glanced around and almost jumped out of his skin when he saw me standing next to him.

"You can see me!" His mouth gaped like a fish as he stared at me. His sketch had been of me sitting on the overhang. It was fast and super sketchy, with the word 'immortal' written next to it hastily. Finally, he glanced at his sketchbook for a moment and then blushed when he realized that I saw his rendering of myself. I had to say it wasn't bad.

He stuttered. "Uh - um - you - I was just - what ..." He gaped again and I saw realization dawn over his face. "You're really an immortal?" He looked away. "They really do exist. I'm talking to an Immortal!" He yelled that last sentence and everyone within thirty feet glanced his way. He smiled sheepishly and waved his apology.

I straightened up, crossing my arms as I did. How in the world did this kid believe in immortals, but didn't know about us? By which I meant how could he see me without knowing who I was? "Okay, start talking buster, how can you see me?" This may be the answer I was looking to Lizzie for.

His eyes widened even more. In a hushed - almost reverent - tone he responded. "How did you know my name?"

I couldn't help it, I laughed. "You're name's Buster? Who names their kid that anymore?"

He flushed again. "Um - well my friends call me Bust. Or at least they would if I had any..." My laughter instantly died. Damn-it, why do all my believers have to lonely cloud-heads like me? "Online they do, though. I've got loads of friends - they just don't actually know me."

I was never this bad, right? Inner voice responded with, no, not quite. "Regardless, you can see me. How?"

"Oh! Um..." He glanced around at the hoard of shoppers and grimaced. "Not here. Follow me."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "Okay, I'll bite, just gimme a sec." I called my wings and swooped over to grab my things. When I came back over to him his chin was scraping the floor. "Lead the way. It's easier for me to follow up here." Slowly he nodded before turning and walking through the throng of people.

As we went he kept looking at me over his shoulder. The more he looked the more people stared at him. As we passed North he gave me a curious glance and I called out that I'd see him later. He waved me off without a second thought. Buster, however, started when I spoke to North and stopped for a second. I'd yelled to North that he could see me and he gave me a subtle thumbs up before paying attention to the next kid. After a moment, Buster got moving again. He led me out one of the side exits of the mall and went to his car.

I shook my head deeply at his van - it was one of those white ones with weirdo murals on the side almost like the mystery machine - but you know, way less cool. He opened the back doors and I promptly revoked my previous opinion. It was so teched out that I'm pretty sure he could hack the NSA. Or the Pentagon. "Woah..." I dropped to the ground and met my wings flutter away, a few pages hung around hesitantly like they were waiting for orders, but after a moment they went off too.

Buster watched them fly off with a mouth as open as my own. After a second he shook his head and gestured inside. "You can come in - if you want!"

I climbed in and he shut the doors behind me. As I sat on one of the swivel chairs I dropped my bag at my feet. "Dude, calm down, I'm not gonna bite."

His eyes looked like they were gonna pop out of his head. "Um - well it's just that you're the first Immortal I've ever met... I didn't think one would be so hot -" He immediately blushed and turned away. I raised an eyebrow at him from where I sat. I was intrigued by this kid - not because of him personally, but by the fact he could fully see me and not have a clue who I was. Also most of my believers lost belief in their early teens and this guy was around twenty. "Um, hang on a second, I'm gonna get my friends in on this."

Once more I raised an eyebrow as he turned on one serious computer system. He pulled outa pair of those headphones that turn into speakers - the kind that comes with a mic and look like cat ears. I'd actually known the person who invented them back in the day. He put them on and furiously typed until, twenty deeply encrypted web pages later, he stopped at a chat room. "Come in, guys. It's Bust I've got huge knews." The words he's spoken into the chatroom spelled themselves out in the little dialouge box at the bottom, above it was space for one or more video calls.

He covered the mic and looked at me. "There's an alert at the other end so they know I'm in the room. So long as they're not busy or anything they'll get on in a minute."

Not half a second after he finished his sentence, there was a blip from the computer and a video showed up on the screen that took up one fourth of the wall. It was a girl, blonde, and a little on the chubby side but not looking like she was in bad shape. "What is it, Bust? Did you see North? Was he there?"

"Yeah but -"

Another blip and another video, another girl, this one very athletic and tomboyish with dull brown hair and eyes. "What's the news compadre?"

"He saw North!" The blonde had responded while Buster was sitting with his mouth open, trying to get a word in.

The brunette sat up straight as an arrow. "No way! Really, Bust?"

"Yeah but that's not - "

Once more he was cut off by another person joining the call. This time it was a boy with black hair. "What is up?" He had a thick accent that I could tell was somewhere in scandinavia but I couldn't pinpoint the country of origin. "You have news?"

"Look, can we just wait until everyone's here?"

"Who are we waiting for?" The brunette pulled a pop from somewhere off screen and took a sip.

"Well, you know," The blonde pulled a chip out of a tube. "Lord's always listening in, but we might be able to catch Spazz." Lord and Spazz? God I hope those are their usernames. "Spazz, you present?"

After a moment there was another blip and then some shuffling sound until I got a glimpse of another boy who looked barely over four feet tall with bright orange hair - not red, orange like a carrot - lurched into view. "Hey guys, sorry I was downstairs! What's going on?" He scrolled over the previous conversation and then his eyebrows went skyward. "Bust! You saw North?!"

"Yes, now that the gangs all here. He was there just like we thought." They were on the hunt for North? "Rumor confirmed, Santa's taking the place of mall Santas. Weird thing is, none of the adults noticed anything different."

"You hear that Lord? Better add it to the blogs." The brunette was the one that spoke this time.

"But - guys, that's not what I called you for. Look - there was another Immortal there."

"Who?" The foreign boy was asking this time, his accent making it sound like he was singing. "Another Guardian perhaps?"

Bust shook his head but couldn't get a word in edgewise before the redhead boy cut in. "Was it Frost? Tooth?"

"Sandy?" The blonde chipped in. "It's not Bunny, he wouldn't be seen dead around christmas time."

"Are your friends always like this?" I felt bad for the boy - mainly because I did what his friends were doing to him. He shrugged at me as if to say 'yeah, what're you gonna do?'

"Who's that?" The brunette leaned closer to what I presumed was her screen and squinted.

The other quickly followed suit, the blonde piping up before the others. "Bust, is that a girl?! Did you get a girlfriend?!"

I snorted where I sat and Buster held his hands up, waving them frantically. "No! No, that's what I was tryin to tell you guys. She's - this is the..." He glanced at me.

"Why is girlfriend blurry?"

His cheeks flushed deeply. "She's not my girlfriend! She's the Immortal!" There was stunned silence from the other four members of the chat. Though most of them didn't meet my eye - which I assumed was from the placement of their cameras or screens - I could tell they all saw me.

I got up and leaned over the counter. "You can all see me." It was a question but it wasn't. Meekly they all nodded. "Do any of you know who I am?" One by one they all sort of shrugged. I rolled my eyes and straightened up. More to myself than them I mumbled. "This doesn't make any sense, only believers can see us." Thirty one years and I'd never encountered this.

The blonde slumped back in her chair. "Oh my god... Lord... are you hearing this?"

"Lord?" I looked at Buster, waiting for an explanation.

"Oh! Introductions, right." He pointed at the raven haired boy. "Legendary Freak - goes by Freak here." He waved as Buster pointed at the other boy. "Spazztastic Leprechaun, you can call him Spazz or Spazzy." He held up his hand in acknowledgment. Buster pointed at the brunette. "That's Pirate Kat, usually we call her PK or just Kat - that's her real name." She shot me a half-hearted peace sign which almost made me laugh. "And that's Kimakaze, we call her Kazee." She nodded looking smug. "Last of all is our always listening friend who rarely chimes in, Myth Lord."

"Also known as Lord, got it. What's your username?"

He looked a little shocked for a second, like I wouldn't know what a username was. "Buster Call."

"Like from One Piece?"

"You know what One Piece is?!" Kazee was the most shocked of all of them.

"I finished it long before most of you were born. You got nothing on my knowledge of anime - it's my middle name after all."

"Like from... before?" Buster started with confidence then faltered at the end of the question. I was pretty sure he realized what he was asking.

I nodded. "Anime AnnaMae. Now I'm Story Tale."

There was shocked silence once more as they all stared at one another. Buster slowly pointed at me. "You're... you're..."

Kat finished the sentence for him. "You found Silvertongue!" Silver Tongue? Where did these kids get their source material? That was definitely not one of my titles or names... Though I'm sad to say that in the immortal community, Hangover Queen was.

Everyone was quiet for a moment after that until all hell broke loose on the internet. They all started talking over each other, trying to get a word in before the others, asking me questions, etc. After about ten minutes of this, there was a barely audible blip and another video feed showed up. A voice that was changed with a modulator - accompanied by a face hidden in shadows - drifted out of the speakers on Buster's headphones. "Story?"

Everyone else quieted down immediately and stared at the mysterious figure that I assumed was Myth Lord. I raised my eyebrow candidly and took a look at the room this person was in. After a moment my eyebrows shot skyward. "Lizzie!? What the hell!"

"Story, what are you doing there?" Even with the voice modulator, I could hear my niece's voice. "I thought you were going to Sam's?"

"Lord, what's going on?" Buster was the one who asked.

Kazee wiped her mouth off from where she'd spit out her drink. "You know Silvertongue?"

"Why have you not told us this?" Freak sounded hurt, even though he looked like he was one of the oldest ones there.

I snorted. "Know me? She's my niece!" Silence once more and Buster looked at me like I was an alien. I stared back at Lizzie. "Yes, I was going to Sam's but I took a few detours on the way. North was in town so I stopped to chat with him a while then I ran into Buster here," I hooked my thumb at him. "And he dragged me here to his van only to reveal you on the other end of a video chat." They all sort of stared at me like I was about to ground them. "Someone tell me what this is about."

Lizzie sighed. "A year ago I started a blog about immortals. I was trying to find others who believed in you guys - to see if there was a way to boost belief... Like you asked me about the other day."

"Why didn't you tell me then?"

"You passed out not too long after you got there, so I thought I'd let you sleep; then we were talking about other things and I forgot... Speaking of, have you sleapt since then? You look beyond tired."

I pointed at her. "This is not about me."

"Oh, yes it is!" That was Kat. "You're Silvertongue. You're one of the newest Immortals and the newest in America. You're also the first Immortal made after the movie came out." I raised my eyebrows in mild surprise. "She noticed my response. "There's posts about you all over the internet. You're an urban legend."

"Say what now?"

"Silvertongue, stories personified. She started showing up about eight years after the movie came out, mostly on the east coast in Pensylvania and Massachusetts. Little kids talk about the lady who tells them stories and some teenagers even back it up. In the past decade some adults have started mentioning that they remember having an imaginary friend like that when they were kids. That's when the conspiracy whackos started putting two and two together. No one knew who the story teller was so someone started calling her Silvertongue, but eventually Lord told us that she'd tracked down the real name, Story Tale..." Buster blinked, realization blooming on his face. "And now I know how you found that out." He glanced at me again.

"Look I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys, but that was half the point. People need to believe of their own volition otherwise it doesn't work." She looked at me, and even through the shadows I could see the sincerity in her face. "I've watched Story loose believers all my life because they simply grew up. I've seen her face when it happens... No one should have to go through that." She looked down, a moment later taping on the keyboard a little and then turning on her light. When she spoke again it was in her normal voice. "I guess there's no point in this gettup anymore since you know my name." She shook her head. "I refuse to stop believing in you the way my parents did, Story."

I sighed, looking down. "I appreciate what you kids are doing, but everyone hits a breaking point sooner or later. For most people it's around when puberty hits, some stay until they're around twenty or so, but everyone stops before thirty. Caeden and Tanya - your mom and dad - stopped when you were born. The day you were born in fact." I crossed my arms and ran my toe across the ground absently. "The only exception I've ever seen is Jamie Bennet. In all honesty I wish he would stop believing in us."

"Why?" Both Freak and Kazee had asked at the same moment, after which Kazee snorted in laughter.

"Because the longer he believes, the more it's gonna hurt when he doesn't anymore. All of us, Jack most of all."