The story isn't supposed to end like this.
Meredith ran down the rocky pavement, heart beating hard against her ribcage. Each breath scraped her lungs raw, but it wasn't the pain that frightened her. It was the images projecting inside her mind, flashing possibilities she never wanted to see. Endings she never imagined.
No. Not like this.
Thunder clapped above her, sharp and violent, and the sky dimmed as clouds gathered, folding over one another angrily. Rain threatened but never came, it was as if the world itself was holding its last breath.
Her heels slipped against the stone. The pain finally snapped something in her, and she kicked them off without thinking, abandoning them where they fell. She gathered the skirt of her gown in her fists and lifted it, feet pounding freely now, faster, desperate.
Please. Please be wrong.
Her eyes caught the crowd before she reached them, knights in polished armor, villagers in muted cloaks, faces twisted with fear and grief. A wall of bodies.
"Move!" Red shoved through them, hands shaking, voice cracking sharp enough that the crowd parted in startled obedience. Her eyes burned, vision blurring as tears hazed everything into smears of color.
And there... in the center.
Leo sat on the ground, cradling the Princess's cold body in his arms. Her face itself was hidden among his iron armored arms, arms that are stained crimson with her royal blood.
The world tilted.
A sob tore from Red's throat before she could stop it. Her feet slowed, then faltered altogether. She couldn't go closer. She couldn't look too long. Guilt crawled up her spine, cold and choking, sinking its claws deep into her chest.
The Princess is dead, because of me.
"Leo…" Red whispered, taking a tentative step forward.
His face was flushed crimson, tears streaking down unchecked as his shoulders shook. He looked up at her, eyes wild, grief curdling into fury.
"Don't you ever take another step near us," he growled. "Don't."
His arms tightened around the Princess, as if holding her harder could pull life back into her. The royal guards hovered nearby, uncertain, reaching for him but not daring to pry her from his grasp.
"It was you!" Leo shouted, his voice breaking apart. "She died because you pushed her to run away with me!"
"No!" Red clenched her fists, nails biting into her palms. Tears spilled freely now, hot and unstoppable. "I—I didn't—"
The words collapsed in her throat.
Because deep down, buried beneath the denial, she knew. She knew she had planted the idea. Whispered it. Nudged fate when it wasn't hers to touch.
The crowd murmured, voices rising like an accusing tide. Red staggered back, a sob ripping out of her chest.
She has to get out of here.
She barely registered the prince running toward the crowd, shoving past knights, his face etched with horror and confusion. She pushed past him without looking, throat dry, legs carrying her wherever they could.
Her thoughts spiraled, frantic, scrambling for answers, until they slammed into a single name.
"Aquill!" she screamed.
Her feet hit grass as she ran up the hill beyond the square, skirts soaked with dew, lungs screaming. "Show yourself!"
She collapsed onto her knees at the crest, body trembling violently. She wanted to go home. She hated it here, this world that wore stories like skin and punished her for being a part of them.
From the hilltop, she watched everything fall apart.
People began to fade, their bodies unraveling into pages that tore loose and flew with the wind. Houses blurred, bricks dissolving into ink-stained words. The castle shuddered, its towers peeling into paragraphs that lifted toward the sky.
The sky itself tore, ripping like paper.
"You gave her an ending that belonged to you."
Red turned sharply. A figure stood at the edge of her vision. She faced him fully, fury igniting the moment she saw Aquill as himself .
His usual white garments were untouched by the storm. Silver hair swaying as though the wind favored him alone.
She staggered to her feet and rushed forward, then dropped back to her knees before him.
"Take me home," she pleaded, voice hoarse, broken. "Please."
Aquill looked down at her, expression unreadable. "I can't do that."
Her chest caved in, the hope she's been holding on falls apart.
"You'll come back here one way or another," he continued softly, eyes turning away. "The story has gone into disaster because of you. So it will take you back to where it began—"
"It's your fault!" Red shot to her feet, rage burning through her grief. She wiped her tears roughly. "I never wanted to be part of the story you wrote!"
Her voice cracked. She shook her head, breath hitching. "Just take me home," she whispered. "At least let me feel like I had a life before all this."
For a moment, the world seemed to pause.
Aquill met her gaze.
"Don't forget," he said quietly, "I warned you. The story will find you. It always does."
She opened her mouth to answer, but the air shattered.
Pages exploded around her, whipping violently, obscuring her vision. Ink-stained words brushed against her skin, cold and sharp. Aquill vanished into the storm of paper.
And then—
Silence.
Red gasped.
She was lying on her bedroom floor.
No thunder. No crowd. No blood-stained gown.
Her ceiling fan hummed softly above her, familiar cracks tracing patterns she's been familiar with for years. Her phone buzzed beside her, a notification lighting up the dark.
She scrambled to sit up slowly, hands shaking, pressing them to her chest. Her heart still raced, but it was real. Solid. Human.
"I'm home," she whispered, but no relief was in her voice, but confusion and disbelief.
Only uncomfortable relief washed over her in heavy waves. Tears slipped down her face, but this time they felt different, much lighter. She laughed weakly, scrubbing at her eyes.
Just a story.
Just a nightmare.
But her gaze drifted to her desk, an undeniable tension rising.
An open book lay there, pages fluttering though no window was open. Ink slowly disappeared across the paper, until it settled on the very first page. There was a few dead moments, until ink slowly bled itself through the time-stained paper, forming words.
Chapter One.
Red's breath caught.
Somewhere, far beyond her world, a story turned its page, marking its return to the beginning once more.