Chapter Text
And so I read another chapter another chapter so I can be miles away
And if I read another chapter another chapter I at least I can get through today
Some stories start with “Once upon a time…”. Some start with “Long long ago…”. Charlie’s story started here.
His dad had up and left, leaving him stuck with his mom who would often just forget he existed. It made him feel like he just wanted to run away and hide. Or maybe to just disappear altogether. But instead, he turned to books. Books always had a way of making him feel better. He could open a book and suddenly be miles away, whisked off to a far off kingdom where none of his problems existed. Reading those stories gave him the strength to get through each day.
Which was something he really needed right now, because his parents’ separation meant moving schools. And what was the absolute worst time to change schools? Year 10. Okay so maybe he was being a little dramatic, but it certainly felt like the worst time. Sure school was never his favourite, but at least at his old school he had friends. Here, well, here he just had his books.
Lately, he’d been kind of obsessed with this fairytale about this guy called Prince Nicholas. Don’t judge. If you saw his illustration, you’d understand. The arms. Those tights. He was hot!
But you see, Charlie also could empathize, because the prince in the story was just like him. His dad was also gone and Charlie knew too well how that felt. After the first week he had the book on loan from the school library, Charlie had devoured it so much he had memorised every single word. It helped to distract his mind from everything else in his life. Kept him from spiraling deeper into his depression.
There was this one part of the book where Prince Nicholas was trying to save the princess, but he fell off a cliff into the ocean. That felt like a metaphor for Charlie’s life. Because he felt like he was falling all the time. Like life was moving way too fast and just passing him by. And the only thing he had to hold on to was Prince Nicholas, and this book.
The next part after Prince Nicholas falls into the ocean was his absolute favorite part of the book. As Prince Nicholas was drowning, he met a beautiful mermaid who had kissed him back to life. Charlie sometimes would imagine it was him instead that kissed the prince back to life and they lived happily ever after. It was dumb. This was a book for children after all, not teenagers. But Charlie couldn’t help it. This book was the one thing that was bringing him joy in his otherwise shitty life.
He had to return the book to the library though. He knew it wasn’t healthy to be this obsessed with a book. He should move on to something else. Plus, it wasn’t exactly helping him make friends being such a nerd, always with his nose stuck in the book. Gosh, thinking about it, even he’d swipe left on himself. It was pathetic. Maybe if he tried to blend in, be more like everyone else, things would be better.
But before he went to hand the book back in, he opened it for one last look.
HELP!
That wasn’t there before.
Charlie knew this book backwards and forwards. Never before was the word “help” written on that page in red ink!
He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t return the book. He had to see what this was about. He shoved the book back into his bag, exited the library, and headed home.
Was there more to this book than he knew? Was Prince Nicholas writing to him? What else would the story show? If there was more inside, he just had to know!