Quivil

Once upon a time there was a young boy named Luis. He started misbehaving more than normal. Calamity rose and there was stuff on TV about Epics. His family made a plan for what to do if one of them or one of their neighbors turned Epic - how to get out and where to go. They even put together ESBs, or Epic Survival Bags. One Saturday, just after an especially bad week of rule breaking, he promised to stay inside. He then proceeded to sneak out with a friend at a moment when nobody was watching him. They went to a small store that was still running as normal and walked out with a stolen toy. His friend was the one to take the toy out of the store. As they started homewards, they got in a verbal sparring match over who should keep the toy. The verbal spar very quickly turned into a physical fight. Luis had thrown the first punch. He went home with a black eye and the toy, while his once-friend went home with a split lip, a bloody nose, and more bruises. When Luis got home, his parents asked him why he had sneaked out. He made something up about a game he and his friend were going to play and told them his friend started the fight.

That evening, Luis’s sister dragged him out of bed, grabbed his ESB, and towed him down the stairs. The whole way down he had no idea what had possessed her, but it became clear as soon as he saw the Father-shaped absence in the living room, facing away from them - and toward their fearful Mother, who had just seen them. Luis watched as her eyes widened further, then narrowed slightly in determination. He watched as she started edging toward the door, watched as the Epic advanced, as Mother sped up, as she grabbed the door handle, as she started to twist it the Epic reached for her she melted into nothing. Just like that. Gone.

And then they were in the basement and no this was wrong this was all wrong they needed to follow the Epic plan, they needed to get out, not hide in the basement. The Epic would find them here, his sister would melt, he would melt, like Mother melted, and they would all be gone, gone, gone, except for an epic made of dark who didn’t want his son or his daughter or the love of his life, who wanted them gone, gone, gone, for no reason at all. His brain was stuck, stuck watching, and he wanted to look away. He wanted to stop it. He wanted to go back and fix what he had done. This was all his fault, wasn’t it. He broke the rules and Father turned into a not-Father. He broke the rules and the red star rose. He broke the rules and the world exploded. It was all his fault. Was it too late to go back, to keep the rules forever? If he kept the rules now, would Calamity go away? Would the darkness give his father back?

They were in the basement. Luis didn’t care. The Epic plan wasn’t a rule, and it was a rule that his sister was in charge when his parents were away. She wanted to stay there all of Sunday, so they stayed.

And the Epic didn’t find them. They didn’t melt. They weren’t gone.

Monday came. They left.

For years, they survived. They moved, they cowered, they hid. Until one day, when Ricochet woke up and his brain was working differently. He knew exactly how high above his head the ceiling was. He knew exactly how far it was to the exit. He knew he could do impossible things.

He knew that no matter what he did, he could never break the Rules.

Or the world would explode again.