Prologue:

A Fairytale History

"Tell me a story."

Benjamin Gates looked up from his geometry homework on the dining room table to find a young blonde girl with bright blue eyes and her hair pulled back into two braids standing in front of him dressed in pink pajamas. He shook his head and looked back at his homework. "Go to bed, Hannah," he muttered picking up his pencil.

"Ben, tell me story," the little girl insisted with a slight lisp.

"I'm trying to do my homework, Hannah," Ben argued, not even bothering to look at her.

But Hannah was used to getting her way. "Tell me a story."

Ben groaned and pushed himself up from the table. Hannah held her arms up for him to grab her. He picked his little sister up and headed for the stairs. "I'll tell you a story. It's about a little girl who didn't go to bed when she was supposed to. She died. The end."

"No!" Hannah howled as she started to squirm in her brother's arms, but Ben held on tight and carried her upstairs to her bedroom.

Nearly a decade separated Benjamin and Hannah Gates in age and Ben felt like he was always stuck watching his little sister. With their mother mostly out of the picture and their father working, it left him no time to do anything with his life or have any adventures. Once he graduated, Ben planned on getting out of this hell hole and letting adventure find him. There was no way he was going to lead a boring life like the one his father had planned for him.

Still holding onto Hannah, Ben walked into his sister's bedroom. Her floor was littered with clothes she had pulled from her dresser, Barbies, and Barbie accessories. Ben carefully tried to find a pathway to Hannah's bed without stepping on anything. Considering only one Barbie lost her head, he considered himself quite successful. "What happened in here?" Ben asked his sister, not expecting a response.

"I was playing," Hannah said matter-of-factly as if the answer should have been obvious. She was still trying to squirm out of Ben's arms.

Ben rolled his eyes at her response before he playfully tossed her to her bed. Hannah giggled. She liked it when Ben threw her into her bed like that. It felt like she was flying. Once Hannah caught her breath, she crawled to the end of her bed and stood up. "Again!" she giggled as she bounced on the bed.

"Not right now, Hannah," Ben said as he reached down and started to pile his sister's clothes in his arms. If his dad found Hannah's room like this, Ben knew he would be blamed for not watching his sister carefully. Ben and his father rarely saw eye to eye.

So, he pulled open one of the dresser drawers. Their father had put labels in each of her drawers with the days of the week. This way, Hannah knew what she was supposed to wear. On the weekends either Ben or their father organized Hannah's clothes. It was their fault Hannah typically went about mismatched. Although to be fair, as a teenager, Ben didn't care much about his little sister's fashion sense so the first shirt he found went on Sunday, the second on Monday, and so on. Same with pants, socks, and underwear. He did the same thing to reorganize her clothes in his arms.

Hannah carefully slid off her bed and walked over to her big brother. "Ben, I want story," she said as she tugged at his shirt. Ben made the mistake of looking at his little sister who was looking at him with her big puppy-dog eyes and bottom lip jutted out. It was a look she had certainly perfected.

"I don't have time to tell you a story," Ben tried to explain to his sister. "I have a geometry test tomorrow. I need to study. And if you're not in bed by the time Dad gets home we're both in trouble."

"Daddy tell me stories," Hannah countered.

Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. "Tells. Dad tells you stories. And probably not any good ones. I would know. I heard them all. Grandpa tells way better stories." All the clothes had been returned to the dresser, so he closed the drawers shut.

"Tells me." Hannah stamped her foot childishly, still wearing the sad puppy-dog eyes and jutted bottom lip.

Ben couldn't help but notice her attempted grammatical correction, which still wasn't right. He sighed. At this point, the only way he was going to win this battle was to bribe her. "Fine, I'll tell you one story…" Ben held up one finger for emphasis. "And then you are going to sleep and I am finishing my homework. Got it?"

Hannah nodded her head enthusiastically. "Gots it."

He ignored her grammar, despite it grating on his nerves. Instead, he picked his little sister up and walked her over to her bed. He laid her down and pulled her blankets up. She looked up at him eagerly awaiting a story. He sighed again. "Scoot over," Ben told her.

She did as she was told and pushed herself up against the wall so that Ben could sit down beside her. He did and then she snuggled close to him. While Ben was often annoyed with Hannah, he did love her. And Hannah adored her older brother. She looked up to him in everything. Literally and figuratively.

Ben wrapped one arm around his sister and rested one behind his head. "How about a treasure story?" he asked looking down at her. Hannah didn't look completely sold on the idea, so Ben added, "Grandpa told me the story."

Hannah then nodded her head. She spent a fair amount of time with her grandfather when her dad couldn't find someone to watch her and Ben was at school or his part-time job. Ben gave his sister a rare smile for his broody teenage years. His little sister was usually the only reason he ever smiled at home.

"Okay, here we go," Ben started. "It was 1832…"

Hannah crawled onto Ben's lap and slapped her hands over his mouth. Ben looked at her bewildered. He pulled her hands away. "What?" he hissed.

"Stories start once upon a time…" She looked at him deadly serious. Otherwise Ben might have laughed at her. Glancing over at her bookshelf, Ben realized that most of her stories were fairytales.

"Not this story," he argued.

"Yes, this story." She nodded her head, looking ready to pounce on him again.

Knowing it was pointless to argue with her, Ben rolled his eyes. "Once upon a time, in 1832…" he paused and looked at her. "Happy?"

Hannah nodded her head and returned to her spot at Ben's side, snuggling close to him. Ben chuckled and started the story over again, remembering the very important words. "Once upon a time, in 1832, on a dark and stormy night, Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, was headed for the White House."

"Castle. They always go to the castle," Hannah corrected.

"I guess it kinda looks like a castle, but it isn't."

"Yes, it is."

Ben sighed, ignoring the urge to correct her facts. "Fine, but the castle is called the White House. That's its name in the story."

Hannah seemed to accept this, so she nodded her head.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that Charles is a member of a secret society called the Masons. And he's dying."

"No he's not!" Hannah shouted. "He can't die! Stories always end happily ever after."

"It will...just not for Charles Carroll." Hannah looked about ready to cry. Ben groaned, quickly trying to figure out how to fix this. "Okay, he's not dying…" Ben mused. "He's just...going to a great big castle...in the sky. After visiting the White House castle."

"Are there unicorns and pegasus at the castle in the sky?" Hannah asked, sniffling a bit.

"Sure." Ben was quickly regretting his decision not to read one of the books from her shelf. He looked down at Hannah who seemed appeased enough for him to continue. "So, Charles Carroll is going to the White House castle to visit President Andrew Jackson."

"You mean, the prince?"

"Yeah, sure. The prince President Andrew Jackson."

Hannah nodded her head in approval.

"Right, but the thing is prince President Andrew Jackson wasn't home in his castle, the White House, when Charles Carroll got there. And Charles Carroll had a secret. A secret he needed to tell someone before he went to a party at the great big castle in the sky."

"Who did he tell?" Hannah asked, fully engrossed in the story.

Ben smirked. "Thomas Gates."

"Is he a prince too?'

"No, he's a stable boy."

"Does he become a prince and marry the princess?"

Ben blinked slowly trying to figure out how to answer her question without getting a rise out of her. He really did need her to go to sleep so he could study. Thankfully, he managed to find something acceptable to Hannah. "..in the next story. This is a treasure story, remember?"

With an expression far-too-serious for such a young child, she nodded her head.

"So, Charles Carroll told Thomas Gates about the treasure."

"He's gonna find the treasure and become a prince and live happily ever after!" Hannah squealed, squirming beneath her blankets. Ben shook his head looking at his sister. He definitely should have gone with one of the books on her shelf.

"Anyway, the treasure kept disappearing. A lot of people wanted. Bad people. A lot of bad people, so they kept moving the treasure."

"Did the bad people find it?" Hannah's face was almost completely covered by her blanket at this point. Ben could only see her nose and mouth poking out from beneath the blanket.

"No, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Paul Revere made sure of that."

With her entire face now visible from beneath the blanket, Hannah looked at her brother in confusion.

He sighed. "They were other princes...before prince President Andrew Jackson. They kept the treasure safe from the hands of British. So, they came up with clues and maps to where the treasure was hidden. And that's where Thomas Gates comes back in. He was given the secret of the treasure."

Hannah's eyes were now wide with interest.

Ben lowered his voice to just above a whisper and leaned close to his sister. "Thomas Gates was told, 'The secret lies with Charlotte!;"

"The princess! The princess!" By this point, Hannah was bouncing up and down excitedly on the bed and squealing. Her blanket had been discarded on Ben's lap. Ben couldn't help but wonder if she had somehow snuck a sugar packet or two while he hadn't been watching.

He reached out and took hold of his sister. He was going to have to forgo the truth of the story and finish it like she expected if she ever was to go to sleep. Ben cleared his throat. "Uh-yeah-Princess Charlotte. Thomas found Princess Charlotte. They fell in love and got married. The prince and princess found the treasure and lived happily ever after. The end."

Hannah clapped her hands in applause at the ending. She liked it. Maybe one day when she was older, he would be able to tell her the actual truth of the treasure. But for now, he just wanted to be able to get her to sleep.

When Ben was just about to tell her to settle down, she practically collapsed in exhaustion beside him. She snuggled at his side once more and her breathing eventually slowed. Within minutes, Hannah had fallen asleep on him. She looked so peaceful in her sleep and Ben didn't want to wake her by getting up too soon. So, he lay there for a few minutes staring up at the ceiling thinking of the treasure while Hannah slept. One day, he would find that treasure. He just knew he would. It was the Gates family legacy that he was destined to fulfill.

The sound of their father's car pulling into the driveway knocked Ben out of his reverie. He carefully disentangled himself from Hannah before he smoothed her hair from her face. "Good night, Hannah Banana," Ben whispered before he left the room. Before he could find the treasure, he should probably pass geometry.

Author's Note: I fully blame the people of Tumblr for this existing. That is all. Thanks to everyone who encouraged this or took a chance on it. It means a lot to me! :) Next chapter we'll meet an adult, Hannah.