Finn

I groaned, rolling over on my back from my right side. I squeezed my eyelids shut, trying to contain my anger. It was three in the morning on a Friday! Who has the nerve to call at this hour??? Now, it may not look like it, but I need my beauty rest. Stretching my left arm, I reached over and swiped my phone off my nightstand. Rubbing my eyes, I pressed accept to the call.

"Hello?" I grumbled groggily into the phone. 

"Finnegan, it's nice to hear your voice again." Some random voice replied.

"Look, I don't care what you're selling. I just want to sleep. And I'm pretty sure I could get you in jail for calling at this hour. Goodnight!" I put a little extra 'bitter sugar' on the word 'goodnight'. Some people are so inconsiderate.

"Wait, wait, Finnegan! Think about it. What kind of telemarketer knows your name?" The other line asked. I pondered the question.

"Wait... Who is this?" I shot up in my bed, my blankets practically snapping. I would know that voice anywhere, and couldn't figure out why I didn't recognize it sooner. 

"I think you know." The dude on the other line replied.

"Wayne! Wait... What?" I was utterly confused. "No offense, but you're like dead." He chuckled.

"Yes, I know... But don't you think us Imagineers have our ways. I'm calling you from my DHI." He must have heard my voice getting ready to ask a question and answered it. "Yes, I have a DHI. Out of courtesy for my 'service', the Imagineers gave me a DHI that by some weird stretch of the imagination would allow me to wander the parks once I had passed."

"Well, if I can get there in my sleep, anything can happen. But that hasn't happened in years... Wait, why didn't you just cross me over there?" 

"Because I need the consent of everyone to cross you all over again. Ever since the defeat of 'her'," I cringed at who he was implying. None of us ever dared to mutter Maleficent's name. "And you guys signing off on never being crossed over again, no Imagineer has ever been able to cross you over, no matter how dire the situation."

"What do you mean, 'how dire the situation'?" I started to bite my nails. Images flashed through my mind of the OT's (Overtakers). Me running, jumping, going through walls just to escape their wrath. I shuddered. I could never do that again.

"Well..." Wayne trailed off.

"What is it?" I managed to squeak out. No matter how much I wanted to avoid it, I was starting to freak, despite my normally calm demeanor.

"About six months after you guys signed off, the new DHI's just couldn't handle they daily bad guy tasks. It went from just Br'er Fox's mischief to the Small World dolls," I shuddered. I'll never forget the feeling of those plastic little chompers clamping down on my flesh. "To the Pirates of the Caribbean, and then it just progressed until, well, we were afraid all of them might be able to bring her back."

My throat caught. I didn't know whether I wanted to scream, cry, speed text all the keepers or do all of the above. 

"Are you there?" Wayne asked.

"Y-yeah, I'm here. W-what do you want me to do about it." 

"I don't know, what do you think we should do about it?" I could practically see Wayne smirking on the other line. 

"Well, what do you expect me to do?" I asked, knowing this would do absolutely nothing for me. Since finding Walt's pen, he has done nothing but trick me.

"Finn, it's about to go back in time." Instantaneously, I remembered his ever-famous and will always be in my mind line, 'It's about time'. 

"But wait, what am I suppose-" The line went dead. Seconds after I laid my phone on my nightstand and fell frustrated back onto my pillow, my phone blew up with texts from people I hadn't spoken to in a year.

Prof. Phil

What now?

I smiled at the contact name, but then snapped out of it. He clearly knew what was going on, and was trying to see what I did. Any normal person would have looked at is as 'Hey, Philby acknowledge's his leadership, that's so cool', but I knew better. If I were to say what, it would boost that little Professor's self esteem. And if I were to explain what to do next, he would just give me a better plan. Before I had time to act, my phone buzzed.

Charlie

Call me blonde, but I think I just had a conversation with a dead guy. 

Really, there's not much more to explain about Charlene than that. She knew that she was smarter than most people saw her, but was a ninja at heart. And a little humor never hurt a blonde cheerleader, anyway. Just another guy drooling over her.

I responded to Philby's text first. Wanting to keep us on good terms, I replied with, "Cross over, I guess?" I knew it was a plan he would agree with, but left it open ended in case Philby had a better idea. Then I replied to Charlene saying, "C'mon, I thought we agreed to lay off the Ouija." Another text buzzed.

Willa

Okay, maybe I'm dreaming, but Wayne just called me. Did you and everyone else get together to do a seance or something? Thanks for leaving me out of that creepiness.

Not really much to say about that. The book nerd comes up with some seance conclusion. Yep, she was meant to be with Professor Philby over there alright. I just said, "Yeah, we called in our friends from the other side. Dr. Facilier would've been proud."

Maybeck

What now, playmaker?

Only Maybeck would use a sports reference. If he wasn't doing some sort of athletic activity, he was helping Aunt Jelly in the pottery shop. My response was quite simple with just a, "You know I don't understand these ever too common sports references. Not to sound like Prof. Philby or anything ;)"

Mandy

Wayne wake up call at 3 A.M. Sound like you too rn?

A smile formed across my face. I could be silent towards Amanda for as long as I wanted, but when we got back together, a warm feeling would form in the pit of my stomach, and any onlookers could probably see the sparks flying between us. I had never felt the way I felt with Amanda before. She was a special girl, and not just because she was a Fairly. I replied saying, "Yep. Willa thought it was a seance..." 

Jess

Mandy is in the bottom bunk freaking. I thought the whole Wayne thing was a vision, but I'm starting to think otherwise...

Jess was of course the last to panic text me. She was probably recording the whole Wayne conversation in her dream journal for all I know, which was probably a good thing considering I don't think any of us were paying attention enough to the exact words Wayne was saying over the shock that he wasn't dead. Trying to explain I said, "Yeah, everyone else is flipping out too. I'm getting texts from everyone. Do you want to cross?" I tensed typing that last part. 'Do you want to cross?' I never thought I would ever have to endure it again, yet here I am with six other Keepers breathing down my neck. 

Remembering something important, I jumped out of bed and bolted over to my dresser. I yanked open the top left drawer and started digging around until I found what I wanted. The black key fob in my hand already brought back to many different memories, some of the unspeakable, others made me cringes, and few made me laugh. The Return was our only way out, and we were going to need it. 

To Prof. Phil, Charlie, Willa, Maybeck, Mandy and Jess

We are crossing over. See you all in a few. 

I sighed and put on gray joggers with a blue long sleeved shirt. Hey, Florida can be cold too. I stuffed the black fob in my pocket, sighing with how familiar that felt. Quickly, I jumped into bed and pulled the covers up to my neck. But before I drifted off into a hopefully fast approaching sleep, I sent a quick text to the number that had called me.

To 555-326-398

Crossing over. Now. 

I hope everyone enjoyed the first official chapter of The Kingdom Returns! Are you intrigued yet? I hope so! 

It's been a while since I read the KK books (I'm 'patiently' waiting for the second book in the spin-off series The Kingdom Keepers Return which I just realized has the same name as this, oh well) so please feel free to comment any incorrect info I may have throughout the story! I want this fanfic to be as accurate as possible :) 

Now, what is Finn gonna do? Who is going to tell the story next? What do you think will happen? Fan and comment below!

xoxo 

bcruzy_02