Leo Augustus Callister

Leo Augustus Callister is a main character of the novel Once, We Existed. He was born to unidentified parents and had a younger brother named Beckett. At the start of the novel he is 15. He is the first and eldest son. It is not specified where he was born, but we suspect that he was born in the City, like his best friend and girlfriend, Nova, in the 26th century. His own known living relatives are Micaiah and Emilia Callister, his uncle and fourteen-year-old cousin.

The story starts when Leo is fifteen and meets a young girl one year his adolescent named Nova Cassidy, his future girlfriend, atop a balcony. They instantly bonded because of their love of astronomy and drawing. After Andromeda's death, they fell distant, Nova blaming Leo for the cause of her death because of his current homeless state. They started dating when Leo was sixteen when they both realised they had feelings for one another. At the end of amethyst gardens: chapter three part one, Leo takes Nova out to the City and they run into her long lost sister at a bookshop.

In the next chapter, Nova falls ill to the Disease, a COVID-19 like mutant which kills 99% of its inhabitants, which is when Leo realises how much he truly loves her and confesses to her. An unexpected visitor shows up at their door - his girlfriend's long presumed deceased mother Ophelia and her almost four year old son Octavius. Octavius and Leo immediately bond.

On Nova's sixteenth birthday, the whole of the City finds out they have to undergo a severe Lockdown because of the virus the day post. No one is allowed to go out, even to buy food, so the household rushes to the shops. We find out that Leo has a brother, Beckett, which is why he was so good with Octavius. It is a surprise to both the audience and Nova. Nova and Leo get into a fight and refuse to speak to each other. She tells him to leave so he does and they don't see each other for weeks until Leo shows up on her balcony one night and confesses his love to her once more. They apologise and kiss.

The heater breaks so Leo goes out to get some firewood and gets hypothermia. Only days after he recovers unexpected visitors show up at their doorsteps - Leo's uncle Micaiah and fourteen-year-old cousin Emilia Callister. With the extra people their food stock is running low, so the family head to the supermarket, to find the shelves bare. Leo and Nova raid some nearby houses and collect a few cans but Nova's asthma worsens so Leo has to take her back to the Apartment.

In unexpected: chapter ten, the hologram flicks on to reveal the New Zealand deputy prime minister, declaring that the City is going to be burnt down in seven days and they are to leave and head north as soon as possible because of the Disease. From the presumed millions who lived in the city, only seven hundred remain. They head to a deserted house a few days north of the City in the country which once belonged to a friend of Micaiah's. He doesn't specify who but it seems the previous inhabitants had moved out or the house had been robbed from the lack of much furniture. Leo reveals he wants to marry Nova in the future.

The next chapter starts with Octavius begging to carve pumpkins, as it's near Halloween, so we guess it's been about a month or two since they've left the City for their new life. Leo thinks it's odd as they live in New Zealand not America, but Ophelia assures him that its a tradition of theirs started by Octavius' presumed deceased father because he was born in the US. At the end of the chapter, Nova reveals a surprise to both Leo and the audience - she's pregnant with his baby. Only Leo and Alya currently know.

In Oh Baby, his daughter, Andromeda Ophelia is born. In Nostalgia, he has two younger children, Arden (Known by his middle name, Beck) and Juniper. At the end of the chapter he proposes to Nova.

In Wrinkles (an epilogue bonus chapter), fifteen years later, he's involved in a car crash and dies, devastating Nova and the rest of the Morshower-Callister family. He was only 42. He and Nova had been together for 28 years.

He is an Uncle to Violet, Luca and Oliver. He was also a loving grandfather to Akira, Trinity, Troy, Hugo and James.

Read the first chapter of Once, We Existed here >>> Once We Existed ~ The Boy On The Balcony