Hey everybody enjoy!

Whatever "message" that was in that fire really spooked Risa. After we came back she seemed shaken up and more silent than usual when we told Erick about what happened. Speaking of him, he was furious at us for sneaking off and disobeying him but he calmed down and gave us our pay and a day off, how nice of him. Deidra and that stranger in the helmet exhausted us terribly, I'm thankful for the day off. I walk over to the window and open it generously, getting the cool spring air in here. I lie down on the couch and study the chandelier high above me. Whoever furnished this house has some taste in style. "Sleeping on the job Mia?" the familiar voice makes my nerves jolt. Abruptly I sit up, greeted by Seth sitting on the coffee table casually. "You should always be on your guard."

"Seth? How did you-when-?" I turn to the door, closed and locked securely. My heart pounds erratically, not in the good way either. "The window," he points to it, making me realize it's opened ajar. He looks just as he did when he abandoned me here-time has done nothing to him but so much to me. How did that happen? "Let's meet by the hill in the park where I left you, we can talk things out there. It'll be like old times when we sat on the beach, wouldn't you like that?" I squeeze my knees as I process Seth's sudden presence here. "Why?"

"You and I both know. So are you coming to hill to meet me?"

"Umm, y-yes."

"Good. Now stay still and don't get up from the couch. I want to test something out," he pulls a switchblade from his pocket and gets off of the coffee table to lean on the couch, attempting to press the blade into my cheek. I've got to get out of here while I still can! When I slip off the couch and head for the invisible bo staff leaning by the door, he snatches my wrist. I turn around and his handsome face turns into Deidra's hideous head from six days ago. "I told you not to get up from the couch," hisses Seth sinisterly.

My eyes open and Seth's gone, replaced with the enticing chandelier over the staircase. Slowly I sit up and search the entire living room for Seth but he's clearly not here. It was all a nasty dream-but is there something imperative about returning to that park? Even if it was nothing but a scary dream, I still have unresolved issues with Seth I should get off my chest and the only way to do that is to go to where he and I last saw each other-I'm not going to run into him. He went to another world, far away and unreachable.

The sunset was beautiful here, I was too sad to pay much attention to it when Seth left me. There are flowers here in bloom unlike when I was last here. You're not here to look at the pretty flowers Mia, you're here to get Seth off your mind, hopefully for forever. "Seth whatever I did to you, I'm so sorry. I don't know why you hate me but what I do know is that when the time comes I'll-I'll be ready for you," I whisper aloud as I shuffle my feet atop the hill. There, that was good right? My chest feels so much lighter or it's because my breasts finally stopped hurting this morning. Puberty is painful, it's only a matter of time until I get my period and my birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and I'm still here in Westopolis. Why can't I get home yet? A grape-colored sphere floats down from the sky-a floater in my eye probably; I rub my eyes and then stand agape in what used to be the pleasant park environment with a lonely hill with awful memories. It's now a blue-grey void containing only me in it. When I walk forward, my footsteps don't make a single sound. "Hello?" What happened to the park? The all-too familiar voice sends fear trickling down my spine, "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

To my right, Seth is standing there, barely recognizable. His pale brown, almost cream hair is now a ruddy brown and shorter than before-he also cut his bangs. There are some hairs sprouting from above his lip and he's growing sideburns. His Moonlight Town attire has been cast away, replaced with a zippered black V-neck shirt and purple, baggy denim capris. "You've changed," I observe thoughtfully, not knowing what else to say about his appearance. "So did you," states Seth, his voice deeper than before. His hair still looks soft and manageable but other than that he looks as though he hasn't slept in ages. "Do you remember what I promised you before I left?"

"Of course I do-but-?"

"I hate you Mia, there's nothing more to it."

"What did I do?"

"That doesn't matter now does it? It ends here Mia," a purple mist collects in his right hand and a black sword that looks like a skeleton key forms. I'm still recovering from his upsetting reply-I hate you, as if our friendship in Moonlight Town meant nothing to him for an entire year. "Seth we don't have to do this," I hold my hands up, anxiously staring at the scary-looking weapon, which makes him snort. "Whatever I did to you is in the past isn't it? Is this about not taking your hand at Moonlight Town."

"I told you to be ready for when this would happen. Now it's going to happen," he takes the first swing before I can pull out my bo staff. I duck and use the three second break to take my wood-coated staff out and back away from him. With a furious grunt he brings the key-shaped blade over his head, striking downward but I block him well enough for me to talk to him. "Who did this to you Seth? This isn't you!"

"It is me whether you like it or not." He jumps back and shoots Dark wisps into the air from his giant key. They hang in the air like ornaments on a tree and then one at a time launch themselves with annoying buzzing noises. I manage to dodge three of them but the last two I have to raise my bo staff for and they shroud me in violet Darkness on impact and smell like something charred. In the smoke, Seth's silhouette rushes through and I'm lucky to be holding my staff at the right moment. "You can't block everything forever Mia. That's so like you."

"You're wrong about that-"

"Then hit me with your best shot or do you still think I'm under a witch's spell?" his strength overpowers mine and I end up on the unnatural ground as he repeatedly strikes me. I raise my arms to block his fast movements, merely turning the staff to block the different angles he's coming at. Some of his sweat drips onto my face as I lay here truly terrified of his scrunched up, vengeful countenance.

"You're my friend Seth and whatever you're going through-nngh! I'm going to try to help you get through it because-aagh, that's what friends do for each other," I yell sincerely while being bombarded with Seth's relentless assaults. "Just talk to me Seth."

"Get up and fight," growls Seth, stopping his attack to rudely snatch the bo staff and pull me up so that he can head butt me back down again. I moan and whimper, holding my head with my left hand, only letting my eyes get watery when I turn away from him. My head throbs every second, I don't think I can keep this going anymore. This is just like what happened with Deidra. I can start to see blackness from the corner of my eye starting to take over me. Can I still call Seth-this, this person my friend? All he's done is hurt me and bring me down, literally and figuratively speaking. Even when he was in Metropolis with me, he wasn't supportive of me trying to get home. Oh I'm so stupid, why didn't I see it before? He wanted to do his own thing and go see the worlds when all I wanted to do was go home; I kept thinking that all this time that he and I shared the same dream. Why did I let myself get fooled by him, because I thought he wanted to share his life with me?

"Let me out!" a girl's voice echoes in my ear. Who was that, that wasn't me. Now I'm hearing voices, great.

"So you're going to make your death an easy one? That's so like you-" mentions Seth as he looms over me.

"Seth," I curl up in a fetus position, not looking at him. But in my peripheral vision, his key-shaped sword is pointed right at my head and his expression is as hard as steel, his eyebrows steepened. "Are we still friends?"

"Mia I don't understand how stupid you can be. Are you that blind to what's in front of you? I didn't think you lived in a fantasy world of your own-by now I would have thought-" he stops himself to chuckle at how "ignorant" I am "-no who am I kidding? This is the same girl who believes in kélora fruits, right?"

"Are we still friends?" I repeat, restraining my anger in a cross tone.

"Come on you already know the answer to that, I refuse to believe you're that naïve," he snorts, pushing the sharp tip into my cheek.

"I'm so sorry Seth," I cry out as I turn away from the painful tip, groaning in agony still as I stifle my tears. Seth is losing himself in the Darkness, and I can't let that happen. "I haven't given up on you Seth." My nose tickles and I clench my fists as he continues to dig into my cheek. He already left me and now that he's right here, I'm not going to lose him again-I can't let him go, even if I have to bring him back to Moonlight Town kicking and screaming. I am the light in his darkness.

J.G.P.