Disclaimer- I don't own anything in this story. : )

Today was going well, to well. Sometimes you just know something bad is bound to happen. In books it's cliffhangers at the end of chapters, in movies it's silence, and in real life it's good days. As I walked home from school I half expected the sky to open up and rain to pour down on me, make me sick, ruin my homework, and ruin my day. It didn't. As I neared my house I felt dread radiating off of it like waves hitting the shore. I was the poor crab that got stuck in the wave, practically knowing something bad happened to somebody it knew. Mo, Resa, and Elinor's face crept into my head, and I began to run.

"Mo? Resa? Elinor?" I gasped, tripping through the doorway and coming to stop in the kitchen. Nothing horrible was there to greet me, just Resa, Elinor, and Mo looking at me as if I'd gone insane.

"What is it, Meggie?" Mo asked, rising from his seat and resting a hand on my shoulder.

I closed my eyes to catch my breath, "nothing." I mumbled "I bet a book I read was just getting to my head." Mo was still looking worriedly at me. "Really, I'm fine."

I shrugged away from Mo and walked toward my room.

"…as if she'd just seen a ghost!" I heard Elinor say from the kitchen.

Sighing, I collapsed on my bed, 'Way to go, Meggie' I thought 'make everybody think you insane."

I picked up Inkheart from my floor, the copy Mo had managed to give me, and ran my fingers over the writing. I needed Farid. Now that most of the danger was gone from Inkworld, I could go whenever I wanted. After Orphius read Dustfinger back to life, Farid decided to stay at Roxane's farm with him, if I promised to visit often. I hadn't been there in a week, and now seemed like a good time. I began to read. As I read my walls turned to trees, grass sprouted from my carpet, and my bed vanished. I was standing just down the road from Roxane's farm. I walked quickly toward it, and when I got there, knocked softly at the door. Jehan answered it, and smiled once he realized who I was. He grabbed my hand at pulled me in.

"Farid, your girlfriend is here!" the little boy yelled, causing me to blush and Dustfinger and Roxane to laugh from the couch.

"Send her in my room!" Farid called back, and I walked toward it. He was sitting on a bed and smiled when I entered the room. I threw my arms around his neck and he held me.

"Everybody thinks I'm insane!" I whispered into his neck.

"Why?"

I moved next to him on the bed.

"I had a bad feeling today, and ran into the house screaming their names."

"Did you really? I wish I would have seen it."

Farid always made me feel so much better. I looked at him angrily and he put his hands up in defense, "I was kidding."

"Sure you were."

"I was. What kind of bad feeling did you have?" Farid shifted on the bed.

"Like something really bad was going to happen."

"They can't blame you for being worried." Farid told me.

"They can still think I'm insane!" I groaned.

"Forget it."

For the next ten minutes Farid and I just sat in silence, not knowing what else to say. Silence was nice. It was shattered, though, by Jehan's voice ringing through the farm house, "the rabbit is finished!"

Rabbit, I felt sick. I had only eaten it once, in the Wayless Woods with Farid.

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Farid grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

"I better not. I should be going home."

Farid frowned in protest, but let me read myself back, if I promised to visit very soon. I returned to my room and heard Resa's voice say, "when should we tell her?" from outside my door.

I opened the door quickly, "tell me what?"

Resa looked at the ground, and Mo shifted uncomfortably, "honey, we don't know how to tell you this…"

The worst 9 words in the English language.

"Just tell me!"

Resa grabbed Mo's hand and looked at me intently, "Mo has cancer."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Review