Chapter 2: November 2008 My Grandparents home, Provo, UT

It all happened so suddenly. I had never been home sick from the Utah College of Massage Therapy before. I had been praying my mental health would never be an issue, like it had at BYU. But there I was in the shower, alone, naked and vulnerable when a malevolent presence approached me.

"Honestly, Lucca, I can understand being observed while I'm having a massage but while I'm the SHOWER?!"

"Ah, yes, your little friends. How they do bother you…"

Suddenly I was scared. This was definitely not Lucca. I had never met this being before. But I didn't want to let my fear show.

"What business is it of yours? And who ARE you?"

"I can solve your problems. I can make the voices all go away"

"Hah. That makes a LOT of sense seeing as YOU'RE a voice!"

"You don't believe me? Perhaps a demonstration is in order."

"Aiiiieeyah!" With a wild cry, a shurukin sliced down from the heavens, piercing the dark being. Yuffie Kisaragi dropped to the ground beside me, my longtime companion and friend since I was sixteen. Lately I hadn't seen much of her, but she always came when she sensed danger…or maybe she was just looking for a fight.

"Mel, are you okay?"

"Yeah…but I told you to stay out of my head…!"

"I know, we agreed that was the best thing for both of us, but I also agreed I would protect you." Then addressing the phantom before us, she demanded, "What do you want from her?!"

In answer, part of the darkness reached out and enclosed Yuffie within it, drawing her inside it and away from me. The shurukin clattered to the ground.

"Melanie, help!" She writhed and struggled, arms pinned to her sides.

"Hahaha…if you won't let me make them go away, I'll simply TAKE them!" the Voice declared.

It contracted and Yuffie gave a wordless wail of pain. I instinctively reached for her and was brushed away like a fly…but in that contact, that simple brush…

A cold black explosion blotting out my vision…

A roaring in my ears…

Dizziness, vertigo…

And…

PAIN

Like a knife to the chest, something was causing shooting, stabbing pain right through my heart. Never before had I experienced physical pain as part of a hallucination. I was terrified beyond words. Whatever this being was, it had powers I had never encountered.

Then it all disappeared and I was back in the shower, shivering violently despite the warm water pouring down my back, giving little, hiccupping, dry sobs as I realized…Yuffie was gone. I couldn't contact her, couldn't even sense her presence in my mind. It was as though she had been erased from existence. Wasn't this what I wanted? part of me asked. NO! the rest of me responded with such vehemence that I actually burst into tears at the thought. "Forgive me, Father," I cried , huddled in my little corner of the shower. "I don't have the strength to let them go just yet…Please, just give me the strength to stand up and go on with my day…!"

Somehow I got toweled off, dressed, and managed to call in sick to the school before collapsing into bed again. I don't remember clearly what happened during the rest of the day, except that I had to tell a very concerned grandmother that I wasn't feeling well while giving the vaguest of explanations.

That night though, while curled up in in bed, dreading the next day (or more specifically, my next shower) and trying not to relive my previous one, I felt Lucca awkwardly approach me. Curled on her right side in her bed, she refused to look me in the eyes as she said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I was a coward back there."

"Oh…?

"I ran and hid while Yuffie stood and fought. And now she's… she could have been killed! And I did nothing." Suddenly she was sobbing.

Miss Battle-Hardened Yuffie had always termed me a "softie." Truth was, I never could stand to see other people suffer. That's part of the reason why I became a LMT. And a person in tears…well, I absolutely can't tolerate that. I have to take action. And I did.

Before I knew what I was doing I had drawn her close and she was crying into my shoulder while I stroked her hair. "It's okay."

"No it's not! I treat you like this and you forgive me?"

"Yes."

" Do you really mean that?"

I thought about it seriously. I had once heard the same words from a certain ninja. My answer had been the same then.

"Yes," I repeated. "Yes I do."