We met the rest of our group outside. Marina had her arm across Ella's shoulder with Crayton standing behind them. Eight had her headphones in, ignoring us. Nine and Five were having an in-depth conversation about how to clean up the planet and make it livable again. Sam was running around, pointing at everything he saw while Bernie Kosar was chasing him excitedly.

Six was on her knees, her head buried in her hands. Obviously she hadn't expected the planet to have this much devastation everywhere. Honestly, I hadn't either. I knelt down beside her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. We'll fix the place up. See?" I wiped my hand along the ground, scooping up the ashes and throwing it into a mound of dirt of into the distance. Underneath, the grass was still a bright green color. Loric grass was stubborn and was going to die without a fight. Kinda like us.

She stood and wiped the tears from her eyes. That's when I saw what had made her cry. Up ahead was a averagely-sized cabin. It would have been beautiful about a decade ago, but it was badly burnt and a small section of the house was reduced to rubble. It must have been her house.

Memories flooded my mind. Two young kids- a girl with stormy gray eyes and her hair in pigtails and a blonde-haired blue-eyed boy holding a small dog whose collar read "Hadley." They were chasing each other around a beautiful cabin. "Do you want to come to my house instead? I think Henri misses you," the boy said. The girl nodded. They took a worn path in the woods which entrance was two intersecting pine trees…..

I came back to reality. To my left, I saw two intersecting pine trees at the edge of theforest. Six gave me a quizzical look as I bolted into the trees. After a couple of minutes following a path I once knew so well, I entered my backyard. In the middle of the yard set an old two-story house. It was burnt, it was broken, but it was home.

I ran through the tilted doorway and up the stairs, into my old bedroom. A small bed sat in the corner, its blankets were messy and crumpled. Books had been thrown off the shelves. A broken picture frame was lying on the floor. I knelt down and picked up the photo. It was a picture of my Loric family. Henri was standing behind a young version of me. My parents were standing side by side in the background. Bernie Kosar was licking my face. It was wonderful. I took the picture out of the frame and tucked it in my shirt pocket.

I heard footsteps from downstairs. "Six?" I called. "Is that you?" No answer. The footsteps quieted. "Sam? Nine? Marina?" Still no answer."This is NOT funny!" I scream.

They were pulling a prank on me that was all. Six would sneak up invisibly behind me and scare me. We would laugh. But something just felt…..wrong.

I stood up, dusting off my hands on my pants legs. I was ready to pull my diamond-bladed dagger out of my back pocket. Always prepared. "If this is a joke, I'm soooooo going to kill you," I joked, trying to comfort myself. I made my way towards the staircase, quickly searching each area before entering, kinda like a police officer.

Then, someone hit from behind, sending me tumbling down the stairs. I hit the wall HARD. I groaned and pulled myself to my feet. My dagger was officially in my hand, the hilt wrapping itself around my arm. I spotted a Mog in a trench coat and fedora at the top of the staircase. I prepared myself for a fight, but another Mog snuck up from behind me and knocked me out cold.