***Hello dahlings! Sad to say, this is the last chapter. I may or may not make a sequel to this, it just depends. Thank you, CZC90203 and GodlyJewel, for your reviews. Without further ado, I own nothing and let's begin!

Chapter Six: Two Birds On A Wire

Imagine the most awkward situation you've ever been in. Like, yelling out a wrong answer is class or something like that. Now multiply that level of awkwardness by ten. Then you'd have a rough image of how it felt walking back home with Dad.

I tried to focus on anything that wasn't him, but that was next to impossible. All I was aware of was that he was there beside me. And, to be honest, he was probably feeling the same way.

Multiply the previous level of awkwardness by two. Things were made no less uncomfortable by sitting across from Dad in the silence of the living room.

"I...really missed you...while you were gone," he said at last. "Right," I said sarcastically, crossing my arms. Yeah, that wasn't nice, but politeness was the last thing on my mind at this point.

Dad's jaw dropped in shock. "What the-I did miss you! Why would I lie to you about something that's this important?!"

"I don't know. Why would you neglect your only daughter and make her feel like a disappointment just because she doesn't want to scare?! Answer that, why don'tcha?!"

The words came like a rock through glass. I felt a little misty-eyed until the weight of a skeleton hand pressed on my leg. Dad looked at me. His expression read that he was made genuinely guilty and hurt by that statement.

"Wren...I didn't really know you felt this way. That's why you ran away, huh?" he asked. I nodded. "Yeah. You and Mom left me alone all the time a-and treated me like some stranger. I was never scary. You were clearly disappointed in me because of that."

Dad looked even more guilty and hurt. "While I'll admit that me and your mom were wrapped up in work and that I was hoping for some sort of a scaring ability, I never wanted to ruin the wonderful girl, young woman now, heh, you are. You're still great," he said.

I smiled. "Thank you, Barney," I joked. Dad smiled and even laughed. He was cut off by a massive hug and must've been shocked because it too him a few seconds to return the favor.

God knows how long we were in that hug.

"Ah, Wren? I know you're happy to see me and definitely vice versa, but can you let go?" Dad asked. "Sorry," I said sheepishly after release.

Once again, Dad only laughed. "Wait here. I have a surprise for you," he said before going upstairs.

He came back downstairs a couple (long) minutes later. There was what looked like a jumble of silver chains in his hands. But, judging from the smile on his face as he sat back down, it must've been a really important jumble of silver chains. And it was totally worth the nightmare of untangling it.

For it was the charm necklace.

Mom and Dad must've found it on Spiral Hill all those years ago. A thought then came to my mind. It was a little unlikely...eh, worth a shot. So I counted the charms and was shocked by the amount.

"Eighteen. You...y-you updated it every year?" I asked, thoroughly touched. Dad reached over to wipe away some tears. "Uh-huh. No matter what everyone else said, your mother and I always had a feeling deep down that you were still out there," he said.

Ah, shoot, more misty-eyed-ness. That stopped when Dad looked like he'd thought of something. "Your birthday was a few weeks ago, wasn't it?" he asked. I nodded. He reached into his pocket for something. "Then happy belated birthday."

It was a charm. A silver heart with stitch-like engravings on it. With shaky hands, I continued the old tradition by putting the charm on the necklace. After that, the necklace was taken.

Dad moved my hair aside with some difficulty and a joke about lopping it off to make things easier. He put the necklace on me and just stared for a moment. "Are you actually crying?" he asked. "No. I just have something in my eye," I said.

"What?"

"Tears."

Me and Dad both laughed on that one. Before either of us could say anything else, the phone rang in the kitchen. Dad went to go get it.

A few seconds later, he came back with his hand on the phone's receiver. "It's Helgamime from the Witches' Shop. She's calling about painting a wall in their shop?" he asked. My eyes widened.

I just can't catch a break, can I?

The End

***I hope you enjoyed this. The chapter title was a lyric from "Two Birds" by Regina Spektor. So thanks for clicking, go on and click that "Review" button to leave one, and I'll see y'all later.