I've literally had the first probably five pages of this written since Chapter 2. This word document is ten pages. I hope you enjoy. The story was mapped out for an awfully long time.

"Sonny!" As the wall comes crumbling down, my heart stops. Nothing around me is alive. Nothing is in color. Gray grass, black sky, white walls… everything is dead. Soon enough, my world is spinning, I am out of control. Mom, dad, Justin, Max, I see all of them! Oh, and there's Sonny. She's walking towards me, eyes no longer the milky brown I had become accustomed to. They are now cold, black, and full of death. That is all I see. Her skin is so pale and fragile, and it looks translucent. Grey lips, grey hair, grey nails: where is my Sonny? Her dress hangs loosely on her body. It's not a dress I've ever seen before. Its sleeves are a quarter length and the skirt of the dress falls just past her knees. There is nothing unique or special about it. It is plain, it is ordinary, it is nothing but a sheet of fabric to cover her ghostly skin. She's coming closer, and closer, and closer! My body trembles as her arm extends, her fingers flexing, and now they touch my face. They are so cold that I flinch. The tips of her fingers burn my skin like fire. I retreat a few steps. This isn't Sonny. Sonny is bright, she is colorful, and she is alive. The fingers grope for me again, this time missing by mere inches. It's getting dark now. Her eyes start to glow. Can she see me, even in this dark? I trip and stumble over my own feet, desperately searching for an escape from this monster that has taken Sonny. "Sonny!" I cry out. Where is Sonny? Where is the real Sonny? "Sonny!" I yell again, straining my ears for some sort of noise, a pin dropping, a shoe against the concrete floor, something, anything! My heart is beating again, but it's beating so quickly that I wonder if I myself am alive. I am screaming Sonny's name now. Why isn't she coming for me? Where is she? Can she not hear me? Sonny!

I am awake now. My breathing is uneven. I can feel a needle sticking in my arm and I try to rip it out. Tears are streaming down my face, but I don't take the effort to push them away, to tell them that they aren't wanted here, to yell at them for coming out. Someone is gripping my wrist and pulling it away from the IV line. She is saying my name. Although everything is color now, my world is still black. I have to find Sonny. "No, stop!" I can hear myself yelling. "I have to find Sonny!" My hands are ripping away from the hands that are trying to confine me. My legs shake, the bed shakes, the room shakes; it is an earthquake of Alex anger. Suddenly the hands leave mine, but as I go to lunge for the line one more time, they take my face instead. We fight, but in the end, the hands win. My world is flooded with color.

Those hands belong to Sonny Monroe. Her eyes are that milky brown that makes me melt, her skin the perfect complexion of pale. Her fingers stroke my cheek, leaving tingles in their wake. It burns, but in a good way this time. Her lips are a rosy pink, and her cheeks have color. It's Sonny. Something inside me bursts, and new, fresh tears break through. I wrap my arms around her neck, pulling her down on top of me and I sob into her shoulder. "I thought you were dead," I mumble between sobs. "I'm so sorry, Sonny. I'm so sorry I put you through any of this." She strokes my tangled hair and shushes me. Is she really comforting me right now? She pulls away, and for a second, I consider grabbing her and pulling her back, but when I see the hospital gown that she is dressed in. I hesitate. "You're hurt."

"Not too bad," she says. "You can expect a few minor injuries when you're running away from a collapsing wall."

"I did this."

"Oh, stop."

"I did, Sonny. I did all of this. This was my fault." I wipe greasy hair from my eyes. "Justin should have the family magic. I don't deserve it. I can't handle it. I shouldn't even be in the competition for Family Wizard." She quiets. I can tell she doesn't know quite what to say. Though, I don't think I would know what to say either. After all, in a single day, she found out that her best friend was a wizard, they were being hunted by some evil magical force, and now she's in a hospital after being attacked with spells. "I'm going to give Justin my powers. He can have them all."

"Don't do that." She whispers.

"How can I not? I almost got you killed. You could have died Sonny! I…"

"What?"

"I don't know what I would have done if you had died." I'm in love with you. "You're my best friend." The door flings open. I hear quick, panicked Spanish. My mom throws her arms around me, squeezing me so hard. Suddenly I feel the pain. My mother is crushing my bruised back. I wince and she pulls back immediately. She apologizes profusely and kisses my face. I grimace again, but this time, from embarrassment. "Mom," I whine. "Mom, stop." Sonny laughs in the corner. I glance over, and she is sitting on her own hospital bed, legs crossed and arms folded. Dad walks over now. His eyes are red and I can see that there is a fresh layer of tears waiting to shed. I have never seen my dad cry. It is an unpleasant feeling. He places a hand on my shoulder and smiles. That is enough. Words do not matter. I understand, dad.

Now it is Max's turn. He's got that goofy grin on his face. Nothing breaks Max a million. "I'm glad you're alive, Alex." He smiles, his small fist nudging my shoulder a little bit, I do not let pain show on my face, but instead, I smile and laugh.

"I'm hoping that's a consensus in the room," I joke.

Justin. He looks as though he hasn't slept in days. His eyes are dark, his hair a mess, and his shirt is rumpled. I assume this is how he looks in those nightmares he has, when he's thrashing around yelling about not getting accepted to Yale. He opens his mouth, then closes, then opens. My hand feels heavy as I lift it, but I push through and grab Justin's hand. I pull him close enough to where I can see him better in the light and then drop his hand.

"Well look at you, you look like crap." I say. "I look worse though, I bet. So I win. Gosh Justin, can't even beat me at looking like crap. Come on, catch up." He smiles a little, smoothing a wrinkle in his clothes.

"It's just because I'm so handsome. Nothing could ruin this face." I roll my eyes.

"Puh-lease," I croak, my voice cracking a little bit. "Your face already ruined your face."

"I think someone needs to crank up the morphine and knock her out for a little bit." Justin mocks.

"Hardy, har, har." I roll my eyes. "Your humor slays me, Justin. Really." I look over at everyone. "Could Justin and I have a few minutes?" They all file out, one by one, even Sonny, though she only has a hospital robe on. The door closes, and I'm alone with my brother for the first time, so I presume, since the fight. He pulls over a chair and sits down. "Thank you," I mumble.

"Did Alex Russo just apologize?"

"I'm being serious right now," I scold. "Thank you, Justin. You saved our lives."

"Maybe you wouldn't have been in that situation if it wasn't for me."

"Justin, no-"

"I need to explain what happened." I don't talk. I let him continue. "I learned the truth about the family magic a few months ago. When I realized that it was destiny that chose who got the magic, and not skill, I was really angry. All that hard work for all those years seemed like such a waste. I felt like I had been lied to." He scratches his forehead and clenches his teeth. "Then I kept reading. The more I learned, the more scared I got. I started understanding why dad did what he did. He didn't give up his powers to marry Mom, but to save us from being chosen. He gave his powers to Kelbo because he knew that he would never have kids and the power would die with him. We would be normal, or, as normal as kids with magic powers can be. The truth is, Alex, that they barely even had a wizard fight. There is a hall of records, and I looked up the Russo Family battles and the fight was over in less than a few minutes. Kelbo got scared and pissed himself, and then Megan broke the rules. She lost by default. Dad had his powers for exactly one week. I'm assuming that's when… well, that's when he learned the truth about our family. He gave Kelbo his powers."

"But why not Aunt Megan? Why Uncle Kelbo?"

"Megan is bitter without magic. If she had the magic, she would have had children. She would have been happy. Things would be different. Dad couldn't risk anyone getting the power. He thought by giving it to Kelbo, someone completely irresponsible with magic and with no intention of ever settling down, everyone would be okay." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the locket. "I found this in the basement." He hands it to me and I run thumb across the top of it. It's hard and cold. Engraved across is a name, Antonella. I didn't notice that before.

"What is it?"

"Our magic."

"That's what I don't understand," I shake my head. "Our magic is in the lair…"

"Alex, you're special." He hesitates and takes the locket back. "Your magic is different than mine. I don't know how to even explain all this. I feel like whatever I can tell you would be inadequate of truth."

"Try," I plead. He takes a deep breath and plays with the chain of the locket, flicking it between his fingers.

"Thousands of years ago, the Wizard world was a monarchy. It began with a small community, governed by King De Luca and his queen, Adelina. They had two daughters, twins, Francesca and Antonella. Back then, when babies of royalty were born, an elf would come and welcome them to the world. Elves were special, with special magic, and if a child called to them in a specific way, an elf had the ability to grant a child a special ability. When the twins were born and the elf came to visit, something horrible happened. The girls offended the elf. None of the books I read explained how, but the elf became angry. It wasn't often that something like that happened, but instead of giving the girls gifts, the elf gave them curses to live with, though it wasn't until years later that it was realized that what she did was bad, and not good. As the Wizard population grew, and the girls grew older, they became smug in their power, and also of of having their father and mother King and Queen. Francesca was beautiful. The girls were twins, but Francesca had an air of beauty about her that shook all people that rang the castles doorstep. When she walked, you couldn't help but stare at her."

"Feeling slightly self conscious right now…"

"Antonella was beautiful as well, but not like her sister. Antonella had brains and a thirst for all knowledge. She took her intelligence and flaunted it just as her sister flaunted her attractiveness. The competitiveness in the castle escalated to a point sometimes to where one daughter would be forced to stay in an entirely different wing, or if things got too bad, Queen Adelina would take Francesca to the summer castle in France while Antonella stayed in Italy with King Claudio. They had such a deep hatred for each other. Antonella longed for the beauty Francesca had, while Francesca envied Antonella's magical skill." Pause. "Then the battle began. The day the girls turned eighteen, something clicked. It was like the hatred for each other grew times a thousand."

"So, they really, really hated each other." I grumble. "What does this have to do with us? With our magic?"

"The elf cursed the De Luca twins, Alex. She gave them both a quality that the other would be jealous of, and on their eighteen birthday they had to fight… until one of them died." I took in a short breath, not expecting that. Death is such a heavy word. "Antonella and Francesca fought, and it took them all over Wizard Italy. Houses were burned, rivers turned to ice, and some people were murdered. In the end, Antonella won. As Antonella sobbed over her slain sister's body, the elf that had cursed the family appeared. She spoke to her, telling her that for her smugness, and for her greediness, her family would be cursed forever with a powerful magic that nothing can compare to. Forever, the De Luca ancestry would have a single member with the power Antonella had, and there would always be someone in the world who wanted to fight them for it."

"We're related to them," it clicks. "The Russo family and the De Luca family are related. We're their ancestors."

"Yes." He holds up the locket and Antonella's name glimmers in the sunlight from the window. "She was so ashamed of what she had done; she locked herself in a tower, thinking that if she didn't reproduce, the line would be broken, and no one would ever have to face what she had faced in their life."

"Did it work?"

"Would we be here if it did?" Smart ass. "Obviously, it didn't work. After her sister's death, the King and Queen knew that Antonella was the only chance for the royal family line to continue. They sent suitor after suitor to her tower, hoping that one day, one man could charm her enough to open the door. After months of pleading through an oak door, the King knew that it would only take extreme measures to continue his family line." He took a deep breath. "He chose a man and took him to his chambers in secret. Adelina didn't know. She was away in France, too distraught over the death of Francesca and the solitude of Antonella. Claudio told the suitor, his name was Antonio Costa, that he was to scale the castle wall and enter Antonella's room during the night."

"No." I hiss. I think back to Sonny and how she laid so defenseless and innocent on the cold concrete, while Jay stood over her. Justin continues.

"Claudio told Antonio to, by any means necessary, impregnate his daughter in order to further the royal blood. He gave him gold, and the promise of the kingdom, and Antonella's hand in marriage."

"He let some man rape his daughter?"

"Let me finish." He interrupts me. I feel sick and clammy now. What type of father does that? "Antonella became pregnant, yes, and after two miscarriages, she finally gave birth to a son, and then later two more children, a boy and a girl. The line continued, but Antonella thought that it was broken somehow, and that the elf was bluffing. None of the children had any extraordinary powers."

"Then I'm confused."

"Just wait." I'm beginning to become impatient. "It lies dormant, but it's always there. It went from child to child to child. Only those who truly studied the history of the De Luca ancestry knew about the power. People died here and there, vanished from history, trying to locate a descendent of the family in hope of getting the power."

"What's so special about it, Justin? That's what I want to know. Why me? What's so special about my magic?"

"You have no limits." He responds almost immediately. I think he is getting angry with me interrupting, but I can't help it. I want answers. "You can do whatever you want with your magic, Alex. There are no rules. You have unlimited magic with no consequences, because no one can match your power." He reaches over me and grabs the bag that's hanging on the bedside railing. Normally, I would yell at him for daring to touch my purse, let alone go through it, but he pulls out my wand. "This wand, it's normal. I could do magic with it, and it would be just be magic. When you do magic Alex… it's different."

"Then why do I suck at doing magic?"

"Well, you're lazy, for one thing…"

I glare. "Justin, I mean, if I'm supposed to have these extraordinary powers in the family, why can I never beat you at magic? You always have to bail me out. I can never do things for myself. You bailed me out tonight."

"Do you remember when we had to get the Stone of Dreams to get everything back to normal?" How could I forget? I nearly ruined my family. "I couldn't do half the things you did. You opened the gate to the pathway, you levitated the rocks, you came up with the good ideas. It's kind of like how I'm book smart and you're street smart. I can study a book for decades, but you, Alex, you just have that thing inside your head that guides you the right way when you really tap into it."

"So, we all keep our powers then, right? There really isn't a Wizard competition."

"There is a wizard competition, and only one of us keeps our powers." He hesitates for a minute. I can see his hand shaky a little.

"But you said…"

"I know what I said." He yells, clenching his fist around the locket. "You see this locket? Antonella, before she died, handed this down for generations to all the children after her that got the power. It holds the curse. She thought it contained it, thought that was why none of her own children killed each other, like she killed Francesca. Dad was the one, Alex. He thought by giving up his powers, willingly, without any real fight, the curse was broken. Dad figured it out like I did. But he was wrong, and it was passed to us."

"Are you trying to tell me that we're going to have to fight, Justin? That once Max is eighteen, the Wizard battle will be different for us?"

"It could be," he sighs. "I don't know. I was hoping that if you went to L.A, came here to So Random, that maybe the magic could just be… squashed out of you. That maybe you would turn against Wizard lessons, not want to come home, and then it would all go away. It was stupid. I knew it wouldn't work. It just gave me more time to figure something out."

"And then Jay…"

"Megan was behind it all the entire time."

"If Dad had given Megan the Power, would any of this have happened?" he shrugs.

"If Dad had kept the Power, we wouldn't even be here."

"Dad might not be here either, though. Who would go after him, then? We can't blame dad."

"Alex, there is something wrong with the Wizard world. There is a whole other part of that world that we've never seen, that dad has never shown us…" he takes a deep breath and tosses the locket on the table next to my bed. "I think we need to figure it out. None of the story I told you really makes any sense. Nothing fits. It doesn't make sense that it all started with some elf, some twins, some monarchy. Why did it trickle down to us, a Hispanic-Italian family from New York? Why is it that Sonny's step-brother was controlled, instead of someone else close to us? Why him? None of it makes any damn sense." I hold my breath. I know the reason it was Jay. Justin couldn't hear Megan when she was talking. He wasn't there when Jay was still being controlled. He heard nothing, and that makes me calm. Sonny's secret is safe with me.

"If dad did have the power, and he did win the wizard lessons, why didn't he kill Kelbo and Megan?"

"I don't think it was activated," Justin says. "The power, I mean. You know how I said it's been dormant for so long, right?" I nod. "Well, it's still dormant. I mean, obviously, you're special. You've got the magic, Alex. You're the only one that can use it. But I think that only when Max is eighteen and we're able to do the Wizard competition will we find out if the magic is at its full strength. That's when we'll know. Dad was probably really excellent at magic too, but fortunately, there wasn't the jealousy yet."

"So, what you're saying is, if I kill you guys, then we'll know that the magic is real and I have it."

"Basically."

"Well that's great." Justin chuckles. "So we have four years?"

"Four years."

"That's enough time, you know. To break the curse."

"I've looked," he says. "I've looked through more spell books than you could possibly imagine. There is nothing."

"Says you," I lean up and cringe. My back feels heavy and cracks as I struggle to move out of my bed. Justin gently pushes me back and shakes his head. "Justin," I pout. "Just let me get up."

"No." he says smugly.

"Maybe I won't wait for four years," I reply. "Maybe I'll just kill you now and get it over with."

"Doc's orders," he points to the white board above my head. "Bed rest. Two weeks." I groan. "We have plenty of time to figure this out. Four years, Alex."

"Four years," I repeat. "Can I ask one more question?"

"One more, but after this I deserve some form of reward."

"I'll grab you a box of Scooby snacks after I'm released from the hospital." He rolls his eyes. "What happened after the wall? What exactly is wrong with me?"

"Other than the obvious?" I smack his arm, and then flinch back. My arm starts burning at the quick movements. "You blacked out shortly after you pushed Sonny in front of you. You have a nasty cut on your forehead that runs from your hairline and back, but your arms are where you lost most of the blood. They had to surgically remove pebbles from your arm, they were engraved so deeply. Your other arm is stitched up, obviously. You're on about five different antibiotics to prevent infection. You're a pretty big space case and you never clean your room. Oh, and the way you eat pizza is really weird…" I very badly wish to throw a pillow at him, but I resist. The stitches in my arm are practically screaming at me to not do it. "Basically, you've gone through hell and back. You're pretty beat up. The look on mom's face when she got here… well, it was almost as pretty as that scar you're going to have on your forehead."

"Wonderful. And the studio?" Justin laughs.

"Yeah, well. We had to handle that a, er, magical way. Obviously, a collapsing building makes a lot of noise. When police and paramedic arrived on the scene, I made up some story about you guys chasing a stray dog into the building hoping to help it. When that didn't go by too smoothly, I charmed them to make sure they believed it. I don't think a front page headline talking about a psycho wizard named Megan Russo who chased her niece and nephew into an abandoned construction zone to murder the niece and steal the family magic would go over too smoothly, even if this is Los Angelos." The door swings open and dad comes in, waving Justin out of the room. Apparently, it's my rest time. Sonny hobbles in, a quick smile flashed at my dad, and she climbs into her bed under the covers. Each family member comes in and gives me a quick hug and kiss, gives a wave to Sonny, and then exits leaving me and Sonny alone. The remote to my television is too far away for me to get without breaking my strict bed arrest. A book lies on the table, no doubt left by Justin, and as appealing as reading about the Roman Empire is, I reach for a word search instead.

No pen.

I sigh miserably and let my head rest on my pillow and my eyes close. Next to me, I can hear Sonny rustling her blankets and then the sound of something slipping across the floor. With a quick open of the eyes, Sonny can be seen shuffling in slippers across the room over to my bed.

"Scoot," she says, and I oblige, moving my body over more towards the right to let her slip under my covers with me. She leans up and, with her long arms, grabs the remote I couldn't reach and places it in my lap. A flick of the wrist and she pulls a pen from her pocket. "It's amazing, really. The things you can do without magic." She winks.

"About that,"

"I think it's cool." She interrupts. "Even if I did almost, you know, die."

"It usually doesn't cause death."

"You could have told me."

"Yeah but you finding out this way seemed like so much more fun. Besides, I was craving the hospital food." She rolls her eyes, but smiles. I flick on the TV and scroll through channels. Sonny's body is warm next to mine. Her hand snakes through the tangled web of blankets and takes my own.

"By the way," she whispers. "Thank you."

"For what, exactly?" I say, aghast.

"Saving my life." Sonny replies simply. Her hand pulls away and she starts to climb from my bed.

There are rare moments in life where you literally have no thought process going on whatsoever. I mean, there are moments where you're just not thinking clearly or you're too distraught over the death of your eighteen year old cat that you can't understand what you're doing, or those moments in life where you're so happy you can't help but think about anything but being happy and then you crash your car into oncoming traffic or something because you're so distracted. But that split second decision, that once-in-a-lifetime moment where your brain has shut down completely is one of the most thrilling times of your life. Because for that minute, second, hour, or however long it lasts, it just doesn't matter. Consequences don't matter. Sure, if you wake up hung over in some guys' house naked and feeling nauseous you have some cause for concern. But drunk not thinking doesn't matter. This matters. This moment matters.

Without thinking, without any thought process whatsoever, my hand snakes around Sonny's waist and pulls her back to the bed. Her body falls back onto her side and I kiss her: it seems like such a simple idea, so careless, so whimsical, and it's not until she begins kissing me back does my brain come back on full alert. She doesn't pull away in disgust or surprise, but meshes completely with my body on the hospital bed. With great difficulty and a slight shot of pain up my spine, I twist on my side and slide a hand onto her cheek. Her own hand falls to my side, each finger taking its turn in pressing into my skin just slightly with enough pressure to make me remember her hand is even there. She pulls back a little, kisses my cheek, and then my lips again. I pull away and let my head fall to her neck.

"Remind me to put you in mortal danger more often," I mumble against her lips.

"I like you, Alex."

"I like you, Sonny." Then she cries. Harder, and harder, and harder, sobbing on my shoulder. Awkwardly, I put a hand on her back, rubbing in smooth circles. My hospital gown, drenched in salty tears, slips further down my shoulder until she's crying onto my bare skin. "Sonny, shh." I whisper. "It's okay."

"I couldn't move," she takes a large gulp of breath. "I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything. But I could hear, Alex. I heard everything in that room. I could feel."

"So, Jay," Sonny nods. I pull her closer to me now and let her cry out her past. We don't talk. We don't need to talk right now, not about that. Slowly I fall backwards and let her body fall naturally into the crevice of my arm and let her head fall onto my shoulder. We lay like that for hours until we both fall asleep.

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

Dr. Seuss said it all. I wake up before Sonny. Her head is still in the same position as the night before, and although my arm is sore and cramped, I don't bother waking her. My lips gently brush against her forehead. When I glance at the clock, I realize it's only four o'clock in the morning. I wonder when we fell asleep. Has a nurse come in yet to check on us? Did she see us sleeping in the same bed? Should I care? More to the point:

What do I tell my parents?

I look down at Sonny sleeping. For the first time since I saw her at the mall, she looks peaceful. Her hair is a mess and dark circles are still intruding under her eyes but there is something about the way her mouth is twitching just slightly at the corners and the way her cheeks are a light rosy red that gives me the idea that she's having an okay dream. I could be wrong. More than wrong, even. She could be having the worst dream of her life. But she looks beautiful, and that's what captures the true innocence she has inside of herself and the peace she will one day find with her past.

Or that's a load of crap out of some Dr. Oprah or Phil Winfrey book. I know nothing about love or relationships or trauma or innocence. I'm not love, I'm hate. I'm not a relationship, I'm an enemy. I might be trauma, but no way am I innocent. Sonny is love. Sonny is a relationship. Sonny is innocent. Is our only link trauma? Megan is still somewhere waiting for me and waiting for the locket and the magic. Am I putting Sonny in harm's way?

I can hear nurses chatting at the nurse station outside my hall. They're not being very quiet, despite having sleeping patients on their floor. One laughs, and Sonny bolts up, eyes wide open.

"What did you say?" she murmurs, rubbing her eye.

"Nothing, it was a nurse out in the hall."

"What time is it?"

"Around four?"

"Oh gosh," she's suddenly wide awake. "Has anyone come in? We fell asleep hours ago."

"I'm sure someone has. They can't just not check on a patient every six hours or so,"

"You'd think they'd disapprove of patients sleeping in the same bed together,"

"We're not contagious." I shrug. "I suppose it's not a big deal as long as the other person isn't pulling out any IV lines or anything. If I have any more bruises on my legs though, I'll have to assume you kick in your sleep." She blushes. "Ah, a blush. Does that mean I have cause for concern?"

"No," she mumbles defensively. "I'm wide awake now. Want to watch television?"

"What's on at four o'clock in the morning on basic cable?"

"Religious cults, infomercials, Bill Cosby."

"Religious cults it is," I say, reaching for the remote on the side table. Sonny grabs it before me, grinning.

"Bill Cosby."

"Religious cults."

"Bill Cosby!"

"Religious cults."

"Bill Cosby!"

"Making out!" Her face goes blank.

"What?" Before she can notice what I'm doing, I snatch the remote from her hand and hold it far enough to where she can't grab it. She folds her arms across her stomach and pouts. "That wasn't fair, you distracted me."

"It's not my fault you've got a dirty mind,"

"How is my mind dirty?"

"I'm not sure, but because you took an extra five seconds to think of an answer, you didn't notice that I took that word search next to you and the pen."

"You can't use magic for everything, Alex!"

"No magic. Just good ol' Alex cleverness."

We laugh for a few more minutes before settling on a channel; Bill Cosby is talking to his wife on The Cosby Show. She smiles at me, and I smile back just as sweetly. It's a compromise I can live with. After all, I wanted to watch The Cosby Show anyway. It just seemed more entertaining to fight with her.

The lights in the hallway get brighter and the sun through our window blinds us. Nurses filter in and out, and not a single one yell at us for being in the same bed. Only one asks Sonny to move, but only so she can change my IV. Right after, Sonny climbs back in, slipping snuggly under the scratchy hospital blanket. My mom comes in soon after, and then Sonny's, and soon enough we have an entire family reunion. Justin and Max sit in two arm chairs out looking the hospital parking lot, and Dad leans against the door frame. Both of our moms chat next to us, but mostly to each other. Sonny and I just nod and smile, hoping that minimal questions are asked. Sonny's step-dad comes in every so often after he visits with Jay, just a few rooms down the hall. Whenever her step-dad comes back in to report on Jay, my hand slips under the covers to find hers and I squeeze. She squeezes back. We're okay.

The room is really packed now. Marshall walks in carrying a balloon with our faces on them, and trailing behind him, Grady, Nico, and Zora.

"What up, what up!" Nico shouts.

"Way to miss my party," Zora jumps up onto the bed and sits at the end of it, legs folded up. "It was a blast, too. Nico ate the entire cake and Grady drank all my super secret ninja punch. Then Chad came. The end."

"Oh, I'm sorry Zora." Sonny says.

"It's fine. Just let's not let it happen again, okay?"

"Yes girls, let's not have this happen again. I can't have two fifths of my cast members in the hospital with mysterious injuries. No more chasing animals into abandoned buildings, alright?" Marshall ties the balloon to our table. "You two are far too talented to be mucked up with scars and bruises and cuts."

I let the conversation carry from there. Everyone is talking, and the room is so crowded, that I just can't keep track of the conversation. I look at Marshall, and then at my mom and dad, and Sonny, then over to Grady and Nico, and finally my eyes land on my brothers.

I have talent. Not just on So Random, but I've proven to myself that I have talent. I can do magic. I saved us. I saved Sonny. Of course, Justin helped, but I did it. I helped too. I didn't just sit back and let Justin take the reins. I smile and shuffle my feet under the blanket a little bit to get circulation in my legs. It's a good feeling, this feeling. The feeling of feeling good enough, of being something better than what I was.

The feeling of being worthy.

I feel like I could win a Talent Show or something.

Ha, what a joke.

The end.

Review please and let me know what you think.

Do you want a sequel? Let me know!

What do you want to see in a sequel if you want one?

Did the ending surprise you? What did you THINK was going to happen?

Let me know in reviews guys! If I do a sequel I want to know what YOU want so I can make the story perfect for those reading it. I've got a rough first chapter of a sequel but I'm not sure if I want to post it or not. Let me know.