A/N: Hello. Long time, no see.

I last updated this story over a year ago now. I have to say, when I took a short break, I didn't expect it to turn into.. well, such a long one.

I figure no one's left on this site who actually read this story the first time around, because the turnover here is really high. But regardless I feel like I owe an explanation, an apology, and a promise to make things better.

I stopped updating around January 2016, for two main reasons. One, quite frankly, was that I got a boyfriend.

Well, that sounds bad. Frankly, I have issues with anxiety and depression and general overwhelming stress, all the time. This story had, for a while, become essentially a way for me to pour out a lot of dark feelings and channel them into something positive and creative. I got validation, and I created something that other people really loved. But when I got a boyfriend, a lot changed in my life. Honestly, he has been such an amazing support and has helped me to make progress past those feeling of anxiety and depression. So I didn't need this story as much to help me.

Secondly, I started serious work on my original novel that has consumed me for years. I had never really written down words for it before, just endless planning. But in January I wrote that first chapter and that story consumed me. It wasn't that I didn't mean to come back to this story and work on it simultaneously as much as that novel, which was wholly my own world and wholly my own set of characters, completely consumed my creative thinking. At the time of writing, I am only about a third of the way done with that book (it's long af).

But you can't just put your soul into one thing for so long without getting burned out, and December 2016 I started writing short stories again, but I had forgotten about this story. I worked less and less on my original novel because I had worked on it too hard and it was difficult to work on it anymore. It was only just this past April that I was able to find a balance with that novel and the whole rest of my life.

Essentially, I'm very sorry that I let go of this story for so long. Life got in the way.

But I'm determined to continue. One of the most important quotes I live by is from my hyper-efficient, business-manager dad: "Always be closing". Don't let anything sit and rot. This story was sitting and rotting away in my mind, even though I had such beautiful strings of ideas for it.

So someday, someday soon, someday this year, you'll get the next chapter. Then the next, then the one after that. Somehow, I am going to finish this story on top of everything else. Don't expect an update schedule; shit's sporadic. But I swear to God I will conclude this story somehow, just like I always meant to.

This doesn't have a chapter; it's just an Author's Note. This is because I work primarily on my school computer and we turn our computers in on Friday. I can't get over my year-long writers' block by Friday. Over summer, you might be able to expect one or two chapters from my shitty desktop, but probably not. The next chapter, in all likelihood, comes in August. Or September. But no matter how late it comes, never fear, because it will come.

-Phannie