Hades lay awake in bed. It was well past midnight. The pale moonlight shone through the window, dimly lighting the room in an eerie blue-silver, and seeming to animate the shadows.

"Why is this happening to me?" She thought, sitting up. "Why is the world against me?" She felt like crying, but wasn't sure if she had any tears left to cry.

A gentle breeze drifted in through the open window, blowing through Hades' hair. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Mush . . ." She whispered. "Mush?" She opened her eyes, half-expecting to him in front of her.

She laid back, longing to be wrapped in Mush's strong arms, longing to hear him whisper in her ear, longing to look into his chocolate brown eyes. Tears began to form in her dry eyes as she listened to the soft ticking of Mush's pocket watch. And suddenly, it stopped.

Hades looked over and gently took the watch into her hands. She opened the cover and looked at it's face. "It's stopped." She said out loud. She thought for a minute. "The time . . . It's stopped . . . Why?" A slow, relieved smile spread across her lips. She knew why. "The time has come." She set the watch down delicately and pulled out a pen and paper from the drawer.

"Dear Aisling and Bottle Cap . . ." She wrote.