Chapter 20 - Skeptics and True Believers

Paul's insides had frozen over and in his stupefied daze everything in his surroundings seemed to blur into an indistinguishable fusion of colors and muffled sounds.

Three words echoed in his mind and made all other thoughts evaporate in a matter of seconds. Three words that shattered him to his very core.

She is missing.

It was minutes or hours or days later when he vaguely noticed he had been guided to an armchair and handed a cup of steaming hot tea. Someone was talking to him, but the words were merged together and unclear, as if coming from the other side of a glass barrier.

He finally jolted back to reality when he felt someone shake him by the arm, and not too gently. "Are you alright? I think we shocked the boy, Jo."

Blue appeared in his field of vision and his senses immediately sharpened. It seemed that he'd always be alert to this color now. "Paul, was it?" the woman spoke softly to him, but her eyes were hard. "I understand you're overwhelmed right now. But we're in no position to waste time. We need you to tell us everything you know."

There was an underlying layer of despair to the severity in her stare. Her words wouldn't betray the immense vulnerability she had to be feeling, but Paul could see that behind the steely exterior she was pleading.

There was something so very familiar in those blue eyes. Not only because they held an uncanny resemblance to another pair of liquid cobalt orbs, not simply because they reminded him of the girl he loved. There was something else, something that made him see his own self reflected in the desperate demand of a person who'd lost something close to his heart and was trying to retrieve it. Something that made him feel her helplessness as if it was his own.

And it was. For once, he was truly at a loss for what to do. He didn't even know what he could do, if he could doanything to help at all. He hadn't felt so powerless and lost for a long time and the uncertainty that he'd be able to contribute at all was stifling.

"I last saw her on Christmas Eve. It was very late and well into the night," he spoke quietly, the words slipping from his mouth almost mechanically. "We were at her cousin's for dinner."

He knew this wasn't news to them, he knew it wasn't of any help. And he felt guilty because he was omitting the part where he had kissed their daughter senseless and watched her run off in the darkness. Watched her go and let her. Perhaps the very part he was leaving out had been the catalyst to Dawn's disappearance?

"Yes, Jimmy told me," Dawn's mother replied absently, unmasked disappointment clear on her face. "I came home last night and saw that Dawn wasn't home, but I didn't think much of it. It's not rare that she spends the night elsewhere and I just…" She ran a hand through her hair and shut her eyes in obvious regret. Paul could see that Johanna was battling guilt of her own.

"I should have done something earlier, I should have known to worry… I just didn't think that… I never would have thought…" She trailed off and suddenly got up, discreetly wiping at her eyes as she headed for the kitchen.

The brown-haired man Paul presumed was Dawn's father followed her with wary eyes. Then he sighed and sat across from him. "I don't think I introduced myself. I'm Jack."

Paul nodded in acknowledgment and shook his outstretched hand. "I assume it was you who dropped this off." Jack motioned towards Kenny's colorfully wrapped present, which was lying idly on the coffee table. Paul noticed it remained unopened and with his note sitting neatly on top, as if he had written it mere seconds ago.

"Yes," he said as he avoided the man's gaze, ashamed at having to admit that he had snooped around the house without permission on top of everything else he felt responsible for. "On Christmas morning. She wasn't here. I should have realized."

Jack's hazel eyes locked onto his in silent understanding. The exhaustion in his gaze made him appear much older than he probably was. "Don't blame yourself, kid. It's entirely our fault." He laughed humorlessly and it was the saddest sound Paul had ever heard. "What kind of parents are we if we don't even know where our girl is? If she is alive and well, alone and hurting? What kind of parents are we if we leave her alone on Christmas?"

Even though Paul had found himself silently asking the same questions about Dawn's parents on more than one occasion, he now felt nothing but sympathy for the man who stood before him. No anger, no blame. He saw that these people truly loved their daughter, even if maybe at times their love wasn't expressed the right way. He was in no position to make excuses for them or forgive them on Dawn's behalf. But if anything, he saw that the regret on Jack's face didn't have an ounce of falseness to it.

"I can't say we didn't have this coming," Dawn's father continued with sadness in his voice and gestured feebly towards the essay that lay on the table between them. "We don't know Dawn's whereabouts now simply because we haven't cared to know anything about her all these years. What she's written here… It's a necessary wake up call. Both Johanna and I needed to read what we've neglected to hear for so long. Dawn's been reaching out to us her entire life and we've always ignored her, always let her down, as I come to realize now."

"Maybe this is it, Jack," Johanna returned and took a seat next to him on the sofa, her eyes now dry, face composed and set with determination. Paul wondered how much inner strength it took to hold yourself together when everything made you want to crumble. "Maybe that is her exact purpose."

"To give us a lesson?"

"No." It was Paul who answered. His eyes bore into the sheet of paper which contained Dawn's essay. "Maybe she just wants to make you think."

He had their attention now. At the back of his mind, he absently registered how inane the situation he found himself in was. To an outsider who was unfamiliar with the circumstances at hand it would look as though the three of them had gathered for afternoon tea and a chat. The reality was far more absurd.

"If she wants our attention, she has it now," Johanna replied. "She can get anything she wants from us right now. If her goal was to punish us…"

"Excuse me, Ma'am, but I don't think that was her intention," Paul voiced his disagreement, maintaining a respectful tone. "She's not a ten-year old who'll run away just so that you'll look for her. All due respect, but I think I know her well enough to say that she's not that selfish and that her reasons must run deeper than that."

"Alright." Johanna leaned forwards and propped her elbows on her knees, indicating that she was willing to listen. "What do you think her reasons could be then?"

For a woman with so much apparent resilience to sit there and listen to a teenage boy she'd just met, Paul thought that Dawn's mother must really be an exceptionally patient person. He got the sense that she was open to hearing his point of view not simply because she was desperate, but because maybe, dare he think it, he had earned a tiny fraction of her respect. If Jimmy had told her about him, then perhaps she knew he had been with Dawn when Marina had been sent off to the mental facility. Perhaps she knew that he had been by her side ever since.

Or maybe she was willing to listen to him because she thought he knew a side of Dawn that she didn't. Maybe she was willing to listen because she wanted to know more about her daughter, maybe it was as simple as that.

"I don't think Dawn wants you to center on her. Maybe your focus on her at the time being is merely a superficial ground on which she wants to bring you together."

"So you're saying…" Jack frowned and a deep crease appeared on his forehead. "You're saying that she wants us to work together? That's why she's run away?"

"I'm sure that's not the only reason. She's probably out there looking for some answers of her own. But look at this." Paul tapped on Dawn's essay. "She didn't write about how she wants you to find her, but about how she needs to find herself. And she doesn't want to punish you. The main theme of her essay isn't how she blames you or how angry she is. No. It's love."

Johanna frowned and took the essay in her hands, her gaze quickly skimming over the contents for what was undoubtedly neither the first nor the last time. Jack's eyes, however, were pinned on Paul. He was listening intently.

"She thinks that you two are each other's happiness. And she can't understand why you won't pursue your happiness if you know exactly where it lies." Paul now felt more than bizarre, talking to Dawn's parents about their relationship as if he was teaching them how to read. He had known them for less than an hour and this was a decidedly uncomfortable conversation to have. "My guess is that she's trying to figure out how to get her own happy ending, because maybe she's confused by the way you did things. And maybe she's assuming you don't entirely understand why you did it this way either, which could be why she's bringing you together. To give you an opportunity to clear things out."

They would undoubtedly think that he was way out of bounds with what he was saying. Who the hell was he to tell them how to live their lives anyway? Who was he to explain Dawn's intentions to them, as if he knew her so much better, as if he had any way to prove that his assumptions were even on the right track?

But Jack was looking at him in a way that made him think he understood. Paul didn't miss the discreet glance he threw Johanna's way, mixed with sadness and something akin to longing. In that moment, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that what Dawn had written was indeed true: her parents really loved each other.

And yet they had learned to live with unhappiness and without one another. The strangled romantic in him screamed that this was no way to live, but he knew that sometimes real life didn't go as a Disney fairytale and sometimes you just had to accept that, let go and move on best way you can.

"Well, Dawn's still way too young and far too idealistic to understand," Johanna intercepted, arms crossed in front of her chest in a gesture that was the epitome of skepticism. She and Paul were similar in certain aspects, he thought with incredulity. "If this is really what she thinks, then she is more childish and naïve than I thought. What, she disappears to give us an excuse to meet and just like that all our problems magically evaporate and we live happily ever after? This is the real world, kid. Nothing is ever that simple."

Paul opened his mouth to reply, but to his surprise Jack beat him to it. "Why couldn't it be that simple, though? Why, Jo?" He had a look on his face that greatly reminded Paul of Dawn. The look of a true believer trying to convince a skeptic. "Our girl is right. We love each other, no use denying it, so why can't that be enough?"

"Oh, come on, Jack. Grow up. Love isn't all it takes to make a family work and you know it."

"But it's the most important thing in a family, isn't it?"

"You're talking as if we're nineteen again. Neither of us has ever looked beyond their ego and that's why our marriage was dysfunctional from the very beginning."

"And what if I'm old enough now to know that my ego isn't remotely as important as being with the ones I love?" Jack's voice had raised, but it was more desperate than it was angry.

Johanna's expression had turned ice-cold. "Don't. Just stop. You have a family, Jack. You have a wife that's waiting for you back at your house and what you're saying right now is disrespectful to her, to say the least. So just spare us all the turmoil and stop it." She got up and left the room, effectively ending the argument and leaving her ex-husband to stare after her in defeated sadness.

"She's right as always, of course," he muttered as if to himself and reached for a bottle of whisky under the glass table. Vaguely remembering the scarce occasions when Dawn had briefly mentioned her father's drinking habits, Paul watched the man warily as he poured the alcohol in his almost empty cup of tea. "Please, don't look at me like that."

Paul averted his eyes away in embarrassment. He sensed it was time for him to go and cleared his throat. If he was going to find Dawn, and he planned to, he didn't have any time to waste. "I have to go. I'm sorry I wasn't of any help."

He got up and stretched out his hand. Dawn's father shook it without hesitation as he got up as well. "I'll do my best to find your daughter," Paul said, willing the sincerity of his intentions to seep into his voice. It felt like a promise and it was one he intended to keep.

"I know you will." Jack smiled the warmest a person in his situation probably could and the trust in his hazel eyes made Paul realize the importance of the faith that had been put in him. It felt like an unspoken contract had been made between the two. He couldn't go back on his word now. He couldn't fail. "Maybe it's worth getting in touch with Kenny Kengo, even if the chances he knows something are slim."

Paul's eyes flickered to the gift on the coffee table and his stomach churned with a disturbing feeling, but he nodded nonetheless. "I'll look into it. I'll be sure to call you if I find out anything."

Jack smiled. "As will we. I don't know you, Paul, but I can tell that you're important to Dawn, just like she obviously is to you. Thank you for being there for her when we weren't."

He didn't know how to respond to that unexpected expression of gratitude, so he just nodded again.

Jack opened the front door for him and seemed to hesitate for a second, before speaking again. "I'm no role model and it's not my place to teach anyone how to live. But a word of advice from me. Don't do what I did. If you know where your happiness lies, fight for it. Do whatever you can to keep it and never let it go."

Gray met hazel and Paul somehow felt that Dawn's dad was someone in front of whom he could voice his insecurities. "And if I'm afraid?"

Jack smiled sadly and shook his head, as if saying 'you children still have so much to learn.' "Kid, whatever obstacles there might be in your way, when you look back thirty years from now you'll regret not taking the plunge. Trust me. Screw fear and go get what your heart yearns for."

Dawn didn't remember when she'd last set foot in Twinleaf town. She had probably been no older than six years old, back when Marina had just started dating Jimmy and Aunt Dana was still alive.

Even though she hadn't been in her family's hometown for so long, there were still bits and pieces, benches and corners she recognized, like vague memories from a fuzzy childhood dream. Her grandparents' house was the same as ever, just like everything else – white picket fence, porch swing, handmade wind chimes. It felt as though nothing in the small town ever changed, as if it was frozen in time, wrapped up in its own little world and disconnected to anything on the outside.

Dawn didn't know her grandparents very well, having spent time with them solely on those rare occasions when she'd been here in her infancy. Her mother had gradually alienated herself from their family roots over the years and as a result most of Dawn's relatives were practically strangers to her.

The one thing she knew about her grandmother and grandfather was the fact that they didn't spend Christmastime in Twinleaf. It was sad that it was the only fact about them that mattered right now.

Sneaking inside their house had taken masterful evasion and a fair amount of precaution. The spare key was still hidden under the ceramic turtle near the front door, like it always had been, but that wasn't the part that had called for her wariness. She had arrived in Twinleaf on Christmas day when she knew her mother would still be there too.

A brief and stealthy inspection of the estate had revealed that Johanna wasn't staying at her childhood home. Dawn's guess was that she probably never did when she came here. It was strange to think that her mother visited her sister's grave more than she did her living parents.

Family was a weird thing, she mused as she locked the front door behind her and took a deep breath. She was going to visit her Aunt Dana's grave today too, she had decided. She hadn't had the chance to pay her respects before because she had been too little at the time of her death and no one had let her come to the funeral. Strangely, another part of her reason to go there now was this inexplicable allure the place held for her. It was where her mother went so often to be alone with her thoughts, where she probably sought solace in the comforting presence of a silent ghost.

A graveyard was an unconventional place to feel closer to one's living mother, but Dawn knew by now that her family had an unconventional way of doing things, especially when it came to relationships. Why it all had to be so complicated she couldn't say, though she knew she did a good job at complicating things herself (the fact that she had sort of run away from home and no one in her family knew her current whereabouts was a prime example of that).

Maybe that family pattern of miscommunication would break at some point. Maybe things were changing already. Or, at least, she dared to hope so.

Dawn went down the porch steps, lost in her scattered thoughts, and had barely stepped on the sidewalk when a sudden exclamation snapped her back to reality.

"Johanna! Is that you?"

She turned around in bewilderment. An elderly and fairly weird looking woman was waving at her from the front yard of the neighboring house. She waved back tentatively. "Um, hello. I'm actually not-"

"I can't hear you from over there, dear girl! Come closer so I can have a good look at you! Heavens know I haven't seen you around in forever!"

After a moment of hesitation, Dawn did as she was requested. As she approached, she took a curious look at the woman who stood out like a colorful splotch against the snow that had piled up in front of the house. It was the only yard on the street that hadn't been cleaned and the girl had to wonder if this old lady lived alone and had no one around to help her with such mundane chores which were obviously beyond her strength. She was wearing a long winter coat in a bright yellow color, knitted blue gloves and a red beret with a big fluffy pompom on top. Thin strands of white hair poked from underneath the hat and framed her face which was adorned with countless wrinkles and age spots.

"Hello," Dawn greeted again when she was closer and extended her hand for the woman to shake. "My name is Dawn. I think you mistook me for my mother."

The lady didn't look disheartened in the least at her misjudgment and shook her hand with energy that didn't match her old age. "Well, who would have thought! It's delightful to meet you, Dawn! I'm Amelie. Would you care to join me for a cup of tea?"

Dawn couldn't help but return Amelie's whole-hearted smile and nodded. "Wonderful!" The lady exclaimed and led her inside her house with a peppy bounce in her step. "It's been a while since I've had guests, so please excuse the mess."

"Oh, no need to worry," the girl replied politely as Amelie motioned for her to have a seat and fussed around to make tea. "So… you know my mother?"

"Yes, yes, of course! I've been friends with your family for as long as I can remember. Your grandmother Fay and I have tea together at least once every two weeks! I haven't seen young Johanna lately, now that I think about it. Say, why doesn't she come to visit more often?"

Dawn smiled nervously. "I don't know, to be honest. She's busy with work most of the time." The apologetic tinge in her voice was hard to miss.

"It's hard to believe that she has a grown-up daughter of her own! I guess that years have flown by without me noticing. People lose track of time when they're this old." Amelie grinned good-naturedly as she handed her a cup of hot tea. There was something faintly familiar about the smell of chamomile, like an old-forgotten childhood memory that Dawn couldn't quite place in her mind. She looked around the cluttered room with interest and wondered if she'd been here before.

"Fay's probably told me that she has another granddaughter beside Marina and I just forgot. At this age, my memory isn't very reliable," Amelie added, but Dawn could tell it was out of courtesy more than anything else. It was entirely possible that her grandma had never mentioned her and as hard as it was to admit it, it was logical.

Amelie must have noticed her thoughtful expression, because she hurried to move the conversation along. "You really are the spitting image of your mother, though! It's remarkable how much you two look alike."

The girl gave a small laugh. "Yeah, so I've been told. Did you know her well, back when she used to live here?"

"Oh, yes. She was the most striking girl of her age here in Twinleaf. There was not a boy in this whole town who wasn't in love with her, but she never paid any attention to her suitors. Very driven, your mother was, even from an early age. And very practical, unlike her sister Dana, may she rest in peace. Nothing would stand in the way of her goals, she had her priorities straight and her future planned in a neat timeline: finishing her studies and establishing a successful career came first in her list, and she wouldn't compromise that for any kind of romance." Somehow, Dawn didn't find it difficult to imagine that her mother had been exactly like that at her age.

"It was only when she moved away for university that she met her first boyfriend and the order in her list changed." Here Amelie laughed and glanced through the window with a reminiscent look on her face. "Ah, I've never seen a girl so in love as she was when she brought him home to introduce him to her family. He was a nice fellow, from what I saw, but for some reason Fay didn't approve of him very much."

Dawn sipped from her tea as she listened with fascination. "Why?" It was a story she'd never heard before, as Johanna wasn't very big on sharing anecdotes from her youth, or sharing in general.

Amelie shrugged. "Who knows? All I remember her saying is that she didn't have a good feeling about this 'juvenile, jocular Jack'."

The girl choked on her sip and the tea nearly came out of her nose. "Wait, Jack? My dad was Mom's first boyfriend?"

The elder woman looked just as surprised. "Why, I had no idea he's your father! Would you look at that! It seems that Johanna found the one she was meant to be with from the very first try!"

Dawn cracked a small smile, though there was an undertone of sadness to it. "Yeah, she really did." The story of her parents was gradually completing itself in her head and cementing her conviction that it was simultaneously the best and the worst love story she'd ever heard.

"I guess good old Fay can't always be right about everything! You should know that I'm a true believer when it comes to true love, and your parents' bond sounds like the real thing. For it to have stood the test of time…"

Dawn's face fell a little. Amelie's smile faltered when she saw the change in her expression. "Well… they aren't actually together anymore. They haven't been in years."

"Oh." The woman looked a little crestfallen to hear that, but was quick to shrug it off and smile once again. "Even so, their fates are forever entwined. Have you heard of the old saying 'When every life meets another life, something will be born'? Your parents created you and are thereby eternally connected."

Dawn sat in silence and contemplated Amelie's words. She knew she was a link between her parents, but she didn't know if it was of enough strength to repair a bond that had caught rust long ago. The uncertainty that she was important enough to them to make any difference was an old insecurity that she was unwilling to delve in right now, so she pulled herself from her thoughts and changed the subject. "Can you tell me more about my mom and my grandmother? What happened to drive them apart?"

"Oh, dear girl, you ask questions that have no simple answer. Your mother had always strived to be independent and when she moved away things were bound to change. She didn't take it well when people tried to teach her how to live, but your grandmother couldn't help herself. Mothers meddle because they only want what's best for you, as I'm sure you know, but they sometimes don't get that their interference might be unwelcome." Good thing that my mother doesn't care what I do, then, Dawn thought with a fair amount of bitterness, but deemed it wiser to hold her tongue.

"Things got rocky between Fay and Johanna after your grandmother voiced her disapproval of your father. Your mother insisted that her life was hers to live and that she didn't need her parents' opinion. They were civil to each other after that, but Johanna visited less and less. After Dana's death they drifted apart even more. The loss divided them, instead of bringing them together in their time of grief."

"And as a consequence, I barely know my grandparents," Dawn concluded bleakly.

Amelie gave her a sympathetic look. "It's ill luck that it has come to be this way. But, you know… it's never too late to reach out."

She gave a little smile of encouragement in response to the girl's astonished look. "Come visit them once they're back in Twinleaf. I have no doubt in my mind that they will be delighted."

"It's kind of you to say so." Dawn nodded in appreciation, although her eyes betrayed her uncertainty. "But…"

"Be brave, girl. They won't turn you away, I promise. Who knows, maybe you can be the bridge that will bring your family together once again."

"I…" She fumbled with the sleeve of her jumper, unsure of what to say. "Maybe. I don't know."

Amelie's face beamed with a confident grin as she lifted the teapot to refill Dawn's cup. "And if- no, when you come, promise that you'll have tea with me again." Her eyes took on a mischievous glint, which looked quite unbecoming on a lady of her age. "Otherwise, I'd find myself obligated to tell my good friend Fay that her granddaughter's secretly broken inside her house."

Paul found himself lying idly on his bed and thinking about what Dawn's father had said to him earlier. As he pieced together the scarce bits of information he had gathered about her family and their history, the reasons behind what she was doing became the slightest bit clearer to him.

He still couldn't excuse her leaving just like that, but he couldn't say he didn't understand. He understood, to a certain extent, and he knew that family matters weren't the sole cause of this whole thing. Whatever was happening between Dawn and Paul had contributed too, and maybe it had all gotten too much for her to deal with. If she put everything love-related in the context of her parents' story, it was really no wonder she had run off.

"Maybe that's why some people leave without any explanation whatsoever. They get too scared by the faith that's been put in them."

"Yeah. Some people do."

He thought about their last encounter, about their conversation and their kiss. If only he had known he would set off this turn of events with his actions…

"Is that what your father did?"

Oh, Dawn, if you only knew what my father did.

"Yeah. Sort of. He didn't leave any explanation."

"That's awful. I'm sorry. People should never just disappear without saying anything. The least they could do is leave a note."

Paul sat up so abruptly that his head went dizzy.

The least they could do is leave a note. She had said that just a few days ago.

So to assume that she had just up and left without leaving any trace behind would be naïve. Wouldn't it?

His vision cleared and he started pacing in his room, thinking frantically. He took Dawn's essay for Farrell (he had followed her parents' example and printed a hard copy) and read it for the hundredth time, clinging onto every word, careful not to miss any details. There were phrases he had circled like 'get away from everything' and 'fresh start', but as hard as he tried, he couldn't find concrete information as to where she was going or what she was doing.

A note, she had to have left a note. Well aware that he was grasping at straws at this point, Paul willed himself to concentrate. He pulled at his hair roughly and shut his eyes. Think. Think, goddamn it!

Dawn had left some sort of note or sign, he was sure of it. Or at least he tried to convince himself of it, because he really had nothing else to go on. The problem was he had no idea where she would leave something like that for it to go unnoticed by her entire family for three whole days.

Okay. Calm down and think. If you were Dawn, where would you leave a note, so that it wouldn't get lost, but it wouldn't be easily found, either?

Realizing the absurdity of it all, he felt the urge to scream out in frustration, feeling the depths his desperation had reached. Damn it, Dawn. How could you disappear like this? How will I find you? Why didn't you tell me where you're going? Why didn't you tell anyone?

Suddenly, Paul's eyes snapped open. He didn't know for sure that she hadn't told anyone. Sure, she hadn't told him or her parents… but that wasn't everyone.

He felt almost elated as he thought he had reached the answer. It wasn't the where he should be wondering about, it was the who. Whatever trace Dawn left, if he presumed she left any (and he really was desperate enough to do so), it wouldn't be rolling around somewhere in the dust. It would be with someone, someone she trusted. Maybe it wasn't a note, maybe it wasn't even more than a word or two, or a general direction.

But there had to be something, anything, which would eventually lead him to her. He had to believe that, or else he didn't know what to do to hold onto his sanity.

Exhilarated that he was making progress, Paul got on his feet once again and willed himself to think clearly. There weren't many options, so it was all about narrowing it down to the person he needed. He had to think logically.

Marina? Dawn trusted her, that was for sure, but how would she even contact her? He knew for a fact that she was back in the mental institution already. He moved on, his mind quickly zooming into overdrive. Jimmy wasn't an option either, Johanna and Jack had already talked to him and Paul couldn't think of a reason why he would withhold any information.

Paul paused for a brief second.

Kenny?

It seemed too far-fetched an assumption, given that he and Dawn hadn't spoken at all in years. But Paul still had to consider it a possibility. Even if it made his insides twist with an ugly feeling that he now recognized as jealousy.

He dismissed Reggie and Farrell. Remembering the conversation with his brother, he didn't even consider it possible that Reggie could have known about Dawn's disappearance. As for Farrell, he understood now that he had called him and let him read Dawn's essay to give him all the available clues, because he believed that Paul would be able to find her.

As hard as he tried, he couldn't think of anyone else. He was angry with himself for having wasted so much time in his fear of approaching Dawn, he was angry with having to follow a cold trail, but above all else he was angry because of what he was about to do next.

He was forced to fall back on what he truly deemed a last ditch resort, but it couldn't be helped. The situation had really taken a turn for the desperate if it had come to this.

As Paul recalled Jack's suggestion from earlier, he reluctantly conceded that the time had indeed come to get in touch with Kenny Kengo.

Maybe you can tell, but I really had no idea what title to give this chapter. Sorry if it seems rugged, for some reason this one was incredibly hard for me to write. We're entering a phase in the story in which every chapter is becoming more difficult for me as an author and I feel as though anything I write is unrefined and not good enough to post. I don't know if you're familiar with the feeling that your work doesn't really do your idea justice, as if you can't adequately put the story you want to tell into words. So yeah, that's where I'm at right now - writing, editing, deleting everything and starting from scratch again. I'll do my best to get through this rough patch, or writer's block, or whatever it is, so please bear with me in the meantime.

To all the reviewers - I love you guys, you have no idea how much your support helps. You make me want to give this story my very best. Thank you for sticking around.