Mickey

Mickey was standing in his back garden. The sprinklers were on and a screeching Natalie wearing her swimming costume was dancing and leaping through the water. Tiny rainbows were cast about by the glistening water drops.

Mickey was tight faced, his arms folded.

"What's wrong?" asked Fred.

Mickey turned to him with a wild look in his eye, "Fred, thank god! Where is Natalie? This isn't her!" He gestured to the memory of Natalie still playing in the water.

"This is your mind," answered Fred calmly, "she's a memory. Your daughter is fine, she's just dreaming somewhere. I'll get to her soon enough."

"You swear Fred?" he gripped Fred's arm tightly, "you swear she's ok?"

"I swear."

Mickey relaxed a little, looking pensively out back to the memory of his child.

"I can't wait to get back home," he said eventually, "to get away from all this craziness and live a normal life again." He rubbed his hands over his face, "I never thought I'd say that. Never. I always wanted a more exciting life. God…I even sometimes resented my family, can you believe that? Don't get me wrong," he added, looking anxious, "I love Natalie, more than anything. More than myself; I'd die for her. I just wished my life could have more to it sometimes. I think that's what attracted me to Lizzy, she was so quirky, y'know? A break from the routine."

Fred watched him, "do you…regret being with Lizzy?"

Mickey let out a humourless huff of a laugh, "I've been in love with Lizzy since I was a kid. My childhood was a drab thing and she used to really liven it up. But, honestly, with you part of the bargain? It hasn't been all that worth it. Though, I suppose all of this was going to happen anyway, and you're just a small part of it."

Fred looked back out at the garden, feeling stung.

"I really could have done without my daughter being made the owner of that necklace," Mickey continued, sounding a little tired, "I think that's the part that really bothers me."

"I'm sorry," said Fred.

Mickey whirled round to look at him, "what seriously?"

"Yeah," Fred looked down, unable to meet Mickey's eyes, "I shouldn't have done it. I should have been smarter about it. I needed someone with a pure soul who could handle all those lives being within her. And Natalie was the only person I really knew. But I shouldn't have done it. I should have found another way."

Mickey watched Fred carefully for a while.

"I appreciate that," he said at last, "it's mature of you to accept that. Just like I can accept that you didn't have much choice in the matter. And I still stand by what I said before, when we shook hands, I'm grateful to you for being her friend and for making her happy when I couldn't."

Fred frowned, "you make Natalie happy."

"Yeah," drawled Mickey self-deprecatingly, "but not the way you do. She used to light up when playing around with you. Same with Lizzy. I mean, Lizzy used to be on edge a lot whenever she thought you were around, but she seemed happy too. Like this inner glow. She didn't have that with me. She was always sad with me."

"She's always sad," said Fred, "with me too."

"Do you think she's depressed?" asked Mickey slowly, as if this wasn't a new thought for him.

"Maybe," Fred answered, "she's been sad since she was a kid. And that sort of sadness isn't going away with a spaghetti fight or hugs. It soaks into the marrow of your bones." He wrapped his arms around himself.

"I guess that's the difference between us," said Mickey lowly, and with some bitterness, "I can't keep fighting for someone else's happiness. I've got a kid. So I have to put her and me first. If I can't cope, I can't look after my kid properly. I sound like a jerk, right?"

"No," answered Fred honestly, "I think that's probably the right thing to think."

"Really? I'm probably going to hurt Lizzy. I'm going to have to let her go. I'm not stupid," he brushed his hand through sandy blond hair, "I know she fears being abandoned. That men always go. You, her dad, Charles and now me; all men she knew for years and all who go away eventually. I don't want to be another one…but I can't…"

Fred watched Natalie, "I don't want you to leave her either. I wish you didn't have to. But being good maybe means doing the least harm. And if hurting one person means two people may be happier in the long run, maybe the one needs to be hurt." Fred leaned back against the wall, looking up at the sky. It was a bright blue with fluffy clouds. "Being an adult sucks."

Mickey laughed humourlessly again, "being a parent is worse. I'm not just answerable to myself; I'm not just risking my own life and well-being. 'How do my actions affect my child? How will they affect her as an adult?' Every decision comes with a great cost."

Fred looked down at Mickey, "Natalie loves you. She feels safe with you. As long as you stay with her, she'll be ok I think."

Mickey looked up at him, "then, could you maybe stay with Lizzy? Don't leave her again. Her mom is gone and was no good for her anyway. I don't think Nigel can handle it and it's not the same for her having him around anyway."

The name of Janey was left hanging in the air, neither wanting to go there.

"I'm a mess," said Fred at last, "and I don't know what's going to happen. I can't promise to stay. I can just try."

"Well, that's all any of us can do," was the reasonable response, "that's what it is to be an adult."

Natalie

Natalie hadn't been sent into her mind.

Instead she had been transferred to Alfheimer. It was times like this that Fred remembered that the Twins weren't all bad. If nothing else, they genuinely did love children. It's why, when doomed to follow either Nerthus or the Twins, he went with the latter. Even the Great Betrayal had been by the mother, not them. The Twins were just run-of-the-mill liars, which was no better than him really.

He watched her playing with the other kids. She was confident and carefree and knew who she was. Mickey worried too much really. She was fine. But, Fred supposed that before this whole thing with Nerthus happened, Mickey had been a laissez-faire parent. Perhaps it was the recent horrors that had made him so anxious and protective. Fred felt bad then. It was a shame if the trauma of this situation had woven itself into Mickey's tapestry and had made him more nervous than he had been before.

Fred remembered that before all the craziness happened, he had been preparing to leave Natalie. She didn't really need him anymore. She wanted to make friends with kids her own age, other girls who perhaps did like dolls and wearing their mother's shoes.

Fred grinned as she suddenly noticed him, bounding over as he dropped to his knee to embrace her.

They hugged for a moment before pulling away and she kissed him on the cheek.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"For being a good friend," she said, "hey! Aren't you going to say, 'ew gross' and wipe off the kiss?"

Fred laughed before smiling at her sweetly, "no, it's ok. I'll keep it on."

She smiled at him thoughtfully before asking, "where's daddy and Janey and everyone else?"

"They're still down below," he answered truthfully.

"Are you able to save them?"

"Of course! That's what I'm doing now. I just wanted to check on you first."

She sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes (something he could see her teenage-self doing very often,) "I'm fine!" she stressed, "I'm busy playing! Go save them so I can hug daddy."

"Ok," he stood, "I'm going. See you soon."

But she was already running away to go and rejoin her friends.

Annabella

Fred was standing on a flight of stairs in a tall apartment building. To his back was a large window which showed off the night sky and the million twinkling lights of the city. He could hear traffic down below.

In the stairs in front of him, on the top step, was a beautiful blonde lady. She was sobbing.

"Annabella?"

She looked up. Mascara ran down her face.

"This isn't…" Fred looked around, "this isn't the same as the others."

He walked up the stairs slowly, sitting down beside her.

"What happened?"

It took her a while. She breathed in a few times, trying to calm herself, before reaching into her purse and taking out a cigarette with shaking hands. She lit it and put it to her lips, taking a couple of drags before finally answering.

"This was the night the kids went missing," she said, "Becky and Andy."

"Did you know them well?" He couldn't imagine how he would react if Natalie suddenly went missing. His stomach turned when he remembered how many children he had taken over the centuries. The tears of so many parents who didn't understand why they were being punished, who probably thought their kids were dead or worse. He wondered how many of them kept looking versus how many just gave up. How many spent their lives looking fruitlessly for their children and those who went completely mad.

"No, not at all." She let out a sigh, "I knew them for literally one day. I was dating their dad and he wanted them to meet me. You wanna know what's funny? I don't even remember his name. I barely remember what he looked like. But I remember those kids clearly. Even Sacha, and he didn't get taken. I remember all three of their names, their personalities, what they looked like. What I remember of their dad is only how he acted when he came home to find his daughter and baby missing and me hysterical."

She took a few more drags on her cigarette.

"Why didn't you go to a happy place?" asked Fred, "the others did."

She shrugged, "maybe I don't have one. I haven't lived a happy life. I don't think I've ever thought of myself as a happy person. I thought maybe if I got married… maybe if I had kids… but… now I don't think that would have done anything. I think I would have just turned into a Polly in the end."

She looked at him, still beautiful even with her make up all over her face and a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. "You've gotta get them back Fred. The kids. All of them. We can't do it. This is your world. Please."

He looked at her. The space between them was tight.

"I will," he breathed, suddenly feeling the huge pressure of what was being asked of him. To save every child Nerthus had taken. He took in a few panicked breaths, turning away as he tried to calm himself.

"Hey, hey," he heard her soothing. He felt her hands cupping his face as she turned him back to her. Releasing one hand, she took the cigarette from her mouth.

"You can do this," she said, before leaning in and kissing him on the lips. He found himself kissing her back, desperate for some sort of link, some sort of connection to another person. He pulled away when he felt her doing the same.

She smiled at him, rubbing the lipstick off his lips.

"You're cute Fred," she said warmly, "in a skinny boyish way."

She put the cigarette in his mouth.

"Here, suck on this. It'll calm you down."

He did, coughing a few times at first, but eventually getting the hang of it. His hands began to slowly steady themselves as they looked out of the window. It was shifting and changing. They could see the others; Mickey with Natalie; Natalie playing on the fields; Nigel in his student flat; Franklin in his office.

It skipped to Lizzy, an adult now, walking through the fields with her adolescent self by her side. They both looked towards Fred and Annabella, as if sensing they were being watched.

'Where is she going?' wondered Fred.

Annabella turned to Fred and saw something on his face that prompted her to comment, "you really care about her don't you?"

"Yeah," he admitted, taking in a quick, inexpert drag before, "I know a lot of it is due to a shared history I don't remember. But it's also been the time we've spent together now. It's a sort of…pulling sensation. I guess."

She took a cigarette out of her bag and lit it, "maybe you're soulmates."

He looked at her with a disbelieving frown on her face, making her smile sadly.

"Think about it," she argued, "of all the ways of you two to meet? Two people separated by time and space. And yet, fate conspired so that you could meet, not once, not twice, but three times. Even with your memory scrambled, you still would fight off Bird Monsters and gods for her."

"You believe in all that? Soulmates and stuff?"

"I think, for some people, it's true. For others, people like me, we were supposed to be alone."

"Not being in a romance doesn't mean you're alone."

"Doesn't it?" she looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "all these centuries you lived with children and then animals in the forest, were you not lonely?"

He looked away. The images in the window ebbed and flowed, showing different countries and different time periods.

"I was, I guess," he said, "I missed my family…and then later I missed my friends…and then I missed Lizzy I suppose."

"I think you were supposed to find her."

"And I think," he said slowly, looking at the images, "that you were destined for something bigger than your dreams Annabella."

He stood up and held out his hand. She took in and together they walked back into reality.