Cassie

Dear Cale,

Finals at the veterinary school can be a pain sometimes. But while I was studying the anatomy of the Grey Wolf for my Mammal Biology Class, your name just popped into my head. After annoying me for a couple of hours, I felt that it was appropriate that I sit down and write this letter.

I guess, if someone were to ask me my opinion of you, I would probably tell them that you're the biggest suck up I've ever known. However, despite that personality quirk, you changed me. I don't know how you changed me, but you changed me.

I guess the way I think has changed because of you. Because of you, I now know that what you want isn't always what's best. When I first met you, I was still in the grieving cycle. It had been a year after that bastard freshman took a 9mm and shot Teresa in the head; sometimes, I can still see images from the horrible day. I was trying to start over by going to the Olympics because I wanted to show Teresa that I wasn't going to be stopped by some tragedy; I was going to win. That's when you showed up. The one thing I remember the most is you trying to convince me to join you and your boss. But I'm skeptical about a lot of things, so I wasn't fooled. I knew that everything has a price, or so at least that's what they say. And to be quite honest, I didn't want to pay that price.

During the Olympics, you promised me many things: wealth, power, immortality, but I didn't want that stuff. What good is immortality if you live forever and watch all your friends die? But then you came bearing a deal that I was totally unprepared for: your boss would give me back Teresa if I joined him.

I thought long and hard about the offer. True, I did want Teresa back, but could I pay the price? I was right in the middle of an inner conflict, and I didn't know how to deal. As I thought long and hard about your offer, I began to realize something: if the offer had been made a year ago, I would have accepted it without question.

It surprised me, when you came for the final answer, that I would reject any kind of offer to have Teresa back. Some part of my brain had come up with the weirdest conclusion: you were going to use Teresa as a puppet and hurt her. It was then and there that some part of me that I never knew existed would have rather had Teresa dead then your puppet. It was that conclusion helped me reject your offer.

Even after the final battle, these thoughts and feelings are still present in my mind. Did I do the right thing? Yes, I did. Was it easy? No, but I'm willing to live with that choice. When it came right down to it, you made me think about what's best for everyone else, and not just myself. When you forced me to think, you changed me. And I'm happy to say that it's for the better.

So all I can say is that if it was orders from your boss, or from your own free will, you did your job. Thanks, you blue-haired, scar-faced suck up.

Cassie Legis