Author's Note: Last chapter... sorry I just had to get this done!

On with thine story...

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It was a white house. It was a beautiful, magnificent, 2-story white house. A white picket fence, a large green lawn, and a shaggy whitish-brown dog protecting its territory surrounded the house. It was wonderful, a home straight out of a storybook I must have heard when I was younger. And it was mine. It was all mine!

This that point; I've reached the climax. The dream is going to end soon, that's how the stories go. If only if only, the little bird once sang. Those words bring it to the end. If only if only, I could stay here forever. If only if only, this world was real. If only if only... if only if only, the little bird would sing again, and keep me in this reverie.

The house stood their waiting. Waiting for something long since absent from its walls. Waiting for me. The lawn waited; too fresh, too clean; begging to be trampled on by little feet. Waiting for the tiny footprints of mud tipping its green grass, and waiting for the children chasing the ball while the others ran the bases that they made by kicking away the bright blades of grass. The dog too, it waited. It's tail wagging, standing by the fence, and jumping continuously as if trying to make its way over the fence. It all waited, waited, anticipating my arrival.

But the little bird grew up, and it forgot how to sing. So my nightmare is ending, that's what my conscious says. It told not hope, I've hoped too much before, and all it leads to is a deep hate. That little voice, is telling me to close my eyes before I truly believe what I see. And slowly I feel my eyes start to close.

The shutters flapped in the weak wind. The windows creaked. The deafly silence in the lawn. They needed someone. The dog kept barking. It howled, it begged. It too needed someone. Not someone, they didn't need just someone. They needed... me.

The noises kept me here; they kept me from waking up. And I begged them to continue. As they did, my eyes once again opened. The voice now screamed, it threatened, and raved. But I did not listen this time. The voice no longer controlled me.

It was then that a smile formed on my face and I realized; this is that dream, which I don't ever want to wake from. The door opened and a hand reached in and unbuckled my seat belt. I turned to look at the hand's owner. I stared up into my father's face, his green eyes looked into my own and I saw tears forming. His hand still in the car was held out, and graciously, I took it.

NOW, NOW, NOW, stop believing, stop now! This dream will haunt you. It will destroy you. Wake up, open your eyes. Open them, open your eyes. Don't be sucked in. Please... just open your eyes, just wake up.

My father's hand led me out of the car and my mother waited, along with the house, lawn, and dog, she waited. I gazed at my mother, standing against the gate, the house straight behind her. I was in awe. She looked down at me in wonder. It was as if we were both entering each other's dreams.

My father, he led me to her. She bent down to my level and brought me into her. She held me and I too wrapped my arms around her. My father stared down on us, watching us like a guardian angel. My father placed a genteel hand on my mother's shoulder and she looked up at him, tears rolling down her frail cheek.

My mother stood up, as my father bent down and picked me up with ease. He wrapped an arm around my mother and he led us through the gate. We entered into the perfect yard and the dog came prancing toward us. My mother bent down and petted him before catching up with us. The dog followed us up to the door, where my father finally put me down.

But I can't, my eyes won't open, this dream won't end. I'm still here, I can't awake. And I don't want to. I like this dream. I don't want to wake up. I don't want to return to hell. I'm happy here.

The dog jumped on me. I buried my face into his long, shaggy fur. I laughed into the dog as its tongue swiped over my face as I laughed harder. I petted it over and over again and it basked in love. I did too, I basked under the watch of my parents, watching and waiting.

Please... don't give in... This will never last... don't have hope... you'll awake... someday.

My Mother bent down and petted the dog as well. The dog loved it and its tail waged wildly. My father, than too, just watched... an angel I think he truly was. Her hand stopped and was held out for me to take. "Are you ready to finally come home."

The smile already pasted on my face grew. I could not speak, but I nodded despite my loss of voice. I too stopped petting the dog and it whimpered in sadness. I reached for my mother's hand and she meet mine, and pulled us both up onto our feet. My father smiled at us. He turned the brass knob and opened the large white door.

Please, don't give in. Please?

The sight of a glorious home awaited me. It was superb, beautiful in everyway, not the way you see the mansions on TV or the pictures of modern castles, it was small but so wonderful. The vibrant colors of all the rooms, the antique furniture, the hundreds of books lining the wall, the casual pictures and rugs, and every little thing made the home so delicate, so unreal, so magnificent.

It was all so surreal, my world was spinning and I was running it faster and faster. I wanted to get dizzy, till the point I can't stand. And as I wandered the brilliant rooms, the spinning continued, and I enjoyed every part of it. My parents followed me, as I explored this amazing place I was now to call my home. My real home.

...Please...

It was the final door, the door my parents made me open last. I was a pale pink door. And it was near impossible not to know what lay behind it. I slowly griped the knob and entered into my own room. It was painted with sponges, pale pastels. And the room it all matched together, like the catalog rooms, the ones that no one can afford or keep clean if they can. I flopped over onto my white canopy bed and I smiled and I cried.

My mother and father lay down next to me, one on each side. They held me and we all wept from happiness in each other's arms. Our tears combined and ran down as a river into a sally ocean. We laid in silence, save the sniffles, hollow breaths, and the trickle of tears falling from our cheeks into the river of tears. We lay together for an eternity, but as always, on earth eternity never lasts for long.

The tears slowly subdued and I cuddled into the warmth of my parents. The moment did not need anything else. The moment was everything I could every hope for. But somehow like always, it seems to ruin somehow. "It's all over right?" My parents both wrapped me in tighter and I heard their hearts beating together with my own. They sighed and I wished I could take back my words.

My father closed his eyes and pulled the two of us closer to him. We were a family now. And I realized, I didn't care. It didn't need to be over, because we were together, we always would be. But although I think Father heard my thoughts, he answered anyway. "No, but right now, I don't care about any of that."

My mother smiled and kissed my shoulder. She leaned in and whispered into my ear. "Agreed, right now, it's just us." My father opened his eyes. His eyes beamed with the translucent tears that kept rolling down his face, with no intention to stop. My mother too, fresh tears fell from her dark eyes. And then, it was true.

But my eyes are open. Can't you see? This isn't a dream. This is real! Because I'm already awake!

Suddenly I believed, suddenly it was real. I heaved myself off my floral sheets and surged out the door. I burst out into a sprint, running through every room in the house. I ran, and ran, and started to spin. My parents soon came after me and watched in love. My eyes became unfocused as the scene kept changing, and head became dizzy, but still I did not wish to stop. It was real. This was true. My feet stopped turning and I fell to the ground. My parents rushed over to me, but I only grinned larger.

"THIS IS REAL!!"

And that old bird sat upon her nest, and the egg beneath her started to hatch. She jumped and she watched as her child came into this large world. Eggshell cracked as the bird came out. The tiny hatchling stared into the world, and it started to sing. The old bird looked at it with question, but then it remembered its voice long since forgotten. And the old bird too, joined in the song. If only if only...

-

There it was. The world I had once imagined. It was mine; it was all mine. The winds died, the leaf I once was, floating amongst the wind, settled amongst the grass and leaves. I was done moving. I had found my roots, found my life, my family, my name. That was it, my legacy complete, well, one of them anyway.