Lily's remaining relatives were found and she was promptly sent back to her father, back to England, and away from her brother. One thing was for certain, she was not a happy camper.
The ship ride was cool at first but later turned miserable as the weather worsened along with her thoughts. Mulling over past events was something she shouldn't be doing, it caused her to cry too much. So she decided to write to Facilier.
She had only one letter from him so far, which told her all about his various escapades to avoid being caught. The first thing he did was erase all memory of him at the Police Office, then at the school, and other places they frequented. He debated over erasing their friend's memories but after being found out by the twins, and consequently yelled at, he decided against it. Now he was safely holed up in their Emporium waiting for everything to cool down.
Dear Facilier
She put down her pencil and huffed, there wasn't much to write about. The past days have been monotone, the same rocking ship, dark skies, and crippling feelings. And she didn't want to write how much she missed Facilier and… mum, it'll cause her to shake and soil her paper with tears. She growls and crumbles up the paper, not noticing Spaghetti placing it in the trash, deciding to write when she's off the ship.
"Land HO!" Lily jerked from her bed, she was finally getting off this ship! Running around her quarters she cleans up and repacks her bags. Checking everything once more she clutches a stack of letters (so maybe she didn't wait to write but she was bored) and leaves the room.
Leaning over the edge she looks at the crowd below, hoping to see a familiar face. She bursts into a smile when she sees her father and sister, even though they haven't stayed in touch Lily hopes that the two of them could still be friends. She follows the rest of the passengers, pushing past when necessary until she is standing in front of her father.
"Ello Dad," Lily mumbled, previous excitement vanishing quite suddenly. Her father placed a hand on her shoulder.
"It's good to see you again, Lily" He then pulled his daughter into a hug. Lily hugged her father tightly trying to hold back tears: you're fine Lily, don't start crying again. Her father was the one to pull back, "We've rented a carriage, let's get your stuff." Lily nodded and grabbed her satchel while her father took the suitcase. She looked at her sister, who hadn't said anything yet.
"Hey, Tuney." Petunia smiled, it looked more like a grimace.
"Hello Lily, welcome back." She turned back and started talking to their father, Lily clutched her bag. Great, Lily thought, it seems that Petunia isn't happy to see me.
She watched the window for the rest of the ride, England looked the same. Dreary weather, packed streets, and buildings smashed closer than comfort. Lily mentally started making similarities with New Orleans and was about to ask for Facilier's opinion but stopped, he isn't here. Pushing back the onslaught of emotions she went back to looking out the window. She leaned against it, her eyes felt heavy and she was letting them close when she heard a shriek. Turning sharply she sees Petunia clutching her arm in pain with Lasagna (a red voodoo doll, and the only one with rock teeth) baring their teeth at her.
"What is that thing!" Lily's dad all but yelled. Lily dashed forward and grabbed her bag of voodoo essentials.
"It's just Lasagna, they didn't mean any harm, Petunia. You must have scared them."
"I scared it!" Petunia's shrill voice made Lily wince, "that thing bit me!"
"Well they wouldn't have if you weren't messing with my bag," Lily sniffed. Petunia's face turned red, she opened her mouth.
"Lily what is Lasagna," her father said the words so strained Lily worried that his voice would snap.
"He's one of my voodoo dolls, I wrote about them one time, remember?"
"You once mentioned Spaghetti, Lasagna, and Fettuccine, but I thought you meant the noodles not… voodoo dolls."
"Oh," Lily shifted her skirt and placed her three dolls on her lap, "well I thought it was obvious but I guess not."
"Why do you have voodoo dolls, Lily?" Her father's tone hinted at something, fear, skepticism, she couldn't place it.
"I made them father."
You could hear a pin drop.
"You're a freak," Petunia's sour voice said. Their father turned to Petunia and admonished her, "don't try it, dad, it's true she leaves to go to some freaky city, meets a freaky boy, and becomes a freak herself. You told me anything unnatural is bad so what's different with this?" Lily gasped.
"Facilier isn't freaky! And New Orleans is a better city than dreary London! I hate it here and I hate you!" She was crying now, she had tried so hard to hold them back but now they were streaming down her face. "We just lost our mum, I lost Facilier, and the only person who could share my pain seems to hate me. Why Tuney, what did I do?"
Their father was pathetically trying to ease the tense situation to no avail. He looked fearfully at his two daughters not knowing which one was on the right but deciding to side with the crying one.
"Petunia, dear. Tell us what's wrong, we are all hurting but calling your sister freaky isn't nice." Seeing her father side with Lily was too much for Petunia and she started balling too.
"She took mum away! She was my mum too but she left me all alone. And then, then she goes and gets another kid to replace me! My mum thinks some random kid was better than her own daughter. But… I still want her, I still want my mum back." she curled up trying to stop her body from trembling.
Lily put her bag down and moved over to comfort her sister.
"She did not abandon you, she always was so sad when we talked about you. Her eyes would tear up when she thought I wasn't looking. I think… I think she saw you in Facilier. you both are so full of emotion but you don't like people seeing it, so you bottle it all up hoping that it won't crack." Lily moved her hand in soothing patterns, "So you see, she didn't abandon you, she was trying to find you."
Strong arms wrapped themselves around the two girls, Lily leaned into her father's touch and the three silently accepted the others. A lonely girl, a man who has made many mistakes, and a misplaced witch doctor.
AN:
UnnaVox: This chapter made me sad, true I was emotionally unstable beforehand but that's beside the point. Halfway through writing this though I started to think about the poor coachman who has to hear all of this.
Oh, and I did some research (for once) and Lily would probably have been on the ship for around a month.