When Jane left, she walked to school, nervous, excited and scared. She was decided to end that crap that night. Thinking about that, she ended up going to walk by Daria's before going to Lawndale High. It would take her some of the minutes of that hour she had been given, but she didn't care.
Walking in front of Daria's house brought back old memories, which made her be even more sure about ending that and getting her friend back that night. She saw Daria's parents, Jake and Helen, sitting in front of the TV, laughing. Mr. And Mrs. Morgendorffer looked less tense than they normally did, and, surprisingly, Helen's phone didn't seem to be anywhere near her. Jane saw light coming from the window of Daria's room. Her brainwashed friend was probably doing her homework, Jane thought.
Seeing Daria's family made her wonder about something that she never imagined she would ever wonder about: was she doing the right thing? The school's misfits were happy and had the friends they had always been wishing for, Daria was not even close to be someone nicknamed as the misery chick, DeMartino was no longer close to have a psychotic attack whenever he was awake, her family was actually staying in the same house at the same time for more than a day, Trent had a future, pretty much everyone had much better lives than they did before, even Charles. The only one who was utterly unhappy was Jane. Was she really doing that because it was right or was it just about her getting the life that she wanted back without thinking if the rest of the people wanted it back?
Crap, if I hadn't stopped here I wouldn't have this stupid moral conflict, she thought staring at the Morgendorffer house.
She was no longer sure about her decision. On one hand, she wanted her loved ones back, but they probably didn't want her back. Who wants misery and deep friendship when you can have happiness and shallow relationships?
Probably not even Charles wanted things to go back to normal. Back to normal meant being back in reality, where their relationship sounded surreal. He didn't seem to have anyone who had been left back in the old version of Lawndale.
She started to walk back home but then remembered that Charles was waiting for her and so she had to go all the way to Lawndale High to tell him that she had changed her plans. She didn't mind the walking.
She had to wait for a few minutes in front of the school until Charles got there.
"Hey, sorry I was late".
Jane looked at him with sad eyes and sat next to the entrance.
"What's wrong?" He asked ". I haven't seen you this sad since you thought you wouldn't find a way to get Daria back to normal".
"That's because I'm not making her go back to normal".
Charles was impressed. During all the days that he had been around Jane all she seemed to talk and think about was making things go back to normal. Then all of the sudden, when they were finally close to achieve her goal, she had decided she didn't want it anymore.
"What are you talking about?".
"Think about it, Charles. I'm the only one miserable about all this shit, aren't I? Everyone else is happier than they've ever been . I'm going to take all that away from them just because I don't like it. But, what if they don't want to be what I want them to be? Wouldn't change them be something completely selfish?".
Charles, like Jane, had not thought about that until that night. He sat next to Jane.
"How do you know they want to be this happy?".
Jane was confused.
"Isn't that the whole point of being alive? Finding happiness and all that crap?".
"Did you ever read Brave New World?" Charles asked, reminding Jane of the old Daria as painful fantasy.
She shook her head.
"It's about a society in which everyone is happy. Then one day someone who doesn't belong to that society, a savage, is taken there. So he's confused and finally all he wants is his right to be miserable. It's not just about being happy, Jane. Would you want to be a robot with no feelings at all but happiness?".
She hugged him. What he had said hadn't only changed her perspective, but also had had reminded her of Daria even more. She broke down crying; she missed her friend.
"Let's get in there" Jane firmly ordered getting up.
Jane almost made Charles run to the place where they both knew the door was. The locker was open. They could see lights from under the door. Jane held Charles hand and sighed, scared. She couldn't know who or what was there. It wasn't hard for her to get the door open with the card. She opened the door shyly and found two people in a room full of candles and some lamps, facing the opposite side of the room. She was close to freeze and then run away, but the image of the old Daria and Trent gave her strength. She held Charles' hand tighter, scared.
After her first step the two men turn around. What Jane saw made her drop her jaw.
"Mr. O'Neill?" Charles and Jane screamed.
"Oh, dear" Mr. O'Neill nervously exclaimed ". Jane, Charles, what are you doing here?".
Next to him, a pale man with dark eyes and black hair was staring at them. He was wearing a suit and seemed to be young.
"What are you doing here? And who is that?" Jane was talking about the man standing next to Mr. O'Neill.
"This is...".
"I'm the devil, but you can call me Roger, Roger Satan" he introduced himself with a british accent.
"Uh... Mr. O'Neill? Can I talk to you in the hallway?" Jane asked.
"Sure, Jane. I'll be right back, Roger".
The man, who seemed very polite, nodded and waited standing in the middle of the candles.
Once outside with Charles and Jane, Mr. O'Neill seemed very nervous.
"Mr. O'Neill, I have one question, what the hell is going on?" Jane inquired.
"I knew it! You weren't acting like the others. Oh, god, I'm sorry. Jane, Charles, I've been teaching here for a while and I've seen how... unhappy everyone seems to be. I've tried hard to help whenever I could but it isn't easy so I... I just wanted to help. I decided to make everyone in Lawndale happy".
"Well, this is freaking me out so please, if you are concerned about my happiness, give me my old friends back. You see, Mr. O'Neill, life's not just about that. Hell, who knows, maybe with our misery whenever we have short moments of happiness they seem even more special than if we felt happy the whole time".
"Jane! You're right. Oh, dear, what have I done? Wait here, you two, I'm going to fix this".
Jane and Charles sat on the stairs, nervous.
"You think he can convince the devil?" Jane asked Charles.
"I don't know, I hope so" he replied.
After half an hour of waiting, Mr. O'Neill and Roger came out.
"This man is surprisingly persuasive, kids" Roger said ". I may be the devil, but I'm not such a heartless creature. I've been seeing you, Jane, while you were talking with Mr. O'Neill I made a short tour through your mind. I see you miss your brother and your best friend. Also, as I said, Mr. O'Neill is a persuasive man".
Mr. O'Neill blushed and smiled.
"Everything will be back to normal by tomorrow morning" Roger promised.
"Thank you" Jane and Charles said at the same time.
"Hey, before you go, I have one more question".
"I'm not allowed to speak about life after death or the meaning of life or anything similar, when I do, God yells at me" he rolled his eyes, visibly annoyed.
"It's not about that".
"Oh, then go ahead".
"How come we didn't change?".
"Well, I'm the devil but I don't always get things right. It would surprise you how many pacts are made every day and sometimes those stupid demons don't do things right. Being the devil isn't that easy. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go back to hell, a teenager in Idaho is calling. It was nice to meet you. Good night, everyone".
With that said, a curtain of smoke covered him and he was gone.
"Well, I am terribly sorry that I made you go through this confusing situation. I'll see you two tomorrow morning. I should clean that room and get going back home".
"Sure. See you later, Mr. O'Neill" Jane said.
"Goodbye" Charles gasped before going after Jane who had already started walking away ". Wait!" He called while following her through the dark hallway.
Jane stopped suddenly and kissed Charles, then she started to laugh and moved her face away.
"Dammit, I can't believe I am saying this but I love you!" She screamed laughing ". I feel so happy. Promise you won't go back to normal tomorrow?".
"If you mean back to Upchuck, I won't" he said smiling ". And I love you too".
She couldn't stop laughing, she felt really excited.
"Let's get out of here, I promised Trent I'd be home by 11 pm".
"Hey" Jane called from the door of her brother's bedroom.
He looked at the clock.
"You got here in time" he smiled at her, moving his book to the night table next to him.
"Yeah, I promised it, didn't I?".
"You look really happy, what happened?".
"Oh, nothing. I'm just happy to see you. Yeah, I am. You mind if I sleep here tonight?".
"It's okay with me, but I'll go to bed soon".
"I don't mind. Today was kind of a long day. I need to sleep" she chuckled.