But Misery didn't leave. They didn't let her. She argued and struggled and insisted the best she could, but Ruby vowed that she wouldn't leave her side, and meant it.

"I think we need to cheer her up somehow," Iris said to Ruby. "This is not the right mood for a birthday. What should we do?"

"I know this is usually my department, but…. I'm not sure," Ruby said.

"I don't want to be cheered up," Misery said. "Ruby, I'm not just out of first-aid kits. I'm out of ideas. I'm out of solutions. I'm almost out of time. I should be out of this house."

"I know! Party games!" Iris said. She grabbed Misery by the hand and dragged her upstairs, the others following. Misery didn't even have it in her to argue any more. They might as well enjoy themselves while they could, she supposed…

"What should we play?" Iris asked. "Pin the tail on the donkey?"

"I think that's a little… dangerous for today," Ruby replied.

"Okay, how about musical chairs?"

"But we don't have music," Skull Boy pointed out.

"We can fix that!" Frank said.

"Your music's great, guys, but a little… loud. It might cause an earthquake or something," Skull Boy said.

"Okay, hide and seek," Iris tried.

"Depends on where you hide, I guess," Boo Boo commented.

While her friends were trying to decide what game to play, Misery was trying once again to make her escape. She may have been tired, but nothing was worth putting them in danger. She had to leave. So, as quietly as she could manage, she headed towards the door. Before she could get there, however, she stepped on a loose floorboard, the other side of which flew up and smacked her in the face. This caused her to fall backwards, onto another loose floorboard, which gave out upon impact. She fell headfirst through the hole in the floor, crashing painfully through several more floors before finally landing hard on the floor of her room in the basement.

"I know! A piñata!" Iris exclaimed.

"We definitely shouldn't be swinging a stick around," Ruby said. She paused. "Hey, where's Misery?"

They all turned around and saw the missing floorboard, or, more accurately, didn't see the missing floorboard.

"That can't be good," Iris said.

"Come on!" Ruby instructed. She rushed down many flights of stairs, her friends following. They checked every floor until they confirmed that Misery had fallen all the way to the basement.

She was indeed there, unconscious for the third time that day.

"Since the hospital's gone and so are the first-aid kits, we especially need to keep her safe," Ruby told everyone.

"It is a bit late for that, isn't it?" Scaredy Bat pointed out.

"Why don't all of you safety-check the house- you know, get rid of any possible hazards, repair the floors and stuff, and I'll take care of Misery?" Ruby said. Everyone agreed.

As the others went off in separate directions to disaster-proof the house, Ruby picked up Misery and took her to her (Ruby's) room. She put her down on the bed (she figured it would be better for Misery than her own at this point) and pulled the heart-print blankets over her, making sure she'd wake up comfortable.

A bit later, Misery woke up. "Ruby?" she said.

"Yes?"

"I don't feel great."

"Anything I can do?"

"Not really. …I want it to be over."

"What do you want to be over?"

"Today. The disasters. I can't take this all at once… But it's not over yet."

"Maybe it is, Misery. Maybe that's all. Maybe you can just relax and recover now."

"No. It isn't over. There's more. I can tell."

"I've got the others disaster-proofing the house. It'll be okay."

"I doubt it," Misery mumbled. Tired from the pain, she drifted off to sleep.

When Misery woke up, she felt very cold. She didn't know why, considering the weather was fairly warm, along with the fact that she was under all Ruby's blankets. All the same, she was shivering as she thought this.

"Misery? You awake?" Ruby stuck her head into the room.

"Yes," Misery replied, but burst into a fit of coughing just after. Ruby came in.

"You okay?" She sounded concerned.

"…Yes," Misery said, but she didn't believe what she was saying.

"Need anything?"

"…For it to no longer be my birthday?"

"Do you need anything that I can give to you?"

"No."

"Ruby!" Iris's voice came ringing up the stairs. "We need your help!"

"I can't!" Ruby called back.

"It's fine. Go ahead," Misery told her.

"You sure? Because if you need me to-"

"Go ahead," Misery repeated. There wasn't really anything Ruby could do for her, though Ruby's presence did make her feel a little safer. Then again, so did having the windows boarded up so they couldn't break, which from the sound of it was what they were doing.

"…Okay." Ruby sounded unsure, but went downstairs anyway.

Misery stared at the ceiling. The grand finale to her terrible birthday was coming soon, she could feel it. And she didn't feel ready. She knew she was sick, as sudden as it was, probably something potentially deadly. She couldn't fight the last disaster. Her life had been too short, but she didn't have the strength to stop whatever was coming next. Usually her bad luck at least gave her time to recover between disasters. Any one of the things that had happened today on its own she could have handled, but all together it was too much, even for her.

A/N: Okay, her being spontaneously sick seems weird... I dismissed that idea at first because of that, but I needed another disaster, and I realized... It's Misery. Anything can happen. XD