For You.

The alarm went off. I got up with difficulty and swiped my finger on my phone screen. These days, I wanted to sleep more and more. I felt like a corpse.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. Then I turned to the other side.

It had been another two months since the portal reopened and I was back. I was now at my father's house and Laila, my step sister, was always with me and took care of me. In the first month, too, my mom had moved into the same house. Well my dad's girlfriend was very nice and she let her stay and helped her and me at the same time.

My parents had seen the portal. I was not the crazy one. When I told them what happened, they believed me. Grandpa was not there at the time and no one else knew. So we kept it a secret.

My parents had been looking for me for a week, they had told me. At first they thought I had gone on a holiday break before I presented my thesis, which was what Des had told me at the time, but their memories were vague. They didn't know why they did not look for me. And they felt very guilty about it. So I did not mention it often. Because I knew. I knew they were not looking for me because something had happened to that world. And I knew that they realized that I was gone and something must have happened, only since Des had died there.

Des had also disappeared and the only thing I could do was to give her ashes to her devastating parents. Shameless and with guilt, I went to them and told them that this was Des's and that she wanted you to keep it, as I watched her parents shatter and melt inside just a few moments.

To everyone, my parents and I sold the same story. I was abducted and taken somewhere far away, I did not know where, before I woke up again and I was back here. And that one day, they had brought my friend Des there too, whom they killed. Which was later discovered with great difficulty in her ashes, that those ashes were hers.

The only one who knew what happened was also my psychotherapist. I did not know if he thought I was crazy or not, but we agreed with my parents, for my own good, to tell him everything. And I did. When I had an appointment, I would go and tell him how I felt and what I went through there. The diagnosis he made was that I had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The police and Des's parents who did not want to leave the matter, and rightly so, did everything to find out who did it and what exactly happened. Only I couldn't tell them the truth. They would think I was crazy. All I wished for, was for this case to be closed and go to their files, even unsolved.

Knock Knock.

The door to the room opened and I saw my father's girlfriend on the doorstep. "Charlie, are you awake?" she whispered.

I sighed. I didn't want to say that I was awake. I wanted to sleep more. I felt so tired. But I also didn't want to lie to my father's girlfriend who helped us so much these months.

I turned my head and looked at her. "Yes".

My father's girlfriend, Alice, smiled at me lightly and somewhat hesitantly. "Can you get up and go wash? There are some detectives here and they want to talk to you."

I sighed again and got up. Police again. They had become regulars in this house. And they kept coming and asking the same questions.

I went to the bathroom and turned on the tap. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alice make my bed. I reminded myself to thank her. Not just for the bed. But for everything. But that was for another time.

After following my morning routine like a moving zombie, I didn't even bother to change my pajamas and headed to the living room. Alice had already been there. Dad was out, as was Laila and Alice's other children. On the couch opposite of my dad's girlfriend, were two women. One had dark long hair and wore a red leather jacket and black clothes, while the other wore her brown hair in a ponytail and also wore black clothes. The weather would probably be good outside. Inside the house, however, I felt cold.

"Oh, Charlie," Alice said.

The two women, got up and gave me their hand, which I took. They introduced themselves as Vivian and Natalie and Vivian showed me her police ID.

"The ladies are detectives and would like to ask you some questions Charlie," Alice explained.

"You do not need to be here, we don't want to bother you any further" Vivian put her ID inside her red jacket. "We would like to talk to Charlie in particular," she smiled politely.

Natalie went and whispered something to Alice and then Alice told me to lead the detectives to my room.

With heavy steps and heart, without wanting to be interrogated again, I went to my room. I opened the blinds and the window a little to let light and air in. The sun blinded me. The weather outside seemed good indeed. Since when did I have to go out? The only time I went out was to go by car to my psychotherapist.

I sat on my bed. I didn't tell them to sit down. Natalie started exploring the place, while Vivian pulled out the office chair of the room and came to sit across from me. "Charlie, we do not want to upset you. We came here to answer any questions you want and may have. And to apologize to you. We are really sorry for your friend," she said.

I scoffed. "Any questions you have, I have answered..." I stopped. Wait. What did she say? If I have any questions? How can they answer my own questions? Are they confused? Did they find anything? Did they believe me? Maybe...

I looked Vivian in her dark eyes. She smiled at me sadly.

I crawled back to my bed and stuck my back against the wall. "I will scream, really. If you do something to me..."

Vivian got up from the chair and sighed. Natalie picked up a framed photo and looked at it. "Your mother has left to get some things, let's say. No one will hear you," said Natalie, focusing on the decoration of the room now.

Vivian looked at Natalie angrily. Then she turned to me again. "Charlie, we'll not hurt you, I promise. What has been done... unfortunately has already been done. We are sorry that we could not protect you and Des from the monsters in time."

My eyes widened. My jaw dropped. I stuck to the wall as much as I could.

No. Impossible. How did they know about the monsters? Did the psychotherapist tell them? And did they believe me? Or did they go with the flow because they thought I was crazy?

I shook my head left and right like a shaker. Impossible. No way. How some detectives knew...

My eyes turned to them again. "You're not detectives, are you?"

They both smiled.

I swallowed hard. "What... what do you want from me?"

Vivian sat back on the chair and sighed. "We just want you to tell us some things that happened there. Help us and we will help you. Just this."

I shook my head again. "Who... who are you?"

Vivian smiled. "I'm really a detective. My friend from there" she pointed back to Natalie who was wondering at the other side of the room now "she is a veterinarian."

I raised my eyebrows. Veterinarian? And what job did they have here? Were they some crazy scientists who wanted to learn about monsters? Or maybe...

"Who are you really? Why are you here?"

This time I managed to get both their attention.

Vivian spoke.

"It doesn't matter who we are," she said. "Why are we here?" she got up.

"Because we're the ones who sent you there in the first place, Charlie."

THE END

Appendix:

What is this story about:

The concept of the tragic in tragedy:

The heroes of the tragedies are characterized by tragedy, a situation that indicates their conflict with superior forces. And, indeed, the tragic hero conflicts, above all, with Fate and the divine judgment, but also with people, even with himself. In this conflict all his moral greatness is manifested, because he does not fight for the material interest, but for moral values. The concept of tragedy includes the transition from ignorance to knowledge, through the complication of the hero in contradictory situations, terrible dilemmas and impasses along with the consequences of these situations (guilt, mental anguish, loneliness, crushing or redemption). The result of the tragic conflict is the moral freedom which distinct the personality of the tragic person.(Sophocles Tragedies (Second Grade of High School) – Student Book (Enriched)).

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM TRAGEDY:

1) Perspective: On December 13, many of us thought we had a bad day. The traffic was slow, the coffee was cold, and our outfits were wrinkled. On December 14, none of that remotely mattered.

2) Gratitude: So often, we overlook life's most important things until they are lost. Only then do we realize we'd give everything to get them back. Instead of being wrapped up in what you don't have, take time appreciate the things you do. Health, people, ideas, safety, purpose. These all matter a million times more than that fancy car you've been saving up to buy.

3) Action: Nearly all of us have an important step to take in our lives, yet we let circumstance and pettiness hold us back. Life can change in a New York minute, so stop procrastinating and get on with crafting your destiny.

4) Courage: 27-year-old Victoria Soto, a dedicated teacher, lost her life protecting her students. She was prepared to do the right thing on a moment's notice. Are you?

5) The Hidden Lesson: There's a personal lesson that's different for each of us. Maybe yours is about living in the moment. Or showing more love to your kids. Whatever it is, never miss an opportunity to learn and grow, even in the midst of chaos.

One key thing the separates us from the villains who commit such atrocious acts is our ability to learn from life's setbacks. In a somber way, let's use this week's pain as a springboard for growth. Let us celebrate the memory of the fallen by living stronger and with more purpose. Let us stand up to the forces of evil and prevail instead of succumb. And let us hold those we love a little closer as we all grieve – and ultimately recover – together. (Josh Linkner, What We Can Learn From Tragedy, December 16, 2012) ()

Author's Note:

I would like to thank everyone who decided to give this a shot and each and every one person who managed to reach up until this point. I really hope I at least managed to keep some people here with the flow of the story, while knowing that many left and that is okay.

This story is a funny one but also a tragic one. You will see it clearly in the genre in the description of the story. Many might ask why this turned into a tragedy from a funny story. When I was writing this story in 2020-2021 in Greek, I had done all the funny parts and then stuck in the middle (as I do with many of my stories as well). This story was actually a story which was going to remain unfinished in my unfinished stories folder in my hard disk and I had decided then on that. When I was once returning from my internship back in the winter of 2020, a scene came to my mind while looking out of the bus window: Orange, Red, Fire, A girl who lights up a cigarette from a burning's body fire, Tears streaming down her face. That is right. It's the scene with Des's cremation. This scene was stuck in my head and I really wanted to include it to at least one book of mine. I was going to add it to an original one, but in the end I decided that it was a fit for this story and did that. And then I thought that I want the reader to empathize with this pain or understand it, so I had to make the reader know and eventually understand Des as a charachter and create a bond with Charlie. The story up until a point was running really long and I knew that eventually I had to put an end to this. And then came up with an open ending as an ending for this story, in order to make the reader think or imagine of a possible ending themselves, but also for another reason as well.

In general, I want and I thrive to achieve that each and every story of mine has something to teach: A meaning, something knew or whatever. Or even bring awareness for things that we already know, make the reader think, make them consider already known things, make them ask 'why' and 'how'. Make them think, how would I finish that or how would I react in a situation like this for real? So the point of this story was that sometimes we have to face reality (it's fiction, I know) and we have to live in it and with it. Tragedy can happen and I wanted us to learn what it can teach us, this is why I wrote down a translated paragraph of my old school book and an article which I found and liked on the internet, in order to help the reader understand what was this story about and what can we learn from it.

Now, about the open ending. In this epilogue, I have introduced two new characters (Vivian and Natalie), which are some charachters of mine, connected with an original story of mine which is still unfinished. What I can say is that Vivian and Natalie are people who have the ability to travel through different portals to different worlds and had a great mission in the past to save the world and all the dimensions of it. But after all, some other people tried to change the harmony and balance of the dimensions and different worlds and this is why the world has manifested these monsters and the 'beings': in order to bring again peace and balance in the world. So, long story short, in our case, someone (remember that there is a traitor among them which once gave info to the monsters) came to the world of MDZS, saved in the past Jin Lings parents, Nie Mingjue and others, distorted the original past of the world and left. But since in the original world (the canon) they die, the world itself tries to bring balance again by unleashing these weird monsters and kill these people again, or someone equivalent. Sometimes they might need to kill a hundred people in order to maintain balance if one person is saved. In this case, by killing Des and all the other people and disciples in that war, the world found it's balance halfway through and the monsters and 'beings' left. Unfortunatelly I cannot say any more here, except in DM's if you'd like, since this is taking long again and people might get overconfused, since also they came here for MDZS and not this. So, as I have mentioned the reader now is also free to think and consider their own ending as well.

Other than that, some might wonder, why not an original story since it's connected with one and since many charcaters might seem very OOC? Well, for the OOC it was not intended and I really have to apologize for that. While having read the novel, manhua, watched the series and donghua, I might have overstepped the line of the OOC. Now, as far as the why not an original story is concerned, the original idea of this story was a Fanfiction and that is what it still is. I just wanted to give justice and a story of characters that I wanted more of them in the canon, so I decided to give them that and include them in my story. Maybe I just couldn't get over the fact that it ended like that. Whatever the case, isn't this why fanfiction exist? We just want some fiction and some stories and endings outside of the canon, that's why.

All in all, after my huge essay here, I wanted to say a THANK YOU, to everyone here. I really hope you had fun and you came to understand or like this story. If you got dissapointed or it was not what you expected, don't you worry. Maybe you'll like the next one ;) Oh, and you should check my profile's bio as well. I just love to sulk and write tragedy I guess. Not all the time however hahaha! :) But it still runs in my Greek veins.

I had so much fun with the comments I got and I got so happy and excited that someone, even one person, spent some time of their lives to read this thing, translated or the original one. This is why I am so grateful to everyone.

So, Thank You, again. I'm talking to You, who is reading this. Thank You.

And see you in my next project in the future!

In the meantime, don't forget to smile, stay healthy (eat some junk food from time to time for me) and stay positive. And if a tradegy, something bad or drama hits you, come back to this chapter and take a look at the Appendix. This might give you some courage. Or just send me a DM. My DM's are open anytime.

Take care of each other. Take care of yourself. Don't forget to laugh ot smile 3

I'll see you around!

Thank you...('人｀●)SOOOOO━━＼('∀｀●)／━━MUCH!