She felt tired and hopeless. Everything was falling apart. Reality and fantasy was blurring together and she couldn't tell the difference anymore.

She had taken Sophie and Jamie to the Easter Egg Hunt but no one had found an egg. Not one measly Easter egg and she saw the hopelessness leave the children's eyes as they looked around for an egg but found none.

"There's nothing." One kid said as other kids wondered what was going on. Kailani would have tried to cheer them up but didn't have the heart to do it.

She was giving up again. She had dreamed about the white haired boy with blue eyes that shook her to the core. The guy, Jack, had promised to see her but he didn't come for days and she felt the hopelessness leave her heart and soul.

She couldn't keep doing this to herself.

"I can't believe it. There's no such thing as the Easter Bunny."

Kailani felt the words slice her heart but did not fight the inevitable. Perhaps it was better for children to give up on fantasies. It was time for them grow up.

It was time for her to grow up but she wasn't ready. Not yet. That small flicker of hope was dimming with each doubt that crept in her hear like a slithering snake. It wouldn't be there forever.

Kailani felt a tear slide down her cheek as she heard the disbelief in the children's voice. She hated to see their pain and hopelessness seep into their eyes. She hated to see them sever their childhood fantasies but she felt that this was better.

Instead of being betrayed by people they trust, they probably should just give up and learn the truth. Learn that childhood was nothing more than play and reality was a harsh, cruel world that ripped the innocence right out of you, leaving you scarred and bleeding in the inside.

Kailani took Sophie and Jamie back home since Jamie insisted that there were eggs hidden around the house. She didn't have the heart to say that there was no eggs around the house. That there was no Easter Bunny planting eggs all over the world.

He wasn't real.

And it hurt that she was giving them up, giving her father up but it was time.

It was time that Jamie figured out on his own that none of the fantasies he believed in as a kid was not real. She wouldn't rip the innocence out of him like that. She would let him do it himself. She wasn't that cruel. She would never be that cruel like her mother.

She wouldn't disappoint Jamie like her mother did her. When Jamie figured out the truth of everything, Kailani would be there for him and tell him that it was okay, that she would be there.

He was growing up and it was time that she did it herself. She sent Sophie inside as she set up the ladder for Jamie so he could find the eggs. She didn't have the heart to say that there was no eggs up there and that he was wasting his time.

Let him find it out by himself.

"Whoa!" Jamie yelled as the ladder fell out from underneath him and he fell. Kailani and the other kids winced as a purple ball bounced from the porch and onto the ground.

"Let's check the park again."

"For what?"

Stop, Jamie. Kailani had wanted to say to him but she bit her tongue. She would give him this small mercy. She would give him the chance to grow up and find out the truth in a different way than she had in her young life.

Kailani didn't hear the kids mumble until Jamie bounced back to them, trying his best to cheer them up and her heart bled with his unwavering hope.

"The Easter Bunny?"

"Guys! I saw him! He's way bigger than I thought. And he carries around this boomerang thing-"

"Come on, man."

"Seriously?"

Normally, Kailani would've defended Jamie's belief but she was so tired. She felt the hopelessness surrounding the children before she felt it seep into her heart, causing the glow of her flickering hope dim even harder, almost invisible.

She didn't want to be here anymore, it was too depressing and she knew that Jamie was starting to see it and the disappointment in his eyes made her heart shrink with pain.

"What's happened to you guys?"

"It was a dream. You should be happy you still get dreams like that. That you're not getting..."

"Nightmares." The girl called cupcake said.

Kailani closed her eyes at the depressing scene in front of her. She knew what these kids were feeling. The way the nightmares sapped at their strength and left them tired and hopeless. She knew the fear they felt when they went to bed, terrified to go to sleep because the nightmares were right there, waiting to snap at their dimming hope.

She knew because she was suffering alongside them.

"Forget it, Jamie."

"He really is real." Jamie yelled defiantly but Kailani could feel the underlying confusion in his tone. She hated herself for letting Jamie do this on his own but he had to know that it was time to grow up.

That he was the only one clinging to his childhood.

"I know he is," He murmured but she heard the crack in hope and she felt her heart thud painfully at this. She didn't want him to lose his hope but there was just too much hurt waiting for him if he didn't grow up.

Too much hurt that she was feeling.

She wished that the white haired boy was back. She wanted the feeling of hope and joy that seeped from his body and fell into her like waves. She wanted the warmth and tingle that he seemed to give to her whenever they touched. She wanted him to look at her with those captivating blue eyes that seemed to snare her in like a trap.

A trap she was unwilling to leave.

Because she wanted him.

But he wasn't real. He was fake. He was just a dream. A dream that was fading like a cloud. And she didn't try to cling onto him.

Because it was too much work.

Too much pain.

Too much time.

And she had to grow up.

"You believe me? Right, Kai?" Jamie asked as he looked at her with those brown eyes filled with hope. She wanted to say so many things.

That he had to give up.

That no one believed him anymore.

But how could she when doing so would kill her?

She couldn't lie but she had to tell the truth too.

"I believe that you know what you were talking about." She turned her head, the disappointment in his eyes cutting into her skin like frozen ice.

She hated herself for doing this.

She hated herself for giving up.

She hated herself for doing this to sweet Jamie.

She hated herself for being so weak.

She went in, tears streaming down her cheeks, her heart heavy with regret and longing as she headed into her room, her hope flickering like a flame caught in a snow storm.

She was running out of time.

And so was Jack.