Mandy came in a few minutes later.

I hadn't moved.

"Did you make your decision already?"

She sounded surprised.

"Yes."

"There's no hurry."

"Yes." There was a hurry. A big hurry. I wouldn't change my mind, but just in case, I needed this to go fast.

Mandy pursed her lips.

"There's no going back on your decision you know."

"I know."

I did know.

All too well.

She eyed me speculatively.

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

I was sure.

Very sure.

"Well then, what did you decide?"

I was silent.

I wasn't sure if I could say it out loud.

Mandy sighed.

"I suppose I can guess. Assuming that you're still here, you want to try to leave still, right?"

"Yes."

The word burned and stuck in my throat.

"We don't have to try right now, you know. And it may not work anyway."

But it would work. I could feel deep down that it would. I couldn't allow myself to hope that it wouldn't.

And I couldn't say goodbye.

I wouldn't be able to follow through.

"Now, please."

"Now?"

"Yes. It's better with no goodbyes. I don't belong here."

"Listen, really, I'm not sure this is a good idea. It's still big magic..."

"Please," I whispered. For Nathaniel, I thought desperately, wincing as the name crossed my mind.

She seemed to find what she was looking for in my face, because she took a step back.

"Well, then. We'll try it, I guess. Picture New York City, and I'll try to put you into your imaginations- but -"

"Hmm?"

"It could go hideously wrong. You could end up in a nightmare forever with no way back. That is why you must picture this place with perfect clarity. Do not let anything vary from what it is, or you could end up where you're imagining, and it could be not the real one."

I gulped. Those were risks that I'd just have to take for Nathaniel's sake.

Mandy noticed.

"Are you still sure you want to go?"

"Absolutely." Absolutely NOT. I didn't want to go, but I would.

She sighed.

"Alright then. Picture it - perfect clarity, remember. Tell me when you're ready and you have it in your head."

"Okay."

I noticed her giving me a weird look before I closed my eyes.

Maybe it would be easier with them open.

I opened them.

Mandy was eying me expectantly.

My stomach twisted with nerves.

What if this did go hideously wrong?

At least I'd be out of Nathaniel's life.

So I let Mandy's image, along with the image of the dingy room fade into New York City.

I let a deep gravelly blackness seep into the ugly dull tiles like someone was spilling an ink-with-tiny-rocks supstance over a canvas and shaping it to what they wanted it to be.

That's what I was going to try to do.

I let the dirty, whitewashed walls fall out from all sides and let the bright light and the air in. The light was so bright, it only allowed me to see the road, and nothing else. I could feel the breeze of passing cars swirl the hair around my head, but I couldn't see the actual cars. I strained my eyes for a few seconds before I saw the dim outline of the cars. When my eyes started adjusting better, I could make out the faint outline of the dingy room I'd escaped.

I let my nostrils flare as I breathed in deeply.

I loved the way this felt.

And the smell.

The smell of New York City was welcoming me back with open arms.

I felt so powerful when I was in control of my imagination like this.

The cars were on all sides of me.

They weren't quite real; they had a ghost-like quality to them, but they were getting more and more solid-looking.

As I gasped, one ran right through me.

I felt nothing, and the faceless driver seemed to see nothing.

I jumped back and stumbled over to a curb that I pictured spring up from under my feet. It worked. I could almost feel the curb beneath me. I ran my hand over it. I could feel it, but yet not totally. It was hard to describe. I suppose I would call it surreal feeling.

And then I changed my mind.

I didn't want to see New York City in the daytime.

I wanted to see it in the night.

So I let the darkness seep in from all sides of me and cover the sky.

I let it coat everything over an imaginary shield.

I let suspended neon lights hold the sheild up.

Then buildings popped out of nowhere to support the lights.

I grinned.

This was so much fun!

But I was in a hurry.

I let everything else pop up at the same time - the subway grate, the rest of the lights, the people, even the signs in windows and the names of the stores. Absolutely everything. I didn't look at any names because I knew that I wouldn't know them and that could make everything go wrong.

Everything was there.

Everything was almost there.

I sighed.

I was almost home, I could feel it.

I closed my eyes.

"I'm ready Mandy," I whispered.

She must have done it, because I could hear New York City as if I was there.

I took a deep breath.

I opened my eyes.

I could tell instantly - I knew from the way everything seemed to have fallen into place and finally be totally and completely solid and real...

I cast my eyes toward the sky and grinned jubilantly.

I could hear the truth radiating from every word in the short sentence I allowed my self to think.

I was home.

Well, that's the end of this fanfiction, but NOT the end of Sasha's story. Not even close. :) Remeber, I'm writing a sequal.

Here's a rough summary of it:
Sasha is back in New York City. Things have changed. Drastically. A few years can make a world of a difference. Her parents travel full-time nowadays, they fired Myra, Gabby is as snotty and immature as Sasha was before her adventure, and the apartment Sasha had always lived in now housed an entirely different family. Sasha finds Myra and Gabby and all that, but is very unhappy. She moves in with Myra and sets a lot of things right that she'd done wrong, and realized what her anger toward her parents had inspired her to do, and that being dealt bad cards, so to speak, is not any reason to blame the dealer, or, in Sasha's case, her parents. She realizes that it's what you do with your life that really matters.
Myra tries unsuccessfully to lift her from the deppression she's in. Sasha uses this time to explore herself and her feelings.
One day, when she was alone, she allowed herself to think of Nathaniel, as much as it hurt her. She allowed herself to picture him completely, his crackily voice, his shaggy brown hair with the blond highlights, every aspect perfectly. She could see him, could hear him, he almost seemed to be solidifying in Myra's kitchen. He seemed confused in just the way Sasha imagined he would look if he suddenly appeared in New York City. Sasha decides that she doesn't want his perfect image to be tainted by a backround that was not to her tastes and pictures seeing Nathaniel surrounded by Dame Olga's house with Mandy and Ella in the backround. She pictures it, (blah, blah, blah, I'll go into it more in the actual story...)
Anyway, eventually she realizes that she's really in Frell again and Nathaniel is in front of her. Ella and Mandy are standing a little ways back. She's confused and distraught. She didn't know how it happened...
(Also, you'll find out more about how she's able to speak Ogress, speak Kyrian, speak Ayorthian, how the fireworks appeared, and how she really got home last time...)

I hope you'll read it!

Well, I hope you enjoyed From Here To Frell.

I'll be re-writing it next...

Anyway, I want to thank everybody who reviewed/is about to review! I really appriciate input on my stories, even though I'm pretty sure that I never got around to thanking you guys before. So here it is: Thanks so much! Thanks for sticking to my story, even though it really sucked!!!

Jade