My sleep is plagued by the emotions of others. Every time I try toopen my eyes, exhaustion drags me back into the void of blackness.When I finally do wake up, I'm in a room full of wounded people. Wellthat explains the nightmares.The other people's feelings must have leaked into my subconscious.

It's stifling, and I can't stand it any longer. I push back thecovers and stand. The motion sends pain shooting through my head, butI ignore it and keep moving. One of the nurses tries to stop me, butI ignore her and push past before she can stop me.

When I'm finally free of the oppressive hospital room, I stop for amoment. The dorm I found Harmony in is nearby. It's probably whereshe sleeps, so I head toward it. I need to know her, her dad, andObsidian got out safely. I want to thank her, too, for stopping me.If she hadn't, I would have killed those men.

The door is open when I find the dorm, so I slip inside. As soon as Iget close, I can feel the sadness and pain hovering in the room. It'snot so bad that it's stifling, but it hurts and I know it means thatI've failed. That there was someone that I couldn't protect.

My heart sinks when I realize that Harmony is the only one in theroom. The only possible source of the feeling. If this is what itfeels like when her feelings are just leaking out of whatever shellshe keeps them hidden in, then she's in a lot of pain right now. Andthere's only one reason I can think of for that pain. Her fatherdidn't make it.

She looks up when I sit next to her and quickly wipes her eyes."Hey."

Her voice is hoarse and her eyes are red from crying, but I can seeshe's trying to be strong. Of course she is. She's come to a facilityfull of people- no, heroes- who are all older and stronger than sheis. Who wouldn't try to make up for that?

"He didn't make it, did he?"

Tears well in her eyes again, and she nods wordlessly. She's tryingto handle it herself, but it's not going to work. She'll only end upalone, just like I am. I know because I did the same thing when Iheard about my parents death and it made everything worse. Thebiggest difference here is that I didn't even have a goodrelationship with my parents. Harmony does. Did.

I go to hug her, but she scoots away. "It'll hurt you," she says.

"I don't care." She needssomeone, and it isn't like she knows anyone else. There definitelyisn't anyone else who'll be able to understand what she's feeling aswell as I can.

I wrap my arms around her and pull her into me. She's sobbing now andtears well in my eyes too as her emotions hit me. There's so muchsadness and regret. Losing her father has devastated her. He was herworld, the only person she had left, and now he's dead. Gone forever.

Her emotions completely wash out my own, but it feels strangelynatural. Normally other people's emotions collide with my own, kindof like when two people are trying to yell over each other. The otherperson's feelings don't belong and I can always feel it. But this isdifferent. Her emotions settle inside me as if they're my own. I feeleverything she does.

Hot tears streak down my face, dripping onto the blanket below. Myarms tighten around Harmony as the sadness intensifies. She's givingme everything and it hurts like nothing I've ever felt before.

We stay that way for several minutes before she pulls away and heremotions fade. I can't say it isn't a relief, but I don't regret it.She looks better now. Not happier, but less alone. She wipes thetears from her eyes again and swallows. "Thank you," shewhispers.

"I'm here, if you need someone,"I tell her. "Don't try to handle it alone." Don'tbecome like me.

She nods and looks up. "I never told him. He was gone before I gotthe chance." More tears drip down her face, but she continues. "Ijust thought... I thought there would be a perfect time, in theperfect place, and I could tell him everything. I should never havekept it a secret."

I don't know what to say. There are no words to take away this pain.No magic of fixing everything. It's part of being human, the pain. Noone can escape it. Not even innocent fifteen year old girls. "I'msorry. I'm so sorry," I whisper.

"Yeah." She meets my gaze for amoment and I can see how lost she is, but she shakes it off andforces a smile. "Anyway, the others made it out, at least. Wemanaged to stop them."

"That's good. Thank you, forstopping me before. I might have killed them if you hadn't."

"Of course." She lies down onthe bed and rests her head on her arms. "What do I do now?"

I almost tell her that she needs to contact whoever is her legalguardian. That she has to find out who is supposed to be taking careof her and go home with them. But she came here for a reason, even ifshe didn't tell her dad about it. I can't just tell her to go back toher life as if nothing happened. "You could stay. If you don't wantto do that, then the next step would be to contact your legalguardian and go home with them. It's your choice."

She curls up around her pillow and sniffles. "I don't have anyone,"she whispers. "It was just... my dad."

"Then if you don't want to stay,you can come home with me. It's not Britain, but I do have a cat."

A small smile appears on her face for a moment, but she shakes herhead. "No. I have to stay and finish this."

"The offer still stands, if youever feel like staying here is too much," I promise. "But ifyou're going to stay here, you're gonna need to learn to fight."

"Yeah." She looks up. "Willyou teach me?"

 "Of course."