The sun stroked the skin my white tank did not cover, my curls drifting in the gust of air as fingers numbly gripped the railing of a balcony that held such tragic memories for me. My golden gaze took in the vast acres of forestry before the brilliance of the start of day like the beginning of not only a gorgeous morning but the initiation of a new start for me, as if a clean slate. I felt as if I was cleansed; unsoiled of pass transgressions, of horror filled memories that once clung to be me like sin to the sinner, and yet to put to bed the past felt as if to deny that it ever existed. To forget those who fought; who sacrificed to award me this small morsel of freedom and to do that felt like a betrayal of sorts.

For to completely let go of the past meant to let go of Andrea which was something I would never be able to do.

My jean clad legs shifted as I allowed my feet to be free of my sandals loving the feel of the cold cement under bare skin as earth slowly warmed under the sun’s embrace and my thoughts resumed in its thinking of how drastically my life had changed and how much further I would have to go. Once guilty of nothing more than the blind innocence of youth my eyes were now ripped open to see not just a cruel world but a sinister one; blemished in a way I never would have imagined. It seemed I’d never have the blessing of unawareness, that my destiny had always been beyond that of normal teenage ignorance, and rather I wanted to accept it or not it would forever plague my every waking moment.

Although my small amount of lack of restrictions my conversation with Christopher awarded me I still felt imprisoned and I wondered even once I finally put this place in the rearview mirror would I find myself inwardly caged. For guilt like an enemy I couldn’t seem to ever completely escape always seemed to rob me of my composure, haunt even my most peaceful of moments. Tears unbeknownst to me tipped over the edge of sight creeping down the length of my skin as if in an attempt to fill the massive hole always imprinted inside my heart. My hands shook even as my grip tightened around the black steel as droplets splashed onto tanned skin and shoulders shook as the beauty of the coming of day washed away, liquefied forever in ashamed tears.

“Are you oka-,” a stranger’s voice interrupted my desolate thoughts as its sound rung out into the silence, his hand gently gripped my naked shoulder just as my gaze became sightless and teenage hands I once gazed upon became that of a juvenile as unprepared I was yanked forcibly from the solitude of the balcony and tossed harshly into reminiscences...

Sobs racked my diminutive form, my two pigtails; curls bursting from their elastic confinements spilled over my small arms as I buried my tragic face into my jean clothed legs as if emotions hidden were no longer felt.

“Anna, what are you doing out here? Are you okay?” A voice suddenly said beside me, my golden gaze quickly leaving its place of concealment to rise to meet beautiful chocolate coated irises. Eyes full of compassion when faced with my frowning chubby cheeked expression, his hands running roughly through his brown untamed loose curls as if my tears rattled him, as if my sadness mattered.

“Gabe, what are you doing here? I thought you left with your friends,” I muttered, my sight falling to the loose string of my shoe as it dangled in suspended air from the branch of the tree we rested in. I hadn’t even heard him climb beside me.

“I believe I asked you the same thing, and you are my friend,” he replied easily, that smile that always forced the appearance of my own sneaking its way upon his full lips as he purposely kicked his longer legs into mine. Even two years older than me he always treated me no different than someone his own age.

“Nothing’s wrong,” I lied trying to not appear the cry baby Andrea’s friends always claimed me to be.

His hands grasped mine inside his, warmth filling me not just from the actual physical contact but from inside my small heart. “Why is it I don’t believe you?”

Because he knew me too well.

“Andrea’s friends didn’t want me to tag along. They said I was her burden,” I whispered, almost too ashamed to speak the truth in fear that my secret crush would agree with them.

His fingers left my own rising swiftly to turn my face towards his, his eyes gentle as they gazed into mine, “there is no way you could ever be a burden, Anna. You have no idea how special you are, and I know for a fact Drea would never have went off with people who felt that way about you.”

I blushed guiltily under his observant gaze; for even at eleven Gabe had a way of making me feel compelled, as if there was nothing I could ever hide from him, and so I confessed, “I didn’t tell her. She’s always trying to protect me.”

He grinned suddenly, his eyes almost disappearing completely as they squinted, his pink lips spreading over white teeth, my smile doing the same before he once again held out his hand for me to grasp, “Then I think while she’s away I’ll take up the slack, what do say?”

Grinning happily, my gloomy feelings easily discarded as I effortlessly placed my palm within his, “I say you’re taking on a full time job.”

My eyes sprung apart to observe not the backyard of my Aunt’s house from the safety of her huge oak wood tree, but once again the splendor of the morning from the institution’s balcony trying to come to terms with my muddled thoughts. Trying to gain the courage to confront the eyes of yet another person who would undoubtedly gaze down at me in horror.

“Anna, I asked if you were okay?” He repeated, his voice deeper than I remembered, his hand still resting along my skin, still managing to rob me of my normally logical train of thought.

Wiping quickly at my tears, my hands pushed back my wayward curls as I turned to face him; my crush from what felt like a past life that no longer belonged to me.

“Gabe, what are you doing here? Did Grandmother send you?” I questioned confusion filling my features for his brown gaze remained free of alarm, of the terror that once ruled Maria’s sight, and yet while there was no blue aurora lining his form I found it strange that he stood before me unfazed at traveling inside our past memories.

“What are talking about, Marie? I thought your Grandmother was dead?” he asked, his gentle eyes slightly enlarged as he gazed upon me oddly.

I bit my lip; mystification gnawing at my brain cells. My eyes fell from his as my mind raced with the possibilities that my powers were growing. My Abuela said that they would magnify, but so quickly? Was it possible that I had somehow obtained the power to travel through memories without bringing my victim along?

“Of course,” I stammered as I gazed up at him, “its been a long night,” I lied hoping he’d let it go, and yet knowing depressingly that it only made me appear as insane as everyone now believed me to be. “But then again I am in a insane asylum, what do you expect?”

His grin was small and yet sad, his now longer silken strands reached his shoulders as it blew in the slight breeze before tanned fingers reached up to push it away, the lean muscles beneath his black tee flexing even in such a simple gesture. ‘I’m sorry about what happened.”

I laughed without humor, the sight of him blurring with unshed emotion, “so you believe them too? That I’m crazy?”

Gentle fingers pushed away one of my stray curls, those strangely understanding eyes meeting mine, “no, I meant I’m sorry about what happened to Andrea… to your dad.”

My mouth opened to respond and yet I never got the chance because it was in that moment that Maria came rushing out into the morning. Her eyes gazed upon us with undisguised suspicion as if my mere presence near Gabe had contaminated him somehow. The navy sweater that covered her uniform as she hugged it tight to her body told of her discomfort at being anywhere near me, her eyes screamed of distrust, and the way she stepped between our now separated forms easily told me of how she felt about Gabe and my reunited friendship.

Her eyes stared boldly into mine, and yet her words were directed towards him, “Gabe, I’ll meet you at the car.”

“But Aunt Maria,” he began only for the livid glare sent his way to force him into silence.

“I said I’d meet you at the car,” she forcibly repeated. With bewilderment surpassing his coffee tinted gaze I watched as he slowly retreated, his eyes leaving hers to stray back to mine.

“Bye Anna,” he whispered before reluctantly disappearing around the corner. I gazed after him dazedly wishing with all my heart I could return to the old days of summer spent harmlessly playing at my Aunt Grace’s house before quite startlingly Maria stepped before me, blocking any further view of her nephew, thwarting any further farfetched dreaming of a past that seemed so idyllic I wondered if it had ever once been my reality.

Her features were harsh, anger drowned out any compassion that once lived in her gray irises, her lips tightened in its grimace, “I don’t know how you know Gabe, but you are never to go near him again, do I make myself clear?”

This was not the Maria I had confronted on my arrival. Gone was her sweet nature, gone was her welcoming smile, gone was her tendency to nurture instead of judge. Her heart had hardened and unfortunately I knew that this was yet another transgression piled upon my guilty conscience.

“Crystal,” I whispered easily, watching as she quickly moved to follow her nephews footsteps only stopping at the continuing of my voice, “I’m sorry.”

It hadn’t entirely been my fault; her gaps in memory, the using of her body for the demon’s means, and yet I knew that had I never come here darkness would have never touched her.

“You’re sorry,” she whispered, her back still towards me. She snorted without humor, tears in her eyes as she turned to face me, her honey colored ponytail swinging out around her thin form, her features incensed, “You’re sorry? I’m missing almost a day of my life, and you’re sorry!”

“I would never mean for you to get hurt.”

Her swift footsteps brought her back to my side, her gaze furious as she glared up into my saddened expression, “you never MEAN for anyone to get hurt and yet for some reason everyone around you always does! And surprise, surprise you stand there completely unharmed! Tell me Anna, what really happened that day?”

My curls spun out around me as I shook my head in denial, “I don’t, I don’t know.”

She grinned, her eyes on the heavens above before they turned back to me, “I believed you when you first got here. I wanted to believe in you. Believe that someone so sweet, so beautiful, someone who seemed so innocent had to have not done such atrocious, horrific crimes they accused you of.” She raised her hand over her heart, tears building in her gaze, “I wanted to have faith in the knowledge that somehow Doctor Foster would get to the bottom of everything, and the truth would be revealed in your favor.”

Hopeless sobs racked my form, wishing above all else that that could be true while knowing that that was not how the story of my life was to be told. How simple would my existence be if I could prove myself innocent of my supposed wrongdoings of that night, but that evening still remained a black empty void, and honestly the closer I got to the truth the more I wanted to remain in the dark. 

“But I was naïve,” Maria continued, “too green apparently. I was staring into gorgeous hazel eyes, gazing unwittingly into the eyes of an attempted murderer.”

Her words sadistically struck with the precision of a skilled guns-man towards its intended mark, wounding my fragile dam of emotions and more acutely my already battered soul.

“I would never hurt Gabe,” I whispered over the blockage in my throat.

“You can’t honestly still believe that, do you?” she asked me earnestly. “God, you actually think that your blameless for everything that happens around you, don’t you?”

“No, I-.”

“Good, because to believe your innocent means you truly belong in here,” she countered while ignoring my tragic expression. “I want nothing to do with you Anna Marie, and I want you to stay the hell away from Gabe!”

“I couldn’t-.”

“No,” she interrupted, her hand rising swiftly to cut me off, “I don’t want your emotional excuses. I just want your promise. I want you to swear to me that you won’t go near him.”

“I’m in an a mental institution, how exactly am I supposed to corrupt your nephew?” I asked bitterly.

“As if locks and bars have ever stopped you. Tell me Anna, how is that a girl sentenced to room confinement now wanders free along the grounds?”

“I- I,” I stammered too ashamed of her already low opinion of me to admit to the unscrupulous means of my tiny independence.

“Exactly. If and when you do find yourself free I want your word you won’t go looking for him.”

“I’d never hurt him,” I repeated heartbreakingly, tears lingering along my trembling chin.

“Like you’d never hurt your little sister, Mick, Dr. Foster, hell even myself? I’m sure the list goes on.” She closed her eyes in frustration before she turned back to me, her fingers now gripping her cross. “Even if you did nothing wrong Anna, even if everything that happened so far in your life you have completely unjustly been accused of you have to see that those who are around you suffer the consequences. Even if evil stalks your every move, why would you want it to touch Gabe?”

My erratic heart caved; defeated, inside my chest knowing the legitimacy inside her abrasive words and still it stung to hear such brutal honesty lingering throughout the air around us. Andrea was dead, my father too, everyone I came in contact with somehow got hurt, and for what? My supposed destiny, my alleged fate for something bigger than myself? Was my future more important than the lives around me, or was being in my life like being friends with death itself?

“I promise,” I whispered softly. “I will never go looking for your nephew.”

She quickly wiped away at her irrepressible emotions, her smile cheerless as it no longer reached her eyes, “Thank you. I figured it was the least you could do for me. Good luck with your future Anna Marie Cortez for I pray to God we never meet again.”

And with those unsympathetic whispered words of goodbye lingering along the silence Maria quickly followed the path inside that would led her to her nephew while abandoning me on the isolation of the terrace once again; gazing out upon the view wondering what there ever was about the commencement of daybreak that I previously perceived as beautiful.

………………………………………………………

“Thought I might find you out here?” a voice from the past whispered from behind me.

I grinned, my sad eyes still on the view even as Clarice moved to stand beside me, “Thought you were on sabbatical?”

“Thought you were going to stay out of trouble?” she joked, her words causing my grin to widen.

“Where you been?”

“Now you know-,” she began only for me to finish her sentence for her.

“That you can’t tell me. You know you guardians really should get a new script cause that line is getting old.”

She openly laughed, her emerald eyes alit with mirth, her dark tresses framing her face, “yeah, I’ll work on that. How is it I always seem to find you here?” she asked while gesturing to the vast open space beyond the balcony. “Doesn’t exactly invoke happier memories, does it?”

I snorted, “and what place in here does? Should I be in my room where the walls feel like they’re caving in, or how about the basement where fiends pursued me without mercy, or even the lounge where I almost died on my arrival?”

“Good point,” she muttered, her facial features almost oddly serious before they broke back into a smile, “there’s always the kitchen?”

I rolled my eyes at her lame attempt at a joke, inwardly knowing even there I was no longer free from memories if past illusions counted. “I believe Dr. Foster said I was off restrictions,” I replied, laughing as her eyes mimicked my own.

“Your Grandmother said different. It’s not exactly safe for you to be alone, in case you forgot.”

“How could I? Whether inside or out if they were going to come after me they would.”

Silence ensued after the finish of my bleak words before acceptance washed over Clarice’s features as she quickly turned back to me, “how about we go inside anyway. Its almost fall and the air is turning chilly. Besides according to rumors crawling over this place I’m sure you won’t have to go to your cell. Heck, you could probably get away with even taking over Christopher’s office.”

I smirked evilly while allowing her to guide me back inside, the coldness in the air as we entered the darkened halls causing me to wrap my arms around myself, “why Clarice, you almost sound jealous?”

“Not jealous,” she replied while leading me towards the elevators that would direct us one floor up, “just a tad in awe. You want to tell me how you got off room confinement?”

“Her name is Anna Marie Cortez! How hard is that for you to find!” I heard a lady that sounded remarkably like Grace coming from the entrance. We paused at the opening of the elevators turning back to see everyone in the lobby doing the same as a blonde haired woman clad in a long jean skirt and pink tee stood enraged having it out with a bored receptionist. “Do I need to spell it out for you?”

“Ma’am, as I’ve told you we don’t have anybody by that name staying here.”

“Are you blind, or just plain stupid,” the woman continued to insult the quickly pissed off dark haired receptionist as I moved closer, Clarice directly behind me. “I know my niece is in here because I’ve seen that Prick of a fucking Stepfather giving a damn press conference here on channel nine news! Are you honestly going to sit there, and lie to me?”

Green eyes flat, features tight the receptionist replied, “as I’ve said you are not immediate family, so I can not release any information about any of the patients here.”

“You just admitted right there that she’s in here!” My aunt exclaimed in frustration, confusion now dawning on the receptionist’s plain features. “Look, is there anybody else with even half of a brain cell that I can speak with?”

“Wow Aunt Grace, and to think you always taught me and Andrea that you can catch more flies with honey,” I taunted from behind causing her body to instantly freeze.

She swung around to face me, long blonde tresses swinging out around her slim body, the familiar sound of her many bracelets clinking together, her blue eyes as watery as my own as she quickly pulled me into an embrace, the smell of lavender perfume consuming us. A scent that smelled of home. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” she hoarsely admitted and finally inside my aunt’s arms did I feel a semblance of wellbeing.

“Why don’t you two go into the visitor’s lounge,” Clarice suggested pointing to the small room off to the side filled with no more than a couple of plastic chairs, three sticky tables, three undesirable vending machines, and a suspended television projecting violence and mayhem better known as the news.

“She can’t go in there! She doesn’t have clearance,” the receptionist yelled from behind her desk, her glare trained in on Grace’s tearful expression.

“I believe if you call Dr. Foster, he’ll give permission,” Clarice answered for me, while winking at our already disappearing figures. “Anna, I’ll just be sitting over there in the lobby if you need me.”

The lights in the visitor’s area was harshly bright even in the daylight hours, not that I had ever been here at night. The only time I recall being on this floor at all was when I was under possession and even that night I vaguely remembered. I pressed my body into the coldness of the plastic chair watching as my Aunt dug into her purse for coins, grabbing us two cokes before repeating my own actions, but across from me.

“Anna, I just want you to know I never believed the lies, the newspapers, the verdict. I wanted to be there for you during the court proceedings, but your Mother actually got them to ban me from the premises.”

I popped the top of my coke before taking a swig, my eyes on my hands to distract me from my forever Mommy issues, “that, I actually believe. Its like she wanted everything that tainted the Stevens’ name quickly swept from the public’s eye, including myself.”

Grace’s hand took hold of my own causing my gaze to meet hers, “you could never taint a name that belongs to that monster of a Stepdad.”

I smirked in amusement, “you never did like him.”

“The day your Mother left my brother for the great Mayor Stevens I knew it was a disaster waiting to happen. Even with all Will put Carmen through Rick will always be a step down.”

I watched her return my smile, “try telling her that.”

“I did. Why do think she no longer allowed you and Andrea to stay with me during the summer breaks?”

“I thought it was because Dad got put away?”

Grace drunk from her can, her eyes sad at even the mention of my father; her half brother, “no, Carmen came to me. We were friends long before she fell for my brother, as you know. And so when she believed she had finally found her prince charming she came over, floating on fucking cloud nine. Telling me of everything Rick had, how big his house was, how he was going to take care of her, how he would take care of her kids. And I just watched her freaking sitting there deluding herself, building up these fragile walls of lies around her dreams and dragging you two along for the ride, and I just lost it. Told her she was nothing more than a gorgeous prop to him, nothing more than something to help him win his next election.”

My brows rose in obvious surprise, “bet she took that well?”

“I haven’t seen you in almost over five years, so you tell me?” She countered.

“First Gabe and now you. Talk about your chance encounters.”

Her brows furrowed over cerulean tinted eyes; irises the same color as my father, as Andreas. “Gabe was here?”

“Apparently his Aunt works here, as a nurse,” I replied while trying to keep the emotion from inside my voice.

She smiled; her eyes practically reflecting the past, “you know his family still lives down the street. Practically watched that boy and his sisters grow up. They seemed to be at my house as much as their own when you and Andr-.” She paused, wiping away a stray tear that fell from her blue gaze. “It’s weird. It just feels wrong to think of her as… gone.”

Swallowing over my own lump in my throat I couldn’t seem to meet her eyes anymore, it hurt to see the similarity now. “I know,” I whispered hoarsely.

“The only good thing that piece of crap ever did was keep you from getting in that car,” she murmured, her words causing me to freeze as thoughts quickly bombarded me, but thinking it better to reflect upon at another time I shoved it hastily into the back of my mind.

“I guess it depends on how you look at it. They were dying while apparently I was attempting to kill,” I joked weakly.

“That’s not funny, Anna.” she paused, her gaze glued upon my slumped figure, “do you remember anything about that night? Maybe something that could help your case?”

My eyes met hers, answering honestly, “no more than what I told the court. After I filled the tub it’s a totally blank in here,” I replied, pointing to my brain.

“Well, its going to be okay. We will find a way to get you out of here.” Her hand grasped my chin, her eyes staring intently into mine, “I won’t rest until I find a way to get you released from this place. You don’t belong here, you never did.”

The conviction behind her words almost gave me hope.

“Excuse me, but I have to take Anna back up to her ward. Visiting hours are over and only medical staff and personnel are allowed in the building,” Clarice interrupted softly.

Grace’s eyes lifted to Clarice’s gaze before traveling back towards my own, she rose with me following her movements before she wrapped me into another tight hug, its touch comforting me and yet making lies of her earlier reassurances. This hug felt too final, too much like a goodbye.

She pulled away to gaze into my golden eyes, “I’ll see you soon,” she promised, but as she walked away I knew promises sworn were sometimes just that… empty words spoken.

…………………………………………………………..

The walk back up towards my room was one of silence, a silence filled with memories that no longer were a comfort but a mockery of all I had once wished the future to be, of recollections filled with those I yearned to still be apart of my life but tragically were no longer present. The sun now dipped further into the horizon, and oh how I wished I could be beyond these barred in windows; to feel the breeze that rustled the leaves on trees as it slid between curls, as it caressed skin while I gazing up into the emergence of the moon. But I knew to demand to be brought back outside would be to challenge yet another rule founded in this institution let alone tempt darkness to fulfill its desire to obtain or slaughter my unprotected existence.

“Perhaps you’d prefer some dinner now, or maybe,” Clarice began once outside my bedroom door, her understanding eyes trying to meet my own.

“No thank you. I just think I’d rather be alone.”

“Are you sure? We could go into the lounge. I’m sure I could run interference and distract that one creepy girl from in front of the television,” she offered while managing to bring a ghost of a smile to my lips.

“I’m sure as a nurse you’re not supposed to call the other patients creepy.”

“I’m a watcher, not a saint.”

I shook my head ruefully at her comment while laughing in-spite of myself, “I’ll be fine. I know where to find you if I need you. Its not like there’s a lock on my door anymore,” I taunted as I slipped inside my room inwardly laughing at the dumbfounded expression on her face as she took in the sight of my door while knowing she wondered exactly what the heck I had on Christopher to get him to consent to that. 

“I was kind of wondering how you got him to agree to that myself,” that voice sliced into the semi-darkness of my room, causing my heart to beat an irregular tempo inside my heaving chest before tears fought its way to the surface, my emotions almost getting the better of me. I turned from the doorway watching Andrea rise from her seat on my bed, her arms extended, a smile resting upon her lips, “what baby sister, no hug?”

Apart of me wanted to blink away the delusion while a larger piece of me wanted to do just as she suggested and run openheartedly into her waiting arms, but inwardly my Grandmother’s words of warning rung throughout my mind. What made Andrea a bad protector was that she cared too much, and it was her love that ruled her, forcing her into sometimes disastrous decisions.

Hardening my mind and spirit, even as tears slipped from my eyes my arm rose, light bounding from my open palm as it shredded not only internal muscles but my heart along with it; as within its merciless hold it captured Andrea’s amazed figure and lifted her forcibly from the ground. Using what Katrina and the demon of illusion unwittingly taught me I held her airborne, her airway ruthlessly blocked within my gaze before finally I spoke, “you are not my sister, reveal yourself now, or face the consequences!”

I watched as her skin paled, her fingers rising to claw away at imaginary hands that clasped her neck, her high heeled boots kicking out uselessly beneath her. “Marie, what are you doing?” she asked, her voice nothing more than a whisper as she struggled to draw in breath.

“Surviving… You will not defeat me, demon! I’ll be merciful this time and allow you to slink back to whatever hell you came from as long as you take this message with you. I am no longer the weak little girl you have once tried to conquer and regardless how this war ends I will fight until I draw my last breath!”

I withdrew my power watching as white light bounded back inside me, slicing into skin like a razor blade sliding beneath the surface just as what appeared to be my sister fell back onto the bed only to bounce harshly off of it onto the hard tile floor. She remained pathetically slumped onto the ground, her resemblance more that of a limp rag doll than any evil force I had ever seen as I peered down at her cautiously. Before I could take a step forward her blonde strands were flipped back from her enraged face, those livid blue eyes surpassing most of her features as they gazed up at me, blood now pouring from her lips.

“Anna, have you fucking lost it?”

Confused, I took a step closer, “you can’t trick me.”

She rose slowly to her feet, dusting off her now slightly wrinkled crop top and straightening her short mini before taking a few steps away from me towards the window. “Have they been giving you shock treatment, Marie?”

“Do you have a death wish?” I questioned her, wishing it would simply attack just so I wouldn’t have to face this cruel hurtful charade anymore.

“If I had one I’d attempt to hug you again.” She rolled her eyes in true Andrea fashion, her arms crossing over her breast, “I knew you were mad that I had to leave, but this is just ridiculous.”

“Prove that you’re Andrea.”

“You’re an idiot.” She sighed, but seemingly played along, “you were always afraid of the dark.”

“Not hard to guess, and…?”

“Umm… you sucked your thumb until you were eight.”

Outraged I exclaimed, “I was six.” I shook off that comment at her smirk, “Anybody could have known that. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

“This is crazy,” she yelled as she stepped closer only stopping at the rising of my hand again, before frozen, she stepped back to her original position. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you.”

“Well then, you can’t be my sister,” I replied, holding my ground.

Her gaze fell from my own, her expression sad, “I promised you the day they took away Daddy that I would always be there for you.”

Tears blurred my vision, “Evil already knows that.”

Angered at my still defensive stance Andrea flipped her gorgeous blonde tresses over one shoulder while ignoring my outstretched palm moving to glare up into face, “do they also know that you’re currently trying to steal my ex-boyfriend!”

My palms fell to my side, a joyfully amused grin creeping upon my lips at her incensed features even through my tears, “Gabe was never yours.”

Rolling her eyes up towards the heavens as if praying to the universe, “one more summer, and I swear I would have been all over that bo-.”

Running full force even in the short distance my arms engulfed my big sister, my tears soaking into her hair. Her arms came around my small form, her fingers running through my curls. “Missed you, Drea.”

Sighing deeply, she whispered hoarsely, “missed you too, brat.”

……………………………………………………………….

( I uploaded two chapters! I am so proud of myself lol Hope you enjoyed your double feature. I introduced some more characters to the story, and brought some old ones back. Because part 17 took me such a short time to do I started this chapter then I figured might as well upload them together. Who loves the return of Andrea (the real one) lol. Thanks for reading…)

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