Cassidy does no longer know how to feel. She had shoved her broken heart so deep down herself to protect its remaining pieces, that she was like an empty shell unable to feel anything.

It was the only defensive mechanism she could have come up with, in order to keep going through her living hell in High School. The tears all dried up a long time ago, sealed away along with her words in the scattered dust of her soul.

But before the bathroom's mirror, it's like all that she threw away were threatening to come back, forming a volcano now ready to erupt with all her emotions.

"What are you going to do now?" Cassidy quietly whispered to her reflection.

That's all it took to break the dam, her silent armor shattered under the onslaught of all the feelings she has censored, erupting through heavy tears.

She felt so guilty for the discord now befalling the family because of the revealing of her nightmare.

But more than that, she felt so angry with her sister-in-law Philia, Helios' wife, with the keen eye that unearthed Cassidy's nasty truth that she desperately tried to bury on mainland before flying away and coming to the continent.

Cassidy had thought that forgetting all the High School episode would just erase it, that it would be like making the hell she lived there into a mere nightmare pertaining the realm of dreams, as horrible as it might have been.

Maybe that could have worked well with evereyone else, but not Philia.

Helios and Philia were her tutors here on the continent, and to cut down on the expenses for her studies, Cassidy had no other choice than to live with them because of her less than avarage grades that barely allowed her to graduate, hence not getting her any scholarship.

Being a psychologist, Philia noticed right away little signs indicating that there was something wrong. Like the little steps back Cassidy would take whenever Helios or Nathaniel would greet or come near her, when she froze whenever they would brush past her, and all the other little things that went past Cassidy's family, but not Philia.

Cassidy didn't understand how her sister-in-law managed it, nor couldn't remember how exactly Philia got her to talk, but she did. And now, Cassidy felt bare and ugly.

"Ugh, why can't you just disappear already?!" Cassidy yelled in her mind, hating the image before her.

"Cassidy?" Philia called to her, while softly knocking on the door, "are you ready?"

Glaring at the closed door, Cassidy wanted to yell at the woman that caused her current torment, now compelling her to face her parents, that Helios went earlier to get from the airport. But then, dread drained out all the anger, letting her trembling in apprehension of the inevitable face-off.

Cassidy didn't want to face anyone of her family, especially mom and dad. But unfortunately, she couldn't disappear nor hide forever. Looking down her arms, she now regrets all the markings of her futile attempts at repulsing Hades that contributed in her exposure.

Taking a deep shaky breath to gain any semblance of calm she could muster, then sweeping and willing away her tears, Cassidy finally approached then opened the door.

~ • ~

A/N: Hi everyone! Hope you're doing fine and healthy! Here's good, other than the freezing cold, brrr! Well, I'm so grateful to you readers, I didn't expect much about this little adventure, 😊☺. By the way, I thought it would end with the chapter before, but apparently it wasn't a good point to stop? I thought it would end with Cassy's High School, but how it went, it let an unfinished feeling it seems, therefore, I coaxed Cassy to share a little bit more, so here we go again, 😅. Don't hesitate to point out errors and whatnot, I'll take note. Thank you so much for taking some of your precious time to stroll around here, I really appreciate it! Now everyone, take care of yourselves! 😘👋