Kai turned his head away from the door with a choked gasp as Moon tugged him along. He looked around as he stumbled after her and found out that they were in the arena, but none of the cells were occupied. They were all swung open and empty, and Thorn's room looked trashed - the door was halfway broken off. Moon pulled Kai into the middle of the arena, where she stopped.

"Stand right here for me, deary," she said sweetly, letting go of Kai's hand and clasping hers together. She stood before him with that same smug, scary grin. Kai stood where she'd put him and watched her as she took a deep breath through her nose.

"What are you -" Kai started, but she moved forward so quickly that he stopped himself with a yelp. Her hands clapped over his ears, causing them to ring, and she held him still. She said something that Kai didn't hear, but when she finished, everything fell into darkness. He felt his body sink to the dirt, then he blinked, and he was -

Standing in a vast, dark area with nothing inside of it. He glanced around him, confusion and worry making his stomach do flips. He looked down at himself, found that he could still see and touch himself, and looked back up. This place seemed similar to some of the dreams he'd had.

Moon appeared in front of him, her mouth twisted into an excited grin. Her hands were behind her back again, but she seemed to have lost the commanding attitude and replaced it with a intimidating one.

"Kai Andrew Watson," she said to him as though she was reading off a piece of paper. "You're only ten, correct?"

Kai remained silent, not knowing if she wanted him to answer that or not. She probably already knew, so he kept his mouth shut. Until she raised one eyebrow at him and cocked a hip. "Y-Yes," he finally murmured, shuffling and looking around himself again.

"Hmm," Moon mused. "That's quite young for this much mental trauma. How sad." Her white eyes searched him again, as if she could read him like a book. "You poor kid. You watched your own mother die to the bullet in the head just after a regular bike ride. How sudden and horrifying was that?"

Moon waved one of her hands with a smirk, and suddenly, lying on her side with blood pooling around her head, was Haley. Kai screamed and stumbled backward, anger, guilt, and pain tugging at his heart. He landed harshly on his back, sat up again, and stared at his dead mother.

Moon let out a laugh and began to speak again. "Look at you. You're so weak. You are still grieving over the fact that you couldn't save your mother. And now, she's dead, and you did nothing to stop it."

Kai whimpered and realized that she was right. He could have fought against Chase, though he didn't know it was Chase at the time. He could have done anything to stop the man from pulling the trigger. He could have moved the gun out of the way, tackled the man trying to kill his mother, he could have done anything other than scream in anger.

"And after that, you left your father to come home to a dead wife and a missing son," Moon continued. An image of Falte kneeling over his wife, sobbing, filled the area above Haley, and Kai felt tears spring into his eyes as his shoulders slumped.

Kai had left his father, even though he hadn't had much of a choice. Thorn had "teleported" him before Kai could run away to the library to warn his father. He couldn't have done anything, yet he still felt terrible that Falte had probably been enjoying his time at work and his drive home with his music on; then he had had to come to a dead wife and a missing son.

"I can imagine how torn you must feel," Moon said with mock sympathy that sounded so real that Kai would have thought she was actually sympathizing for him - if he didn't know who she was. "You want to go back to your father, to tell him that you're okay; but you also want to stay with your friends. Or were you planning to do both?"

Suddenly, Haley and Falte disappeared, and his friends appeared huddled together to Kai's left. Their faces were torn and upset but also happy, but when Kai looked to Chase, Abby, and Shintaro, he noticed that they all looked the most upset. He watched Abby as she rubbed her eyes slightly to keep from crying. Chase took a deep breath and looked away, while Shintaro stared on. To his right, Falte was standing with his arms outstretched and happy tears in his eyes. There was a big grin on his face, and he was beginning to kneel down so Kai could reach him and run into his arms.

"S-Stop," Kai stuttered. He hated this. He wanted to stay with his friends and go see his father, but would that mean that he had to leave his friends? After all, he and Falte had a home, and they didn't have enough room for Linda, Gabriel, Chase, Abby, Luke, and Shintaro even if Falte invited them in.

Moon let out another laugh and shook her head. "But what if your father doesn't accept you?" she said in a dismayed voice. "What if he finds out what are you are? The same people that killed his own wife? What if he thinks you are evil and that you might do the same to him? The only people who seem to accept you are your friends... But what if they figure out that your own father doesn't accept you, so they figure that they should reject you so they can stay safe? Shintaro seems like someone who would protect his family even if it meant something hard is supposed to happen..."

Falte suddenly snapped his arms back and jumped to his feet with a scared look that broke Kai's heart. He felt the tears roll down his cheeks as he choked back a sob. Falte shook his head and took a step back, then whipped around and ran off, leaving Kai standing there, watching him run.

Shintaro suddenly put his arms in front of his two children, staring at Kai with a hard, betrayed look. Abby brought her hands to her mouth and tears slid down her cheeks. Chase gaped in Kai's direction, his face a mask of anger, confusion, and betrayal. He took a step back as Luke covered his face with his hands with an angry yell that sounded like he was angry that he'd let Kai become this way. Linda backed away, too, her face twisting in anger that was directed at Kai. Gabriel scoffed as though he was expecting it - and turned around and just walked away.

A few moments and sad looks later, everyone else followed. Abby was the only one to look back, and she was sobbing her poor heart out before the image vanished.

Kai choked back another sob unsuccessfully. He wrapped his arms around himself and hung his head. What if he did become evil? Every single Dark that was in existence was bad, so how come Kai wasn't? Even if he wasn't now, he probably would be later, and then his friends and family would have every right to leave him.

But then he would be alone, and that was something he feared greatly. Something that terrified him to a point where if he were to even think about it, he would freeze and breathe slowly. He hated the thought of being alone.

Kai jumped to his feet and turned in a circle, looking eagerly for his friends. In the back of his mind, he knew that Moon was tricking him, that this was all fake, that she was just trying to get him to suffer; but he couldn't bring that out strong enough to make it seem fake. He whirled around and ran to where his friends and father had been, screaming their names and sobbing uncontrollably.

They couldn't leave him like this.

They couldn't.

Moon touched his shoulder. "Don't worry, little Kai. You realize that if they leave you, you're actually protecting them?" Her voice was soft, as well as her touch. She leaned over him and wrapped her other arm around him gently. "You're doing them a favor by not going after them. In fact, just to make sure that you don't go after them and put them in danger, you could just die. After all, you have no purpose on this earth. You will only cause pain and danger to everyone you know and love."

Kai took a deep, shaky breath, realizing that she was right. All he was was a danger to his family and friends.

Moon turned him around and gazed into his eyes. She didn't say anything as she raised her hand, touched his bare chest, and everything went dark again.

~

SO THIS IS MOON. She can enter the part of the mind that holds the trauma and poke at it to make things worse. She can make the trauma seem much bigger and make everyone seem terrible about themselves. She find their weaknesses in their trauma, basically.

When my sister told me about her

I

Fricking

Died.

I LOVED IT SO MUCH SINCE IM COMPLETELY INSANE AND I LOVE TRAUMA.

AHHEHAYRNHAHTBIRKAKFHSJA!!!

I'm so excited for the end of this book!!!!!!!

Hehahhehrjdjabtnskwjagsjjrnshwjsh!!!

Well, peace!~~