How did things get so messed up so quickly? Oh yes, she decided to join them and by she I meant Arriana. There was no getting rid of her! She was attached to Jonah like some unwanted leech and Jonah was about ready to brain the girl or go to the shadows whichever came first. His eyes met mine and he rolled them. I snickered, That was problem number one on my list. Problem number two was more daunting. They were loud unruly and mean.

  Maryanne: Ignore them.

  Strength: Yeah, they’re whacko right now.

  Marco: What we say is only the truth.

  Jessica: Yeah, She can’t help being a fat ass!

  Siren: How unsightly.

  Roy: Yeah getting a guy won’t be easy heh.

  Benny: Moo! Moo!

  Preacher: Repent, child!

  Sympathy: Leave her alone! She can eat the last piece of cake if she wants!

  Leslie: Cake! Cake! Cake!

  Jack: Do you see how everyone is happy without you?

  He was the worst and most influential. I glanced around and saw that everyone was busy with everyone else. Everyone except me. I tried not to listen but it was becoming hard not to. They had been my safe haven for when I was captured and now they were against me because of a disbalance? I also felt bad for leaving my family and choosing Sapherine over them but I couldn’t leave those kids to suffer! They fed on that.

  Maryanne: You’re doing a good thing

  Strength: A selfless thing.

  Mark: What about Juaquin, Mige, and Mama?

  Jessica: Someone’s being a cruddy daughter picking strangers over her own family.

  Roy: I’d rethink your choice I mean no contact for years?

  Siren: Your family will mourn you and you’ll be alive and fine here.

  Preacher: Thou should repent and pray!

  Benny: Your family will miss you.

  Sympathy: You’re doing the right thing. Sometimes we must make sacrifices.

  Leslie: Sacrifice family?

  Jack: Why should you have to make that sacrifice? Why? You didn’t ask for it?

  No I didn’t but it was up to me to do something and I would. My family would understand I hoped. I turned to watch the others and sighed. They had it easy. All of them! They wouldn’t understand they…

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  “Hey, Myra you okay?” asked Jonah. He had finally gotten rid of the soul-sucking leech.

  I sighed and crossed my arms. “Yeah, fine,” I muttered, kicking my feet up from the ground.

  “You don’t look so fine to me,” he said.

  I turned to face him and stopped walking. “Do you think I’m doing the right thing?” I asked, bowing my head to hide my teary eyes.

  He raised my head and gazed into my eyes. “I think it’s a selfless thing to do. I couldn’t do it, sure as hell Miss Princess and her idiots couldn’t do it. Nero wouldn’t want to unless it answered his question and Datha...well she might but I get the feeling that she’s scared,” he said.

  “What about my family,” I asked.

  “I think your family would understand but have you thought that maybe we haven’t been gone so long? Time moves differently here than there. What to us has been almost a month and a half, over there it’s probably been a few hours at most. Years here could mean one or two there.”

  “So they wouldn’t miss me as much?”

  “No, I’m sure they’re missing you loads but you won’t be nearly as gone as you think. I was gone for four years while six more passed here.”

  “Hmm, I guess each realm is different in time. There are two extra hours here of daytime,” I said.

  “You’d think that would make the times slower not faster,” he muttered.

  “Unless that’s part of what’s messed up here on Saphereine,” I said and he nodded.

  “It doesn’t make sense to me that time speeds up here and slows down on Earth when there are two full hours of the day here. We have 26-hour days. Shouldn’t our years be longer?”

  “Yeah, I don’t get it either but as you said my family won’t have to miss me as much at least,” I muttered kicking the dirt road.

  Jack: Maybe they don’t miss us at all. Maybe they’re happy to get rid of the problem child.

  I gasped as horrible images of a happy family came into my thoughts. No more medical bills, breakdowns to handle, no more me! The images became crueler and crueler. Juaquin happily married without having to worry about me. My mom happily retired because she could finally make enough for herself. Sweet Mige happy and thriving. No! Stop! It’s a lie!

  Jessica: They would be better without you!

  Siren; Much better

  Jack: You only make everyone miserable.

  Mark: I agree.

  Benny: Family is happier without you in it!

  Preacher: The family is a sacred thing and you are blasphemous to its name!

  Roy: They’re better off without you. You actually made the right choice who knew?

  Sympathy: Your family understands.

  Leslie: family! family! family!

  Strength: Of course they miss you! Don’t listen to these yahoos!

  Maryanne: They miss you and are searching for you. Believe in them.

  I couldn’t stand the images that kept rolling through my mind. I cried and began to run not watching where I was going. Jonah cried out for me but I didn’t care. I had to get away from the images but try as I might they kept playing around in my mind. Finally, I tripped and banged my head on a root. It seemed to work to shut them out so I banged my head against the root again and again to shut them out. Their laughter followed me and I curled into a ball rocking back and forth. I pressed my head in between my knees and kept rocking. I was having a breakdown and I knew it. No one could help me out of it so I just rocked and hummed. I felt strong arms tug me up and I smelled Sapherine forests and ozone. I curled into his warm body and cried there. I felt his hand smooth my hair and rub my back before we moved. I curled deeper into his warmth and sighed. The voices stopped bombarding me with my happy family and I fell asleep in Jonah’s arms.