Let Your Fantasies Unwind

Chapter 33

"Mom?"

"It's you! You're okay! You're coming home!" she hugs me, and kisses my head all over.

"No, I can't! Not yet!"

"But then you'll be safe! You won't be in this place anymore, and you can be back home with-"

"But I have to help Erik through this!" she freezes. "Mom?"

"Erik? As in, your fictional character?"

"He's not fake! He's real!"

"His life is now the prize which you must earn! You've past the point of no return."

"Angel of Music, you deceived me! I gave my mind blindly."

"The story is real, Mom. Please, I have to stay to help Erik-"

"No! You're coming home right now!"

"Pitiful creature of Darkness, what kind of life have you known?"

I turn to go to Erik, and he sees my mother and me, but in an instant, we're gone.

]~[

"How could you?" I say quietly as we appear back at the testing place.

"We needed you back home."

"How could you?" I repeat.

"You've been gone for several days, and never appeared a few days back. It was time we were to search for you."

"But Erik needs me!"

"Why would he need you? He's going to die!" she bites her lip.

"Why'd you bite your lip?" I persist. "Mother, tell me."

"I had to bring you home first."

"What?"

"I had to rip you away from him first, but you'll go back one day."

"Explain!"

"Not now, Megan!"

She rushes me back to the car, and the ride home is silent. We get home, and Brendan and my sisters rush to hug me. Father appears a moment later, and squishes all four of us.

"We have to explain." Mom says to Dad.

Dad stops hugging all of us, and looks glumly at Mom.

"Megan, come with me."

"Mom, what's going on?" Brendan asks.

"We have something to explain. I guess we can do it to everyone."

Our parents lead us to the living room, and they pull out a box with old pictures. Old, as in, hand drawn, and a few photographs in black and white, not the ones with a 3D option. I see one of them, and it's Erik and me, but I'm a little older. Mom starts to tear up.

"You stay with Erik." Mom starts. "You were supposed to mess up and live with Erik for-"

"A year and then some." I reply bitterly.

"That amount of time, to get to know him."

"Then why did you drag her away from him?"

"We had to explain this to her first."

"Wait, so, what are you saying?"

Mom and Dad look at one another, then back at me. "You started our family."

I freeze, probably the same as Erik did when Christine basically said she hated him. So, I start my family lineage? But, I'm here now. I'm a descent of myself?