Believe

The End of the Beginning

The neon green room disappeared. Light and Dark stood in front of a door. Dark took out a key. He opened the door. Inside was another door. He opened that door.

Fantasy, Reality, Worthless, Curiosity, and Hope stared at them.

"Let's go," Light smiled. She was holding Time's clock - she had picked it back up before the disappearing act.

The five prisoners ran out, and joined by Light, the left Dark's castle.

"We need to go to Time." Light told them.

"Time?" Fantasy and Worthless said in unison.

"Long story."

"Why Time?" Hope asked. "Aren't we done with her?"

Light told them what happened with her and Dark, Hunter, the clock, and the deal.

"It's just right to return the clock, even if I did punch it." Light chuckled.

"But how do we get there?" Curiosity looked at Light. "She transported us, remember?"

"Oh, that? Well, uh... O, great Time, make us appear in your lovely home..." The others eyed Light weirdly. She was different since her talk with Dark.

Well, long story short, it didn't work. The Personificationites ended up traveling through the forest all afternoon, finally seeing the blue and silver house when it was getting dark. Maybe Dark had decided to darken it earlier than usual, or maybe they had just traveled a lot.

Light knocked on the door. It opened, showing Time, but instead of sitting on her chair, she was basically inhaling a plate of spaghetti. "Hello," she swallowed. "I'm eating supper.
But I have enough
for you," her guests nodded their heads, and soon seven Personificationites were enjoying a meal together.

"Here's your clock," Light handed the broken mess to Time.

"Thank you, though I do not need this,
one message I will say
time passes differently from here to Earth,
it's always been that way."

Fantasy looked up. "So you're saying that, I don't know, a little girl may not be so little anymore?" Time nodded.

"Why do you always talk in poems?" Worthless asked.

"Rhythm -
Time is steady,
Syllables ready,
I guess that's just how it goes."

And... Yeah. Soon Light, Fantasy, Reality, Hope, Curiosity, and Worthless (wow, that's a lot to say in one breath) left, looking for the portal. Light obviously made it lighter around them. They were so close. It was almost done...

But really, their journey had only just started.

* * *

Laura Vincenta had always wanted a daughter, and now she had one.

Rosabella. Beautiful rose.

She loved her, but something still felt weird. Laura had always been her mother, right? She had always been there for her, right? And Rosabella was her almost five year old daughter.

Right?

She didn't know. It felt so normal, yet so confusing at the same time. And it didn't help that Rosabella was so different.

It's like, who cares about fairy tales? Those were from, like, a LONG time ago. But Rosabella never seemed to understand that.

Princesses? Dragons? Seriously? Have your heart broken a few times, and that's just a load of terror. But without the knight in shining armor.

Just give up. No one cares about you any more than they care about their toilets.

No one cares. That's just how people are.

And the weirdest thing about her daughter - the green book. Just a plain, green chapter book. Laura had never opened it, and she never saw Rosabella even touch it. But whenever they moved to a different house, it always came with them. Weird.

And why hadn't she opened it? Who knows? When Laura came close to it, there was just this aura, you could say. You just wanted to stay away and forget about it.

Even weirder.

But she still loved her beautiful rose. Maybe one day, Rosabella would learn just how ugly the world was. She would realize that her name was just a lie. This had to happen.

Because hope is just a myth.