I'm Runner: Part Seven

      I’m left wanting to pull all my hair out. Why hadn’t I seen this coming? I should’ve just told him... they’d trusted me and cared for me when I was alone... now he probably thinks I’m just a spoiled liar who ran away from home, like Roxanne did.

      Roxanne stares after him, at a loss for words. She doesn’t know what to do.

      And then, suddenly, I have this cheesy, cliché, idea.

      I run after him, running as fast as I did the first night I left, but this time trying to push my way through the crowd. “Dante!” I shout. He doesn’t hear me; even if he did, he probably wouldn’t turn around. Why should he? And it seems that evidently, he’s a better crowd weaver than I am since he’s almost out the door. “Dante!” All the sounds around me seem to melt together like metal, a cold, shining liquid.

      “Dante!!”

      I swallow, at the doors, watching as he heads toward the Turmac carriage. This is the moment. It’ll be like TV, I tell myself, only real. And it might not work. But I’m really pressed for ideas at the moment and extremely desperate.

      And I begin to sing.

      “Don’t judge me on what I’ve done...” My voice cracks as I pant heavily, eyes welled up. Just because I’m singing for my life doesn’t mean I suddenly get a gorgeous voice. “Come on, you know I’m better than the past.”

      Dante stops, fingers clenched around the carriage door’s handle. He recognizes his song, even through my mistuned notes.

      “Can’t you see past weary eyes and crooked smiles?” This voice is wonderful. Sad to say, this time it isn’t me. I turn around, seeing Roxanne appear behind me, smiling. She holds my hand.

      “Thanks,” I whisper, more to the ground than her. But she gets it.

      “Let’s make the present last,” she continues, smiling at me, nodding her head.

      “I should’ve told you to begin with. But I was too scared then...” I’ve made up lyrics. I’ve made up lyrics! This small victory distracts me for a few seconds. Dante has let go of the door, and he stands, back turned to us. I walk tentatively closer, tiptoeing slowly across to where he stands on the road. “My...” I gulp, turning him around to face me. He stares at me angrily, smirking, waiting for the next word.

      “...friend.” I might have overdone it but I’m so desperate now. I’ve grown attached. I couldn’t just let him go like that.

      He shakes his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you just won me over with that.”

      I shrug, smiling awkwardly. “Me neither.”

      “I MISSED IT?!” We both look, seeing a very breathless Oliver stand by the door of the convention building. “I did...” Pant. “...didn’t I?”

      “Guess you did.” I want to laugh though I’m not sure it’s the right time. The whole situation seems suddenly so strange. I never thought a couple weeks ago that I’d be serenading a musical Krawk outside of a convention. Much less in Meridell.

     Dante returns the smile, raising an eyebrow at me. “You still have a lot of explaining to do.”

      “I know.”

      Roxanne sneezes across the way. “It’s starting to rain, you know,” she informs us, rubbing her nose. I begin to feel little, drizzly droplets on my nose and antennae. Roxanne continues, oblivious to it anyhow. “And Dante? It’ll make sense once she tells you. I promise.”

          a year later

      “How do I look?”

      “Fine.”

      “Just fine? But I really want to-”

      “Okay, great.”

      Humph. Maybe she’s just saying that. I wait a few seconds as Rox finishes tying the sash around my waist. It feels funny getting back in a dress and I find it hard to believe that I once wore these things on a daily basis. They’re tight and stuffy and I feel like someone is trying to squeeze my inside out.

      “Are you sure you’re doing this ri-”

      “I think I can tie a bow, ‘Tasia.”

      “Okay, okay. Do I smell-”

      “Fantasia! They’re your family! You seriously needa calm down, ‘kay?”

      I take a deep breath, agreeing reluctantly.

     Deep breaths.

     “All right. I will.” Though everything seems to have changed, I’ve managed to keep my proper grammar- mostly- up, although the Grammar Correcting Beast has shrunk down to a size of a needle, only squealing when someone says something beyond terrible like, “I is a gooder one!” or “The un-worstest thing under the planet.”

      That last one doesn’t even make sense.

      Dante and Oliver stand a little ways away. “You done? You’ll looks all the same in the end.” Oliver rolls his eyes, muttering something about girls. He’s a spotted Kougra now; he got enough money to buy his dream brush. But, other than that, he hasn’t changed in the slightest. You’d think a year would be something, right? Not in Oliver’s book. And Oliver’s book would be pretty interesting to read...

      “Thanks a lot. That just boosted my confidence a hundred points.” I’ve also learned the many unknown pleasures of sarcasm.

      Dante looks distastefully down at his own clothes. I’d convinced them to all dress up in casual Neovian clothes, so they would fit in a little more. Even Roxanne; she’s finished complaining about me tying her a bow a few minutes ago. “Do Neovians really wear this stuff? It’s kinda stiff.” He pulls at his collar. “An’ it doesn’t do much good for the neck too.”

      I roll my eyes, simpering. “I let you keep the hat, didn’t I?”

      “Touché.”

      We walk around the block, a silent procession. Someone’s taken my stomach and thrown it out the window. I’m thinking it was Oliver...

      We stop and Dante squeezes my hand, smiling softly. “We’ll wait here for a bit.”

      I nod my head at a loss for words, staring at my house. Their house. Madeline’s house.

      I float forward, feeling lightheaded. It seems so unreal. I had been so many places since I had gone... but I’d never been back home. Everything looks the same. Suddenly, a royal girl Shoyru flies out of the house, giggling mock-evilly, followed by a spotted Mynci. This snaps me out of my reverie and I panic. What if they moved?

      “And I shall enslave all of Neopia! Muahaha!” The royal girl Shoyru does a few backwards flips in the air, dangling her legs wildly.

      The Mynci jumps, trying to reach her. “Not fair! Sloth doesn’t fly!” I recognize that voice...

      “Now he does! Cause he’s... Faerie Sloth! Muahahaha!”

      “Sloth doesn’t end everything by laughing!”

      “Now he does!”

      The Shoyru plummets down, hitting the Mynci in the stomach.

      “Oof!”

      The Mynci leaps back, tackling the Shoyru who squeals. “Maddie said ‘No rough housing’!”

      The Mynci pins her down laughing. “First of all, you started it. Second... what’s a rough house?”

      A faerie Uni flies out the second floor window. “I call being the Space Faerie!” She’s extremely graceful, fluttering down like a flower petal. Giggling she shouts back in a very un-ladylike manner. “Come now, Rasui! We’re playing a game!”

      Rasui?

      That meant...

      But...

      My family.

     “Abbie!!”

      I run to the front lawn crazily, waving my arms. “Abbie, it’s me! All of you, it’s me!”

      Everything freezes. Candy stares at me like I’m insane. Reagan gapes openly. Rasui peeks out the window, book in hand.

      And Abbie. Abbie...

      ...she runs to me.

      “Fantasia!”

      I meet her with open arms, hugging her tightly. “Fantasia, you’ve come!” She laughs, wiping her eyes. I’m crying too hard to see her now, her face looks like a blur. “Fantasia, I knew you’d come back,” says the blob. It’s the most wonderful blob I’ve ever seen.

      The others have already begun to recognize me. Reagan, ever the brave one, ventures forward a few steps. “Fantasia?” The name feels strange; I haven’t heard it spoken for a while. I’d become Runner.

      “Don’t talk to strangers!” Madeline’s voice echoes from out of the house. I hear stomping footsteps and the door bangs open. Madeline is carrying papers and books, evidently very annoyed. “I’m sorry, Miss, but...”

      She drops everything.

      “Fantasia.”

      I walk slowly to her, under high scrutiny of both Candy and Rasui. Reagan holds onto my arm lightly, like I’m an angel. Or a zombie.

      Madeline reaches out and touches my face. She nods, as if asserting the truth. “We missed you.”

      “I missed you, too.”

      Madeline kneels down before me. “I’m so sorry for making you leave. Fantasia-“

      “You didn’t make me, Madeline.”

      Madeline pauses, smiling. She’s about to cry. We’re all about to cry.

     “See? I told you she’d come back!”

      I smile at Abbie, feeling the squeeze of five hugs all at once, pressed on every side, but in the best way possible. “How’d you know that?”

      Abbie laughs, as if the answer it obvious. “You promised, of course.”

      I blink, remembering the night I left. She’d remembered. She’d been faithful. “Thank you.”

      “No,” says Abbie, and she wipes my tear-streaked cheeks. “Thank you.”

The End