The room was different, unlike anything I had seen. It was small. A large bookshelf stood in the back, against the wall; binders, paper, folders and all kinds of office supplies led randomly on the different sections, they were arranged in such a way that could not be considered either messy or neat. The room showed no personality. There was no scent at all in the still air, no photographs on the large desk which stood in the middle of the room, no paintings on the walls, no decorations.
I was leaning against one of the walls due to the cramp-ness the ten of us caused.
Apollo had said that this principal (someone who’s in charge of the school I believe) was his “adoptive father”. These human terms really confused me.
“Who did you say this principal was?” I asked.
Nine out of the ten people turned and glared at me, oddly, Apollo was the one who didn’t.
“My adoptive father,” he replied, seemingly to be amused by a book lying on the desk. “In other words he is the adult who is supposed to be responsible for me even though we are not genetically related, he is acting as the father and I am acting as his child.”
“And you just decided to let this unfamiliar human being in on our secret?” that was a rhetorical question.
“Watch your attitude!” said Isabelle Hermes, the Mercury girl.
“Interrupting is rude Hermes, watch your attitude,” I replied motionlessly.
The door opened beside her, making her jump. I tried to hold in my laughter but a smile slipped out.
“Ha, ha very funny,” she said sarcastically.
I ignored her and examined the man standing in the door way. He was wearing a pair of black framed, rectangular shaped glasses; a formal black tie along with a grey suit. That, and the brown hair and eyes and a 40-years-old-ish face told me he was the father.
He looked around and met everyone’s gaze. Hermes took a step away as he squeezed himself in and closed the door behind him. I realized that this man was holding a pale yellow folder with a thick amount of paper inside it.
“So this…”he said “I suppose, is the…solar group?”
Solar group? What kind of name was that?
“This is it,” replied Apollo.
The man settled himself in the black leather chair behind the desk. He placed the folder in front of him and opened it. The page on the surface showed Apollo’s face, along with words that were too small for me to see.
“Okay,” he said, staring at the profile “so let me understand this more fully.
Aiden Apollo is the Sun. Isabelle Hermes is Mercury. Michelle Aphrodite is Venus. Mitchel Ares is Mars. Crystal Poseidon is Neptune. Kerry Uranus is Uranus. Alex Zeus is Jupiter; and Austin Cronus is Saturn…right?”
They nodded in agreement.
“Oh, I missed one!” he said as he shuffled the papers, “Faith Hades…Pluto.”
That sounded more like a question then a statement. I nodded and ignored the fact that he questioned my existence.
“Let us explain this in a way that would be easier for you to understand.” Apollo spoke up, “The Earth, as I said, is being treated quite poorly by the humans. Things like pollution as you might say. If this continues, the order of nature will be interrupted and the humans do have a chance of leaving Earth for someplace else. We are here to prevent that from happening.
The ten of us represent…no, more like we are the planets from the solar system, as you like to call the outer atmosphere. Consider this as a mission to save our dear Earth. Though this was quite a challenge for all of us, we are not used to the environment on Earth at all, and of course we needed someone who is used to it to guide us through, other than Earth herself. So I trusted you with the responsibility of keeping this secret.”
He paused, staring at the human man. I wasn’t able to tell if it was supposed to be a friendly glare or a warning.
“And if I don’t?” the man challenged, raising one eyebrow. “Not that I won’t, I just want to know the consequences.”
“Things will get ugly,” responded Apollo, in a somewhat frightening way.
It was a long moment of silence. Finally, the man built up enough courage to speak again. “I arranged you all into the gifted class of astronomy, thought it would be easy for you…”
“Astronomy?” Hermes questioned.
“Studies of space.”
The man dialled something into the phone and soon a lady opened the door to the office. The lady looked like she was squished from the head into a slightly too short and wide shape. Her almost grey hair was put into a ponytail behind her head and a pair of glasses dangled from her neck by a red string.
“New students?” she said in a high-pitched voice.
“The gifted ones I’ve been talking about,” the man responded, “please, if you could lead them to their classes?”
He handed his folder over to the office lady, she smiled as she held out one of her bun-like hands.
“Ladies and gens,” she grinned, “follow me please.”
This school was like a maze. Halls led to rooms; rooms led to halls. Floor after floor…
Our first stop was at the end of the hall on the first floor, where the office lady handed Apollo a few pieces of paper from the folder she was holding.
“Mr. Aiden Apollo, gifted grade 12 class, homeroom Mr. Smith,” She said.
Apollo nodded and walked into the packed room with the paper he was handed with.
We followed her to the next level, where she dropped the other eight people off into four separate grade 11 classes.
I was the only one who had to take the stairs all the way up to the third floor along with the lady. Apparently the lower the grade you were in, the higher your homeroom was.
“Last but not least,” the lady said as she stopped in front of a half-closed door and turned to face me. “Miss. Faith Hades, gifted grade 10 class, homeroom Mrs. Hannon.”
She pushed the door open for me and left as I walked in.
I came almost face to face with a tall yet heavy weighted (looking) lady. Her hair was curled and was in a light shade of brown. Her skin tone was very light and on top of her overly pointy nose was a pair of oval shaped glasses.
The black-board stood against the wall which was in a 90° angle from the door. Facing the board were desks separated into singles, behind them sat kids with curiosity written all over their faces.
“You must be the new student!” The teacher said.
I nodded.
“Come up in front of the class, Faith! Introduce yourself to us!” She was overly excited.
“You already know me apparently,” I said lightly. “Why don’t you do that for me?”
Her eyes widened slightly, “No, you have to introduce yourself, honey!”
Honey?
I didn’t understand the concept of shyness then, which made faking it impossible.
I stood in front of the room feeling too calm. With all the eyes staring at me, I felt the strong need to make up some information about myself so I would sound normal enough for them to think that I was human. Knowing that my knowledge towards the normal life of a human being was way too tiny, I soon gave up.
“First, dear, you have to tell us what your name is,” Mrs. Hannon tried to guide me.
“I am aware of how to make an introduction, especially for myself,” I said coldly, “Faith Hades, that is all you will need to know.”
I turned to the lady, expecting her to tell me where I would be sitting, though she stared at me with her mouth open but no words coming out.
Did I make a mistake on introducing myself? Is there a specific way of introducing one’s self too? These humans do have a clear category for normality.
“I would be honoured to know where I would be sitting,” I said almost sarcastically.
She blinked twice and pointed at an empty desk beside the windows in the second roll. “That would be perfect.”
I walked there at a normal pace, still had all the eyes on me. Pulling out the chair behind the desk, I sat down on it softly. It wasn’t until I folded my hands on the desk itself when finally someone dared to make a sound to break the dead silence.
I spent my morning listening to the pointless theories which really didn’t make much sense coming from the woman’s mouth; theories such as “humans first thought that the Earth was the center of the solar-system.”
It was almost noon, and I was on the edge of dying from boredom when finally, an ear-piercing ringing sound came from somewhere in the walls. Some of the students relaxed in their chairs, others clicked their pens which they used to take notes.
“Have a great lunch!” The lady grinned as she gathered her papers on the desk beside her and swiftly left the room.
Following their teacher, many of the kids walked out of the rooms. I looked around and noticed that many of the people left were males. Was this some kind of routine? Ladies first or something? So should I have left also?
One of the boys stood up, making a big racket as his chair sled across the floor and hit the desk behind it. This ordinary boy was almost all the across the room from me. He was seemingly walking towards me, stepping over the chairs which got into his way.
Blond curly hair, sky blue eyes, somewhat fit body. I thought to myself. The typical boy. I let the image of this boy sink into my head. Now I was aware of what an abnormal boy would look like.
He walked closer, not making any stops or turning to a different direction, I was starting to think that he was actually coming to me. Too right I was. He stopped and sat backwards on the chair in front of my desk and placed his hands on the back of the chair.
“Hello, my new fellow classmate,” he grinned, showing his almost pure white teeth.
I stared at him.
“I see you don’t like to talk much,” he continued to himself, “I’m Jordan Harrison.” He held one of his hands to me. Handshake, I believe, but I left him hanging.
“What are you, European? Or American? Mix?” he wondered, “cause your hair, it’s like, dark, and so are those eyes. Did you dye it? The hair, I meant. They’re like, I dunno, pure black. You don’t look Asian though, not a bit.”
I was not exactly sure what he was talking about; the only words I understood were Dark hair, eyes, and pure black; so I stayed silent.
“Wait, are you Greek? Cause your last name’s like Hades or something, right? Isn’t that the underworld dude or something?”
“King of the underworld, yes,” I finally replied, still not really sure what he was talking about.
“Whoooa, mysterious!” he said excitedly, “Since you’re like the new kid, do you want a quick tour around the school? I mean, it’s pretty big.” He twitched his left eye, or maybe it was a wink.
“I’ll live,” I mumbled as I stood up, getting ready to leave.
“Come on, babe.”
I paused. Babe? I was sure that it meant what I thought it meant. The unpleasant feeling of being too close to something as stupid as a human hit me as I glared down at him.
“What do you say?” he continued.
It could be considered as a habit, or just my personality, but I was so used to having an emotionless face that no matter how angry, or happy, or sad I was, I wouldn’t show it. I would usually express it in a physical way, which is sometimes considered great, and sometimes considered terrible. For example, when I get angry at someone, I don’t yell at them or simply look mad, I just go ahead and hurt them.
It was my nature, Pluto’s nature—to kill. Though I was told that apparently on Earth, you can’t just go around killing people even if they deserve to die.
I was still frozen, thinking of ways to seriously injure this human without revealing the fact that I wasn’t human, when a familiar voice called my name.
“Faith.”
I turned around and found Apollo standing by the door way with his arms crossed and one of his feet on its tip crossed over to the other side, he was actually smiling. “You haven’t been doing anything bad have you?”
The way he spoke disgusted me; it was too kind.
Apollo was the Sun, the center piece of the solar-system. Life, warmth, and light; the exact opposite of what I was, yet he seemed to think we’d get along pretty well. Even his looks were different: somewhat straight blond hair, gold-ish eyes and an almost too perfect body.
Unlike him, I was the girl with hair and eyes too dark it was almost darker than pure black.
“We’re all waiting,” he grinned.
I didn’t like the way he treated me, and how different it was from the others. Like I was a part of the whole thing all along, like it was all a fair game.
So yes, I didn’t prefer to be liked, and that’s odd, but likeness from the others just didn’t occur to me as something that needed to be cared about anymore.
“Waiting would be an over-statement, way over,” I said.
I had to leave the Harrison kid alone, it was not that I was scared of Apollo, it was more than that. He was basically in control of my life, because I was his satellite and I revolved around him.
I walked beside him in the hall, keeping a certain distance between the two of us. I didn’t bother to speak, or do anything at all other than repeating the simple motion between my legs which carried me forward.
“Where are you taking me?” I finally asked, the curiosity tingled inside me.
The corner of is lips raised, almost forming a smile. He kept his glaze looking forward.
“You don’t have to be so intense around me, you know,” he said, finally letting out a smile and turning to look at me. Maybe it was the lighting, but his eyes actually looked golden.
“Intense? Is that what you think? I’m just like that,” I didn’t look at him. If he was trying to bother me with his nice attitude, then he was succeeding.
“And I noticed how you call everybody by their last names,” he continued on, not at all offended by the way I spoke to him, “even me.”
“Is that wrong?”
“Not at all, it’s just that it makes us all sound so…” he paused, perhaps thinking of the words to say, “unfamiliar to you.”
I didn’t respond for a moment. Was Apollo close to me at all? Were any of them?
“And what you are trying to say is…?” I said.
“That you should start calling us by our first names, because we are like, together, right?”
“Not really,”
“Okay Faith, your too-cold personality is starting to bother me. Is it that hard to get alone with the nine people you’ve known for more than a thousand years?”
“Yes,”
He sighed.
“I’m helpless Apollo,” that didn’t sound right, so I tried again— “mostly because I don’t need help,” didn’t sound right either— “or want to be helped,” there we go.
“Let me rephrase that for you,” he said, “I’m helpless Aiden, mostly because I don’t need help, or want to be helped.”
“Why do you even care about these things?” I asked, realizing that he was leading me up another flight of stairs. I never even knew that there was another floor on top of the third one.
We had reached the top by then. There was no 4th floor, it was…just a door. Apollo took out a key from his jeans’ pocket. He adjusted the angle of it and jammed it into the doorknob. With a slight click the door slid open a crack.
“I was lucky enough to get the key on my first day,” he turned to me and grinned, “very lucky.”
As he push opened the door, a cement platform came into view. There were bars lined along the edges.
“You are now standing on the roof,” Apollo explained as I walked in, raising his voice over the soaring of the wind, “Only the grade twelve gifted class has access to this place!”
I stopped somewhere near the center, “you said we’re all waiting,” I questioned, “where’s the we?”
“They’re coming, sometime…”
“What’s taking so long?”
“I sent them to get Grace.”
Grace Gaia…The reason that we were here. She was Earth; the one who needed protection because she couldn’t control the humans herself. That just put the thought of weakness into my head. Even the way she looked, like a nine year old (she was considered a nine year old for the humans), and her attitude, so much like Apollo, so different from the others’.
I realized that Apollo was staring at me, looking amused and curious. When he met my gaze he snapped back to his normal self and asked “What’re you thinking about?”
The way he said it, almost like he was actually interested to know more…was he?
“Why do you want to know?”
“I find you very…interesting.”
So he was.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Cause you are not like the others, who just speak whatever they think; you tend to keep things in your head, and that makes me wonder what’s going on in there.”
“Well if you understand that concept, then you should know that the reason why I keep things going on in my head is because I don’t want people to know about it.”
“That is a clever response,” he grinned, “but you just made me want to know more.”
I just brought him back, great.
There suddenly came chatter up the staircase which we came through, not long after, a head popped up behind the door; a head with brunette hair and baby blue eyes.
“Grace!” said Apollo, “it’s really been a while since the last time I saw you!”
Grace Gaia skipped towards Apollo and hugged him. Apollo didn’t seem shocked at all, he but his hands around her waist (he had to bend down a lot to do that) and lifted her up.
“You’re so warm every time I hug you!” She said.
He smiled, making me doubt if they were really siblings.
As her feet safely landed on the ground, Gaia turned to me with a grin on her face. “I missed you too Faith!” she said cheerfully.
“That’s great,” I mumbled.
“She really hasn’t changed much,” explained Apollo. Who did he think he was? Talking like he knew me so well.
“I can tell,” she replied. “Anyways, thank you all so much for helping me out!”
Everyone else responded with either a smile, or a short reply.
“So,” asked Michelle Aphrodite, the Venus girl, the one with dirty blond hair; the one that lives and dies with makeup, “what’s the plan for this afternoon? Since Grace is here, we should like, do something special right?”
“Yes!” responded Gaia, “Aiden said we should start right now. I have a few places in mind for you guys to help me…reform, I suppose.”
She turned to look at me, with a smile which I didn’t understand; as if she was expecting something.
“While you are all doing that,” I said, “I’ll be spending my afternoon trying to get along with the humans here…hopefully there won’t be any injuries.” I walked towards the still-opened-door.
“Wait!” Apollo called after me, “Come with us, that’s why you’re here right?”
“Of course, because death and darkness is exactly what we need to save the environment, right?” I was almost out the door when I felt someone grab my left arm, the hand was warm.
Apollo.
“You never come,” he said.
“Cause you won’t ever need me.”
“That’s not true.”
“What would you need me for then?”
He didn’t reply, as I thought. I pulled my arm free and headed down the stairs.
“Next time,” he called after me. Still not giving up? “I’ll think of a really good reason!”
—A reason, perhaps, that will help me see, the purpose to continue.

How long has it been? I asked myself while staring through the telescope one night, looking at my Pluto. We came to Earth in October, and now it’s March…Five months, longer than I thought. Things changed.
For one, I was finally starting to adapt to the environment on Earth. Starting to get used to the ways the kids in school acted and reacted. And I was starting to get these things in class they called “really high marks”. Just a few weeks ago, this research group came to the school and had a conference with a group of students they picked out from the gifted classes, along with me, Apollo and the rest. I believe they called themselves the…NASA. Just a few days ago, they called the ten of us into this room with a large table and chairs (the sign on the door read “meeting room”) and did this test on our knowledge on space or something.
Apollo had said he’d find a reason for me to be here on Earth long ago, but he ever did… And because of that, boredom stuck more and more often now. I tried to remember what I did when I was bored back on Pluto, then remembering that time passed way faster in the outer atmosphere than on Earth.
A faint light shot into the walls in front of me from behind the glassy windows, it was dawn. The nights were getting shorter now, and I didn’t like the thought or that. Neither did I like the thought of school, again.
—the place, which I did not belong.

I sat through the theories of the pointless like any other typical school day, pretending to be alive when I was actually bored to death long ago.
When the lunch bell finally rang, everybody rushed out the classroom.
I put one elbow on the desk, supporting my head with the hand and stared out the window; thinking about absolutely nothing. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when a hand landed gently on my shoulder. I turned around and found Apollo smiling down at me.
“What?” I demanded.
“Are you planning one spending your lunch sitting here staring out the window?”
“So what if I am? So what if I’m not?”
“In that case,” he said as if he didn’t hear me, “come with me.”
Apollo grabbed my hand and pulled me up, I tried to struggle free but his large hand had a way-too-tight grip on mine.
I followed him unwillingly. And like I thought, he brought me to the rooftop. When he finally decided to let go of my hand, we were in the middle of the rooftop platform facing a glass-built greenhouse.
That was new.
“Behold,” Apollo said formally, holding out his hand, as if inviting me to the greenhouse. “The work of our class; a greenhouse.”
“Great,” I said emotionlessly. “You brought me here because…?”
“Thought it’s quite amazing,” he grinned.
I stared at him with a look of confusion, maybe it’s an Apollo thing, cause the greenhouse didn’t appeal any interest to me.
“Come inside,” he said as he walked towards it and opened the glassy door.
I did as he said.
The greenhouse was filled with different types of flowers, like a normal greenhouse would. The glass was in a light shade of teal, which made the whole environment inside seem teal. It wasn’t big, only about half of the size of a normal classroom. In the middle of the greenhouse sat three bamboo chairs around a round bamboo table with a milky white cloth led on top.
Apollo looked at me proudly, waiting for me to say something. I nodded slowly. He frowned but smiled at the same time, confused about my feedback, “what’s that supposed to mean?”
I paused. “This would be considered impressive for a class of humans to build, but you were a part of this class, so I really don’t have anything to say.”
He let out an attractive smile and took a step closer, I didn’t move.
“I worked, as a human.”
“I wouldn’t know that.”
He didn’t response, just standing there, only two feet away from me.
“You know,” he suddenly said, grinning. “I’ve always wanted to impress you, but it’s harder than I thought.”
His response threw me off. Why would my opinion matter to anyone?
“Why?” I couldn’t help but asking.
He took a step closer, closing in the distance between us to only one foot. He stared at my eyes, and I did the same; back into his almost golden eyes. My heart started racing, odd.
“I don’t know…” he murmured, leaving his sentence unfinished. “Perhaps…because I’m attracted to you…”
I froze, my mind racing. I must have heard it wrong, or misunderstood the meanings of the senseless words that came out of his mouth.
Attracted?
He leaned down slightly, leaving not more than a centimetre between the tips of our noses.
What is he doing?!
—I knew exactly what he’s doing.
No!
—That was not my true thought.
Why isn’t my body moving?!
—I knew I didn’t want to move.
My heart went completely out of control, no longer in its usual pattern. My eyes were wide open, though I wasn’t able to see anything else but Apollo closing in on me.
The moment before my heart stopped beating; before the distance between us became absolute zero, the door leading to the rooftop opened.
In the door way stood Hermes, her face was frozen when she saw the position the two of us were in. The others’ heads popped up in the door way behind her, and all together, they froze in shock.
I felt Apollo loosen his grip on me as Hermes let go of the doorknob and took huge steps and walked towards us. She grabbed my arm and ripped me away from Apollo.
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!” she screamed, her expression twisted with anger.
“I actually don’t know,” I said calmly.
“Nothing,” Apollo answered.
We stared at him. Nothing?
“Maybe I misunderstood what just happened, but you were about to kiss me!” I said.
He didn’t respond.
“Oh please!” Hermes continued to yell, “He was about to kiss you?! Who do you think you are?!”
She paused to look at me, waiting for some kind of feedback. I stayed silent, so she continued, one word at a time: “You. Are. Pluto! The tiny little ice ball in the corner of the solar-system who nobody sees! The tiny little ice ball who was kicked out of the solar-system in 2006! Why do you still exist anyways?!”
Kicked out of the solar-system in 2006? Thinking back, I did remember the teacher saying something about Pluto and the year 2006…
I didn’t respond, or change my facial expression. Her words seemed to mean something more than what they were meant for.
Why, did I start to think that I was “together” with Apollo and the rest? Because he said I was? Why, did I let all this happen? Because I was falling for him? I was falling for the Sun who I’m the furthest away from, the one who’s way too different from me; too bright, too warm. Well, I was.
Why, do I still exist?
Why, do I feel this tingling inside me, why does it feel like something’s rushing to my nose?
“I’m aware of that. And there is no reason of my existence, one day, someone’s going to realize that,” I answered and headed out the door, didn’t bother to look back.
—Ever again.

I was walking at a very slow paste down the hall to my last class for the day when a voice ran out from the speaker. “Would Aiden Apollo, Isabelle Hermes, Michelle Aphrodite, Mitchel Ares, Crystal Poseidon, Kerry Uranus, Alex Zeus, Austin Cronus and Faith Hades please go to meeting room one for an important NASA meeting?”
The halls felt silent once again after the voice repeated the announcement twice. I sighed and turned back to the way I came from and walked towards the meeting room I was supposed to go to.
The meeting room was at the end of the hall on the first floor, almost impossible to miss. The massive doors were painted black and had a large sign which read “Meeting Room 1”.
I was the last one to arrive; everybody was already seated when I walked in.
“That should be the last,” said the principal, whom I realized was sitting on the first chair on the right behind the large oval table.
“Wonderful!” said a man in a suit, who was standing in the front.
I sat down on the only available seat beside the last person I wanted to be beside—Apollo.
The door close behind me and the man began. “A few days ago, we had a meeting with all of you, not me, of course, but NASA. We tested your knowledge and discovered that you are just what we need. But, you are not old enough to be a part of NASA yet.”
I was starting to wonder when he’d be getting to the point.
“Today, we are just asking for your opinion and vote. It might not affect the actual decision, but we will take it into consideration. Okay, let’s get straight to the point,” he paused and straightened his tie, took a deep breath and said: “NASA and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) wants to destroy Pluto.”
I felt as if a rock had been thrown right into my stomach. Why?! Before I could speak up, Apollo took the words right out of my mouth.
“As you know,” the man explained, “Pluto’s path; the one it follows to revolve around the sun, has a part in which it overlaps, or crosses Neptune’s. We predicted that, soon they will crash.”
“That’s a lie!” Apollo suddenly said coldly. Never in my life, have I heard him speak in such tone.
The man stood in shock, perhaps wondering why Apollo was so mad. Then slowly he smiled. “Why would you say that?”
“Prove it, then. Show us your calculations, and I am sure I can find some mistakes.”
The man froze. “Young man,” he said to Apollo, “I see that you are too intelligent to be tricked in such a way. Okay then, I’ll tell you the truth.”
That was an unexpected respond.
“It’s been a very long time since Pluto’s been considered as a dwarf planet. Its existence lasted longer than we expected. We thought that one day it will run into Neptune and cause an explosion. NASA needs to prevent that. In addition, we’ve been space mining from Pluto for ages; all its useful materials are drained out. It’s useless now.”
Apollo clenched his teeth, defining his jaw line. The room fell silent.
Something was caught up in my head, keeping me quiet.
“That’s it?” Apollo said, still coldly. “Is that the only reason? Only reason to destroy a planet? To interrupt the ways of nature? Just because Pluto was strong enough to keep evolving around the Sun longer than you think so you want to destroy it? Humans used up everything Pluto’s got and now you just decide to destroy it because it has nothing to offer anymore? How do you even know that Neptune and Pluto will come across each other? Nature has its own ways of preventing these things.”
Once again, the man was shocked. He swallowed hard and said, “Do you believe that nature has its own ways? Then it shouldn’t have made the two path cross in the place. Science is way more reliable.”
“You said we are here to vote, well let’s do that,” said Apollo, “I object.”
The man didn’t respond, he stood in front of the room and waited for the others’ votes.
Apollo didn’t seem to notice that the reason for them to make up a reason to destroy Pluto is because they had already decided to do that, they just wanted others’ votes because they don’t want people to think that they just go do whatever they want without anyone else’s opinion.
It surprised me though, a lot. That everybody voted “no”. Well, now that I think about it, if Apollo’s against it, they really don’t have a choice but to do the same. The nine objected. The man in front of the room voted “yes” himself. There were ten other people in the meeting room who haven’t voted, including the principal.
I supposed that the nine people were working for either NASA or the IAU, because they all voted for destruction. The principal voted “no”.
Ten to ten. My vote was the final vote, the tie breaker.
“I think we have our answer,” said Apollo.
“What do you mean?” the man said, “it’s a tie, we still have one person who didn’t vote yet, it’s a 50% chance.”
Apollo grinned.
—I know what I want to vote for.
“Yes,” he said
—but why…?
“I agree with NASA to destroy Pluto,” I said calm, cold, and quietly.
The air froze.
“Okay, that settles it,” said the man in the suit, “that will be all for today, I have another meeting to go to, so if you’d all excuse me.”
He reached out for his belongings and soon walked out of the room. The others all stood up and started to gather their things. While the ten of us sat perfectly still.
“Faith…” Apollo murmured. “Do you know what you just—”
“Perfectly aware,” I tried to keep my voice calm, but it came out shaky.
I got up and headed out the door.
The inside of me was hollow; crushed; dead. I was breaking down. Why? Why…
I almost stopped inches away from the door, but a force made me keep walking. If I stopped now, then there would be no point in doing what I just did.
I understood, the reason why I brought me to my own death. I understood the whole time that the second Pluto was destroyed; the second that my heart would stop beating.
It was time to bring the situation around. These humans needed to realize that they can’t just take whatever. I will be the last sacrifice nature had to make to satisfy these beings. As he said, you can’t just destroy and move on after taking everything.
I was just hoping now, that when I was gone, Aiden would realize that he could do way better, than me.

Part 2
Aiden Apollo

The star who gave us everything,
The one who lights up our world,
He grew to be aware,
That no matter how bright and warm a star can be,
It can’t chase away the darkness in every world,
Those just might be meant to stay untouched,
And frozen…
 
I watched as her figure disappeared out of sight. A voice kept screaming her name inside my head. I wanted to run after her; beg her to stay; to hold her gently again; to hear her say my name, but my legs refused to carry me.
Finally, I pushed away whatever it was keeping me back and made a run. I needed her, that was not a choice anymore, but obviously she didn’t need me.
Faith’s figure came into view again. She stopped when she heard my footsteps.
I too, stopped a few feet away, searching for the words to say.
“Why?” was the only thing I could think of.
The sun was setting, the rays shot through the windows in a shade of orange red. We stood silently beside a roll of lockers as I waited.
“Many reasons,” she said almost carelessly.
I didn’t bother asking for more details, I knew her well enough to know that she would give away no more.
Faith began walking again; unknowingly, I grabbed her and wrapped my arms around her waist. My body didn’t seem to need my brain’s instruction to do this. I felt the strong need to stay like this. I rested my head on her shoulder, close to her neck, drenching myself in her familiar scent.
“The best thing and the only thing you can do right now,” she suddenly said. “Is to leave.”
My heart sank. I never thought I would hear that from Faith, never. She unwrapped my hands from herself and took a step away from me. Walking away so fast it was almost like a run. The way she said the words…it was more than a simple “leave me alone”, any thought like that would be naive at this time. It meant more, something deeper, darker.
“And we voted in her favour?” came Isabelle’s voice from behind me, “she gave up herself! She’s really not worth it Aiden, just let her…die or something!”
It felt as if she had just set my body on fire. I clenched my hands into fists, my eyebrows locked into a frown by anger. I suddenly spun around and punched the locker beside me with the side of my hand so hard I felt it the door sink in. They jumped.
“Just let her die?” my voice, too, was shaking, from anger. “What has Faith done to make you all hate her so much?! The fact that she’s Pluto?! Someone’s got to be the furthest! In that case, since you are all so obsessed with this whole compression s***, then how about I just have one satellite?!”
I was losing my humanity. My body temperature rose to become closer to my body outside of Earth, I felt the locker door melt and the liquid running down my hand.
It was a long moment of silence. They stared at me, terrified.
I withdrew my hand and let it fall beside me. Faith seemed to have mattered to me more than I imagined. Confused about everything, I had no idea where I was heading, so I just let my legs carried me wherever.
—Maybe somewhere, I will find an answer.

It was nearly midnight when I finally stopped walking. I looked around trying to locate myself. I was standing on a grassy field, the city shone around me, only leaving out this field dark and empty. I sat down and stared into the sky, letting my hands touch the soft grass to support my weight.
Somewhere up there, was a little ice ball, spinning, evolving around me. Perhaps too small to be considered a star; too dark to be seen. Every time I closed my eyes and listen to what is not there to be heard, I would hear the voices of the stars that revolved around me. The voices deep down, the ones perhaps, they—themselves, would not even hear.
I tend to search, for the tiny sobs, the ones that were so small they were hardly heard. The voice of Pluto…
—“I’m just that far away.”
Perhaps, it was because I was the only one who tried to listen…
—“Perhaps even you can’t change that.”
Because Pluto was spinning in the corner of the atmosphere which people tend to forget about…
—“So let me be the last sacrifice, so you can make a difference.”
I paused.
—“Cause you are too good. Too bright, too warm and you don’t realize that I’m too small and dark to be loved.”
My heart sank.
I stood up and broke into a run; one that’s too fast for the human eyes to see. The voice inside my head started screaming, and once again, it was her name.
—the biggest difference wasn’t between love and hate, it was standing there, not being able to tell you the truth about my feelings; just how much I love you.

I felt vibration inside my left pocket. It didn’t stop me from running, but I slipped my hand into the pocket and grabbed my cell phone.
The caller ID showed “Principal”. Why was he calling?
“Aiden!” the deep voice came out the phone as I answered.
“Please make it quick,” I begged.
“This is important!” he said
I waited.
“Looks like the IAU already made their decision before they confirmed with us,” he continued. “They are moving way faster than I thought.” He paused.
“And…?” I asked.
“They are sending up a device up to Pluto; a new device they just made, I’m not sure how it works, but apparently, it will remove 85% of Pluto’s gravitational force. They said if the satellites are separated from the planet itself, it will make destroying it easier.”
I stopped dead, my breath became unsteady.
The satellites acted as a supporter of the planet, they leave their mother planet, they take a bit of life with them. What the hell do they think they are doing?!
“Aiden?”
I hung up.
This was getting way out of hand. I wasn’t sure how much time Faith had left, I wasn’t sure how much time I had left with her.
Why was I so surprised, or perhaps even scared about the fact that she’d be gone?
I started running again.
Because she meant more to me than I thought she did? Because I didn’t realize what I had until I was about to lose it? Or is it because I never thought that she’d be gone so now that she was, I couldn’t even imagine a life without her? When did she start mattering so much to me?
I stopped at the sight of that house. The house at the end of the block with the walls painted black; the curtains-covered-windows; the lifeless front yard.
I stepped up the three flights of stairs and knocked lightly on the old door. No answer. I knocked again and waited. A moment later the door slid open. I waited for Faith to appear behind it. Three seconds later, she finally decided to set herself apart from the darkness (Faith was able to become one with the darkness, she would not be seen unless the darkness is gone, when she will be forced into her own body again).
“What?” she demanded.
“We need to talk!”
“You need to talk.”
“Fine, I need to talk to you.”
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“It’s important.”
“My rights to not talk to you are also important.”
I got myself caught up into one of Faith’s word tricks again.
“It’s very important,” I said.
“Then speak, and make it quick.”
“I need to go inside.”
“You don’t need to.”
“People will see.”
“Don’t mean they will hear.”
I stopped trying. There was no way out when having a conversation like this with Faith.
“They are separating the satellites from Pluto,” I finally lost my patience.
She stayed silent for a moment, and then said, “I know.”
That came out too calm to be normal. I frowned.
“Is that it?” she asked.
“Well…” I mumbled, trying to think of other things to say.
“Good night,” she said as she closed her door.
I placed my hand on the door and pushed it back open, my force overlaying hers. “I heard Pluto’s voice,” I suddenly said. Her eyes widened a bit.
Faith stood frozen, glaring at me. Finally, she took a step back and let me in the door.
The last faint of light disappeared as I closed the door behind me, I heard her footsteps fade as she walked deeper into the house.
“Mind if I turn on the lights?” I asked.
“Help yourself.”
I put my hand on the wall beside the door and searched for the light switch. The lights flickered on as I tapped the switch. The house hadn’t changed since the last time I was here.
The living room had two loveseats opposite from each other. In the middle, separating them was a square, wooden table. Beside the loveseats was a black, flat screen TV; the perfect size to fit itself onto the wall.
Faith settled herself into one of the loveseats and stared at me.
“Do you know when they’re sending up the machine to remove Pluto’s gravitational force?” I asked, seating myself in the other chair.
“Yes,” she answered motionlessly, “tomorrow morning, at eight, they’re launching it.”
Silence.
“The voice,” she reminded me.
“Oh, yes. So from my understanding, you think sacrificing yourself will have a positive impact on our current situation?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” I couldn’t help but let that slip out.
She stared at me with her overly dark eyes; not at all shy. “One less planet to take from. They need to realize that the reason we exist is not so they can take advantage of us.
“But I still don’t understand.” I said quietly.
“That’s too bad,” she said as if she was annoyed. I knew she wasn’t. “Why do you care so much?” Faith added.
Silence.
How could she be asking that?
“Isn’t eight satellites enough?” She continued.
“More than enough, but if this is how it’s going to be, I’d rather have Pluto as the only one. You just don’t get it do you? The concept of love.”
She paused again.
“For you to know the reason why I chose to die wouldn’t change anything. They’ve already made their decision before seeing us. My vote didn’t matter to them.”
“It matters to me.”
“It shouldn’t.”
Why was she trying to keep me away?
“You know right?” I tried to change the subject, “that if the satellites are separated from the mother planet they take a bit of life from the planet itself with them.”
“Yes.”
“And that each satellite takes away 0.5% of your life. And in your case, since you have three satellites, you will lose 1.5% of your life.”
“Yes.”
“You’re scared.”
“No.”
“Lie.” We kept our sentences very short.
“How would you know?”
“How wouldn’t I know? You revolve around me.”
“I don’t like to think about myself that way.”
“Me either,” I said, leading her to what I really meant. She glared at me again, clearly she understood.
“What are you trying to do?” Faith asked.
“I’m not so sure myself.”
Silence.
“What are you planning to do before they destroy you?” I asked. That took a lot of courage to ask.
“Nothing.”
Pause.
“Faith,” I said softly, shocking her. “What am I to you?”
She paused then said, “Aiden Apollo. Sun.”
I almost laughed. “That’s it?”
“Perhaps…” she continued as if talking to herself, “something more…”
“Like?”
“I don’t know.”
“I do.”
“That made no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense.”
“Explain.”
“I love you.”
“Nauseating,” she said, changing the atmosphere around us, seemingly not that intense anymore.
“Shut up and listen,” I liked the new atmosphere.
She did as I said.
“And you love me right?”
“Do I?” she questioned.
“Of course you do,” we were starting to joke around with each other now. “Isn’t that enough? Why do you care about whom I am or whom you are? Why do you care about anything other than the fact that we love each other?”
She stopped and stared at me, her expression said “seriously?”, then she said, “because I’m not Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. I don’t fall blindly in love and think that nothing else in the world matters. This is reality. If I eat a poisoned apple, I would die no matter who it was that kissed me. If I fell asleep for one hundred years, I would die no matter who came and tried to wake me. And even so, maybe you’ve forgotten, we are not humans. We have responsibilities they don’t. What do you think will happen if Pluto decided to get closer to the Sun? In our worlds, we are not the decision makers, the creatures in the solar-system are. We live, so they can survive.”
I stared blankly at her, my mind racing. Being the Sun, I’ve never thought of that. I knew, that she was not cold from inside out. Indifference was just her armour, to protect what was inside. Though this was the first time, I’ve ever seen Faith care about someone else other than herself. I’ve never thought, that she lived, so the others could survive.
“Those words are too big to come out of my mouth,” she suddenly said, keeping her voice low. “I’m not like the Sun. I don’t need to live for the others to survive. That’s why they decided to destroy me in the first place.”
Another first. First time, I’ve ever heard sadness in her voice.
I moved to the edge of the chair.
“You would be a better Sun than me,” I said. That was true.
“But I’m not.”
“You’re scared,” I said again.
This time, she didn’t deny it.
“Will you remember me afterwards?” I stopped pressuring her.
“Remembrance…” Faith murmured. “Would that still exist after death? What would happen if a planet dies?”
“Some things must remain mysteries, but one thing you have to promise me,” I said, “Don’t do anything, to leave me earlier than you already do.”
“Promises can be easily broken, but okay.”
Obviously, she didn’t expect it, the fact that I would suddenly hold her so tight in my arms. “This one won’t,” I whispered in her ear, maybe it was a bit nauseating. “Because from now on, I will never let you out of my sight. Not even for a second.”
“What if I needed to go to the bathroom? Or shower?” she joked.
“I think I know that we don’t need to do that. Not humans, remember?” I said, still hugging her tightly.
“I feel imprisoned.”
“Don’t.”
“Then you need to let go of me.”
I did.
“Are you going to leave sometime soon?”
“I said I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am,” I was.
She didn’t say another word about the subject.
“I didn’t get to do what I wanted today,” I suddenly said, thinking about Isabelle’s interruption on the roof.
“Yesterday. It’s long past midnight,” Faith corrected.
“I really don’t care,” I closed in the limited amount of space that was between to an absolute zero.
Faith didn’t seem to enjoy or deny the kiss, guess I can’t blame her.
“It’s harder to stay away than to say goodbye,” I said as she pulled away.

“It’s too late anyways…” she mumbled before our lips met again.
—How much we both wished, that this moment, would last for millennium.

I stared at her, this time with something more than just watching. The wind soared past her, making her hair fly wildly in the air. Faith leaned against the iron bars with her back to me a few feet away.
A month ago, the IAU decided to destroy Pluto; the same month when Faith lost her satellites, which took away 1.5% of her life, though it didn’t affect her much.
“Don’t you ever get tired of this place?” I asked.
“No.”
“You’ve spent every day of the past month on this roof, how can you not?”
“Because,” she paused and turned to face me, “this is the only place where I feel like I belong.”
She said it so casually, but I knew it meant more depression than it sounded.
“Why?” such a rhetorical question, but I wanted to hear her say it.
She smiled at the rhetorical-ness of it. “Because I have nothing else to do, nowhere else to be,” she purposely stepped around the real answer. “I saw the news this morning,” she said, the smile disappeared from her face.
My heart sank.
“Yeah…The date’s set,” I continued, the point wandered between us.
“April 29th, that’s next week,” she reminded me.
“I don’t want to be reminded,” I said, funny how that came out of my mouth but not hers. She seemed to be braver than I was in this. Seemed.
Faith walked closer and wrapped her arms around my neck. I wrapped mine around her waist.
—For as long as this will last, please, just hold me like this, once more.

I could tell that there was still fear within her.
It was the 28th, one day left.
That morning when dawn arrived, I found Faith sitting with her legs crossed in the loveseat in the living room. When she noticed me she mumbled, “I wonder how I’m going to die…”
“Don’t—”
“Heart attack?” she interrupted, guessing the outcomes. “Or would I just disappear? Would my body just shut down?”
Her face gave away no emotion, making me unsure whether or not she was scared.
“Don’t think about it,” I continued my unfinished sentence.
“What will happen after I die?” she continued as if I didn’t make a statement.
“Faith!” I almost yelled out.
She stopped.
“I saw the news…They’re launching a ship up to space right now,” Faith said quietly, “it will arrive tomorrow, the ship carries an explosive substance, they will use that to destroy Pluto…”
I buried her into my arms, where she was shaking violently. It was as if the fear that she was supposed to be feeling for the past month but didn’t was attacking her all together at that one moment.
“I’ll be with you till the end,” I tried to comfort her.
“I will never forget you Aiden,” Faith murmured.
I froze for a short moment at the sound of my name. Her voice, saying my name…
“I won’t either,” I responded.
—When you can’t possess anymore, the only thing you can do is not to forget.

5…4…3…2…1.
I counted down the last five second as the hour hand moved to point at 10. One more hour left.
Faith locked herself up in her room two hours ago and hadn’t come out since then. I walked slowly up the stairs to her room. The tip of my nose was only inches from the door when I stopped.
“Faith?” I called as I knocked, “You’ve got to come out sometime soon.”
No answer.
I knocked again.
Still no answer.
“Faith?” I revealed a little wary in my tone.
Silence.
I turned the door knob and found her door unlocked. Slowly pushing it open, I was left with an empty room. No Faith.
It was like as if a rock had fallen into my stomach, I spun around almost smacked open every other door on the second floor. Empty. I ran down the stairs and checked every room on the first floor. Empty. It was like she disappeared out of thin air.
Such perfect timing, when the doorbell rang just when I didn’t have time to answer. I rushed to the door and yanked it open, strongly wishing that the person standing behind it was Faith. But what were the chances of that?
Grace, Isabelle and the rest stood crowdedly in the door way. Grace was not smiling for the first time.
“I knew you would be here with her,” she said in a husky voice, “I want to see her, before…”
She trailed off. It was a demand, but I couldn’t grant it.
“I can’t find her…”I said quietly, as if a toddler feeling guilty for making a mistake; big mistake.
“What?” she questioned, I wasn’t sure if she really didn’t hear what I said, or was she just not sure of what the statement was meant for.
“She’s gone.” I was more certain this time.
“Have you tried looking for her?!”
“Would of, if you guys didn’t come.”
Grace was shocked, but not angry. Her glare had a mixture of confusion, sadness, and wary. She opened her mouth, then hesitated, then said, “We should all go and find her, but I think the only person she wants to be found by is Aiden.”
I paused. Then…It hit me.
I pushed my way through the small crowd in front of Faith’s door way and started running. They looked back at me with confusion. Then I heard Grace mumble, “they’d be fine” before I became one with the wind.
I knew where I was heading, the only place that belonged to us, and only us. She would be there, like she was every day.
Even at this speed, I couldn’t race with time. There were only 20 minutes left after the long travel to our school. I rushed up the stairs, all the way to the roof.
It was my last hope, please…
The door was opened by a tiny crack. I slowly pushed it open, almost afraid to look. But she was there, her back turned to me, her hair flowing in the wind, leaning on the iron bars, like any typical day.
My heart settled. I walked swiftly towards her, and wrapped my arms around her waist; hugging her from the back. I leaned my head on her shoulder.
“Why did you just disappear?” I asked, almost in a flighty way.
She didn’t answer, just stared blankly into the motionless landscape.
“You got me so worried, all of us. I’ve never been like that, ever.”
Still silent.
“Don’t ever do that again,” I said in a soft voice, but it was a demand.
“I won’t have the chance to,” she suddenly said, assuring me that she was still alive.
I froze. It felt as if a knife had stabbed me right in the chest, I felt something inside me darken, disappear, or die.
Her voice was so calm, yet so cold. I buried my face in her shoulder, letting her dark hair surround me. Her scent, so familiar, yet so strange.
“Please…” I begged, locking my eyebrows into a tight frown, then slowly closing my eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was let go. I felt movement in my arms, her shoulder struggled free. Then, I felt her breath, so close. I opened my eyes and found hers inches away from them, dark and mysterious.
Faith surrounded my neck with her arms, bringing me another inch closer. She frowned lightly, revealing her pain. The ones deeper in. I wanted to hold her tighter, tell her to not leave me, but that wouldn’t change anything. The ways have been set, not waiting to be changed.
I shot a quick glance at the watch on my left hand. 10:55. Five more minutes. My mind seemed to shut down, the only thing directing me was the voices deeper down, the ones which screamed to be heard. That moment, nothing mattered anymore, I didn’t care if what I was about to do would make things more difficult. Slowly, I closed in the distance between us, so close that her face became blurry. One slight movement could send our lips touching. Her eyebrows knotted tighter, but she closed her eyes.
“I don’t care anymore,” I whispered, answering her unasked question, “just one more time…”
I silently kissed her. This was not the first, or the best, but it meant something more than any other. Perhaps a goodbye; a forever; an oath; a secret, everything, in that one moment.
Everything I couldn’t tell you; everything I didn’t have time to do; everything you’ve ever wanted. I’m giving it to you. Just one more time…
She kissed me back, though I could still feel her frown. It was deeper, her kiss. Like we will never come across a moment together ever again, and I knew, that that was true.
And then, she pulled away. But still keeping our foreheads attached.
“It’s time,” she murmured.
I kept my eyes wide open, as if the second I blink she’s going to be gone. I wrapped my arms tightly around her, as if the second I let go, she’s going to disappear.
There was no sound, neither of us spoke. I wondered what they showed on TV, how violent the explosion would be. But at the same time, I didn’t want to know.
Faith’s lips suddenly found mine. I was shocked, but managed to keep my eyes open. Then I realized that she was…disappearing. Her legs, glowing. The lower calf was gone, and replacing it, were little glowing floating objects, almost like fireflies. I watched one fly to freedom, getting further and further away, until it was nothing more than emptiness.
She felt it, she must have, because tears were running down her cheeks. Faith, the cold and mysterious girl, who was always so strong, had broken into tears. Those crystal-like liquids running down her face tore me apart.
Faith slowly separated her lips from mine when I suddenly grabbed her into my arms.
“Please…don’t leave me,” I couldn’t help it anymore, knowing that it wouldn’t change anything, I still felt the need to tell her everything. Perhaps so that she would remember me; my voice. I was like a child, begging for the one thing that mattered, to stay. It wasn’t too much to ask, not at all, but the more I wanted it, the further away it was. “Please…” why was my voice shaking? I should have been the strong one protecting her. “Don’t…”
The glowing objects had engulfed her legs, leaving her upper body supported by floating light. Then slowly, her hands disappeared, and then extending to her arms…
“No!” I screamed, my eyes watered and the tears blurred my vision. Yet in that situation, I still tried to hold it in. I placed my hands on her cheeks, trying to get a hold of whatever was left of her. Tears ran straight down from her eyes, stopped by my fingers, changing their straight paths to go around my hands.
Slowly, Faith closed her eyes and stayed perfectly still. No movement, no words. Just disappeared into the dim light.
I stood in silent, on the empty rooftop. Motionless and soundless. It felt like every piece of me had been broken down, into ashes, dust.
She was gone.


Anyone, anything, who gives, deserves something in return. Like the sweet sorrows sang by the heart, like the teardrops that fell soundlessly, she gave, but asked for nothing in return. The Sun eventually learned to love her, to see her for who she really was, he thought it was natural, for her to be there with him, forever. But one day, she was gone. Will he remember the last smile that she put on, just for him?

150 years later

When you’ve learned how to reform that smile after despair,
I want to be the one to show you
that beyond what you are capable of seeing,
There is a tiny spot of light in the everlasting darkness,
Just waiting to be discovered.

 
I’ve watched it change.
From the school which once belonged to us, to an empty building, then being broken down to wasted materials, and now, to ashes and dust.
Everything came and went before my eyes. I was too dull to notice any significance within them. I refused any change, afraid that something will try to replace the one person who mattered, to push away those memories I had of her. One hundred and fifty years as I remembered was not long. But how long and miserable this seemed, since my last sight of her before she disappeared.
Coming back to Earth again, I took form in my old body. What was I expecting? There was nothing to recognize.
I stared blankly at the ashes. It was odd, how it was surrounded by a circle of thick forests but this place itself didn’t seem to fit in. Green, healthy trees; dark, burnt ashes. At the very least, her sacrifice has taken its tore, we have our organic Earth again.
“You must be the odd boy who’s here all the time,” a voice came from behind me. I jumped. The voice seemed so familiar, but so strange at the same time.
I turned around slowly and found myself facing a girl, no older than 16. Her long black hair was put into a high ponytail extending all the way to her waist. Her eyes, were pure black. How much she reminded me of…
“Faith…” I murmured. Then rejecting the thought.
She didn’t seem to catch that. “Don’t worry, I’m just a human being,” she said, as if knowing exactly what I was thinking. “Do you believe in reincarnation?” She continued to herself, suddenly changing the subject to something complete different.
My heart skipped a beat.
“I do,” she said, not waiting for my answer. “Did you know that 150 years ago, the sun had nine planets revolving around him?” she said, as if having the conversation with herself, then again, changing the subject.
She spoke of the Sun using the term “he”, which will only be used, normally, on a living creature. As if she knew…
“Pluto…I wonder if anyone still remembers that name,” she continued.
I stared at the girl with disbelieve. All the memories came back to me, rushing to my mind.
She suddenly looked up and stared straight into my eyes. “You do, don’t you?”
That meant something more, I was sure.
A smile flashed across her face. “Even if it was just a dream,” she said lightly, “I’ll still accompany you, until its final chapter.”
That moment, was the first time in 150 years, when I felt something brighten inside me.
I smiled helplessly, as if finally seeing hope. “Until the final chapter,” I said, “with you.”