“The loneliest people can be the kindest. The saddest people sometimes smile the brightest. The most damaged people are filled with wisdom. All because they do not wish the pain they've endured on another soul.”

-Timothy Delvecc

I found myself in a place I hadn’t seen in... Jesus maybe ten years by now. It wasn’t a very interesting place to see, just a plain white room with a few beds and a couch, all white as well. Well.... one bed had been replaced. It was replaced with a coffin, symbolizing one of them had been destroyed completely.

On the other four beds, beside the one I “woke up” in, were sleeping figures. All of them looked like me, except for a few differences. One had pitch black hair tied in a ponytail, another had blood red hair that was disheveled, one had blonde hair, and the last had brunette hair with a few braids in it.

One bye one, they all woke up and sat up in their beds, looking around. When the black haired one looked at me, she frowned, and her dark gray eyes looked much more tired.

She sighed, “Sarah.... I didn’t really expect to see you here again.” She spoke tiredly and with a lot of sadness in her voice. That’s Tristi for you, always sounding depressed.

Tristi got up from her bed, and a black suit appeared around her body.. She walked over and sat next to me, then put an arm around my shoulders and sighed, “I honestly hoped never to see you here again.”

I nodded, “Me too. I really never wanted to come back.... I thought what happened with,” I looked over at the coffin, “her would’ve made it so this never happened again. Looks like I was dead fucking wrong.”

The red haired woman stood and walked over, red jeans and a red tank top appearing on her body. She glared down at me with hatred in her red eyes, “So what? You thought killing that hungry bitch would fix anything? If anything, it made it a lot. Fucking. Worse. ‘Cause now that she’s done kicking us down, we have a chance to return in full swing!” Fucking Ira, never knows when to just be fucking calm.

The blonde haired one stood up, and a yellow dress appeared on her body. She walked over and placed a hand on Ira’s shoulder, looking at her with concern in her gold eyes, “You really should calm down, Ira, it’s not healthy to act like that...” Cordia, always being nice to others. Even the ones that don’t fucking deserve it.

The brunette stood up last, and a brown dress shirt and dark brown dress pants and shoes appeared on her. She walked over and shook her head, looking at us with brown eyes through a pair of glasses, “Why must the lot of you disagree so often? We are all sisters of the mind, we should treat each other with equal feelings.” Tia always was the voice of reason when I used to come here so many years ago.

Ira shouted at her, “Shut up! She already killed one of us! So who’s to say she’s not going to do the same to all of us, huh!?”

Cordia looked at me worriedly, “You.... You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

I shook my head, “No, I wouldn’t. I hated her because of what she did to me. You guys hardly ever do anything, except for maybe you Ira, and I would feel bad for killing you all.”

Ira spat at me, “I’d like to see you hold up on that. I mean, look at Tristi! She’s made you want to kil-”

“Shut up, Ira.” I said coldly. “I don’t care about that. I even agreed with her, and I still kind of do. I don’t want any shit from you about that, you have nothing to do with that anyway.”

“Enough.” Tristi said, “We are not here to argue with each other, or make accusations. We need to talk to you, Sarah. We haven’t appeared in so long because we didn’t think we could ever help you. Now, though, you have a chance to change yourself. But if you keep acting the way you do, there is no chance you will ever be different.”

I looked at her with confusion, “What do you mean?”

Tia sighed, “You are horrible to others, plain and simple. You went through so much, and suffered all throughout life, yet instead of taking these as a reason to treat others well, keep others from suffering as you did, you instead choose to treat others harshly. Why must you do this? You have no reason to, yet you still do it.”

“How am I supposed to fucking act?” I ask her desperately. “I was treated like shit almost all of my life! That’s all I fucking know anymore!”

Ira grunted, “Why don’t you fucking take from that treatment and turn it around? You know how to treat others wrong and be treated wrong, so just do the fucking opposite! It’s not that fucking hard, moron!”

“Oh what do you fucking care!?” I shouted at her, “You only ever yelled and screamed at me, and put me down for everything!”

She pushed me down and got right in my face, screaming, “I’m trying to fucking help you, dumbass! Unless I fucking nail this shit into your fucking mind, you’re never gonna fucking get it! And besides, I’m your fucking anger! What else do you fucking expect from me!?”

I pressed myself down into the bed, eyes wide. Cordia came over and gently pulled Ira away, “Now Ira, please calm down a little. She’s obviously under stress, and pressure... Constantly.... So you should try and be nicer, at least somewhat.”

Ira glared at her for a second, then shrugged her hand off and sighed, “Fine, I’ll fucking try to be nicer, Jesus....”

Cordia smiled at her, then sat down on my other side and hugged me, “You really should try to be nicer though, Sarah. Your friends deserve it, they always treat you kindly, so you should return it. You know what it’s like to be treated badly, you know what it’s like to be put down, so you should make sure you don’t do the same to those around you....”

I sighed and looked her in the eyes to see that she was crying. I gave another, heavier sigh and hugged her back, “I know.... I know I should, but I just... It’s so hard to do...”

She gave me a pat on the back, “I know it is Sarah, but you have to try, at the very least.”

“Or you could just take care of every problem and end yourself.” Tristi muttered.

“Not helping.” Cordia and Tia said together.

Tristi shrugged, “The only thing I can say, sorry.”

“I know, just.... Keep it to yourself, please.” Cordia then turned to me again, “Do you understand though? You should at least try and treat your friends better, for their sake, and yours.”

I slowly began to nod and said, “Alright.... I’ll try....” It won’t be easy...

“I know it won’t,” Cordia said, “but it will be harder in the long run if you don’t try at all.”

“Okay, I understand....” I looked around at all of them, “So I guess I’ll be seeing you guys later?”

They all nodded silently and went back to their beds, their clothes disappearing as they went to sleep. I slowly laid down and fell asleep too, ready to get back to the real world.

Next Chapter: Arc I-II, Intermission V: A quick resolution Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes