First of all, I am so, so, SO sorry it took so long to update! I've been having problems with my computer, and my files being deleted, and crap like that. . I hope you can all forgive me.

~Hmfan5535~

"Do you have any idea what trouble you've caused me?!"

My father's painful grip on my arm only tightened, even though I didn't even bother to pull away. I just kept my eyes on my feet, kept myself walking, as he practically dragged me along. The street was deserted, so he made no effort to pretend to be a good father, giving me a good cuff on the ear when I didn't answer.

"Finally getting together with someone, finally attempting to stop being so pathetic, finally attempt to get your lazy rear-end out of my house, and then you ruin it by two-timing behind Barrett's back?!"

I had never seen my father so furious, even after the nights he had spent at the bar, drowning his sorrows in alcohol until he was effectively removed from the bar because of his wild behavior, and escorted home, where he would usually find me, and, in a drunken rage, beat me until I was covered in purple bruises, and blood. Never had I seen him so furious, when he came to collect me from the hospital after, having confessed to Natalie every feeling about Kyle, Barrett had revealed himself from the hallway, where he had heard every cursed word I said, and effectively ended the relationship between us.

I had stopped crying long before my father had even arrived. I hadn't even let myself cry much; just a few tears down my cheeks, and then I detached myself, as I had learned long ago to do, and forced the tears back. I now felt nothing; I was completely numb, with only the hint of red around my eyes, as I stumbled alongside my father, doing my best not to fall as my injured knee throbbed and smarted.

My father shook my arm roughly as we neared the chapel, nearly knocking me off my feet. "Do you have any sense in that head of yours, girl?!"

I figured I'd better speak up now. Better getting beaten for being defiant than for no reason at all. "I-I-I wasn't t-two-timing…K-Kyle kissed m-m-me…"

"And you kissed him back!" My father hissed, giving me another stinging slap across the cheek. The tears welled up in my eyes, but I didn't let them fall as he shoved me violently through the door. I ended up on my hands and knees as he slammed the door behind him.

"You're insolence will not be tolerated!" Before I could get out of the way, he slammed my head down onto the ground in one, punishing blow. I felt my nose, already crooked from the severe beatings I had endured all my life, break once more, and blood gushed out of my nose. I could taste it in my mouth. I stayed down, knowing better than to try and get up.

"No one wants you now! How does that feel, Dorothy? To be unwanted, to be unloved?"

For some reason, the usual crippling fear that always seemed to control me was absent. I looked up, and saw my father standing above me, nostrils flared, face contorted with rage, and only felt hate.

I sat back carefully on my heels, and deliberately spat the blood in my mouth onto the floor, wiping away the excess on my face. "Cammy wants me."

He froze, and, for the slightest moment, his eyes were uncertain; he wasn't used to me fighting back.

"What was that?" He asked, his voice low and dangerous.

Instead of lowering my eyes to hide from the hideous anger, and, knowing it would earn me a vicious beating later, I said, in a loud, clear voice: "Cammy wants me."

"Insolent child!" A swift kick to the face; my already broken nose cracked once more, but I ignored the pain, and shouted as loud as I could,

"Natalie wants me!"

"Silence!" Something snapped in my chest when he slammed the side of his walking staff into it. I doubled over, wheezing and gasping for the breath that had knocked out of me, and waited for the next blow. All of the blood from my nose was running steadily down my face, mingling with the blood from my mouth.

A tiny, little voice in the corner of my mind noted with black humor that I could drown in my own blood, killed by my own lungs, just like my mother had.

By the end of it, I was laying on my side, bloody cheek pressed against the wooden floor, coughing, and hacking up blood. I only managed to choke out a single sentence before everything went completely black.

"K-Kyle….wants me…."

And then I floated away into the peaceful blackness.

~*~

Red was all I seemed to be able to see. Red, and the pain that snaked across my body were the only things the made sense, and my mind flickered between the two, trying to concentrate.

Red, pain, red, pain, red, pain, Kyle.

Kyle…

A brief flash of his sweet face behind my eyelids. I would've smiled, had I remembered how. In my mind's eye, he was standing sideways, glancing back over his shoulder at me, the wind gently tousling his red hair like a caress, brown eyes sparkling as he laughed at me, silly, awkward, dying me…

At least he was happy to see me.

Kyle…I'm sorry…I miss you, Kyle, and I hope you're okay. Can't you come home now? I promise to make more time for just us- no Barrett. Why do you hate him, Kyle? He's a good man- really, he is. But you hate him so- why? Kyle, please come home.

And Kyle?

I think I'm in love with you.

~*~

Round, and round I go. Where I stop, nobody knows.

I had been walking for Goddess-knows-how-long, and my legs ached, my muscles burned. My body begged for me to stop for the night, set up camp, but I kept moving forward, knowing all too well that if I stopped, even for a second, the memories would come over me. Knowing that if I slept, even for a second, she would haunt my dreams.

The shadow of a far-off mountain darkened my world, and I smiled to myself, angling towards it.

Round, and round I go. Where I stop, nobody knows.

~*~

It was a long time before Cammy found me.

I was…happy, locked in my little dream world with Kyle, and I didn't want to leave, so it took her a long time to half-rouse me from my state.

"Dorothy? Dorothy, oh, goddess, please don't be dead…"

My face felt stiff; I knew the feeling all too well- dried blood. I managed to crack one eyelid open the tiniest bit. Fuzzy at first, Cammy's anxious face slid into focus.

"…C-Cammy…?"

"I'm here, Dorothy, I'm here. Oh, goddess…"

I tried to sit up, but she wouldn't let me; she gently pushed me back down, wincing when I flinched. "H-how…how bad…am I?"

She bit her lip, and then just shook her head. "Bad. Very bad. I have to get you to the Clinic."

"N-no…! They'll find out!"

"I don't care." Her face set in a stubborn pout. "Natalie will fix you up. So you can be better. So you can be happy again."

"Cammy…"

She shook her head, cutting me off. "No. I'm going to get Natalie."

"Cammy, don't-!"

But she was already up, and running, and there was nothing I could do to stop her.

Oh, goddess. Now what was I going to do? If they found out, my father would go ballistic…

Cripes, I was in trouble.

Kyle…please come home…

~*~

The sun rising in the sky didn't seem as pretty as it normally did.

I was still hiking, dragging my exhausted body up the side of the mountain. I wouldn't stop until I reached the top; I knew I would be too tired to dream after all the physical exertion, so I pushed myself.

But, more importantly, I was moving farther and farther away from home with every step.