Whoooosh! This is it, guys! The last chapter! As agonizing as this was (at many times), I can hardly believe I'll be done (for the year) after this!

Amelia Valencia: I felt like cheering when I was finally out of the jungle of Flyleaf songs. That was genuinely ridiculous. xD It was? Ohhhh. Oops. I can get sunburned when it's cloudy out, and then instead of becoming tan like it's supposed to, my skin goes back to its natural, ridiculously pale state. :3 Weeellll... not only am I a retard, I'm an accident-prone one. So, we're on the boardwalk, and there's tellings of it supposedly going to storm, but it hadn't been at first. So I'm in the ridiculously long line for a ride with my sister, and we get on, at that point thoroughly soaked by rain. But there wasn't lightning at that point. On the ride, launched into the air while encaged in a metal contraption, boom, bright blinding light, hair standing on end. Somehow we weren't actually struck though. xD What would you guys have done then? I was just curious. I almost always do if I read someone's songfic for a song I don't know. xD That's a great idea! I guess us three will talk it over at some point... uh... actually closer to next year. xD I know the music Obsidian and I listen to is worlds apart, so it'd definitely be... varied.

Right. THE FINAL SONG is: Fully Alive - Flyleaf (EP).

One of my favorite songs... but completely unhealthy lyrics for my brain to fit into a story near two in the morning. Particularly when today was one of my don't-focus-on-anything days.

Be prepared for massive unwittiness and dreadful descriptive...ness.

(Switched the word Demi for Layla, as this is a story for the Jellicles, not a random human)

Bombalurina's P.O.V., post-the Dem/Maccy occurance.

Telling Demi's story spoken,
'Bout how all her bones are broken.
Hammers fall on all the pieces,
Two months in the cover creases.

Demeter was... when the twins brought her to us... broken. There are no other words. About two months ago, she'd jump if a leaf fell to close to her. After she could stand on her own, that is.

What Macavity did, just judging on what so little she's told us, it was just awful. Especially to one so young. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer brought us a bloody pulp, in most respects. She took a while just to leave the full-out panic zone for most of us. She didn't even trust Jenny or Jelly when she woke up. They had a hard time dealing with her, honestly, but they needed to.

If Dem had been any worse when she was brought to us, I don't think she would be alive at all to be reaccounting what happened to her, even if she can only tell it in little bits and pieces.

Here she stands today...
In her brilliant shiny way.

For some reason, I was the first non-medical cat she trusted. Maybe because I was able to relate so easily. I was brought to the Jellicles beaten-down, dull furred, with dried blood staining my coat, but I was still concious, maybe a little more trusting.

But once she heard my story, what had happened to me when my parents left -or were killed, as I found out from a couple alley cats later- she started to talk to me, to trust me.

She told me that her parents willingly gave her to Macavity, and he gave them so treasure (most likely given to him by Mungojerrie ans Rumpleteazer) to fill her place.

She said it wasn't so bad at first, so long as you did what he told you, didn't upset him, he wouldn't lash out.

Then Demeter said Macavity just flipped out one day, and she still can't figure out why.

She was put into a tiny room, beaten every day for a reason she can't fathom.

She said, eventually, it felt like everything within her was broken, that there was no more pain to be added. She said that's when he stopped giving her food.

Then there she stands, in the clearing, sun glinting off her fur, talking kind of nervously to Victoria, her tail twitching every now and then.

Considering past events, even that much is progress for Demeter.

And yet it seems so unlikely that she should even be alive.

"Bombalurina," Demeter says later that night, chewing on her supper thoughtfully. "Do you think I'll ever be free from my past? Sometimes it feels like I will be... then a memory hits me and I just want to curl up in a ball and die."

It's kind of amazing, how blunt she can be sometimes.

I smile at her, just a little. I think it reassures her to know that, despite everything, she still can be a cause of joy. "Well, when you put it that way..."

She regards me just a little, green eyes focusing on something else, not what most cats see. "You do care about me. More than anyone else."

I incline my head towards her. "It's kind of like a little sister appeared out of thin air sometimes, yes."

Demeter grins. Then it fades. "It's kind of pitiful, isn't it? Two queens, no family, both beaten... One timid, the other bold. But both with futures. I can just tell."

"Oh, yeah," I say sarcastically, "Everyone thinks I'm going to pull a Grizabella and leave, then come back torn, dirty, and tired with nothing else left."

She raises her eyebrows at me. "You? A Glamour Cat? Forgive me, but I really just don't see it."

"Gee, thanks." I tell her, laughing.

Her eyes darken, and look down. "There was... they had a Glamour Cat there. I only saw her twice. You could tell she used to be, well, glamourous, but... no one is there."

"Hey," I say, tilting her chin up. "You got out. She will too. Jerrie and Teazer couldn't get everyone out. But they saw something in you that made them get you out."

Her eyes meet mine. "Or no one cared about me anymore, so me escaping wasn't really that big of a deal."

I'm about to say something when she closes her eyes and flinches away, walking over to her bed and curling up, but I can still see the face she made before she turned. Her gaze... it was so full of pain, and she looked so young... just like a kit. I don't know how she functions with all that inside her. I certainly wouldn't be able to.

Fully alive, more than most.
Ready to smile and love life.
Fully alive, and she knows
How to believe in futures.

That brings me to... well, now.

Demeter is currently free of the haunted look that filled her eyes for so, so long, years and years.

She is happily mated to Alonzo, and there are two furballs that make appearances quite often.

I still feel like she's my sister, but now, all of a sudden, I'm the one who feels younger. She has a family, she's happy, she's free from her past. I feel like I should be interviewing her on how to do that or something.

Demeter is... well, fully alive.

[A/N] That was... out with a whimper. Ugh. I feel like I need to make, like, a 5000 word epic bonus chapter or something, to make up for this obscenity.

Ick. Anyway, whenever I start this (along with maybe some other people, if you also want to get in on this... project at some point, PM me or review or something) up again next year or whenever, I'll post a note at the end or something.

I'm curious... Favorite chapters? Least favorites?
My favorites (just to write, not necessarily quality, 'cause I can do that :P) : Much Like Falling, Supernatural, and Sweet Sacrifice, actually.
Least favorites (BY quality) : Red Sam, Penholder, Believe In Dreams... maybe this one...

Counts:
Total deaths in this story: 21 (not including Grizabella in chap 4 or Demeter in 5, but including all in 7, Quaxo in 14 included)
Amount of suicides from deaths: 4
Amount of Flyleaf songs: 16 (wow...)

Hope you enjoyed!

~RedRubyStorm