They Came Into Our World

~8~

You don't have to read this poem if you don't want to, I just wanted to put it in here for some reason.

~~~

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

~~~

I woke up early, remembering I had just met the love of my life; Cole was sleeping beside me. I wanted to kiss him again.

I'm pretty sure everyone was asleep then. I showered (phew) and unfortunately had to change back into my old clothes (eww).

I was hungry. I probably wouldn't have much more money. What was I going to do? Go back home?

This was a huge mess.

During my shower, I had decided that I was going to have to tell them the truth. But I never got to.

"Anna?" Kai was knocking on the bathroom door as I was getting out of the shower.

"Yes?"

"People are here. You need to come out, like, now."

"I'll be out in a sec," I replied, and got on my clothes quicker than I'd ever gotten dirty (so gross) clothes on in my life.

"Who is it?" I asked as I came out like 15 seconds later.

"The police," Jay said quietly, voice shaking.

Cole was talking to them. Kai was standing next to Cole, me and Jay were almost huddled together behind them, and Zane was behind us (protective mechanism on our part).

"Anna, come here," Cole said when he noticed I was there.

"Hi, are you Anna McAlister?" the man at the door asked. He was a sheriff.

"Yes, that's me," I said, now shaking, and nauseous.

"You're not in trouble, but we're here to take your friends home."

My eyebrows narrowed. "Take them home?"

"Yes," he nodded. "We can explain."

"Ok," I nodded, too scared to think.

"Would you like to come out here for me to explain the situation to you?"

"Sure." I followed gingerly, glancing numbly back at my ninja.

"There was a technology incident," he said with a lowered voice as soon as we were outside with the door closed. "This has been a project for a while, and they finally got it to work, but they were generated in the wrong location."

"What?" I gaped.

"Those characters were created, brought to life, through technology, and we need to return them to where they came from."

My silence conveyed my shock.

"There they can go home," he continued, "where they belong. Back into their show."

"No, no," I gasped, "this whole thing is impossible."

"I know, it sounded impossible to me, too, when I found out." The sheriff had kind, brown eyes, and wanted to help. I trusted him.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"We will fly them up to Canada, free of charge, where they can be sent back home."

"I can't just leave them yet," I protested. "I have to go with them."

He glanced at the wall in thought. "I'm not sure if that will work. But I will see."

"Thank you," I said.

He nodded. "You can go tell them."

"Ok."

I shakily opened the door. They were all talking to me at once. I slowly closed the door, and collapsed to my knees on the ground. They fell silent.

"They... can take you home," I said slowly, without looking up.

"That's great!" Jay said.

"Anna, what's wrong." Cole knelt to my level.

"I can't tell you. Yet, at least. It depends. But I don't know if I'll ever see you guys again."

"Oh."

"Are we ready to go?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think we got everything," Kai said.

I nodded, and got myself up off the ground.

"I'm probably not leaving you guys yet, but can I have a hug?" I asked.

"Of course." Cole gave me a hug, and the others joined. I started crying.

"I love you guys so much," I sniffed, hugging who I could tighter and then crying more.

They actually hugged me.

That meant a lot.

I eventually pulled away. "Let's go."