The Shrink Program

Epilogue.

Throwing stones in glass houses.

Made me think the whole window stabbing thing must have been some sort of pre-emptive karma, because the entire time I'd been calling Alan and Alex's mother bat shit crazy, I'd been ignoring the fact that my own parents were also a few cents short of a dollar.

Involved with an illegal organisation? Taken hostage and stabbed? STABBED. Multiple times. Multiple stabbings of daughter. Starvation? Insanity? Betrayal? Ball gowns? Just Trauma. All the Trauma.

...Sure, they might not be the most attentive parents in the world... but I like to think they would hesitate to hand me back to the people who let a group of teenagers save the world...though technically, the Shrink Program had tried to stop us... but that just makes them even more incompetent!

But no. One heartfelt apology from Reece, a single bat of those sincere blue eye, and my fate was sealed. All was forgiven, and I was left cursing the small Supervisor's irresistible charm.

Reece I could understand, but they didn't even get angry at me! After hearing about everything that had happened, my parents had taken me aside and made sure I knew.

I had a good heart.

No matter what trouble I got into, they believed it would always be for a good reason, and trusted that I would try my hardest to do the right thing.

Staring up at their love-filled gazes, I came to a decision. The moment I got out of here, I am kidnapping Monica.

I'm a lost cause, but she still had time...if I could just get here away from these lunatics, she might actually grow up into a respectable adult....

Then, after saying how much they supported and trusted me...

They handed me over to Devin.

Literally.

They put me in his hand and watched on with fond smiles as my little brother reminded me just who was the real authority figure in my life.

...It was even worse than I had imagined...

I would give details, but the entire ordeal has been locked away in the deep dark place in my mind where I go to cry.

And today, almost an entire month since the day Devin converted me to sainthood, my brother had finally calmed down enough to speak to me.

It was such a big deal, I'd gotten special phone privileges. Cause who knew how long the forgiveness would last?

I held the phone up to my ear with a sense of foreboding.

"Hello...?"

"You Idiot."

Not even past the initial greeting. Apparently.

Still, it might not be too late to escape...

"Um ...Wrong Number?"

"You hang up on me..."The voice on the other end dropped to a deadly flat. "...and I'll personally come over there and tape you to the closest ceiling fan."

Well. In that case.

"Devin? That you bro...?" I gave a nervous chuckled"Sorry, your murderous intent was just a little hard to recognise over the phone..."

"You could have been killed!"

Oh...We're starting now? No small talk first...? Okay then...

"Funny that you would bring up death at a time like this..."

The shouting began. So loud and violent, I had to hold the phone away from my ear...then put it back, when Devin screamed at me to hold the phone properly.