I DON'T KNOW YOU

32.) suffer the children

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• F U N N E H •

    I stood there, quiet but with a smile. Peculiar, I know. To think, we could've just been killed in a cave-in and our friends and my parents are being threatened by the enemies we forgot about. And yet, I was smiling. Not because of the joke anymore, or because we had survived the cave-in, but because somewhere in my mind I felt closer to the end than before.

There was a feeling rising in my gut, telling me we were in the eye of a hurricane. That there were storms and winds pushing everywhere around us, but we could not see them. And the thing about that, is that the calms come to an end. And our case is no exception.

     "So, what now?" Aly questioned, dusting off her shoulder and arms, "where do we go now?"

"We retrace our steps," Draco explained, "I mean, that's our safest bet, isn't it?"

"That would mean going to that.... cave or mine," I started to say, "but I doubt any of us actually wanna go back underground so..... maybe we could afford to skip it."

"If we skip that, then that means going to that mushroom house we found," Draco advised, already starting to walk away.

"I don't think I ever took the time to say this, but your home is absolutely crazy," Kyran commented.

"You aren't wrong," Draco laughed, pulling off his hood, "things are a lot different here than other places."

    "If different means strange, then yes, things are 'different' here. But I suppose it's a good type of strange," Aly agreed.

    "You get used to it after a while," I shrugged nonchalantly, "okay, that's a lie. You adapt to it. Because let's be honest, I don't think anyone just gets used to any of this."

    "What have you guys done?" Evan asked curiously, walking alongside all of us.

    I shrugged once again and Draco replied with, "Eh, what do you think we've done?"

    "Quite frankly, I'm terrified to ask," Kyran chuckled, shaking his head.

    "And you should be, you sheltered child. You should be," Draco remarked.

    "But really, what have you guys done? I mean, you can't be telling us this stuff is like normal for you guys," Aly commented.

    "You would be surprised actually," I started to explain, "now, take this for example....."

TEN MINUTES LATER......

     "So I'm standing there, tortilla still in my hand, the Elf-On-The-Shelf swinging from the ceiling fan, and the tea is just spilled everywhere—" I interrupted Draco's story.

    "Guys, we're here," I pointed out, motioning with my hand towards the mushroom-house, "wow, it really doesn't look any different."

    "I didn't even get to the part with the shrimp and the tuba!" Draco whined in a playfully offended tone.

    "I know, I've stopped everyone, even J.K Rowlings, from hearing your 'Ray Bradbury level' story but this is important," I joked.