As with most things in life for her, this happened all too easily. Where others would have struggled, she had flawless execution.

They forgot her.

For good.

She took the clothes from the bedroom she once shared with Georgia and left everything else. As far as her cousin was concerned, she'd never lived with another child. The toys and gifts from internet ladies were hers all along. She'd never had to share with anyone.

"I don't think the chickens will care," Luna said, standing on the roof with the backpack from Pink. She'd taken out the book and held it for Donner to see. "I'm glad Ant didn't get us a dog yet. I'd be sad about leaving a dog behind."

Flipping through the pages, not a word made sense to either of them.

"I've never seen runes like these. I do not know this language. It is either ancient beyond comprehension or something brand new. One does not simply create and use an enchanting book like this. There are innate rules of the universe tied to this sort of thing."

"What did they have to do to make it?"

"It takes multiple mages of incredible power to create something like this. I don't think anyone with that capability lives today, much less several. Not for the last hundred years, if not longer."

"So it's super old? So old that you never saw these kinds of squiggles before?"

"Yes. But, this is what you used to make that portal?"

"Yup. I shook it around and the words all fell out."

In her mind, he shook his head. "In any event, that's something for a later time. For now, go back to the vampire mansion. With any luck, he's gone and we can figure out exactly what to do next."

As it turned out, there wasn't any luck.

"Why am I not surprised?" Donner sighed.

Silently, Luna said, "I think this might be better though. At least he never went to the Annex. He doesn't know where I was before this." That was for the best. He didn't know anything about Ant and Georgia at all then. She'd been a bit worried that he would go, try to find her, and they'd realize she wasn't showing up anywhere. Who knew what kind of trouble that would have brought?

Ji-hun, though, wasn't surprised to see her, which was concerning. On top of that, he had her letter.

She'd returned to the main hall, intent on checking for the postal delivery, and there he was. Her father. Who killed her.

"He doesn't know you died," Donner said suddenly. "He doesn't know where the portal goes. All he knows is you got back out, which is strange enough, but not as bad."

Okay. She could work with that.

"Hey, Mister," she said because she wasn't supposed to know who he was. "I'm pretty sure that's my letter. It's a crime to open mail that isn't yours."

She heard his voice for the first time. Saw his slow, easy smile. "So it is. Unless, of course, you are a child of my own."

She asked Donner, "What?"

"There are spells to keep others from intruding on one's privacy, especially with official information coming from the government. However, you are a child, he's your father, and he can open your mail. I told you he'd be informed of a child's existence upon returning to the country, now he knows it's you."

Lots of bad luck today!

"I don't know anything about that," she said, stoutly. "I don't have a dad. Or a mom. Are you a liar, Mister?"

"No," he looked at the paper, "Luna. As it turns out, I'm your father. What a happy surprise." But he wasn't trying to hide it, his real self on full display. "Who is your mother?"

"No clue."

"Really? Now, who's a liar?"

"Why would I lie? I don't know. She left me with this bag and stuff here a long time ago. I've been here ever since."

He didn't believe her, she could see that, but Donner told her, "Whatever he says, stick to the story. He can't prove you wrong. The records don't exist."

Ji-hun stared her down and she said, "I'm not calling you Dad, got that? I don't know you. Are you a pedophile?"

The sway of his head was off-putting. He was… Not pleased. Not quite angry, she didn't think, but he didn't like this. That much was clear. "And what have you been doing here? You didn't survive infancy on your own."

"Of course not," she scoffed. "I had a vampire guardian. Cædmon. He went with me to get that letter. I don't know what happened to him, though. He left and never came back."

"Stop there," Donner told her. "Giving too much information is a sign of a lie. People tend to go overboard to prove themselves. If he asks for more, then you give it, but not before that."

"And what about the other vampires?" he approached, lowered at the knees so he was level with her. He raised his hand and touched her head. She pushed that hand away and he smirked.

"I don't know. They were gone."

"I've been here before," he said. "There was never a child."

"I've been here my whole life and there was never you. So." She said to Donner, "I don't like him. I don't like him."

"I know. But you need him to get into Arcane."

A pair of black shoes were suddenly beside her and she looked up, and so did Ji-hun.

"Ink Pen?" in her head. "What the fuck is he doing here?!" Ink Pen made the same strange tilt of his head that Ji-hun did and Luna wondered if they were related. "That's it. He feels like Ink Pen but worse. More real. I hate him. I hate him."

"Control yourself," Donner ordered. "Things are stirring in your mind. I don't want a repeat of the fire!"

"Another one," Ink Pen said as Ji-hun stood to look over the new arrival. "I don't understand you," he said, looking down at the child. "But whatever you do, they all follow. To what end? I don't know. Why did the fates allow this?"

"How would I know?" she answered with a question, flatly. "Maybe they were bored, too."

"Maybe," he allowed. His black gaze returned to Ji-hun. Someone he seemed to recognize. "I can't do anything about this one, even if you wanted me to. He's yours to suffer with."

"How did he know?" she asked Donner. "What is he talking about?"

"I know less than you do."

Everything sucked. This was trash.

"And who are you?" Ji-hun asked the man who seemed dead. Was this the man he met once before? Yet he was a bit different. "What do you have to do with my child?"

"Your child?" Ink Pen asked, as amused as it could be, which wasn't much Luna thought. "Is that the game? Strange." He turned to Luna. "You and the other one, I can see where you may have made a plan. But him? No. You didn't know he would be here." A predator. All tooth. "That would be his way, though, wouldn't it?"

His teeth were pointed. Too many rows and flashing white. He wasn't acting human now, not at all.

Luna turned away from the obvious monster to speak to the less obvious one. "Listen, if you are my dad, and I guess you are, then all I need is for you to take me to school so I can enroll. I don't need you for anything else. Do that and then get lost."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

His eyes met hers. "I don't know about that."

"I do."

"You are in no position to order me around."

"This argument," Ink Pen said. "I've heard it before. What says, Death?"

Luna gave him the side-eye. "Who's Death?"

"If you don't know, I won't tell you."

Her eyes rolled so far back she could almost see the inside of her head. "Stop it, would you? Do you have to be like that? Can you not help it? For fuck's sake!"

"What a foul mouth my child has."

"I'm a girl, Mister!"

"I don't like to put too much emphasis on things like that."

"Oh yeah? Well fuck you too."

"Luna!" Donner in her head again. "This is going badly."

Yeah, it was, but what was she supposed to do about that? Ji-hun was a whole son of a bitch and something else, if Ink Pen knew what he was talking about. Her dad was bad enough without the rest of it. She didn't want to know.

"Forget it, Ink Pen. Don't tell me. I forgot? Fine. You don't think any of this matters, so why are you here? Go back to space."

"Why don't you?"

"I can't breathe out there dipshit!" She was losing it. Forget Arcane Arts. Donner was gonna have to live with it.

"Oh no I won't," he growled."I will make your life hell."

Three men and a little girl. Wasn't there a movie about that? Ant watched it before. She didn't think it was like this though.

"All I want to do is go to fucking school!" she shouted. "Just get me enrolled, you bastard! Go live your degenerate life or whatever. You didn't know about me before, so go on like I wasn't even here." It was easy!

"How old are you?"

"I-"

"Six, Luna! You're six years old!" She could see him walking away with a hand over his eyes. "For fucks sake-"

"Six," she said. "So I think I can go next year. Arcane Arts. That's where I want to go." Try to bring it down a notch, she told herself. Get this done and it's over. It's a pain in the ass but in the big scheme of things it's nothing.

"If he cooperates," Donner said, tone warning, "it's because he wants something. Don't fall for it. You must remain on guard."

He didn't need to tell her that.

And where was Ink Pen?

She spun on the spot. "Gone. That motherfucker."

Even Ji-hun was disturbed by the revelation. The creature that wore human skin. There were tales of such things, perhaps it was the one he saw before, and it spoke odd words. Things that made his blood prickle. Something within him rose to the surface and then flowed back down. A feeling he'd never had before.

Someone else.

Inside him.

And who was this Luna? Luna Rysing.

A prophecy.

"Fine," he said. "You have no mother you say and you were here all this time. Fine. You want to go to school. Arcane Arts does not regularly admit children at such a young age. One that I know of." He surveyed her. "It seems you might be the second."

"Whatever," she spat. "All I want is to go to fucking school is that too much to ask for?!"

"If you use words like that they'll cane you."

"They can try."

He grabbed her by the ear and she yelped. "You will not besmirch my good name, child. Watch your mouth." He shoved her away and she stumbled. "Whoever you are," he said, "wherever you went when you fell through that portal," his eyes burned, "you are a child of mine and you will not disrespect me."

"He pushed me," she said to Donner. "I didn't fall in by accident!"

"I know." He was watching the man closely through her eyes. "There is something off about him. He has a plan now, though I don't know what it is. It would be better to do as he says. I think I've told you, I don't believe him to be sane."

She didn't remember, but she believed it. It was in his eyes. The glow. He was crazy, too.

Why were there so many psychotic people in her life?

"Okay, but what do I do now, Donner? Where do we go from here?"

"Apologize."

"No."

"Do it."

"No."

She wouldn't and he couldn't make her.

The world froze.

"Foolish child," said Father Time.

For a moment there were no wars.

There was no peace.

There was nothing as the Ink Pen almost won.

"Hell no," Life said, and the spell was broken. She was the other one. The one who knew. The one who remembered… Most of it. "I didn't do all this for you to interfere, old man." To be honest, she wasn't sure what was going on with the rest of them. Whatever the case, she wasn't done and he wasn't going to end it. "You have no further part here. Keep on stepping."

"Be honest," he said. "This is not what you thought it would be."

"I didn't think anything. Leave. I want it to play out no matter how maddening."

It was a peculiar sight. Life, a child, at odds with Time. Yet he was bound by an oath to respect her wishes.

Why he even bothered to try and dissuade her was beyond both of them.

"What a waste," he said as the hourglass turned once more, and the current again turned swift.

Luna blinked and in her head, Donner did too. She shuddered. That felt eerie. Whatever 'that' was. Something happened, she knew it, but neither of them could say what.

"I'm not apologizing to him. I didn't do anything wrong."

"The threat of swearing at school, Luna. That single thing is what he's taking issue with. Deal with that and move on!"

She didn't want to. She wasn't supposed to be the bigger person, he was. He was the adult here. Supposedly her father, though she wished that was wrong. She was six! Why should she say sorry?

"It's a cultural issue," Donner told her. "That and the fact that the magical community takes this sort of thing more seriously in general. You do not need to make a blatant enemy of him. Humble yourself for a moment and he underestimates you. Humble yourself now and later you will crush him."

It was hardly a moment, but it felt like forever that the words turned over in her mind. She didn't want to. This guy didn't deserve it. He pushed her into a portal with no idea where it went, he'd talked down to her through this whole encounter, and he was clearly nuts.

"Crush him later. I'll even help you if you want me to."

"I won't swear at school," she spoke suddenly and twitched. "I wouldn't have even if you didn't say anything."

"The vampires didn't raise you well," he said, but Donner was right. The ire was gone. He looked less insane. "Where will you go?"

"Nowhere. I can stay by myself. I'm not a baby."

A curt nod. "Mind your manners, child. They're the one thing that matters in this world."

He was gone.

"What the fuck."

"What the fuck indeed," Donner agreed.

The orange ball that was the setting sun filtered through ivy-covered windows. She remembered Donner telling her it was trained. How long ago was that? Hours. It'd been a few hours. Cædmon was gone, and the other vampires too, she met her piece of shit father and now she was alone. No more Ant, no more Georgia. No more chickens.

She wasn't going to cry though.

"At least he doesn't know about them," she told herself more than Donner. "It's okay."

"Luna, it is alright for you to not be okay."

No, it wasn't.

She didn't know how she knew, but she did. It wasn't okay for her. Somehow she deserved this. Everything she got was what she deserved. Pink dying, Ungle's death, and now Ant and Georgia were as good as dead to her, too. Ji-hun would be dead as soon as she could get rid of him.

"Everybody dies," she said aloud. "Everybody. I can't win against death. Does that mean this doesn't matter?"

"I don't know. According to Ink Pen, Death is someone to be addressed."

"Oh yeah. That has to mean something since Snowman did, too. He said Death won. But was that real or part of the ruse?"

"The fact that they both said it leads me to believe it's plausible. We don't think of it much, but your apparent deity lends itself to that idea, as well. If there is a Life, there must be a Death."

"Is that Ji-hun? Was Ink Pen talking to him as Death?"

"I'm not sure. It didn't seem so."

"So someone else is Death. Or, maybe, Death is invisible to people but Ink Pen could see him?" She wished things didn't have to be so complicated. "In other news, I'm hungry and I don't think this place has a microwave."

Food wasn't a problem for her and she ate her fill of whatever came to mind.

"This whole day was awful," she said to Donner. "I don't even want to go to sleep. I don't know what I want to do. I can't sit still. I have ants in my pants!"

She was very jittery. Shaken by the whole ordeal and it was no wonder. It went about as poorly as it could.

"It was quite the day," he said.

Stuck in her head as ever. What bothered him now, was how used to it he'd become. The days slid by and here he remained. While he had some hope in Arcane, he was doubtful. This situation was beyond his understanding. How could Life itself take on the persona of a child and why did he become involved in this manner? Father Time, Death. Ink Pen, destruction. Or silence. What was Ji-hun? Anything at all?

He'd thought himself so close to achieving the pinnacle of humanity. It turned out, humanity wasn't what he needed to contend with. Actual gods and he had no way of knowing if they were on his side. Luna, in her way, was. But she was a child, through and through. Fickle and emotional.

What would she do, when he was finally removed and returned to his own body? In the best case, she would find a way within her first year of schooling. She would be seven or eight then. With her reason for being there gone, she was liable to walk out and never return.

She wasn't trustworthy. Life? It seemed so, but with no memory of herself. Instead, she was overpowered and lacking wisdom. He imagined she would follow him around making things difficult.

He didn't even know what he would do anymore.

World domination felt inappropriate at this point, but it had been his goal since childhood. What would he do, if he let that go?

"Take over the world," she said to him. "You might as well. What else is there to do? People live and then they die. Except me, I guess. And maybe you, since you're not dead. Your soul is outside your body. I wonder if we'll figure out how that happened. I'll help after we crush Ji-hun, like you said."

There went a floating vase.

"Does this mean there are ghosts in space?"

"No. But it does mean the portal isn't closed."

"Dammit!"