"What?" Evanora asked calmly, possibly trying to see if she'd heard me right the first time. Which I'm sure she did.

"I want to sneak out of Euros and go to my parent's house." I repeated, a bit slower this time.

"Circe, I'm sorry, but do you hear yourself? Do you know how insane you sound right now? We had a close enough call two days ago with your mom. Are you going to try to risk that again?"

"No...Yes...Maybe...I don't know..." I sighed in aggravation. "Honestly, Evie, it's not about the risks. Seeing my mom that close...Being right there, physically...It kind of just...It triggered something in me. I don't know I guess I just need... I need..."

"Clarification." Evie finished.

"Yeah. Exactly."

Evanora's eyes softened a bit as she looked me over. From what I remember, Evanora and Victor had never met their parents. They'd been given up as infants. Their House life was all they'd known before I'd arrived.

But even I could tell that Evanora noticed the connection I had to my parents. She sighed and walked over to her closet to find some appropriate clothes. "Okay, fine. But we have to make this quick. If we get caught, we might as well be dead."

I couldn't suppress the giant grin that began to grow on my face.

_ _ _ _

I motioned for Evanora to quiet down behind me. She practically glared daggers at me as she flicked another spider off her shoulder. "You know, if you wanted to spy on your parents, there are more practical ways of doing it without having to creep through bushes."

"Yeah, I know, but we're closer this way." I reasoned. "I can see a lot more than I would have if we were anywhere more obvious."

Evanora sighed and shook her head, "Okay, whatever."

I looked up at the window above me, which, if my memory served me right, would give me a clean view of the living room. Usually, after work, my parents would sit down on their self claimed couch and talk about their day. I would usually be in my room. Now that I think about it, I wish I'd spent more time with them. Now I can't talk to them at all, and there was never a time that I wanted to hear them more.

Slowly and cautiously, I leaned upwards and peered into the window, making sure to hide my bright white hair in my hoodie.

Sure enough, both my mother and my father were on the couch. But instead of talking about their day, they were, quiet, more distant. They were even on two separate sides of the couch, with enough space for two people to sit in-between them. I furrowed my brow.

My dad finished reading whatever he was reading in his newspaper and sighed, glancing over at my mom, who was occupied with something on her phone.

"Mira, will you please stop that?" He placed his hand over the screen to get her attention. "I'm pretty sure you've read every article about that incident already. There's no evidence of her being there. She WASN'T there."

Mom looked at him furiously. "Were you there, Keith? Were you the one trapped in a burning building? Were you the one buried under all that rubble beside a dead body? Were you the one who-"

"Alright! Okay! I get it! All I'm saying is that this is unhealthy. The doctor said that you were under a lot of stress in that moment. You were scared, so maybe your mind made up something to comfort you, and get you through it."

"I AM a doctor! I know how events like that work! I know good and well how to identify how a hallucination feels and that was NOT one! I saw her! I felt her! I was literally face to face with her and I held her close to me and I hugged her! I HUGGED her, Keith! She begged me not to tell anyone or else she would DIE! SHE WOULD DIE! But I told YOU! Because you're her father! I see now that that was a mistake because you think I'm crazy!"

"You really don't think I'm suffering right now, Mira? You think that everything is all sunshine and rainbows to me over here! It's not, alright! That was my baby girl! I raised her, too! I protected her! Then I found out she was one of those...one of those THINGS?! Do you know what that did to me?! How it affected me?!" He ran a hand down his now redden face as he tried to calm himself down. "I felt...I felt betrayed, and I felt violated. I gave all my love and affection to her, and she was the exact thing that I feared."

I felt myself stiffen up. He honestly didn't even see me as human anymore. He said I...betrayed him? I would never hurt him. I would never hurt mom. I loved them too much, I held them too near and dear to my heart to do that to them.

"Truth be told, I'd rather sit here and think she was dead without any proof than go on knowing she's still out there." My heart shattered into a million pieces. My own father wanted me dead...dead. He'd rather sit in his living room and think I was dead than know for a fact that I was breathing? My vision blurred and my head began to throb as I struggled to hold back tears. Why? What did I do to him that made him hate the Elementalist side of me over the side that was his child?

Evanora placed a comforting hand on my back as I sat there, wide eyed, and broken hearted.

"How could you even SAY that?! My mom demanded, standing to her feet. "That was your CHILD! She still IS your child! And she's out there, doing God knows what to survive! And you'd rather her be dead?!"

My father stood up as well, his eyes cold and clouded. Angry, I realized. "That creature," He began, "That monster, is no child of mine."

With that, he stalked off, leaving my mother alone, staring at the floor where he once stood. She sniffed softly and hugged her shoulder, sobs racking her body until she couldn't even stand anymore, she just fell to her knees right there, crying messily, her hair covering her face from my vision.

I turned away from the window and gulped as I pulled my hood off of my head.

'Creature'

'Thing'

'Monster'

My father's words replayed in my head like a broken record. Was I really that foreign to him now? It felt like just yesterday we were joking around as I got ready to go to that party. Now, he wouldn't even call me by my name.

I stood up suddenly, shoving the bushes out of the way and preparing to leave.

"Circe! Wait!" Evanora hissed as she freed herself. She caught up to me in no time and looked up at me sadly. "I, am so sorry that you had to hear that." She practically whispered.

"Its fine, Evie." I said simply.

"No. No it's not." Evanora run forward to block my path. "And honestly, forgive my language, but your dad is an ass if he thinks that you are any of those cruel names he called you! You are strong, and capable, and beautiful, and sweet, and way more human than he'll ever be, you hear me?" She said fiercely. Her eyes twinkled with a protectiveness that could rival Alex's and stared at me intensely.

"Don't believe anything he just said, understood?"

I felt a warm fuzzy feeling explode in my chest. Here was Evanora, a girl who I'd only known for at least half a year, protecting me and trying her hardest to convince me of how much of a douche my father was, despite all the hell that she'd gone through ever since I'd stepped into her life. This was nice.

"I understand." I said, smiling softly. "Thank you Evie."

Evanora's protective face slowly melted into a soft smile. She opened her mouth to speak, but a voice that was not hers rang out in the darkness.

"Oh yes, thank you, Evanora, for that heart filled speech. Though it didn't clarify anything for me, except that Circe is still a weak little bitch after all these months."

I tensed up and Evanora and I turned towards the sound, our faces going pale upon realizing who it was talking to us.

"Nice to see you girls again."Hira mused, smirking as two guards walked up to stand by her side.