Nissa slowly trudged home, dragging her feet slightly as she contemplated the math homework Mr. Gezenheit gave them. Were forty-seven questions on point-slope really necessary? Eventually, she reached home. Her legs felt like lead as she stepped through the door.

"Dad! I’m home!" Nissa called. She slowly pulled off her dark red boots, and wiggled her toes to shake the snow off of her sock.

"Dad?" she called again. Where was he? He was always waiting for her by the time she got home, especially because he worked the night shift.

"I-In here, Nis!" he called, from where Nissa judged to be the kitchen. She walked in and was surprised to see dinner already on the table. Usually she cooked, especially since he had a tendency to charr everything he made.

"Is it a special occasion?" she joked. He smiled, but it seemed tense. She shrugged and sat down, inhaling the smell of freshly cooked meat.

"Do you have homework?" her father asked, as he began cutting into his food. Nissa winced when she realized that it was slightly burnt. She nodded while chewing.

"Mr. Gezenheit gave us homework, and so did Ms. Greene." Nissa said, not even bothering to hide her distaste for Ms. Greene, "Do you know what Ms. Greene did today? She had me read my essay in front of the entire class, and was reading the mistakes out loud!"

Her father frowned.

"Do you want me to say anything? I could call Betsy..."

"It’s not necessary. I just wish she wasn’t such a-" Nissa began, before cutting herself off. Her father snorted. He had Ms. Greene as a teacher when he was in high school, and could confirm her general nastiness.

"I went to the doctor today." he said sometime later. Nissa looked up sharply, nervous. Anna Foxtrow’s father had gotten ill, and had died a few months ago. She knew it was silly to worry about, but ever since her mom died when she was a baby from Pollution Sickness, she was often anxious about it.

"Oh? Is everything alright?"

"Marcus Sawyer will give me a call by five, and we’ll find out. I just went in for a check-up, but since so many of the people at SoConv have been getting sick lately, Marcus thought it’d be a good idea for me to be checked out. Just in case." he answered.

Nissa nodded slowly, praying internally that her dad was fine. Conversation flowed awkwardly for a bit, as they both ate. After a while, they both stood up to do the dishes, and the phone rang. Nissa’s father walked over to the black phone hanging on the hook- he insisted they have a landline, mainly because of all the blackouts and brownouts- and picked it up.

Her father let out a scream, and she raced over. He had dropped the phone, and sunk down the wall. Her hands shook, and she picked up the phone, before hanging it up.

"Wha-What were the results?" she asked, swallowing down the part of her who screamed that she already knew the answer. Her father, her daddy, the man who raised her, looked at her with what could only be described as terror.

"Positive for Darklung." he said with his head buried into his hands.

Nissa had barricaded herself in her room, before dialling Ly.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up..." she muttered.

"Hi, you’ve reached Ly Vespin! If you’re Mom, I didn’t do it. If you’re Dad, I did it. If you’re Nissa, the answer to number four is six. If you’re anyone else, leave me a message after the- *beep*"

Nissa growled before throwing her phone at the wall. It hit with a satisfying *crunch*, and she cursed when she realized that she must have broken it. Miraculously, when she dashed over to it, it was still functioning, if a little dented. She redialled Ly, praying that she’d pick up her phone for once.

"Hello?" Ly answered.

"It’s Nissa. M-My dad ha-has Darklung, Ly! I don’t know what to do! I can’t lose him too! It’s not fair! I don’t even know how to handle this! I just, I-fuck." she half-wailed, half-sobbed. Ly’s breath froze.

"He has *what*? Wh-what? Do you want to come over? We can watch a movie, and you can explain to me exactly what’s going on." she offered, knowing that it wouldn’t be good for Nissa to be alone right now.

"I’ll leave once, once Dad goes to work. I should be there in an hour. Watch your window." Nissa replied, still crying. She hung up, not bothering to wait for a reply. She waited a good twenty minutes to hear the characteristic door slam and the sound of an engine turning over before zipping up her coat, putting on her dark gray hat, and slipping her boots on. She then checked the window to make sure her Dad was long gone, before opening the door and beginning the long, brisk walk to the Vespin’s home.

She enjoyed dragging her feet through the snow, and angrily kicking the snow-piles that built up, while waiting for Mrs. Vespin to go back inside. She sighed, and began climbing up to Ly’s balcony, before tapping on the sliding glass doors. Ly raced over, opened the door, and beckoned Nissa inside. She had a large bowl of popcorn, a box of tissues, and several large blankets all sitting on her bed, as well as her door firmly shut and apparently locked.

Nissa couldn’t help it, not really, but when she saw that Ly had prepared for her to come over within an hour’s notice, she began crying. Ly held out a phone.

"Text your Dad and tell him that we have a Student Bake Sale early, and that you forgot. And that you’re staying the night at my house."

Nissa hugged Ly tightly, before doing as she had asked.

They both fell onto the bed, nearly knocking over the bowl of popcorn, which Ly deftly caught.

"I don’t want to lose Dad like I lost Mom." Nissa eventually said, after quite a few minutes of silence. Ly nodded, shoving a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

"Y’know, my Mom caught Ashheart a few years back."

"Really? I thought Ashheart only had a few months’ life expectancy?" Nissa asked.

"Normally, yeah, but apparently my family has really strong genes from back in the Pure Ages. Before the Oil Slick formed." Ly answered, "But I was really worried for a few months. Apparently only one in a thousand sur- oh fuck, I’m not helping." she finished lamely. Nissa laughed through her tears, nearly choking on a popcorn kernel.

"Lyda Marie Vespin: Friend of the Year!" Nissa joked.

"Don’t call me Lyda!" Ly immediately said, punching Nissa lightly in the arm. Nissa swung a bright pink pillow at Ly (who narrowly avoided falling off of her bed), and they both giggled.

"Kids these days..." Ly pretended to sigh. Nissa snickered, before jumping off of the bed and digging through her backpack.

"I just realized that I didn’t bring clothes, wonderful." she said after a few seconds, groaning.

"Weren’t you just going to steal more of my clothes anyways?"

"Well, yeah, but wouldn’t it be nice to pretend that both of us know who’s top that originally was that’s sitting on the floor?" Nissa giggled. Ly rolled her eyes.

"And I thought that I was ’Friend of the Year’.." she replied. Both girls eventually stopped giggling, and the room was silent for a few minutes.

"I don’t even know what’ll happen if Dad doe-doesn’t survive, Ly." Nissa said, staring at a hole in a curtain, "It’s always just been m-me and him, y’know. All my other family’s been gone since before I was born, and now it’ll just be me, I guess."

"Maybe you can stay with us. Mom loves you to pieces." Ly offered, staring at a grey-speckled blanket sitting on the floor.

"I can not ask that of her! Besides, your mom already works too many hours as is." Nissa disagreed.

"Your dad works more than she does." Ly countered. Nissa shook her head harshly.

"I still can’t ask that of her."

"You can’t, but I can!"

"Ly, please don’t. I don’t even really want anyone to know about my d-dad’s Darklung yet." Nissa begged, looking straight at Ly.

"I’m asking her anyways!" Ly argued, shouting slightly.

"Why!?! I already asked you not to!" Nissa yelled, leaping up off of the bed.

"Because someone has to!" Ly stood up.

"Nobody has to!" Nissa argued.

"WHY CAN’T YOU JUST LET ME DO THIS?" Ly shouted loudly. A creaking could be heard below.

"BECAUSE IT’S NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUISNESS!"

"What are you going to do when your Dad dies then?!?" Ly screamed at Nissa.

The window that Nissa had crawled through shattered in a burst of glass and noise, as well a vase that had been sitting on Ly’s dresser.

"I hate you! How fucking dare you! I came over because my father, the only parent I fucking have, has Darklung, and you fucking dared to sit there and insult me! You’re a bitch, Lyda! Fuck OFF." Nissa screamed. Every bit of fear, hurt, and anger that had been bubbling up inside her since her father’s revelation burst out of her. It seemed to envelop the entire room, and the light hanging on the ceiling fan flickered with electricity, before bursting. A wind could be felt in the room, swirling around with each syllable, and it nearly knocked Ly over with the sheer weight of it.

Ly was hit with a realization, one so strong that she immediately opened her mouth without thinking of a single consequence.

"You have Fae-Blood, " Ly said without even considering their current argument, "That’s why your Mom died, not because of an illness!"

Ly’s mattress appeared to be crumpling itself into a ball while Ly spoke, before popping flat. A poster of Ly’s favorite musician, Adelai Mai, which was hung in a wooden frame came crashing down.

"And now you’re saying that I’m a LIAR? When I fucking told you everything I knew about my Mom because I thought you’d fucking understand, you bitch! I hate you! I don’t ever want to fucking talk to you again! Go fuck yourself, Lyda Vespin!" Nissa screamed at her, before stepping over the broken glass in the window, cutting her ankle, and leaping downwards, landing in a snow drift.

Nissa very slowly made her way home, slowly contemplating her argument with her so-called best friend. Occasionally, passers-by could hear the girl debating with herself, which earned her numerous strange looks. When she finally made her way home, she quietly took off her boots and her coat, and scribbled a note onto a piece of paper.

’Dad-

Didn’t feel like staying at Ly’s, so went home. Hope you had an okay shift.

Love,

Nissa’

She quietly made her way into her bedroom, before collapsing onto purple sheets, not even bothering to change into pajamas. Nissa stared at her ceiling.

When was it that everything that she loved- everything that was important to her- had gone wrong? Lyda was never going to forgive her and her dad had Darklung. For the first time in a long time, Nissa felt truly alone.