Chapter Nine
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Of course, no one had an immediate answer for me.  I wasn’t surprised at this at all, truth be told, mostly because this was an unusual situation, something that none of them had ever had to deal with before.  They all spent the last couple of hundred years believing in one thing – that Psyche was being reincarnated whole and that I was one such reincarnation – only to find that everything they believed in was completely false.  I wasn’t sure why Hades and Persephone thought it was a good idea to keep this knowledge away from everyone, since it certainly would have made Eros’ life much easier, as well as mine to some degree.  If he knew, then when he figured out that the soul he was chasing no longer loved him, he could have come down and hung out with the piece of the soul that did.  He was a god, after all; hanging about the Underworld wouldn’t have been an issue for him.  And then my soul wouldn’t have a want to be reincarnated, Psyche would be living my life, and we’d all be happy.

But it didn’t really work out that way, and now we were all miserable instead.  Psyche had expected to remain on the reincarnation path, never to be usurped by her own other half, and desperately needed to be alive in order to keep herself together.  I had a soul who wanted to steal my life, and was quite willing to completely ruin it in the process.  Eros, while accepting that the soul was now in two totally different pieces, was having a time trying to keep one from killing the other.  Sure, he wasn’t going through some internal struggling knowing that the girl he fell in love with several millennia ago isn’t the same person he’s claiming to love now, mostly because he seems to be able to think more abstractly than I could.  I was the soul he actually fell in love with, and that’s all that mattered to him.  But it was just difficult when someone wanted to kill her.

Aphrodite was now forced to admit that she was wrong, which had to be a tough feat for a goddess who took vanity to a whole new level.  I had to admit that I did like this side of Aphrodite, since I’m sure it’s rare for an Olympian like her to actually admit that she was wrong and apologize for the fact, but I think she realized the damage that was done.  Persephone had the anger of her husband to deal with, since while he seemed to blame Aphrodite for the release of Psyche, he still blamed her for causing this situation in the first place by reincarnating me rather than the mortal soul.  Hades, for this part, was the only one not directly affected by any of this – as far as I could tell, this wouldn’t have been the first time a soul escaped from his realm to create trouble, and he was merely treating this situation like he normally did.  The only difference here was that he had a fellow god to defend as well.  And, well, his wife happens to be really good friends with the girl.

Hedone, of course, was mostly conflicted.  She wanted to solely support me, since I was the ‘nice’ half of her mother’s soul.  But that still didn’t change the fact that I was an artificially created soul, and that the other Psyche had the true version.  It was still her mother, and she still wanted that acceptance.  It had to be hard on her, knowing that her own mother had been forced to forget her.  Surely Psyche without a body would feel maternal instincts towards her daughter.  But then where would Hedone be?

Madde and Zephyrus had it easier than the rest of us.  All they had to worry about was the sanity and safety of their best friends.  But for the most part, their involvement in this was very minimal.  I couldn’t tell if that was orchestrated by Zephyrus now that he and Maddie were a couple, or just coincidence that nothing seemed to happen when either of them could be of help. Certainly it seemed as though Zephyrus’ part in all these was taking me to see Eros in the first place.  Yes, he’s been great support of both Eros and me, but that’s about all he and Maddie have been.

I suppose that’s all right in the long run.  Yes, Maddie did want to be more directly involved, but she was a mere mortal, with a mere mortal soul. I at least had the benefit of having a soul made to deal with this crap, even if it still believed it was mortal at the moment.  I didn’t want to fry her poor brain or some such nonsense.  I liked keeping her uninvolved, because this was my problem.  I couldn’t tell if Eros felt the same about Zephyrus, mostly because as far as I could tell, guy relationships were different from girl ones, but he seemed content to work on this mostly by himself. 

I felt sort of bad wanting to keep Maddie out of this.  I knew if the situation were reversed, I’d be wanted to do everything in my power to help her, even if there actually wasn’t much for me to do.  Sitting around and merely being ‘support’ wouldn’t cut it, so I couldn’t even begin to imagine how Maddie’s keeping it together.  I’d want to be busting some heads open at this point, if I were her.  But then again, Maddie was awesome like that.  Despite her excitable behavior, she did know how to be patient, and how to merely listen rather than do.  I was always the sort to want to take control of the situation in the end and make it better somehow, like snarking at my sisters.  Maddie was just content to watch the train wreck.

“I have to admit that this is all just so weird,” I commented as we were tossing back and forth ridiculous ideas on what to do about Psyche.  We knew we didn’t have any actual ideas, so we were sort of having fun with it, although it quickly because less about what to do about Psyche and more to do with annoying the hell out of Hades, since he was really the only practical one of us.  I could almost see the vein throbbing in his forehead as he was pretending to ignore us.

“What is?” Maddie asked me, sort of hanging off me to keep herself upright after laughing really hard.  “You mean this?  That’s the point, Psyche, it’s supposed to be weird!  It wouldn’t be fun if it weren’t.”

“No,” I said, smiling at her, “although I do admit that some of your ideas are rather out there.  No, I mean this, sitting around and discussing ways that you guys can help me.”

“What’s so strange about it?” Eros asked, arching an eyebrow at me.

I glanced at him, feeling a little awkward.  “Well, it’s just that…I don’t know, this is my problem, so why would so many people want to help me?  I mean, it’s such a minor thing.  I really think I can, in the end, take care of it myself.”

“Are you sure about that, Psyche?” Persephone asked me.  “I mean, have you ever dealt with a mental soul before?  It’s not fun, let me tell you.  Add in the fact that Psyche is known for her cleverness, and it makes sense why so many of us are concerned about you.  We want to protect you.”

“But really, what’s so special about me?” I asked.  “I’m just a normal girl, raised as a mere mortal.  I mean, I can understand Eros’ involvement in all this, but the rest of you?”

“Psy, please,” Maddie said a little sarcastically.  “You really think that none of us want to help you?  That’s selfish.”

“For one person, though?”

“Look, we all have our reasons.  Eros is rather obvious, being in love with you, and completely devoted.  Me it makes sense as well, seeing as I view you as the sister I never had, and besties have to stuck together and help each other out.  It’s part of being besties.  Aphrodite wants to make amends as well as help her son’s girlfriend out.  Persephone is your friend as well – maybe not best friends anymore, but close enough that the same rules apply, although on a slightly lesser scale.  Zephyr, as far as I can tell, was on his way to becoming friends with you before he ended up with me, so he has that on time to be obligated thanks to his involvement with me and being Eros’ best friend.  Hedone views you as a substitute mother figure.  And Hades…I think he wants to help you because Persephone is forcing him to?”

He chuckled.  “That’s not the only reason, nor is it because I’m chasing down a soul who escaped from my land.  I may not have gotten to know you as well as my wife has, but I’ve never had any problem with Psyche, either version of her.”

“But mostly its because his wife is forcing him,” Maddie said solemnly as Hades glared at her.

“It just doesn’t seem worth the effort for so many people to want to help one person.”

“I don’t understand what you’re complaining about, Psyche,” Eros said, smirking at me slightly. “Most people would be happy that so many people were willing to help them.  You of all people should know what that means.”

“Me?  How do you figure that?”

“Because of how you were brought up, obviously.  You choose to be a loner, but you understood the complexities of what it would be like to have many friends because you were part of the popular clique.  You had a chance to become a part of that, but refused to do so, because you knew that they were made of hollow friendships.  People who didn’t have each other’s backs, and were merely in it for themselves.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything.  You’re not one to find hollow friendships.  You’re looking for meaningful relationships.  That’s what you have here.  People who want to help, not because they’ll gain anything, but because they simply want to. Everyone in this room likes you to some degree.  Or at least I’m assuming they do.”  He glanced at his mother, who had been merely observing since she first appeared.

She looked surprised at being addressed.  “I don’t have a problem with Psyche,” she told him honestly.  “Anyone who was willing to stand up to me is certainly worth knowing.”

“I hate to break it to you, ‘Dite, but you’re not exactly a terrifying goddess,” Persephone pointed out dryly.  “A little conceited and vain, and thinks way too highly of herself, but that’s to be expected with someone of your powers.  Eros always threw people off because he was so mellow about everything.  It doesn’t take guts to stand up to you.”

She sniffed, her nose in the air.  “I’ve had plenty of mortals trembling at my feet.”

“Yes, the vampant ones who don’t know their ass from the elbow,” Persephone sighed, causing Maddie to giggle about this whole thing.

“Exactly,” Aphrodite said.  “I mean, granted, I probably should have expected the reincarnation of my daughter-in-law to have brains, but I don’t typically deal with the clever ones.  I suppose I should rephrase that.  Anyone who can capture my son’s attention that much is certainly worth knowing.”

He shook his head at her logic.  “Whatever, the point is that you shouldn’t question the support, but embrace it.  I’m sure we all know that you’d do the exact same thing for us if the situation were reversed.”

I glanced at everyone watching me.  He was right; if any of them had come to me with a problem right now, I’d be jumping for the chance to help any of them.  Well, most of them.  My gaze settled on Hades, who merely shrugged.  “I don’t count.  Clearly, I’m only here be association.”  Maddie gave him a rather sheepish shrug. 

I found myself laughing despite myself, which seemed to confuse almost everyone.  “I’m sorry; I just think it’s incredibly funny that most of my friends are gods.”

“Why is that unusual?” Hedone asked, cocking her head slightly.  “I mean, you have a goddess soul, after all.”

I stared blankly at her for a moment.  “She has a point; I never thought about that,” Eros remarked.  “I mean, I always just thought it was her personality that kept her from making friends with the people she normally associated with, but that might not be it at all.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.  “I’ve just never really felt a connection with anyone other than Maddie.”

“Exactly.  Haven’t you ever thought it was weird that you never felt a connection to anyone outside your family, even with the people you had things in common with?  You might think it was because you chose to only have one good friend, but now that I think about it, I don’t think that’s it.”

“You don’t?  You’ve been following me my whole life; if that’s not it, then what do you think it is?”

He smirked at me.  “You can’t make connections with mortals because you don’t have the same sort of soul they have.  You can’t connect with them.”

“But I have connected with them,” I pointed out.  “What about Papa and Mom and Nona?  And not to mention Maddie?”

“You’re family wouldn’t count, Psyches,” Hades told me.  “Simply by being your family would mean that they were destined to associate with immortals.  I’ve always questioned our obsession with your father, because I happen to know he’s nothing special comparatively speaking, but now I realize that’s because he has that special connection with the immortal world thanks to you.”

I glanced at Aphrodite.  “But what about Mom?  Only Aphrodite is obsessed with her.  And I really didn’t appreciate you implying that Mom and Papa weren’t meant for each other.”

“They weren’t!  Originally.  I originally planned to have her end up with a fellow named Paris, but then she met your father, and I realized that even I couldn’t influence some loves.  But I believe the reason why the immortal would is more interested in Nik Karalis than Helen is merely because he is of Greek heritage.  It means more to most of us.”

“Maddie?”

“Maddie,” Persephone said, glancing at her, “has been a mystery to me ever since I met her.  To be honest, I think she’s an escaped soul as well, but I can’t figure out what the hell she is.  But considering her soul is trapped in a mortal body, we’re okay with it.  But regardless of what she is, it’s clear that she’s always been meant to be involved in the immortal world, and I wonder if that’s because she was always been destined to be your best friend.”

“Or if its because she’s soul mates with Zephyr?” I teased, causing her to turn bright red in embarrassment.

Persephone smiled at the thought.  “Or it could be because of that, yes,” she smirked.

“It’s still weird,” I said after I dodged the pillow thrown at me by Maddie.  “I mean, I suppose it makes sense, but that doesn’t make it any less weird.”

“That’s probably because you’re used to relying only on Maddie to help you, and now you have so many people who are your friends.  It’ll get some taking used to, certainly, but it’ll feel less weird as time goes on,” Eros reassured me.

Maddie frowned suddenly.  “Wait, I’m not sure if I like this anymore,” she said, glancing at me.  “I’m not your only friend anymore, Psyche.  You have other people you can go to for help, and to talk to if you need it.”

“Maddie, you’ll always be number one in my book,” I told her.  “They’re gods; they wouldn’t understand the complexities of mortal conflicts.  You have nothing to worry about, I promise.  You’re not getting replaced.”  She glanced at Eros.  “Okay, maybe by him, but I was sort of hoping I’d be forgiven for that.”

She giggled.  “Okay, okay, I’ll give you the boyfriend,” she said to me, almost I did notice that her smile wasn’t quite as bright as it used to be.  But I couldn’t blame her, unfortunately, because she was right; I didn’t used to have so many people that were around to help me.  We’d been on our own for so long, relying merely on each other to get through tough times, that it was probably going to be difficult for her to let go of me.

But that was okay, because I didn’t want anyone else to be a shoulder for me to cry on, save for Eros.  And she was being very honest when she said that Eros was the only one she’d be fine with replacing her.  Maddie was m best friend, and no matter how many immortals I ended up befriending, that fact was never going to change.  She was the first one I was going to go to about anything; that wasn’t going to change between us.

But I was going to have to convince Maddie of that before she was comfortable with the idea.

By the time we decided that the little party was over, I wasn’t really feeling any more confident in the Psyche situation.  I was, however, feeling more confident in my own abilities, like I usually did after Maddie or Eros or someone forced me to spent time with all my new friends, despite the fact that I knew that this feeling was beyond dangerous.  And unlike Aphrodite, I had a sneaky suspicion that Psyche actually could feel my emotions, so I was pretty sure that she was wherever the hell she was hiding out, absolutely seething.

Fortunately, Psyche wasn’t really one to act irrationally.  Penny was, sure, but I had a feeling that somehow, Psyche was running the show at the moment.  It would certainly explain Penny’s moody attitude, which could be interpreted as sulking over the fact that no one was really paying attention to her and her baby bump.  The media was still going on about Phoebe’s wedding, and I decided to play nice at one point, and point out that the reason that no one’s reporting about her was simply because she was spending nearly all her time at our house, for whatever reason.  Photographers loved to catch candid shots of pregnant celebrities, but they had to be out and about to catch their interest.

Penny didn’t want to hear any of it, but I think that was mostly because she was sore over the fact that none of her so-called ‘friends’ wanted to be around her without Phoebe.  And it was obviously no fun going out on your own.  I even suggested so drag Donald out with her – he was always looking for excuses to show off his pretty little wife, especially now that she was carrying his child - but that, naturally, disgusted her even more than sitting there and getting advice from her baby sister.  (Donald apparently gotten over me telling him that the baby might not even be his, mostly because apparently, Penny turned the situation on me, and claimed that I had gone insane that night.  I have a feeling she was miffed at Psyche for causing that sort of stress on her, but I had to admit that made it a little more believable.)

But that week was fairly benign.  I had a few exams that I needed to take care of, and a few projects that I had to turn in now that it was the middle of the semester.  I was able to concentrate on those rather than Psyche, although she was always on the back of my mind.  She couldn’t take over my body anymore – and I had a feeling she had been counting on that aspect – but I just knew she was plotting something.  I was just glad that she, like Aphrodite, didn’t feel the need to interrupt my education to get revenge on me.

I was feeling pretty good about myself – I had reached a point where I could handle anything Psyche threw at me without interrupting anything – when Penny suddenly started acting a little odd.  Not in the sense that she was possessed or anything, since Psyche most likely wouldn’t be able to do that with her, but more in the sense that she was way too happy about something.  I had to wonder if perhaps Psyche thought of something before Penny reminded me that this was all planned out months beforehand.

“You know,” she said to me slyly as we were eating dinner.  I think Mom felt a little bad for her, so she invited her to dinner nearly every day that week, despite Papa’s protests that she should be eating at her own damn house.  “Phoebe comes back tomorrow.”

I dropped my fork without really meaning to.  I had forgotten about that amidst deadlines.  I’m not sure how I forgot, considering we had been talking about this just last weekend, but I had anyway.  I felt my heart sink at the thought.  I hadn’t spoken to Phoebe since my possession, and I hadn’t had a chance to explain myself.  We had been working so hard at developing a good sisterly relationship, and Psyche ruined that in one fell swoop.  I wasn’t looking forward to facing my sister now, which was a strange feeling for me.  Usually I dreaded their return because I knew my peace was over.  But I had spent my entire life wishing to have an actual relationship with my sisters, and now there was absolutely no hope of ever having one.  But that just made me dread her wrath even more.  Not like I could blame her for being furious with me.

Penny was positively bouncing when I came down for breakfast that day.  I had sort of dragged my feet about getting up, determined to stay in Eros’ protective embrace for as long as I could manage.  Of course, despite the fact that Papa did know who he really was now, he naturally still didn’t know that he pretty much lived in my room now, so I had to come down eventually to avoid them getting suspicious.  But I really didn’t want to, and Eros seemed a little loath to let me go as well.  Although I doubt his reason was because he didn’t want to face the day.  He was just content to have me in his arms.

Both Mom and Papa seemed annoyed that Penny was there for breakfast, although I knew the reason.  Phoebe wasn’t due back until a little later in the day, but she didn’t want to miss a moment of this day.  So much so that she actually forced herself to get up early so she could breakfast with us.  I just glared at her as I sat.

“Isn’t this exciting?” she asked pointedly.  “You’re still having them over for dinner after they come back, right?”  For an instant, she seemed a little worried that the plans had changed.

“Of course,” Mom told her.  “That was part of the arrangement.  I’m sure they’re tired from their long trip and don’t want to be bothered with anything domestic for a night.”

“Mom, they have more servants than we do.  If Phoebe did anything domestic, I’d be shocked,” I told her sarcastically.  Of course, I could be wrong in that regard.  I could see Phoebe becoming a little more independent to break away from Penny’s shadow, and maybe not relying on people as much as she did in the past.  But cooking wasn’t something she was going to attempt in her life, I was sure.  Mom never cooked anything, save for a few ill fated attempts at homemade cookies for us.  I liked them, but Penny and Phoebe wanted something that looked a little less well done and more uniform in shape.  I thought they were crazy.

“Tsh,” Nona rolled her eyes.  “Servants.  I’ve never had anyone do any job for me.  I cooked, cleaned, kept the household running, and raised my children on top of all that!  Spoiled is what you all are.  Spoiled!”

“Mama,” Papa said without lifting his newspaper.  “I really wish you’d stop complaining about our lifestyle.  I choseit for them, not the other way around.  It’s what they’re used to, after all.”

She sniffed.  “At least one of them is sensible,” she said, turning to me.  “I doubt Psyche over there would have any sort of servants running her house.  Would you, agapi̱ménos?”

I blinked at her, since she hadn’t been this nice to me since the wedding.  “Um, well,” I said slowly.  “I used to think that, but I can’t be too sure now since I’m dating Eros.  Sure, he’s not really comfortable with servants, either, but he might feel compelled to hire something.”  She raised an eyebrow at me.  “A cook, at most, to be honest,” I added hastily.

She relaxed a little.  Apparently, a cook was fine, I suppose because she felt like I didn’t learn any culinary skills to be able to survive on my own.  I didn’t know how to cook, per say, but I did know how to survive, and really, that’s all that mattered.

Penny looked annoyed that the conversation had shifted to me.  “So she’s coming here first?” she asked a little too loudly to draw more attention on herself.

“I’m sending the car to pick them up,” Papa told her, despite having told her about a thousand times already.  “I already arranged it with Phoebe and Nate.  They visit us first, and then return home tonight.  It was part of the condition for us paying for their honeymoon.”

“I still don’t understand why you had to pay for it,” I muttered, causing him to peek out from behind the paper to raise an eyebrow at me.  “I mean, it’s not like Nate wouldn’t have been able to afford it or anything.”

“We paid for the wedding, so it seemed natural to just pay for the honeymoon as well as sort of a wedding present.  Let him keep his hard earned money.  I have mine to spoil you kids.”

“You spoil them too much if you ask me,” Nona muttered, causing Mom to roll her eyes this time,

Penny wasn’t paying attention to any of it.  She was just grinning stupidly at me.  I could almost see the stopwatch in her head, counting down the hours until my misery really set in.  She had been annoyed when the rest of my family started to forgive me, and it was clear my life wasn’t quite as ruined as she hoped.  But there was no escaping it with Phoebe.  I suddenly felt my appetite vanish, and all I really wanted to do was go back upstairs and crawl back into Eros’ arms.

He seemed to sense that I had a need for comfort that day, since I found him silently waiting for me when I was finally allowed back upstairs.  He didn’t say anything; just reached for me and wrapped his arms comfortingly around me as I pulled myself into his lap.  This was certainly one advantage of having a boyfriend, I had to admit.  I couldn’t have gotten away with doing this to Maddie.

“She going to hate me,” I said into his chest as Phoebe’s arrival approached.

“She’s not going to hate you,” he reassured me.  “You’ll explain what happened to the best of your ability, and she’ll…not hate you, at least.  It’ll be fine, you’ll see.”

I glanced up at him.  “It’s so weird that I don’t want her to hate me.  I spent most of my life no really caring.  But then we start connecting, and…I don’t know.  I enjoyed it, I guess.  I had a real sister for the first time in my life.”

“You have to be strong, Psyche.  Show the other Psyche and Penny that this won’t affect you at all, or else they’ll win.  You can do it; I know you can.  You are strong.”

“I guess we’ll see how right you are,” I sighed.

Mom forced me downstairs so we could meet Phoebe and Nate as a family, since she probably knew all I really wanted to do was hide from her.  I might as well get this over right away.  It was like pulling a band-aid off – it might as well be done fast so the pain could subside sooner, rather than pulling it off slow and allowing it to endure.  Penny looked way too proud of herself as she sat in her normal armchair, her hand on her stomach again.

Phoebe came in first, pretty much bursting through the doors with a grand gesture.  “We’re here!” she sang out, entirely too happy.  It surprised me, actually, since she had to have known that I was at least going to be in the house.  “Oh my God, we have so much to tell you guys!”

Mom had stood the moment Phoebe was in through the door, and was currently hugging the hell out of both her and Nate.  Both were beaming, happy to be home and together.  “Oh, we’ve missed you so much,” Mom was saying as she lead them into the living room where we were all waiting for her.

“Oh yes, Phoebe,” Penny said, smiling dangerously.  “We’ve been waiting so desperately for your return.”

Her smile faltered for one instant at that tone as she glanced at our oldest sister.  Then she did something very strange.  She turned to me.  I braced myself.

“Oh my God, Psyche!” she said, rushing at me as I was starting to stand.  I winced slightly before I found myself engulfed in a happy but protective sisterly hug.  “I was so worried about you!  Are you okay?”

“What?” I asked, taken off guard.

“Yes, what?” Penny demanded.  “You’re happy to see her?  You’re not pissed beyond all belief?”

“Pissed?  Why would I be pissed at Psyche?  Oh, you mean that whole scene at the wedding?  Honestly, Penny, you should know better.  That wasn’t Psy.”

We both blinked at her.  “Excuse me?” Penny demanded.  “I was there, too.  That was totally Psyche. How could you not be mad at her for what she did?”

“Oh, I was mad, at first, when she interrupted our ceremony like that.  I thought maybe she was joking or something.  It hurt, of course, but then she continued to act out at the reception!  Both Nate and I figured out something was wrong then.  I mean, I sort of thought that maybe she was getting back at me for all these years of wronging her, but that was obsessive.”

“Um, so…what do you think happened?” I asked carefully.

She gave me a worried look.  “Well, clearly, you were knocked out and someone that looked exactly like you took your place.  I worried about you for most of our honeymoon.”

“You did?  I’m sorry,” I said.  “I didn’t want to ruin that for you.”

Nate patted me on the head.  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said.  “I distracted her for the most part, but I was sort of glad she was worrying about you.  I knew something was up as well, since you’d have never done anything like that, even to get revenge.  But I didn’t want you guys to get into a bad relationship again.”

“So…you’re not mad at me for what happened?” I asked carefully.

“Mad?  No, I’m not.  And you’re okay, right?”

“Better than okay,” I said, glancing over her shoulder at Penny, who was outright seething now.  Her entire plan was down the drain now.  “I was worried that you’d think that was me and hate me for it.  I was dreading your return.”

“I was, too!  Because I expected to come home to bad news that you were, like, kidnapped or something.  Isn’t that right, Nate?”

“She wouldn’t shut up about it on the ride back,” he sighed.  “I’ve never had to deal with her worrying about one of her sisters before.  So don’t do that to me again, okay?”

I laughed, relieved.  “I’ll try, but no promises, okay?”

They both grinned at me, and I really was happy to have my sister back home.  It was going to be really great now, especially since Phoebe seemed to blame Penny for what happened to me. 

“Well, now that that’s settled,” Mom said, smiling at us.  I knew they were both nervous about our reunion as well, and I think they were expecting to pry her off me.  “Come here, Phoebe, and tell us all about your trip!  I want every detail.  I hope you took lots of pictures!”

Phoebe, of course, was the sister who would go out exploring and not spend the entire time in the bedroom, naked with her new husband, so she did have a ton of stories and pictures to show us.  Penny seemed to have a permanent scowl now, but all I could do was smile and enjoy my sister’s excitement.  It was a happy time.

But I also knew that something dark and sinister was waiting for me now, ready to destroy that happiness, which is why I figured I’d better enjoy it while it lasted, as well as Penny’s own misery.

Chapter Eight

Cupid and Psyche Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten