18

During the next attack, the ghouls did something they had never done before. The ghouls started looking for me so they could kill me. All of the ones who were left attacked my neighborhood at the same time to get to me.

    The people in the neighborhood fought.

    I fought.

    The news spread to the other neighborhoods in the city and lots of people showed up to help.

    Christian was there.

    He helped me and the other people the ghouls attacked with his magic.

    I beat several ghouls.

    I didn’t know why so many attacked this time.

    I spent a few days at the hospital because I was injured worse than I had been during any other battle. Dad and Eileen visited me. My friends visited me. Christian came with flowers. My heart warmed when I saw him. Dad and Christian stayed with me every day. They stayed much longer than anyone else. I was still dealing with my injuries and all of the ghouls attacking me. But talking to Christian and joking around with him made me feel a lot better.

    He was concerned and asked what happened because there was something different about this battle, but no one knew what.   

    The attack had started in my neighborhood and all of the ghouls attacked me. Christian said that was because I’d been giving them a hard time.

    I was scared.   

    Christian sat next to me and held me.

    I curled up and held him.

    I appreciated his optimism and his compassion. I remembered there were a lot of other things I liked about him too. I was never able to understand someone as much as I understood him. And no one understood me better than he did. That made me feel very close to him. For a few seconds, I thought of kissing him. But I was going through too much. I talked to Christian and my friends. I couldn’t believe I had to deal with Mom being missing and the ghouls targeting me more than anyone else at the same time.

    “I understand you’re overwhelmed and it’s not fair for you to go through both of those things at the same time,” Christian agreed when I told him.

    I was glad he said that.

    “What do I do?” I asked.

    “You still live in your house?”

    “Of course.”

    “I mean, why don’t you go stay with your Dad for a while? You will feel better when you’re not alone.”

    I thought I would feel safer. I missed Mom because she would have helped me fight. We always took out a surprising number of opponents whenever we fought together. I missed working in a team with her. She always worried about me whenever I got hurt and comforted me. I wanted to live up to the fact that Mom knew martial arts. Now, I also wanted to live up to the fact that Mom fought in a war and did a lot of good and fought ghouls. I didn’t want this legacy because it was cool, but because I loved Mom and it was a great legacy and that was what I would have wanted for myself anyway, even if Mom did something else for a living. It hurt me whenever someone was in pain and I wanted to help.