On my silent walk in a forest nearby, I saw something dark green and soft between two bushes. It had been trapped there, dirty, filthy, and alone, tangled in the small sharp branches.

I thought it was just thrown away so I couldn’t resist opening it. The content of the backpack, because it was a green backpack, left me speechless.

It was a pair of scissors, razor blades, a rope, and, what I thought looked like sleeping pills, or maybe painkillers. I wasn’t sure. It also contained endless plastic bags, which I assumed would be used mixed with the other harmful supplements. Maybe they would then be tied over the poor creature’s head while taking their own life.

I took the backpack with me, concerned that an animal or perhaps a child would hurt themselves by mistake if I just left it to whomever to explore the gears in there.

I was going, slowly and quietly, and without seeing where I was placing my feet. I just continued thinking about the whimsical, peculiar, green bag.

Suddenly, I was walking into something that was hanging in the tree right in front of me.

I screamed so loud I was damn sure I had made myself deaf forever.

This was unfortunately how I went mad.

Ellie sat beside the table in the dining room. She was peeking at her mom who was sitting right next to her. She decided to ask her.

”Mom… how is Nels? Can I go to him now?”

”Elle Madina, please don’t disturb your brother, you know that he is very sick, right?”

”Yes, I know…”

”Right, now go and prepare for school, darling”

On her way to school, she ran into Ingrid. Ingrid sighed and continued walking.

”Wait!” Ellie shouted after her.

”What? I’m late to work!”

”I know how close you were to my brother and I was thinking…”

”What? Nels is not the same anymore and I don’t want anything to do with either you or your crazy family!”

Ellie felt how her eyes got shiny from some sudden tears, but she didn’t want Ingrid to notice.

”Goodbye, you big cry baby!” Ingrid laughed and started her walk again.

It wasn’t fair. Ingrid was an adult woman and was behaving like a bully against a girl who was just starting high school. Ellie turned around and was running all the remaining way to school with a big and nasty lump in the throat.

She couldn’t really focus on the school that day. Ellie was sweating and tears were dropping on the quiz paper. Her vision started to become blurry. She closed her eyes and opened them again, but still couldn’t see properly. What if she too was going mad? Could madness be contagious? She hopes not. She doesn’t want to end up like her brother. Even if some part of her mind thought that he actually deserved it after what he did to her at that time. Of course, he did apologize. But it happened again, and again…

After school, Ellie went home. She needed a new pair of shoes and was going to ask her mother. She didn’t look forward to it.

“Mom?”

Ellie stood in the door opening and was peeking at her mother sitting and watching some television.

“What now, Ellie?” her mother replied with an annoyed voice. “Can’t you just go to your room and finish your homework instead of always bothering me and talking about disturbing your poor brother?”

“But mom…”

Ellie was nervous.

“Yes, what?

Her mother turned around with an angry look in her eyes. She clearly had a bad day.

“It doesn’t matter”

Ellie turned her back to her mother and walked with slow and sad steps toward the stairs, hoping that her mother maybe would follow her and become nice again. But she didn’t and as much as it was expected, Ellie just couldn’t help to feel disappointment.

Ingrid saw Aline outside of the music store and hastened to open the door from the inside.

“Oh, I just wanted to say hello, I had some errands to do nearby!” Aline explained in an apologizing manner.

“Of course, sis, you’re always welcome here! Do you want some coffee? I can put some on in the staff’s room. I have lunch break now anyway!”

“Yes please, that would be nice”

Aline looked shy.

“Well, Ingrid, you know that time when we were...”

Ingrid turned around, almost with the same shy expression as Aline.

“Yes, I know what you’re thinking about…” Ingrid answered.

“Yes… it was a year ago. Today.”

Ingrid blushed.

“I know”.

“You do?”

“Yes”

Silence. Both girls looked at each other and then started to stare at the floor. They both remembered. Ingrid was still holding the coffee pot in her right hand, prepared to pour up some into the mug she was holding in her left hand. Aline placed herself in a chair beside the small and quite old-looking table.

“I just want you to know that I liked it very much”

Aline just broke the silence.

“Me too, but I don’t know… it feels weird because… You’re like… My adoptive sister. Well almost at least”

“Carl has not adopted you, Ingrid. You just live with us.”

“I know, but I always wish that he was my father, that’s why it feels weird with… you”

“I can understand that, of course”

The girls looked at each other again, both with a sign of repulse on their faces. They were drinking their coffee in silence when Conrad stacked into the office.

“Ingrid, what do you think you’re doing? You lazy coward, it’s people in the store!”

Ingrid jumped up from the chair.

“I’m sorry, we forgot… I’m... Conrad? Are you drunk?”

Ingrid closed one eye and stared with the other directly at Conrad.

“You are!” she shouted, higher than she’d expected.

“You don’t need to care about that, just do your goddamn job!”

Ingrid and Aline went out to the store. One customer was to be found. Conrad was yelling as if it would have been a hundred!

“See you at home”

Aline slammed the door behind her and Ingrid sighed.

Cassidy nodded but felt extremely bored. The oracles were arguing again and wanted her opinion on some small simple task they were doing. She was tired too, and her eyes started to close by themselves. All of a sudden she was hearing a sound from the crystal ball in the room behind her. She just heard the sound of someone whispering something. Yet she didn’t think about how she was able to even hear the sound with a stone wall in the middle.

“Okay, my gentlemen. I need to go” she said to the oracles and walked down the hallway.

“But you barely listened, my Queen!”

“I give you permission to solve the problem on your own, I have some things to do!”

The oracles went silent.