text: [Themes: grimdark fantasy]
  
  You think on it, the danger of the city at night, Chloe's words, potential trouble with Miss Olga...yeah it's probably not worth it.
  
  "Yeah, maybe you're right Chloe. I'll wait until tomorrow morning at least." You say.
  "I still think that's a bad idea, but I guess it's better than going at night." Chloe says.
  
  Seeing that you're not sneaking out, Chloe returns to her bed and you roll over to try to sleep.
  
  Except you can't sleep. You're too wound up from having the idea of sneaking out and then not acting on it. Not to mention Fatty Patty's snoring is keeping you from even trying to sleep.
  
  You close your eyes and try to sleep, but it just isn't working. All that keeps going through your mind is seeing the butterflies again.
  
  With Patty's snoring going on and your active mindset, you can't lay in bed all night. You MUST go to the park now; it's worth risking the consequences.
  
  You figure you'll wait a little while longer until you're sure Chloe is probably asleep and THEN you'll leave. You don't want her trying to stop you again.
  
  You aren't sure how much time passes, but eventually you look up to see if everyone is actually asleep now and feeling confident that they are, you get up and sneak out the room.
  
  You head towards the stairway and then on reflex, you let out a big yawn as now of all times the wave of sleep hits you. Worried that you might have awakened Miss Olga, you quicken your pace and head down the stairs.
  
  Which unfortunately results in you tripping down them, not enough to break anything, since you manage to catch yourself from tumbling completely, but certainly enough to be unpleasant. Surprisingly you don't cry, but you definitely hurt.
  
  This also has the effect of most certainly waking up Miss Olga.
  
  "What's going on? What's all this sneaking around?" you hear Miss Olga say before seeing you laying sprawled out near the bottom of the stairs. Then she quickly descends to get you to see if you're all right.
  
  After seeing that you haven't broken anything, she begins scolding and questioning you. About the only thing you can think of is that you were going to the bathroom and thought you heard a noise downstairs. Fortunately she doesn't dwell on it too much and just carries you back to bed exclaiming how you should have come to her immediately if you heard a strange noise in the night.
  
  The some of the children temporarily wake up when you're returned to bed (save for Patty who is still snoring) Chloe asks what happened and if you're okay, Miss Olga just tells her you're fine and to go back to sleep. She tells everyone to go back to sleep.
  
  Meanwhile, you ache and you're tired enough now that you don't want to go anywhere except lay in bed. You'll sleep and tomorrow morning you'll go to the park. That's the new plan. You just need some sleep.
  
  Eventually...
  
  "Catalina! Catalina! Wake up! Wake up!" you hear Chloe say.
  
  You groggily wake up.
  
  "What's going on?" you ask.
  "You feeling okay? Miss Olga said you fell down the stairs last night."
  "Huh? Oh. Yeah I did."
  "I'm guessing you tried to sneak out anyway, but I didn't tell! Are you feeling okay though?"
  "Yeah, yeah, just ache still, but I'm fine. What time is it?"
  "It's like close to noon. A bunch of adults are coming in to adopt already."
  
  You begin to stir a little more and realize you've overslept.
  
  "What?! Noon? Why wasn't I awakened before now?"
  "Miss Olga said you'd probably need the rest more and you don't eat much breakfast anyway. I think Patty ate yours. Anyway Miss Olga told me to try to wake you up for adoption though since she's busy greeting everyone."
  
  Well there goes your idea to sneak away. The grave wings might very well be gone by now.
  
  You suppose there's nothing for it now except go downstairs, maybe there will be an opportunity to sneak away later.
  
  Chloe mentions that you should wear your best clothes for the best opportunity to get adopted. Not that you're really running around in rags anyway, but you're not really concerned with getting adopted, so you just wear clothes you normally wear.
  
  Eventually you go downstairs and see a bunch of adults and your fellow orphans. Miss Olga sees you and walks over to you immediately.
  
  "Catalina are you feeling alright?" Miss Olga asks.
  "Somewhat, I still ache a bit." You respond.
  "Hm, well at least you're walking around. Here, I want you to meet two people, I think you'll like them. Come."
  
  Miss Olga pulls you away from Chloe and towards a group of adults, two of them in particular stand out, but it's odd. You can't make out their faces and you're clearly close enough to them. In fact everything is starting to seem off.
  
  Something isn't right here.
  
  > Stay
  This isn't right, but you get the impression that running won't help. So you stay put and hope you can deal with this situation.
  
  Miss Olga starts speaking positively about you, probably exaggerating a bit, but she doesn't actually lie. Meanwhile the adult couple listens intently and occasionally smiles at you. Well you think they're smiling, you still can't make out their faces.
  
  At some point one of them speaks to you and asks you questions. The voice is muffled and distorted though. You can't make out their voices anymore than you can make out their faces.
  
  Nevertheless, you give them answers that you believe they're asking for. It's mostly yes or no. Miss Olga goes on to say how you're a little on the shy side hence why you're not elaborating much.
  
  Honestly you're really having a hard time focusing on any of what's going on. It's all sort of a blur and before you know what's going on, you've been adopted.
  
  You think you have anyway.
  
  Have you?
  
  Chloe says how she'll miss you and gets a little weepy when you say goodbye to her. Miss Olga mentions that how the couple check out and that they will be very good parents to you.
  
  Were they?
  
  You don't remember.
  
  There's an image of you going home with them. It's a nice home. Seems familiar somehow, but it's not how you remember it. Everything is made of bones for one.
  
  The chairs, the table, the beds, everything.
  
  Your new parents are now visible. Their fleshless faces are clear as day. You feel so safe with them.
  
  They're hugging you and then everything goes black.
  
  You look around and find yourself back in the present, whatever that means in a place like this. Obviously that wasn't how your life went. It was sort of a comforting image though and you briefly wonder how different things would have been if you'd been adopted so early. Then you quickly dismiss such thoughts.
  
  After a bit of reflection on what just happened, you realize you'll have to try again to reconnect later. When will that be? You never can tell.
  
  But it'll happen again. You'll reunite with your beloved.
  
  It's only a matter of time.