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Methis Delis POV~

"Here?" asked the taxi driver.

"Yeah, just by the fire hydrant," I responded. He pulled over and I dropped off. "How much is it?", I asked as I dug my hand into my purse and pulled out some dollar bills (I had forgotten to look at the meter).

"Oh don't bother, you can keep it", he said with a smile before he drove off.

"What a nice guy," I thought as I put the money back in my purse. I turned around and inhaled deeply and then exhaled as I stared at the serene beauty of the human world I had longed for so much. I began walking down the sidewalk, a bit lost in thought as to how I would resume my regular life after one year of utter confusion. As I walked towards my house, I saw a poster with my face on it on one of the street lights.

"Missing?", I read in annoyance. " Urrgh!, this is all her fault", I said as I ripped the poster right off, squeezing into a ball and tossing it away. I was just about to take another step and saw that the posters were literally everywhere. On fences, on streetlights even on stupid fire hydrants! I was really furious at this point. " Imagine how worried Dad would have been all this while", I thought as I walked towards my house.

*** A few moments later ***

"Ding! dong!" I heard the doorbell ring from within as I pressed the button. " Who is it?", a female answered with a distant voice and with footsteps approaching and her voice rising to a crescendo as I heard the door unlock.

"Yes how can I help...." she paused as she sighted me on opening the door.

"Good day to you too," I said sarcastically, staring at her with a mix of disgust and disdain.

"But how did you...."

"Save it, Katherine. I know you weren't ever expecting me to return", I said as I walked into the house, my shoulder bumping into hers and shoving her aside. I really despised my stepmom, more so now than I did before. "Where's my dad?", I asked her as she came in and shut the door.

"He's in the bathroom, probably taking a shower", she answered while still staring at me in shock.

"What?", I asked as I caught her staring, "you weren't expecting me to die over there, were you?", I asked rhetorically.

"But I thought you were......".

"Who is it, honey?", I heard my dad's voice ask from his room as his footsteps approached us. I was nervous. I had been thinking about Dad the whole time I had gone "missing". "How is his health? Has he recovered?", I pondered as thoughts flooded my mind in that moment of suspense as I waited for him to come out. Suddenly he walked into the living room, with his towel over his head as he dried his face. "I heard the door......", he froze up in shock as he laid eyes on me. " Methis?", he asked. A smile etched up on my face, as tears welled up in my eyes.

"It's my dad," I said with tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Oh my precious baby," he said in a teary voice as he ran towards me and wrapped his arms around me. We both sobbed as we hugged. "I thought I had lost you", he cried as he rubbed the back of my head with his palm.

"I missed you so much Dad," I cried. We remained emotional for a while as the hug prolonged.

"Come on, go take a shower and rest up. Kath here will make us dinner", he said as he let go of me, with both his hands on my shoulders.

"What happened? When did you wake up?" I asked as I tried wiping the tears off my face with my palms.

"We'll talk about that later", he said, "right now you need to rest up", he added as he led me to my room.

*** About an hour later ***

"Everyone, dinner's ready," Katherine called out to us from downstairs.

"We're coming baby!" Dad shouted back in response, "All alright, let's go have dinner," he said with a smile as he stood up from the bed.

*** A few minutes earlier ***

"Knock! knock! knock!" someone knocked on my door. "Come in," I responded as I organized my stuff. "Oh dad," I said as I glanced at the door, "is there any problem?" I asked.

"No baby, come here, come sit down," he said in a caring manner as he gestured towards the bed. I walked over and we both sat down. He stared at me with compassionate eyes.

"What is it Dad?" I asked, a bit worried if something was wrong.

"I'm just so glad to see you" he said, "you know I was out for a while. In fact, I only just woke up three months ago, only to find out that you had been gone for a long time. I got scared. Katherine told me that you moved out saying you could take care of yourself. But you're so fragile and....." he paused as he was about to break down in tears.

"It's okay dad," I said to him taking his hand into mine, " I'm here now and that's all that matters, okay?", I said to him. He nodded slowly in agreement. We then discussed for a while how he had been since his recovery before Katherine called us for dinner.

*** Back to the present ***

We went downstairs together and I could already smell the aroma of the food. Honestly, I had missed human food a lot while I was gone. I was tired of the seemingly unending paraphernalia of meat back there.

"Mmmm, something smells nice," dad said as he got to the dining and took a whiff of the scent.

"Uh, we're having spaghetti and meatballs," Katherine said as we took our seats. It really looked delicious and honestly she was an excellent cook, though I still hated her.

"Uuuuu! This looks delicious," dad commented, "alright, let's dig in," he said as he picked up his fork and went right to the food. I picked up my fork and took a bite, nibbling at the food. Then I caught Katherine staring at me. She looked away immediately and continued eating. I was really uncomfortable sitting at the same table with her. Then I stretched over to get the jug at the center of the table and "accidentally" spilled water on her. She looked at me shocked, with her mouth gaping as I winked at her with a smug smirk on my face.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said feigning innocence to taunt her.

"You did that on purpose!" she yelled.

"No, I didn't," I responded as though I was sorry.

"It's alright Kath. She already said she was sorry, didn't she?" dad said.

"Baby, she did it on purpose. I clearly saw her smirk and wink at me," she said to him with her index finger pointed at me in an accusatory manner.

"Okay, now you're just making things up," he said, " I mean, why would she even do that?" he asked with his eyebrows arched upwards.

"I don't know why, but she did it," she said, "why won't you believe me?" she asked.

"Because what you're saying is outrageous," he said.

"I actually did it, dad," I blurted out.

"You did?" he asked, looking somewhat surprised, "Why? You certainly aren't the type to do something like that," he said.

"Aha! I told you!" Katherine blurted, "she's not as innocent as you think," she said, looking at me with a smirk on her face, as though she had defeated me in some competition.

"Don't do that again Methis, that's not how you behave. Now apologize to her," he said. I sighed and then looked her in the eye, almost glaringly.

"Fine. I'm sorry," I said with almost no emotion and clearly no remorse. She had a haughty look of victory on her face on hearing my apology. So I decided to turn the tables. We resumed eating again, with silence enveloping us, as the clinking sounds of our cutlery pervaded the air.

"Say dad, did Katherine here ever tell you why and how I got missing?" I asked, breaking the silence. Katherine froze upon hearing my question, with a strand of spaghetti dangling from her pursed lips.

"Yeah, she said you and her had a bit of a squabble one night and that you ran away before dawn," he said.

"Oh, you didn't tell him the real reason, Kath?" I asked tauntingly as I looked her in the eye. I could sense the fear in her.

"The real reason?" dad asked looking a bit confused by what we were saying.

"Yes, dad. Whatever she told you was a full-blown lie," I said and then began to narrate to him what really happened.