Last Spotted: A Long, Long Time Ago

      My name is Blue, short for Beautiful_Lil_Blue. I was the first pet of the family. One of my strongest and warmest memories was feeling her touch as she brought me to life, hearing her voice as she gave me a name. Seeing the pools of love and affection in her eyes as she introduced herself and explained who she had made me to be. She was my owner, and in that single moment, I expected us to be forever inseparable.

      It was not long until our duo was broken, extending into a fuller Neopian Family. When we discovered a Shoyru in the Pound by the name of Shady909 with skin as red as his furious broken heart, a magical voice in our minds told us of how it was fate for us to adopt him. Though his eyes remained cold, unforgiving and unaccepting for the first few weeks, he eventually found his place as the third in our whole one.

      It was only very shortly after this event that were given the greatest blessing of all; a Baby Aisha, by the name of Blossom_Meadows. Though our owner showered this young girl with all the love she could possibly muster, Shade and I knew that, as a now four-pieced whole, our owner still loved us as equally and dearly as ever.

      For a surprisingly long while we lived a life beyond content together, the care bursting from our Neohome overcoming all bumps we faced in the road of life. However, this time of little change came to an abrupt end when our owner had finally been gifted with access into the legendary Laboratory. Determined to use this newfound advantage for good, our owner scoped out a Wocky from the Pound by the name of SoullessCreature, intending to zap him something valuable and find him his well-deserved permanent home.

      By the time his fur had been transformed into that of a relaxing shade of light blue, dotted with puffy white clouds around his body, our Owner had decided it was time to say farewell to the Wocky we now deemed Soul and set him free, allowing him to begin his second chance at a wonderful life. But as we stood in the dark, freezing cold "Abandon" room, that horrible Techo's terrifying glare washing over us, it wasn't long before we were all huddled to the ground, nearly drowning the entire room with our tears. Soon we all came to the unanimous truth; the months we spent getting to learn about this Wocky's intelligent, kind, caring, and civil nature had more than earned his place as the fourth and final Neopet of our family.

      At the time, it seemed like only yesterday that our Neohome contained nothing more than the dynamic duo of our Owner and I, only now to have grown into a full family. Things couldn't seem more perfect. We took on the year together, leaping over obstacles with soaring colors, as we all knew then and there that there was no greater strength than the unanimous beating heart of a family.

      There was one problem, however, to having a strong, powerful whole; if you lose one piece, the rest become useless, and fall out of place.

      I remember the day like the terrifying nightmare it was. You see, even after Soul became a permanent resident of our home, he was disgusted at the idea of such an expensive access privilege being put to waste, and so he volunteered to continue seeing the Laboratory. On what appeared to be a normal, calm weathered morning, our Owner took him out for his daily altering. Hours passed, and soon more hours passed, until finally it was evening and we were all worried sick over how late they were. Just as we had finally broke down and decided to investigate, Soul arrived home, his eyes a furious red, his then sky-like fur a tangled mess, and his paws gripped tightly around each other. Before we could begin to bombard him with our interrogation, he painfully spat out four words we never expected to hear:

      "I've come home alone."

     --------------------

      (Two years later)

     "Blue... Blue... Blue, please, I know, but she's up again...."

      I painfully ripped my eyelids open to see Shade standing above me, his face rough with exhaustion, his eyes weary and depressed like those of a Grey pet. As my ears adjusted, they were introduced to shrill crying and wailing bursting from some direction to the North. Despite how vague his words may seem, I knew both from his face and the loud shrieks exactly what was going on, as I had been in this scenario many nights before.

      I sluggishly slid out of the bed, carelessly allowing my blanket to flop to the floor. I trudged through the near pitch-black, bitter cold hallway, promising myself for what felt like the hundredth time that month that I wouldn't cry over something I done a million times before.

      Despite the darkness, I could tell I had finally made my way to the front hall thanks to the cries reaching their loudest point, as well as a slight silhouette of a small, Petpet-like creature with two antennae.

      I made my way over to the door and scooped up the Baby Aisha, subconsciously holding my breath to help bare against the undeniable pain of the situation, as well as the fact that what I knew she was about to say was going to make it a billion times worse:

      "MAMA, I WAN' MAMA!!!!" Blossom screamed, nearly deafening me and cracking my heart at the same time. Normally, I would carry her back to bed with barely a word, both as an attempt to calm her down and keep myself from bursting into tears, but this time I said the last thing I possibly wanted yet most needed to admit:

      "Me too, me too."

      What I said didn't calm her in the slightest, as she merely continued to wail and screech as I carried her back to her crib, but at least it didn't add any additional weight to the trek. I set her down in her little crib and swiftly slipped from the room, carelessly allowing the inevitable power of sleep to eventually silence her whining and second attempt at escape.

      As I exited the room, planning to succeed in my plan of getting back to my bedroom without shedding a tear, the idea was hopelessly crushed by the entrance of Soul from his own bedroom. Without a second thought, I collapsed onto him, burying my face deep within his cloudy shoulder in hopes that his thick fur would obscure my crying. He slowly wrapped his big paws around my back, slowly rubbing my nightgown. The large puff of fur around his neck served like a comforter around my neck, helping me to control my shivering somewhat.

      What we were doing was as common in our now lifeless, love-free graveyard of a Neohome as this entire night had been. Often whenever I had to retrieve the toddler from her lonesome tantrums, he would come comfort me as he had done now. Shade made an attempt to do something similar every now and then, but we all agreed that Soul was truly better at it. We stood there for what felt like and probably was a long time, until finally, after I had soaked the back of his nightshirt in all the tears I could possibly create, I pushed myself to let go. We spoke nothing more to each other than an understanding nod then continued down the paths to our respective bedrooms.

      I returned to my domain only to find it free of siblings and waiting for me. I roughly grabbed my blanket off the floor, jumped onto my bed, and carelessly threw the cover over me without a single try to fit it comfortably around my body. I graciously shut my eyes from the cruel Pound-like world I called home, ready to nod off to sleep, when the air was abruptly shattered by the opening of a door, and a most confusingly familiar voice:

      "...I'm sorry I'm late."

The End