“Astra, come along, dear. It’s time to go. Your father’s waiting for us outside.” Mom called out from our front door. I quickly got up and ran over to her. She helped me put my shoes on, but I tied them myself!

  “Mom! Mom! The cultibator is about to beat the big demon!” I told her. She smiled down at me as I finished crossing my laces over each other, and pulling the loops apart until they got super tight.

  “That sounds exciting. And it’s cultivator not cultibator dear.” She said, correcting how I said the word. I tried out the word a few times to get it right.

  “Cultivbator…cultivbator…cultivator.” I said, finally getting it right. Mom smiled at me again, she must have been proud I got it right. I smiled wide at her and jumped up, stamping with my feet a few times to make sure they fit okay.

  Mom went to the door and I followed behind her. I ended up running into her from behind though and rubbed my nose in pain even as she chuckled and patted me on the head.

  “Be careful, dear. We wouldn’t want you accidentally running into someone outside. Now let’s go, your father is probably talking off Miss Alvira’s ears.” She said before opening the door.

  I followed her outside and turned to look toward miss Alvira’s house. Sure enough, mom was right. Standing outside of the apartment next door was miss Alvira. She was an old lady who lived next to us. She had gray hair held up in a bun. She was nice, unlike mister Thomas on the other side. She would give me candy when she watched me while my parents worked. She was always grinning at me and when we left our apartment she looked over and smiled wide.

  “Well well, if it isn’t the birthday girl herself.” She said.

  I nodded furiously.

  “Yes! It’s my birthday today! Mom and Dad are taking me to get ice cream!” I said. She smiled warmly at me.

  “That’s wonderful, dear. Now if I remember correctly, you’re three years old now?” She asked, a weird smile with one side higher than the other on her face this time. My mouth fell open, and I was mad!

  “I’m not three! I’m seven this year! Seven! I’m a big girl now!” I corrected her. She looked surprised for a moment before speaking again.

  “Oh dear, seven? That old already? I do apologize. Now that I’ve gotten a better look at you, I can see you are indeed a big girl.”

  I put my fists on my hips and thrust my chin up, glad she finally figured out how wrong she was.

  “That’s right! My little Astra is the cutest and most grown up girl in the whole universe!” Dad said, walking over and picking me up. I struggled a little bit, but I couldn’t get out from his arms.

  “Daaaad! I’m too old to be picked up!” I whined but he ignored me. I could feel the scratchy fabric from his shirt rub against my bare legs and I didn’t like the feeling. It was even worse when he rubbed his face against mine and his scratchy beard rubbed against my face. I managed to push him off eventually and he let me down. I rubbed my face where he rubbed against me, trying to rub away the scratchy feeling.

  “Alright. Are the two most beautiful girls in the universe ready to go get some ice cream?” Dad asked. I completely forgot about the rough feeling on my cheek and jumped up and down in excitement.

  “Yes! Yes! Ice Cream!” I said before running off in the direction I knew the shop we were going to was in.

  “Ah, Astra! Not so fast honey!” Mom called out but I didn’t listen. I managed to not run into anyone as I ran across the metal grates that made up the walkway that led our house to the main walkway. We lived so high up! It was super exciting to hear the loud sounds as I ran across the grates.

  I was preparing to jump down the steps that lead to one of the main walkways that led down to ground level when I felt strong hands pick me up from behind and launch me into the air. My stomach felt like it was going to fly out of my mouth and I briefly flailed my legs and arms before the strong hands again grabbed me around my middle leading me down safely on my dad’s shoulders, my legs around his neck.

  “Dad! I said I’m too old to be picked up!” I whined. He tilted his head back to try and look into my eyes but was unable to without me falling off.

  “Ahh you’re my little girl! You’ll never be too old to be picked up, I won’t allow it! Besides. I can’t have you running off from your mother and I, we’re supposed to go get ice cream as a family.” He said. As he finished, mom caught up and lightly patted me on the back.

  “Your father is right, dear. We should go as a family! Plus, you can’t buy ice cream by yourself anyway, can you?” She asked. That made sense so I decided I would be nice and allow dad to carry me to the ice cream shop.

  It look a bit of walking, but before long, we made it down from our apartment building and onto the ground floor of sector E.

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  There were a lot more people down here than on the upper walkways, though I enjoyed being able to see everything anyways due to being on dad’s shoulders. Some people gave little waves, and others ignored us completely as we walked. Dad would stop sometimes when he saw someone he knew, or sometimes he’d walk over to the sides of the street and give some money to one of the people who had the weird signs I had trouble reading still. They didn’t give us anything when we gave them money though.

  Mom lightly hit dad whenever he gave some money away saying something about not having the ‘lugs bury’ to help others but dad would always smile to her and say

  "The world already has enough sadness in it. It’s worthwhile to add a little happiness to it.”

  Mom would always just chuckle and kiss him on the cheek when he said that. Kissing is gross so she must have been mad at him, but she was always smiling so I don’t get it.

  After walking down the street forever we finally made it to the ice cream shop! I ran ahead to make sure I got my ice cream quicker.

  I tried to push the door open but it was too heavy. I spun around and ran back to mom and dad. They were watching me run and just laughed when I pushed them to make them walk faster. Didn’t they understand that I needed my ice cream?! I mean ice cream isn’t as good as cake, but it’s still awesome and they had to understand that so why were they so slow?? Adults were always so slow, and today was no different.

  Finally, after forever, Dad pushed the door open and I ran up to the counter and jumped up so I could see over it at the ice cream shop man. Dad called him something else, but to me he was the ice cream man.

  The man smiled down at me as he spoke up.

  “Ah, young Astra, come again for your favorite ice cream?” He asked.

  I nodded fast, still jumping.

  “Yep! It’s my birthday! I wanted cake or ice cream so we came for ice cream! Vanilla cone please! Ooh can I have two scoops?” I asked, looking back to Dad. He scrunched up his face for a few seconds and scratched at his scruffy beard.

  “Well if you got two scoops of ice cream, then you wouldn’t have any room for cake later.” He said. I turned back to the ice cream man, slightly upset until I registered what Dad has said. I whipped around, my mouth open wide, eyes sparkling.

  “Cake?! You said we’re having cake later?!” I said, looking between Mom and Dad. They smiled at me and I jumped up and down, ran up to them and hugged them both.

  I ran back to the counter and, jumping up and holding myself on the counter with my elbows, demanded my precious vanilla cone from the ice cream man.

  Now licking my precious ice cream, I skipped down the street for the whole walk home. By the time we got back up to our apartment’s level I finished my ice cream in one big bite. I ran over to our door and bounced up and down waiting for Mom and Dad. I kept waiting for them but they stopped in front of miss Alvira’s house. They waved me over and I ran at my top speed and soon joined them in front of our neighbor’s apartment.

  They had already knocked on the door and miss Alvira was waiting with them when I ran up to them. Mom and Dad looked down at me.

  “Astra, we need to go pick up your cake so we need you to stay with miss Alvira while we’re gone.” Mom said. I frowned.

  “Why can’t I come? I want to come!” I whined. Dad knelt down and patted me on the head, messing up my hair, which he knew I hated! Bad Dad!

  “Well we ordered the cake from a little shop in a part of Sector E where bad guys like to hang out. It’ll be dangerous for just your mother and I and we don’t want you to get hurt, so stay here with miss Alvira and we’ll go get your cake, okay?” He asked. I started tearing up a little, but if Dad said there were bad guys, then I didn’t want to go anymore. I don’t like bad guys, so I nodded.

  “Great, we’ll be back soon, okay Astra?” Mom asked. I nodded to her too, and ran over and hugged her around her legs.

  “Be careful around the bad guys!” I told them both. They knelt down and hugged me back, sandwiching me between them.

  “Good girl Astra, we both love you and we’ll see you soon. Your father will make sure no bad guys try to mess with us after all.” Mom said. She was right, Dad was the strongest man in the universe!

  I watched them walk away, a strange twinge in my heart before they disappeared around the corner and I walked into miss Alvira’s house. I plopped down onto her super soft couch and after she was in the kitchen for a little while, she brought me out a cup of tea. It tasted a little bitter, but it wasn’t so bad. I told miss Alvira about our trip to the ice cream store and everything else we had done today. Then I told her that she could have some of my birthday cake when Mom and Dad got back. Just like Dad, I would try to be nice to people!

  Though we had been talking for forever already, when were Mom and Dad going to be back? I was getting sleepy and I wanted to eat my cake before going to bed. But they were taking soooooo loooooooong. Miss Alvira laid a super warm blanket over me which was doing a super bad job at keeping me awake. I guessed I could just rest my eyes a little bit while I waited so I laid down on the couch and just closed my eyes for a second.

  A knock at the door woke me u- err… made me open my eyes from resting them and I ran to the door. Mom and Dad were finally back with my cake! I ran to the door and tried to jump up to unlock it but I couldn’t reach. I had to wait forever for miss Alvira to come to the door and unlock it before opening it.

  “Mom! Da-“ I started to yell before my words died in my throat. Instead of Mom and Dad, a man and a woman wearing clothes like dad wore when he said he had meetings at work were standing in front of the door. I hid behind miss Alvira and listened as the two strangers spoke.

  “Hello ma’am.” The man said.

  “Are you Laurie Alvira?” He asked. Miss Alvira nodded.

  “Yes, that’s me, but what’s this about? Why is sector government seeking me out?” Miss Alvira asked.

  “There was a building collapse in sub-sector 28. Two individuals were at the scene at the time of the building collapse. After identifying them, we’ve come to execute their wills.” The woman said.

  I looked up at miss Alvira, but she looked really weird before she ushered me back into her house then returned to the door. I couldn’t make out what the adults were saying from the other room, but I stayed still

  After a few more minutes, miss Alvira came back into the room.

  “Miss Alvira, who were those people? And what’s a ‘will’? Also, when are Mom and Dad going to be back?”

  She sat down next to me on the couch and, without answering me, leaned over and hugged me.

  I jolted awake, scanning my surroundings. After ensuring there weren’t any demons I took a deep breath. My heart was pounding and my entire body was covered in sweat, my nightclothes completely drenched. I laid back down on my side, my head wetly plopping on my pillow as I pulled my knees up to my chest, hugging them as close to my body as I could. Tears fell unbidden from my eyes as was becoming my nightly routine after arriving at the Radiant Halo sect in the northern continent.

  “Mom…Dad…Everyone… I’m sorry” I sobbed.