-Chapter 6-

                                    

                                          

      No one spoke the rest of that night. Kansas's father sent all of the kids to their rooms. Kansas closed her door and began crying. She sank to the floor, leaning on her bed. 
     How could the day go so terribly? She thought to herself.  She got ready to sleep and lay in her bed, thinking of all the things she could've done to prevent Byron from snapping. A knock came to her door. 
     "Come in." She sighed as her mother walked into the room and sat on her bed next to her. There was silence for a few moments until they both said,
     "Listen-" Kansas's mother smiled and chuckled under her breath.
     "You're just like me in ways I would never have thought." Kansas smiled but her smile soon faded when she noticed a small red mark on her mothers face. Her mother covered it with hair and quickly noticed Kansas's frown.
     "It doesn't hurt. I promise." Her mother asked, rubbing circles on her back. "But as you and I are alike, I know when you're upset, tell me your troubles." Kansas blurted out saying.
      "You're sending Byron away for who knows how long and he has never been like this. Neither has a father, he's acting differently not like himself. How did our family become like this?" 
     "Like what?" Her mother asked. Kansas continued,
     "So separated, so angry." Kansas's mother smiled but Kansas could see the pain Byron had caused in her eyes.  
     "I promise you I'm not angry with Byron. He deserves to be angry with me."
     "How?" Kansas said, her temper rising. 
      "Because," Kansas mother's hands began to shake as her eyes welled with tears. "I'm the reason his sister's dead." 
                                                                                         *...*
     "During the Gnome war, food and water were scarce. King Gold didn't have the resources to help the kingdom, only to help with the war. Soldiers came to town everyday to collect men, women, even children for battle. The parents were getting compensated with things we desperately needed.
       I had the idea to send Byron to war since he was very strong and could fight well for a young boy. Your father was completely against it, of course, but I told him he had to pick one of them to send, Genevieve or Byron. Genevieve was older, stronger and more agile but because Byron was so young they would've let him be a Healer or Blacksmith. I thought it would have been better to send Byron but Genevieve caught on sooner than we thought and sent herself. She kept telling Byron before she left that she would come back when it was all over. Byron cried for days and after a week they sent back the names of the dead and the list of wounded to every house. Byron checked both lists and not seeing Genevieve's name he was rejoiced. Every week for two months he never saw her name but then the week she was due to come back, we checked the list and saw her name on the wounded list. Back then you were only put on the wounded list if you were badly wounded, and Byron knew this, and when she didn't come home with the other soldiers we knew she was gone." Kansas's mother burst into tears sobbing all over Kansas. She comforted her mother as she sniffed and continued, her voice breaking every so often, 
     "Byron didn't talk to us for six months after that. He never came down to eat, he never went to school. We told everyone he had the flu and so he couldn't go to school, since it was mandatory for men to go to school in case there was another war. He would just sit there, do nothing, say nothing. And when we told him I was pregnant with you he said the first thing he had said in months. What he said shattered my heart." Kansas's heart beat faster every second she heard her mother speak.