Cass and Mark knew they could never be good parents and that was like a knife that kept cutting into their heart. Every time their daughter had to narrate how her month was when they wished to have witnessed it themselves.
How they could never take care of her everything had to be programmed so they could enjoy the little time they had together. They had seen how children acted bratty and the parents nagged but they could never do that.
Sometimes it all felt like they were living a dream for a week then it came crashing down everytime they thought it might just let for eternity.
It took years for them to be 'okay' with these so called arrangements. She could not stay with them and they could never stay with her.
"Cass it was worth it " Mark said remembering how hard they strived to find what tied them away from their angel.
It seemed like yesterday they were planning out her room and how they would raise her together. What they wanted to teach places they wanted to take her. Cass immediately felt stuffy ; she remembered when they got the house the gently painted her room hopeful she would love it when she grew older and she did.
Or at least she said , even if she hated how would she complain.
" Cass when are we going to tell her. " Mark asked staring at the ceiling : his dark eyes like a endless pool hid turmoils of emotions.
" Hopefully never , Mark what do you want me to say. ... " Cass was so angry " A..am I to tell her the parents she expects ever..every month might not be coming back if they are ever going to com.. coming bback. " Cass sobbed : noticing how quiet he was she looked up to hide her tears.
Cass understood Mark was more gentle than she was.
While Lana's two parents where pondering how to tell her , they never noticed their little girl was standing the stairs listening to what they said. Tears brimmed in her eyes but no matter how hard she tried to stop it. It rolled down her face.
Lana did not understand how to feel she see her parents her in so much pain but ' Why do they want to leave me again am I so much of a burden ' she could not help but be negative even though she saw how much they loved her. She stood their watching them pull her themselves together.
Lana steps back into the darkness and wipes her face with her sleeves. She stared into a mirror by the window and smiled trying to look natural.
"Lana " Her mother's call distracted her from her practice but it would not affect her display of fake happiness.
"Am coming " Despite how hard she tried the voice sounded like a broken record.
" Darling are you okay your nose is puffy. "
Lana's face bloomed into a bright smile on seeing that all of Cass worries disappeared in that moment.
" Oh am fine, I just sneezed "
Mark stared at the exchange blankly and felt that Lana was not being honest her eyes looked gloomy the moment Cass turned her back on her.
"Lana the rock " he decided to let it go.
"Sure dad " she handed the bag. Planning to sit he suddenly gestured for her to follow him.
In the dark basement Mark decided the best thing was to prepare their daughter for the world outside. She needed to be prepared. He could not promise they would be by his side forever.
" Remember what I said about dimensions" She immediately nodded her heads. " All dangerous " she added.
" Yeah but we were able to seize control of some now we can create a more pocket dimensions the only difference is these are movable so pocket dimensions." Suddenly he put it a small bag.
" So it is like a space bag except I can enter. " she understood that just how to enter well as far as she knew only her palm could fit into that bag except maybe it was like the hole in the old tale Alice and the Wonderland.
Reading through her gaze " If you own it all you need to do it use your consciousness to pull yourself inside and whoever you want to take with you. If you forcefully acquire the bag the space could collapse or it would cause a backlash that might affect the brain. It could later cause problems when sending elements or using a mecha." He gently explained.
Lana's eyes widened. Unable to control herself , a vacuum force dragged her into the bag which felt much bigger than it looked her eyes immediately closed up in fear.
Her feets gradually touched what seemed like the cold tiles , a strawberry wave hit her nose it had a hint of vanilla. The smell reminded her of ice-cream and she was immediately tempted to open her eyes.
Her mouth moistened by the thought of ice-cream as she tried to fight the pressure to open her eyes.
At first Mark thought it was cute how she was distracted by the ice-cream smell forgetting that it could be dangerous. He began to regulate the body pressure, when he noticed her eyes struggling to open.
" Keep them close there is no ice-cream. " he warned and hurry to change the body pressure.
Lana's face scrunched in annoyance ' To think I was hoping for an everlasting ice-cream fountain. why smell like ice-cream if there is none ' she thought.
' Haa..ah it smells so sweet I feel like I am candy land' she thought : a pity she nothing was edible.
Seeing her distracted eyes wandering up and down like hidden sweets would pop out Mark dragged is daughter towards the middle sized building.
Lana noticed the air in this building was completely different it smelt so clean and free their was strawberry or vanilla smell. The interior walls were sky blue tiles for ' easy cleaning ' she thought. The grounds had a nice plain white sparkling tile, the tables were high and stretched ' one could probably sleep on it ' .
The whole setting proved the only place she had asked her parents to bring her forever ' A laboratory ' now she wanted nothing to do with these place cause it felt like they were both preparing for their demise. Mother was not here but she knew she was preparing something else.
"Dad how could you let the place smell like sweet if there is none " she asked : he needed to at least give her some treats.
"We wanted to trick when you were younger unfortunately we couldn't do that. Anyway do you not want to inspect your rock. " he smiled so sadly that Lana felt like crying clenching her fist she smiled back pretending nothing was wrong.
Side by side two people walked together towards the laboratory equipment. Both father and daughter were having fun during science experiments , Mark was gently explaining everything and Lana listed scribbling what she did not understand in the note book he handed her.
"Dad the rock and is it not kind of late. " They had been here all night mum must be feeling lonely.
"Lana time works differently here it has only been 3 hours"
" Wait 3... 3 hours how is these possible. wait don't tell me a pocket dimension is a whole new space that will not follow time and space as earth does it could be faster or slower , right " she smiled : her eyes sparkled with pride.
"Ehn... So let's start to observe the rock" gently placing the cloth bag on the table he pulled the bag open but not before he made sure all the safety equipment were properly worn and Lana was 3 feets away from him and the rock.
"Dad can I be closer " she entries to plead but it of course fell on deaf ears as Mark never once looked back at her. She grumbled unhappily but paid attention to the rock.
When the rock was fully exposed he could understand why his daughter took it back it shine with such nice luster. Still it was to be seen if it had any use.
He began to test the rock and Lana finally got to see her dad working.
It was such a tranquil atmosphere for father and daughter something that was a lasting memory. As they stood together.
It was just that no one knew if in the future they would be able to stand with each other in these nice family moment.