Dark happily ran her hand over her new necklace, and formed a table of shadows. She removed Joseph calmly from her mouth, and gave him a light smile. "I apologize if my speaking made you uncomfortable. I'm going to leave you here, to better keep you safe."

Joseph shivered and nodded at Dark, who calmly snapped her fingers to summon another human from the crowd. 

------

Billy couldn't understand what was going on. He was scared, his parents were nowhere to be found, and he was surrounded by strangers. The eight-year-old fought with all his might not to cry.

This resolve crumbled as black smoke surrounded him, and he found himself in a room far darker than the one previous. At least in the other room, the people standing around him hadn't looked mean, but now . . . it was dark as night, and he was all alone.

Billy had been scared of the dark for years, his entire life even, but it had only gotten worse after his uncle died. The thought of just . . . disappearing in the middle of the night was too much for the young boy to handle.

Suddenly, he heard another voice. A grown-up voice. She was crying, too.

------

Dark never meant any harm. However, in her own room, with her putting less of a leash on her divine abilities, the Goddess of Darkness knew every thought that passed through this small boy's head. The utter fear of her was soul-crushing. All the esteem she had built up between her interactions with Joseph and Maria was smashed in a single instant. 

Dark retreated into herself, cutting off all of her divine power. The room grew uncomfortably bright, seeing as the heavens were her sister's domain, and Dark knew that too much of this would burn her up and destroy her.

At this point, Dark didn't care.

However, Dark had the presence of mind to gently set young Billy to the same table she had placed Joseph on, so that he wouldn't fall to the floor and die when she did.

------

Billy was confused. All of the darkness disappeared immediately, making the room so bright it almost seemed as if his brother was flashing the high beams from everywhere at once.

Suddenly, a man wearing swim trunks rushed at him. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

Billy, scared, cringed and curled into a ball. "I didn't do this, I don't even know where I am!"

The man almost looked like he might hit Billy, but seemed to think better of it. "I love Dark. What did you do to make her cry?"

"Her?" Billy asked, bewildered. He then remembered the crying he had heard while the room was still dark, and looked over at where the sound was coming from. He saw the same, gigantic woman who had talked earlier- black hair, pale skin, a long black dress, looked almost like a girl version of Dracula. Now, though, she didn't look powerful or in charge. She was crying on her knees, and smoke was curling off of her like she was on fire. "I didn't do anything!"

"Bull . . . pucky." The man took a breath, trying to keep from getting angry- something Billy appreciated. "Maybe it was something you thought. She IS Darkness. If she thought you were scared of her, she might have just given up trying. That's why everything is so bright. If she's not using her powers, it would be like this all the time. No shade, not even a shadow. Just extremely bright light everywhere, forever."

Billy thought about it, growing increasingly horrified by the thought. Especially when he tried to close his eyes and the light didn't go away. "How do we get her to make it dark again?" Billy asked fearfully. 

The man shrugged. "We need to get her to feel good enough about herself that she wants to do her job again. Think about it: how would you feel if everyone was scared of you? If people cried or screamed when all you wanted was to do the only thing you know how to do?"

Billy was shocked, but slowly nodded. "I have an idea."

------

Dark could feel the lovely robes of shadow she had made for herself curl away, could feel her skin starting to burn. She knew from experience that the only way to kill a deity was for them to want to fade away. At Light's orders, Dark herself had done it to Magia. It was only fitting that the Goddess of Darkness herself would be the second of the gods to die.

"Hey!" A voice cried. "Listen to me!"

Dark lifted her head to the source of the sound, the boy from earlier. She knew that, at this point, the shadows that made up her body had to be gone to a point that her visage was probably as hideous as humanity expected her to be.

"Look," the boy said, trembling, "I know that you're sad, and scared, and that no one tries to be your friend. But the dark is scary at first, and no one really thinks about all the good things you do."

"Like what?" Dark spat, her voice filled with self-loathing and all-consuming malice. She herself had forgotten how she justified her existence to herself. Dark couldn't believe she had been so blind. Everyone hated her, even her own sister. Dark had no reason to exist.

"Like shadows!" Billy exclaimed happily, catching Dark off-guard, allowing some of the world's darkness to return- after all, she was no longer consciously restraining her power. "Shadow puppets are a fun game to play when it's cold and rainy outside, and I sometimes have fun racing with my shadow after school," he continued. 

"That's pointless," Dark said gloomily, still loaded with self-loathing. "So long as you run towards the sun, you are guaranteed to win, and should you run against the sun, you are guaranteed to lose."

"And what about the shade?" Billy continued, ignoring her response. "On hot days when you don't wanna do anything, you can just lie down in the shade!"

"I enable laziness, big whoop," Dark grumbled in reply, although she found it touching that this kid was going out of his way for her.

"And you couldn't watch movies if the theater wasn't dark," Billy added, getting into the swing of things. 

Dark smiled lightly at that one. "I guess that's true," she muttered.

"And if it didn't get dark at night, no one would sleep and everyone would be mad at each other," Billy finished, looking satisfied with himself. 

"Last but not least, you know that I love you, Dark," Joseph added on, for that extra push.

Dark finally smiled, displaying a thin crescent of white teeth, and the room grew dark. She re-formed her robe of shadows, and walked over to the dangerously frail-looking table of shadows she had made earlier, and lifted Billy and Joseph from it. "Thank you," she whispered, clutching the two of them to her chest. One of Joseph's thoughts flitted into her head, and she laughed. "You're such a perv, Joseph."