Since this day had been the same as the previous one, Crymson knew that Maeken would be there soon. She didn't know if he would give her the same present since she still had it, but decided to take the bracelet off just in case. She finished getting ready and then she waited for Maeken to arrive. She waited, and waited, and waited, but he never came. She didn't know what could have happened. If everything else had been the same why wasn't this? Crymson left her room and went downstairs. She saw her mother talking to a few of the guests.

"Mom, have you seen Maeken? I thought he would be here by now."

"No, sorry sweetie, I haven't seen him."

Crymson ran back up the stairs to her room. She grabbed the charm bracelet and began shaking it.

"Aerith, Aerith come out! You have to tell me what's going on."

The pale pink stone began to glow and in a matter of seconds the faerie Aerith was in front of Crymson.

"You needn't shake the bracelet to get my attention. Simply asking for help will be fine."

"I don't know what to do. My friend Maeken, he didn't come to my party."

"Well, that is unfortunate, but I don't see how I can help."

"But he's the one that gave me this bracelet."

"Oh dear, that is a problem. You see, when a person wearing the bracelet makes a wish, the person who gave them the bracelet disappears."

"What!?!"

"Yes, the bracelet changes things. In your case, the bracelet changed time. If your friend was the one who gave you the bracelet then he had to disappear for your wish to come true."

"But I didn't want that. I didn't even know about any of this, otherwise I would have never made that stupid wish."

"It's too late to worry about that now. You must collect the other charms and wish for things to return to how they were before. But I must warn you, each charm contains a guardian who will either help or hinder your journey. You must be careful, those who want to hinder you will try to trick you and may succeed if you are too trusting. However, you must gain acceptance from every guardian in order to use the bracelet."

"And then Maeken will come back?"

"Yes, if that is your wish/"

Aerith then turned back into light and re-entered the charm. Crymson put the bracelet back on her wrist and went back to the party. She never before realized how lonely a person could feel, even though they were surrounded by lots of people. She felt horrible that it was because of her that Maeken was gone, because of her everyone was stuck reliving this day. Hours passed and it was once again time for the cake. The lights went out and once again her mother came out with the cake. This time however, Crymson noticed something different about it. Near one of the candles a small silver charm was sticking out. She didn't know how to get it without drawing attention to it. Her mother's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Make a wish honey."

This time, Crymson opted to keep her wishes to herself. She closed her eyes and blew out the candles. The room was dark without the light from the candles. Crymson took that opportunity to pull the charm from the cake. She slipped it into her shoe just as the lights came back on. She heard everyone gasp and when she looked at the cake she understood why. All the icing was gone from the spot where she took the charm. Her mother looked upset.

"I, I just don't understand what could have happened, the cake was perfect just 2 seconds ago."

"Umm, mom, I think I can answer that." Crymson knew she would have to think up something fast.

"Well, what is it honey?"

"Uh, well, you see, the cake looked so good that I couldn't help myself."

"You mean you put your finger in the icing to sneak a taste?"

"Yes."

"Oh Crymson, you're such a funny girl."

Everyone laughed politely in understanding what had happened. Crymson's mother took the cake into the kitchen to cut it. Since everyone had returned to their conversations, Crymson went back upstairs. When she got to her room she took the new charm out of her shoe. It was covered in icing so she used a tissue to clean it off. When it was clean she noticed that this charm had a red stone. She ran her fingers over the stone and a red light appeared. At this point she was getting used to the light and thus didn't feel the need to shield herself from it anymore. This time a young girl appeared. She didn't look to be any older than six. She had curly brown hair and was wearing a red dress. She looked up at Crymson with a puzzled look.

"Who are you?" The strange girl asked.

"I'm Crymson. I want to collect all the charms so that I can fix a mistake I made. Will you help me?"

"I'm Yasmika, and no, I don't wanna help you. I wanna have fun."

"Fun? How can you want to have fun at a time like this? My life is a disaster right now, I need your help."

"Lookie, that's not my problem. I've been trapped in that stupid charm for a long time. Now that I'm out I'm gonna do what I want."

Crymson watched in horror as Yasmika ran out the room. She didn't know what she would do if someone saw her, she had to stop her but didn't know how. She descended the stairs once again, but this time it was to find the girl. She could hear the startled cries of her guests and hoped that she would be able to find a way to explain Yasmika. She walked into the room and saw her knocking down trays and pushing people into each other. The room was a disaster, spilled drinks and food were everywhere, the nicely pilled mountain of presents were now scattered all across the floor. The guests didn't seem troubled by Yasmika though. They were unsettled by the strange occurrences, but none of them tried to stop her. In fact, they didn't even look at her. Crymson stood there and watched in disbelief. She calmly began to walk through the room. She could hear the confusion in everyone's voice. They knew something weird was happening but they didn't know what. She them saw Yasmika laughing in the corner of the room. Crymson approached her and grabbed her arm.

"What the hell do you think you're doing."

"I'm having fun, just like I said I was going to. And you had better be careful how loud you talk. Those people can't see me, only you can."

"Please, I want you to stop this, tell me what I have to do to get your help."

"Fine. Since you aren't going to give up. I wanna play hide and go seek. I'll hide and you have to find me. But here's the catch, you only have 5 minutes to find me. If you do, I'll help you, but if you don't then I get to be free forever and you can't tell me what to do anymore. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Ok, close your eyes and count backwards from ten."

Crymson closed her eyes and began her countdown. She knew that she had to find Yasmika, there simply was no other choice. When she finished counting she opened her eyes and began her search. She searched all through the dining room, the kitchen, the study, and the living room but couldn't find her. Three minutes passed and she was starting to feel nervous. People looked at her strangely as she frantically searched under furniture and in every nook and cranny of each room. She told them she was looking for a lost earring and they seemed to believe her. She then ran upstairs to check the bedrooms, no sign of her there either. When she sat down on the bed in her room she only had 10 seconds of her time remaining. She could feel her heart sink as she realized that she had failed in her duty to correct her mistake. And that's when she saw it twinkle on her dresser. The charm. She didn't know why she hadn't thought of it before. She rushed over and picked it up. She called out Yasmika's name and with only 2 seconds to spare, the small devilish child appeared.

"Ok, ok, you win, you found me. You know, you're pretty good, that was my best hiding place. You have my help from now on."

Yasmika disappeared back into the red stone as quickly as she left it. Crymson sunk to the floor and sighed of relief. Only 14 more to go.

******

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The problem with a story like this is that it all makes sense in my head, but I'm not sure it makes sense on paper. If you have a question please ask, I will try my best to answer them. assuming anyone is even reading this..