Clara's mother visits her for the final time just after her third birthday.  They have a lot to talk about and although they cannot speak out loud, they can still communicate, forming words on their lips that the other one can read.

On her last visit, she tells Clara that she is safe in this realm and she will come back, but it won't be for a very long while.  She has been spending too much time in Clara's strange little reality and it's making her sick.  Plus there are dangerous things going on that her mother doesn't go into because Clara is only three.  These dangerous things are a world away and will not affect Clara.  She emphasizes this several times.  Clara is safe.  She is loved and she will see her mother again someday.  Her biggest regret is that Clara will be alone now.

That is both true and not true.  Clara will be alone in her realm, but there is more than just her realm here.  Clara's realm looks out onto another.  Her mother calls it overlapping.  There are people in the overlapping realm.  Even though none of the people have been able to see her yet, she's convinced that someday, someone will.

Before she leaves, Clara's mother measures her against the frame of a door in the hotel's lobby.  Clara has grown almost an inch since she was measured last.  Her mother smiles at her, her eyes fill with tears.

Clara kisses her mother goodbye and tells her not to worry.  For all of her mother's reassurances, it is she, not Clara, who needs the pep talk.  Clara already spends most of her time alone, so that won't be different.  Besides, her mother says she will come back for her, and so she will.  How long can a "very long while" be anyways?

I love you Clara, her mother mouths to her.  Clara hugs her close and then lets her go.  With shaking hands, she makes the signs, she opens her mouth in the shapes of numbers and patterns Clara does not understand, and then she steps from Clara's world into nothingness. 

Clara is left alone again, like always.

In the months and years that follow her mother's final visit, Clara continues to grow.  She watches the guests of the hotel she lives in and learns that she can touch their things and make copies, sucking them into her reality so she can use them for herself.  But she cannot touch the people themselves. The living, breathing people are out of reach, and to them, she is entirely unseen.

Clara thinks about her mother for the longest time.  But she is a child.  While she might be different from fully human children, she is similar enough that her early childhood memories blur and then dim and then, almost entirely, are forgotten altogether. 

Eventually, there is little she can recall about the earliest years of her life.  Sometimes, when she is just about to fall asleep, she remembers a hand brushing against her forehead.  She remembers an arm wrapped around her.  She remembers being loved.

She remembers that she is Clara.  Someone gave her that name and they gave it to her for a reason.  That belief is enough to sustain her through all of the lonely years to come.

~End~

A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading Unheeded and for the tremendous support you have shown for this story! While I'm sad that this is the last Author's Note of Unheeded, this sadness is overshadowed by the immense gratitude I feel for you all.

This chapter is different from the rest, isn't it?  As we return to Clara's POV, we also return to the shorter, sparse storytelling style that dominated Unseen.  Speaking of, if you haven't read Unseen yet, I would urge you to do so, especially if you are interested in seeing where I take this story in the final installment of the Fold series. 

Wait, what's that about a final installment, Amber?

Yes, that's right!  For those of you who are interested, there is a third book.  While the end of Unheeded saw us coming full circle back to Unseen, that circle hasn't actually been completed yet.  Don't you still have unanswered questions?  I know I do!  For instance, why did Avie leave Clara and not come back?  Was she suffering from realm sickness, or was there something more too it?  That's just one of many questions I answer in book three, UNSPOKEN.

Finally... today's dedication is for @Kiwamarinai.  She leaves me awesome comments and has read all of my work on Wattpad.  Not to mention, she crochets sweaters for her dog and loves Orphan Black (Yay!).  I'm so glad she came across my work and started reading it!