Groaning, I hit my alarm as it started buzzing. I'm not ready to get up yet, I thought to myself. I'm so tired!

"Stay in bed," Evil whispered. "It's so much nicer and who cares about getting up and getting things done? Just go back to sleep."

"No, get up!" Good whispered, pushing Evil out of my head. "You have things to do. If you don't get up you'll be late for work and that could lead to you getting fired!"

Groaning again, I got up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I walked to the bathroom, still waking up.

Well I gotta go to work I guess. Just another day like all the others. I rolled my eyes at myself in the bathroom mirror.

"Don't think like that!" Good said. "Today is full of new opportunities! Each day is a gift."

"No, you're right," Evil interrupted. "Today is just another day. You get up, go to work, come home, and sleep, only to repeat it all over again tomorrow!"

I brushed my teeth thinking about my options. I could choose to start the day off on the wrong foot: go to work just like every other day doing the same old stuff or... I could start my day off positively and see what new opportunities lay ahead.

"This is the day! This is the day! That the Lord has made, that the Lord has made," I started singing softly to myself as I ate my breakfast. Still humming, I pulled on my coat, grabbed my coffee and headed to my car.

"Gosh, darn it!" I shouted, tripping over a crack in the sidewalk and spilling my coffee all over myself.

"See? Today isn't a good day. Now you have to go inside and change all your clothes which will make you late for work. You should've just stayed in bed," Evil sneered.

"It's ok," Good chimed in. "It's just a little coffee. Go inside, change your clothes, and head to work. I'm sure your boss will understand."

Still grumbing, I went back inside and changed my clothes. "What a great way to start the day," I mumbled to myself.

Finally, I was in my car and headed to work. I pulled my GPS up on my phone to check traffic. Traffic was backed up quite a ways on my usual route which would've made me an hour late! But there was another way I could go, only making me ten minutes late.

"If you hadn't spilled your coffee on yourself, you would've gotten stuck in that traffic," Good pointed out.

"The accident only just happened and it would've been too late to use the other route by the time you knew."

"Nonsense!" Evil said. "You still would have had time and not been late at all!"

"I'm so sorry I'm late!" I said to my boss at work. "I spilled my coffee all over myself and there was an accident and traffic was backed up-"

My boss held up his hands to stop me. "It's fine. You're here now."

I sighed with relief and headed to my office.

When lunchtime came I realized I had forgotten my lunch. "Stupid, stupid me!" I mumbled. Leaning back in my chair I sighed. Today was not going well at all.

"Don't let it get you down," Good encouraged. "Maybe this will be better."

"How could this be better?" Evil asked. "You don't have lunch! What are you going to do?"

"Well there is such a thing as a restaurant," Good pointed out.

Yeah, I thought. I'll just go to a restaurant and get some food.With a laugh at myself I stood and put my coat on and walked to the nearest restaurant.

The food was delicious and I was starting to feel pretty good about how this mishap had turned out when I overheard someone in the restaurant.

"You're bill is twenty dollars," the waitress was telling a lady sitting at the other end of the room.

"But I don't have that much," the lady protested. "I thought the menu said it was ten."

"No, you must have misunderstood. The menu cleary says it's twenty," the waitress said, looking annoyed.

"What can you do to help this situation?" Good asked.

"There's nothing you can do," Evil said. "She should have looked at the menu closer. It's her fault. Surely she can wash dishes or something to pay for her meal."

"But what's the right thing to do?" Good questioned.

The waitress was coming to my table now and I made a decision.

"Here's your bill sir. And I'm sorry for the noise over there," she said gesturing towards the lady who still sat at the table. "People who can't afford this restaurant shouldn't eat here." She spoke loudly and looked knowingly at the lady across the room who kept her head down.

That must be embarrassing, I thought, watching her.

"Here's my card and," I leaned towards the waitress and dropped my voice to a whisper, "pay for the lady's as well please."

The waitress took a step back in shock. "You want me to do what now?" She glanced at the lady.

"Add hers to mine," I said in a low voice.

"If you say so but are you sure?"

"Quite sure."

Shaking her head in disbelief the waitress walked back to the register.

"Good choice," Good praised.

"What are you talking about good choice?" Evil sputtered. "That's called an act of kindness. Kindness! What good will that do me?"

"It's not about what good it will do you.It's about what good it will do them."

I looked from the waitress to the lady and wondered if such a small act would do anything. And then I realized it had already done something. It had made me feel good inside.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke

"Good always triumphs over evil."

I lay in bed staring at my clock. 9:43p.m. At 9:45 I would leave. It was a tradition of mine and my friends to meet once a week at 10 o’clock but this week was special. At midnight it would be October first; my favorite month. The trees would become bright with their vibrant colors of orange, yellow, and red. The air would be getting colder which meant warm sweaters, cozy socks and blankets, boots, beanies, hot chocolate; everything cozy.

9:45. I got up and pulled on my boots and grabbed my blanket which was wrapped around a flashlight and a canteen of hot chocolate as I headed to my window. I wasn’t exactly sneaking out... my parents would be fine with me meeting my friends but going through the window gave me a sense that I was headed out on some kind of quest to save the world. My bedroom was on the second floor of the house but by now I had mastered how to get to the ground even in the dark. I stepped out of the window onto the edge of the roof and quietly closed the window, leaving it open just enough for me to easily open it when I returned. Holding my arms out for balance, I carefully put one foot in front of the other, walking towards the elm tree at the end of the house. Once I reached it I stepped onto the branches and climbed down to the ground. Grabbing my flashlight, I ran into the woods and found my familiar markers which marked my path to our spot. Our meeting spot was only a ten minute walk through the woods so it didn’t take me long to arrive.

“Boo!” Ella yelled as she jumped out from behind a tree.

“Ella, you know it never works anymore,” I laughed. She had scared me twice but after that I’d come to expect it.

“I know but it’s still worth a try,” she laughed, greeting me with a hug. “Come on. Nick and Will are getting the fire started.”

Ella started for the clearing where I could see a small fire burning.

“Jenna’s not here yet I’m guessing?”

“She’s probably sleeping,” Ella laughed.

“Well usuaully that’s typical but tonight’s different. It’s the last day of September!” I rolled my eyes and laughed. Jenna was probably fast asleep. “Let’s hope Sarah wakes her up,” I said.

As we drew near the fire I could make out the colors on the trees. The leaves were just starting to change colors and some had already fallen to the ground. I heard and felt their crunch each time I took a step. Around the fire were two logs we had dragged to our little clearing so we would have a place to sit.

“How’s the last day of September feel?” Will asked, adding another log to the fire.

“Great!” I answered smelling the air and looking up. The sky was filled with millions of stars shining brightly through the opening in the trees. It was a perfect night.

“We’re here!” Sarah announced as her and Jenna entered the clearing. “Someone fell asleep,” she looked at Jenna with an eyebrow raised.

Jenna rolled her eyes at her sister and held a hand up in defence. “I was tired guys!” She laughed and took a seat on one of the logs.

“Too tired to come to our bonfire?” Nick asked, pulling his beanie down over his ears.

“Obviosly not!” Jenna gestured to herself who was clearly sitting by the fire.

“Sarah probably had to drag you here didn’t she?” Ella gave her a playful punch.

“Not exactly,” Jenna said with a laugh.

“I brought hot chocolate!” I sang out, unwrapping my blanket from around the canteen.

We swapped stories from our week for two hours as we waited for midnight to come. The night was peaceful, with the stars shining down on us and the gentle breeze rustling through the leaves. Occasionally, a leaf would gently fall and join the others that lay on the ground.

“It’s 11:59,” Will announced.

“Almost time,” I squealed, hugging my blanket tighter around me as if somehow with one second changing the month it would get colder.

“So when do we start decorating for Christmas?” Ella asked, hiding a grin.

“Oh my gosh Ella! It’s not even Thanksgiving yet!” Sarah, a horrified look coming over her face, said.

“O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,” Nick sang with a twinkle in his eye.

“How lovely are your branches,” the rest of us joined in laughing as Sarah covered her ears.

“Twelve o’clock everyone!” Will said, glancing at his phone.

“Eeeek!” I squealed, getting up and doing a dance around the fire. “I can smell October!”

“Funny how one second can change so much,” Nick whispered to Will just loud enough for everyone to hear.

“But Nick, it’s October!” Jenna said, as if that explained everything.

“Ohhh... I see,” Nick nodded, sarcastically.

Ella jumped up and grabbing a handful of leaves, threw them at me.

“Now you’re in for it!” I laughed, raking together a pile of leaves with my hands and throwing them back at her. A breeze blew just then and the leaves were swept away right at Jenna’s face. Everyone jumped up and a leaf war began.

I went deeper and deeper into the woods after each handful of leaves I threw, trying to find the most leaves in one spot.

I grabbed some leaves and turned around just to get a mouthful of leaves. I spit and sputtered as I watched Will run off laughing.

“You’re gonna get it!” I yelled after him.

I was just standing after gathering the biggest handful of leaves yet when I heard I step behind me crunching the leaves underneath whoever it was.

“You better run Will-” I said turning around but stopped when I realized it wasn’t Will. It wasn’t any of my friends. A boy who looked to be about my age stood staring at me. “Who are you?” I asked, a little louder than I should’ve, hoping the others would hear me.

“I don’t mean to scare you but please, hurry and get your friends. We have to hide,” was his only answer. He glanced around us as if something was about to jump out of the shadows.

Something about him made me shiver but he spoke urgently and anyways, I figured it was best if I went back to the clearing to get the others.

“Come with me,” I said, gesturing towards the clearing.

Ella, Jenna, Sarah, Will, and Nick were still engulfed in the leaf war but stopped when they saw me.

Will squinted his eyes as he looked past the fire. The look on my face must’ve said something wasn’t right. “What’s the matter with you?” he asked.

The strange boy stepped out of the woods after Will finished and instinctively Will and Nick both took a step toward us.

“Who are you?” Nick asked.

“Please,” the stranger said urgently, “we must hide! There’s no time to explain. You have to trust me!”

“Hide from what?” Will asked, frowning at the boy.

“Not what... who. Hurry!”

Something about the boy’s urgency finally made us listen to him. Will and Nick followed him first gesturing for us girls to stay behind them.

“Stay together and remember, we don’t trust him. Let’s just play it safe,” Will whispered to us all as we left the clearing.

The strange boy led us just far enough into the woods so that anyone who entered the clearing wouldn’t be able to see us. He motioned to a thick cluster of bushes for us to hide behind.

“Should we be doing whatever he tells us?” I whispered to Will as we knelt down behind the bushes. “We don’t know anything about him!”

“I just want to play it safe and besides, we outnumber him,” Will whispered back.

The stranger held a finger to his lips and pointed to our clearing.

We all squinted our eyes, peering through the bushes to see. I heard some rustling at the other end of the clearing and suddenly four men emerged... holding guns! I put a hand to my mouth to cover my gasp. Who were these men? A glance in Will’s direction and his expression told me to keep quiet.

“Logan! You said they’d be here!” one of the men said in a gruff voice, pointing an accusing finger at the man to his left.

“They should be!” the man who appeared to be Logan said, holding up a hand in defence. “I guess they left early.”

“You know we’re supposed to have them by now.”

“No worries. They’ll be back next week. Now that we’ve found their spot we’ll keep a close watch on it,” Logan pointed out.

The man who had spoken first growled. “You know the boss doesn’t want to wait that long.”

“We’ll the boss will just have to.” Logan said the word boss in a mocking tone.

“Don’t let me hear that tone of voice from you again!” the other man roared, his voice raising.

“Sorry Jack. You know I didn’t mean it,” Logan mumbled.

Jack growled again, mumbling something under his breath.

“We’ll come back tomorrow with a watch. Let’s go.”

I turned to my friends, eyes wide. Who were these men and why were they looking for us?

I knew it was coming soon. I listened to the sobs of my family and friends surrounding my bed. I felt their hands holding mine and I tried to take it all in because I knew, soon, I wouldn't be able to hear them, wouldn't be able to feel their touch. I could barely open my eyes but I tried as hard as I could once more. I looked each person around me in the eye. I squeezed their hand or gave them a smile. I whispered, "It'll be okay. I'm going somewhere better than here. Please don't cry." I could tell they all tried to be brave for my sake. I watched them wipe away their tears as my eyes closed. I could almost hear my Savior's voice; I was ready to go Home. As I breathed in one last breath I heard sniffs around me. I squeezed hands one last time and I smiled so they would know once more from me that it was okay. This world is cursed with sin and with that sin comes sickness and pain that many of us have or will suffer from. Many of our loved ones have suffered from it. Sometimes they are healed. Other times they're not. And if we love Jesus and profess Him as our Lord and Savior, if we believe that He can forgive us from all of our sins, then He calls us Home to be with Him. It is not something to be sad about; leaving this world. It is something to rejoice about because I am going to see the face of Jesus. I let out that breath and everything went still.

I smell something sweet, sweeter than anything I've ever smelt before. I hear singing, the most beautiful voices I've ever heard before. Slowly I open my eyes. A face is gazing down at me; a beautiful face. He smiles and reaches out a hand to help me up.

"Jesus," I whisper, barely getting the word out as I stand in awe of His presence.

"Yes, My child, it is Me. Welcome Home," He says, still holding my hand.

I cannot take my eyes off of His face. His beauty is so overwhelming, the touch of His hand even more so. I do not want to ever let go but yet I want to fall down on my knees and worship Him.

His eyes gaze back into mine and I am captivated by them. I kneel at His feet, still holding His hand. I want to laught and dance and sing. I am in heaven! I am with Jesus!

He pulls me to my feet and embraces me. The feel of His arms around me is so calming. All of the emotions melt away and I hug Him back. I am at peace. I am in the presence of Jesus. No more fear, no more pain, no more tears, and no more sickness. All the trials of life on earth are nothing compared to the feeling of being with Jesus. I would go through it over and over again just to be with Him. But I don't have to. He has called me Home for good and I will never leave His side because He never left mine.