Re: Return letter: Daniel W/Sam A + Cris M
[This comes several days later.]
Dear Cris and Sam,
Many returns of the season. Be assured that I have nothing but polite interest in the health of your other family and children. I understand from your previous missive that you have some objection to my presence, but if you would care to cast your mind back, I think you will recall how much better it felt, being with me and well, as opposed to your screaming terrors a moment before--and it is only natural that we soothe the frightened and the weary. I would not have you "messed up" any more than you would prefer the same.
What is it that you came for in the woods? I can only imagine, though I do not care to. Certainly you did not come as friends, but rather to fight a phantasm, someone else's enemy. You cast your own shadows on my nature, and all of mine are more likely to remember me with kindness rather than ill-will.