Responses
No kidding, I feel utterly drained. Like an emotional vampire sucked the life out of me; and now, I'm going to be walking with a dark cloud over my head thinking of this (against my will) for a few days.....
(〜 ̄△ ̄)〜
ps. As arduous as it was reading this, I'm satisfied with their ending and I too feel glad I stuck with it till the end.

WOW...This took a lot of effort on many levels more than 1, to read from start to finish. but I'm glad I did.