Thank you for your comment, Luna. I'm a little confused as to why you don't comment on the last chapter. I'd assumed that the last chapter would be the chapter to comment on.
It was always intentional for the last part to be short, and to end not with a lot of screenshots, but those particular screenshots. I wrote the ending while I wrote the beginning. It's true I could have padded more, thrown in some unnecessary clutter, stuffed more screenshots with every character she's ever encountered. I could have her talk to everyone all over again, have more flashbacks to childhood. I could have gone on to talk about what she did at The Red Rendezvous with her classmates.
But I didn't because one, the climax has passed. There were no other ideas I could or should shoehorn in. And there was no twist, as I said from the start. Two, it would all be meaningless blathering. Wouldn't it be awfully odd if Melissa went through this whole journey, learnt that thinking isn't everything, learning isn't everything, and then spent 5, 000+ words thinking back to what she did? And so the last few captionless screenshots showed that she was now doing and feeling instead of thinking, thinking, thinking. Pictures speak louder than words, sometimes.
So I'm happy with the ending, I don't consider it rushed, and I wouldn't forsake it because I wanted to amp up the word count. (I'm also impressed that the ending even got to 1225 words.)
Oh, I forgot to change the title. Thanks!
