Prologue

She stared at her own reflection in the mirror. Then, she turned to the empty and neat bed with pink sheets and white floral designs. She looked back at the mirror again and just stared at it.

"Nicky?" she heard her mother calling her softly outside.

The nineteen year-old waited a few seconds before walking out of her sister's room.

"Nicky, what were you doing in Liz's room?" her mother asked.

"Nothing," she replied, almost sounding cold.

"Let's go now," her mother said in the same tone she used when Nicky's sister died two years ago.

She followed her mother into a room where an old lady laid on the bed with thick blanket that covered her body up to her neck. Her eyelids were shut as she lay there pale and lifeless. Her grandmother seemed to be at peace. The girl's mother sobbed quietly beside her.

She shut her eyes tight, suddenly remembering the day her sister died. The sun was shining brightly, but she thought it should've been dark and cloudy. It was a day for mourning. Nicky sat beside her mother who was crying hysterically. Her father sat on the other side of her mother, trying hard to be strong and trying every way possible to comfort his wife. People were crying. She wasn't.

Nicky just stared at the closed white casket with gold carvings and pink crystals. Those were Elizabeth's favorite color. She was supposed to be crying, but instead, she just sat there, staring at the casket. Her elder sister, her best friend, was gone.

"Nicky," her mother said, bringing Nicky back to reality.

She just stared at her grandmother the way she stared at her sister's casket. Then, she turned and looked at her mother. She did not know how to comfort her mother, the same way she did not know how to comfort her mother when Elizabeth died. She wanted badly to be a caring, compassionate and supportive daughter, but she just could not. That part of her died the day her sister was buried.

Instead of hugging her mother and telling her that everything would be alright, she did the only thing she knew how to do at that moment. She walked out of the room.