Her death sits upon my shoulders, like a weight that I have to carry around for the rest of my life. Dad doesn't even try to make me feel better. All he does is work, work, work. He's hiring a lot more people to do things that haven't been done for a while, like, dusting the windows, having rooms repainted. It's almost as if he's trying to get rid of the memories.

But the memories are all I have left of Mom. Her study, where she spent most of her time writing, smells of her perfume. Her pillow still smells like her beautiful ginger hair. But none of that matters. Dad wants them gone. So, he gets them gone.

Dad is in charge; he's made that clear. But, he always let Mom make her own choices and Mom let me make my own. It's different now. There's no Mom to separate Dad and I. I usually don't get to make my own choices anymore. The days I do though, are when he's busy conducting his painters or the maids on how to paint, where to clean.

On those days, I sneak away and hide. With my sketch pad, of course. I like to look at the portraits I sketched of Mom and her horse, Daisy. Then, I hurry over to Daisy's stable and seeing her chow down on some hay makes me notice that she's getting older and it's almost her time to go.

I'll usually sigh and open up the stable door and give her some sugar cubes. She has a sweet tooth. Or, instead, I'll run out to the field and pick a daisy. I run back to her and stick it behind her ear. She'll either shake her head and flick it away, or let me braid it into her long black mane. I'll pat her head and walk back to my tree that I sit at and sketch her running. Free. Happy. All the things I'm not.

~MEMORY~

"Oh, my! Miss Avangeline, you look beautiful!" says my aunt, Romana.

I smile at her over my shoulder and spin around. My elegant blue and white gown swooshes around my feet.

"Why, thank you, Romana! Is my mum already seated at the dinner table?" I ask politely, listening to the rain fall outside and the thunder sound.

She shakes her head. "I do not believe so. I believe she wanted you to see her wonderful dress with everyone else." Romana winks. I place a hand over my mouth gently and giggle.

"Well, I'm sure that it will be magnificent. All the men will want to dance her; even if she is spoken for by my father," I laugh lightly.

"Oh, stop it, Avangeline. Quit talking about your mother in such a way!" scolds Aunt Romana.

We both have a little laugh once more and we head to the table. Romana kisses my cheeks. She has to go. Her children, my cousins, are waiting for her at their home. As I smile and turn to the table, I bring a hand to my chest and gasp. The table is beautifully decorated with a white silk table cloth, white china laced with a golden trim is placed at each seat and glittery silver candle-holders carrying flickering light as it illuminates the room, making it seem peaceful and quiet.

I glance around the elegant room and see that half of the seats at the beautiful table are filled by Alexander's family, and the rest are left for my family. I give them all a quick smile and nod, and then I take my assigned seat next to Alex.

"I am overly joyed that you and your family could make it," I exclaim happily.

Alexander smiles. "Of course we were going to make it, Ava; your my best friend."

I return his sweet smile and then turn my head to the large wooden doors as they open and my family respectfully walks out. First is Edmund, then Charles. Next up are Elise and Amelia. Then, Johnathan and Patrick. And finally, Mummy and Daddy walk the the doors. Mum's dress is an emerald green with gold trimming and long sleeves that billow out from the elbow. It's the prettiest thing I've ever seen. Once they all through, everyone takes their seats.

I smile at my family but none of them return it or make any sort of eye contact with me. I frown and they all give me rude, dirty looks. I shake my head and sigh. What's wrong with them? I ask myself inwardly. And why didn't I get a big entrance? These questions float around in my head, but I soon push them to the back of my mind, for I don't want to them to ruin my great evening. I look up past Edmund, sitting around from me, and see that outside, the rain is falling hard with the occasional lightning strike.

One of our cooks comes in and pours everyone's drink except mine, and, by the time she does get to me, it's all gone.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, Miss Avangeline! I will be back with another pitcher soon!" she says in a rush.

I nod. "It's fine, miss. Really," I assure her.

She curtsies and scurries to the kitchen. I place my silk napkin on my lap and all is quiet. Until my father breaks the silence.

"So, my fellow family and friends," he starts. "I would like to welcome you and your gracious families to the celebration of my eldest son, Edmund's, engagement." My father raises his glass and nods towards Alexander's older sister, Meredith.

I raise my eyebrows and gasp. All eyes turn to me, but I ignore them. "Eddie, you--you--your getting married?" I ask. He doesn't look my way, but just nods. I sit back in disbelief. How could my own brother not tell me?

Everyone ignores me, and starts to talk about the wedding, except Alexander. He gives me a sad smile and I sigh, returning it.


The cook finally brings my drink. I thank her and the talking about my brother and his wedding abruptly stops. My family stares at me with wide eyes, except for my mother. I pull my eyes away from them and take a sip. They sit back, looking relieved as I swallow.

I ignore their strangeness and glance at Alex. He shrugs and then everyone talks again as the food is passed around the table.

We eat the food but my mouth has a weird taste in it so I don't enjoy it. I take another sip of my drink and it has a tangy, sour tint to it. I don't mind, but, I wonder what it is and if anyone else's tastes this way.

But we finish dinner and then it's time for a dance.

My town is small. No, wait. It's smaller than small. It's tiny (well, it seems pretty tiny). Population? Four hundred-twenty-three. Yeah......Mom wanted to talk to and know just about everyone. That's why Dad and I know just about half of these people. Mom wanted me to have as many friends as possible. And, now, in my Senior year of high school, I don't have any friends.......It sucks, but, oh well, right?

So, as I was saying, Moon Willow, Virginia is the town that nobody wants to move to, and if they do, they can't seem to move away. That's how my mom was. We moved here, when I was just a baby, from Nevada (big move). I guess Mom fell in love with the place and chose to live here for the rest of her life. And I plan on doing the same. But, I don't think Dad does.

You see, my dad's a business man. And, in such a small town, you can't really make a lot of money running a business unless your a candy store (people here love their candy). And Dad, well, he's not a "candy person." He's more into all the corporate stuff with advertising and such. I hate that stuff; it's just downright confusing. Anyways, I believe that Dad, one day, will pick up his stuff and leave me here without a goodbye because that's just the kind of guy he is.

I love my Dad, don't get me wrong, but........he's just.......not so, um, I guess you could say...loving. Like, for example, when I was eleven, I fell off the rope swing in the barn and I thought I broke my arm. Mom was in Africa studying some type of animal-- I can't remember. So, Dad, trying to make me tough just said, "Shake it off, son." I stared at him with wide eyes. Did he not understand? "I said: Shake it off. You're fine." He grabbed my elbow and shook it. I screamed out in pain. He shook his head and sighed.

Later that night, he took me to the emergency room and I got a blue cast. Everyone signed it at school. None of them I really knew or were my friends, but, I guess they just wanted the satisfaction of signing someone's cast because that's always cool when you're young, here, in Moon Willow. Kinda ridiculous, right?

Most of the people here have lived here for their entire life so, when you're new to town, you're kind of an outcast; even if you are just a little baby. But, my dad was certainly different than everyone else-- he's the real outcast. With him in his ironed slacks and clean ties, whereas everyone else is wearing overalls and sneakers. But Mom, she's the one that fit right in. She got to know all the people down our street in just two days, I was told.

Dad barely even knows their names. Whereas I, know all of their names and which house they live in. Every morning, Mrs. Wilson brings Dad and I breakfast. I try to tell her that we're all right, but, she doesn't listen. The whole town is feeling sympathy for Dad and I. I hate it but love it at the same time. People bring us food, but swarm around us when we leave the house. It can be nice, but, really annoying at times.

I mean, Mom died almost a year ago. Can't they just leave us alone? Yeah, we're hurt. Yeah, were sad. But do they realize that they aren't help us moving on, but, holding us back? Every day, they remind us that she's not with us. Not anymore. But, if this was different, I believe that it would help, make it easier, to move on. Forward. Resume to our own lives. They obviously don't see that. No one does. Not a single soul.

~MEMORY~

I admire all the people on the dance floor, enjoying themselves, already having known about my brother's engagement. I smile happily as I see a familiar face walk towards me.

"Hello, Miss Hadella. Would you care to dance?" Alexander asks, reaching out a hand gracefully.

I laugh. "I would love to."

We head to the middle of the ballroom and dance. But something distracts me from enjoying this wonderful evening. My mind travels back to dinner when my family was ignoring me, and I learned the secret about Eddie. I keep asking myself, Why were they acting like that? Why didn't he want to tell me? Did I do something horribly wrong that they can't even look at me?

I shake my head and rest my chin on Alexander's shoulder. "Oh, Alex," I moan. "What did I ever do wrong?" I ask him. He sighs.

"I am not sure, Ava. I'm not sure. When did this start--you're family ignoring you, of course," he wonders curiously, trying to help; like always.

"Well, I guess it began tonight, at supper--" I pull my head back from his shoulder and gasp. People stare and I ignore them. Now whispering quietly I say, "My father and I, I suppose is what it is. We had a terrible situation two days back."

"Well, what was it about?" he asks carefully, making sure that I don't mind him asking.

"Nothing important," I sigh. I rest my chin on his shoulder again and look about the room. "Alexander, everyone's gone," I notice, pulling back.

He looks around and notices it to. "I guess we just.....lost time." He looks into my eyes and I can see that he's going to kiss me.

But I don't want him to.

As he leans down to land a kiss upon my lips, I suddenly feel a sharp pain in my chest. I look down in horror and find the sharp, bloodied sword through my chest. It twists and I take one last look into Alexander's bright blue eyes before the weapon is yanked out of my chest and I fall to the floor.

I gasp and try to breath, but it gets harder to. The last thing I see before the world goes dark is my mother, mouth in a straight smirk, with a bloodied sword in hand.

* * * * * * *

That was the worst day of my life. The day my mother killed me. And I've lived for 158 years.

I've been traveling ever since then, trying to get away from her; with Alex, of course. I never went anywhere without him. Even after his death in 1878, when he had just turned twenty-three and he became very ill, causing his death. He gave a locket and it had a picture of me on one side, and him on the other.

We never did end up together, for I was never going to age, and we both knew it. But he will always be one true love. He was the only person I had left. He didn't live very long, for he developed his rare, unknown sickness, which is not even known now, in the twenty-first century.