**Five years later****
** (Eve is 18 years old)

“Thud.” The door sounds as it shuts behind her. Eve's luggage slides off her arms and onto the floor of her new apartment.

“Now I’m living by myself, in my own empty apartment… alone,” Eve thinks solemnly. She looks around her apartment, revealing a compact, rectangle-like room. The room has cold tile flooring, and the walls are painted an off-white ...

She pries her eyes open, noticing that she is still in her bath. She gasps for air, realizing she’s been holding her breath. Unsure of what she just saw, she plunges her head under the warm bath water and pauses, listening to the submerged hum of the water.

She pulls her head out and stands up in the bath, exposing her skin to the icey air. She wraps herself in a bath towel and moves to her bathro...

**Three years later**

“Father, Father!” Eve whined as she tapped Mr. Walker's shoulder.

“Can't you see I’m busy talking to Dr. Johnston? You’re 13 years old; you should know not to interrupt an adult conversation!” Mr. Walker replied harshly as he aggressively dusted her hand off his shoulder, disregarding her.

Eve stood there patiently, waiting for her father's attention to shift to her, but that...

“Here's the coffee you wanted, Mr. Walker,” a tall, thin, fair-skinned lady says as she walks over with a hot mug of coffee. She gently places the mug on his TechDesk (a digital desk).

“Thank you, but please, call me Brian,” he says gently.

“Oh, okay, yes, Brian,” she replies as she turns back toward the door, showing herself out of Brian's large, metal-covered lab room. Brian intently listens to ...

Numbness… everything around me is static. I'm floating in space, watching the world grow and thrive as I am stuck in time. Trying to find out why I'm still alive. No one knows this pain.. No one knows how much I'm drained. No one sees me behind closed doors, no one will see me when I'm no more. Stuck in time, numb and blind, I go through life like I'm alive. A walking corpse I chant “no more!”. to...

l lay in my bed allowing my thaughts consume me. I glance ait my glowing digitas Clock. It reads 4:32 Am. My eyes shift back Into a comfortable spot, locked to stare at my bedroom ceiling. As i lay there l can feel the fibers of my own skin bonding and melting into my cold bed sheets. I'm like a decomposing rotting, dead body. Utterly motionless and lifeless . I sink deeper and deeper into my stif...

They lock eyes exchanging their neutral feeling of grief, knowing that they were never meant to be. With tears In their eyes, they hug. Neither wanting to be the first to let go, they hugged each other for what felt like ages. They melt into each others arms. Finally, they uncontiously agreed to let go. It felt as if they were betraying part of themselves. As solemn and freeing as it felt. They b...

He lays there, slump in his hospital bed, pale and defeated. My fathers time on this earth has indeed expired. As he agreed to take his last breath, his eyes faded into two gray glossy balls, beautiful and hopelessly lifeless. It was almost as if I could see his soul dance away in a grateful farewell. Leaving me in this world, alone, forever, until my time has too come.

It's the day of the funera...