Sooyoung stumbled around, not eating, not daring to breathe- heck, not even living the way a person should. She looked down when her name was called in class and refused to acknowledge the presence of friends and even Kris. The only time she ever did anything? Well, that was to cry, and the tears would just slip unnoticed onto her speckled uniform.

People gave her looks as she passed by in the hallway. Beautiful, flawless Sooyoung was descending into filth and darkness again, worse than when she had come to the school. What happened to the carefree, passionate soul who studied harder than anybody in class; who read the dictionary for fun; who had no problem with tests and homework? Where was that free spirit? Sooyoung didn't know either. Maybe she would just disappear with her mother's soul and legacy, just a dot of light in the endless universe. She wasn't anything but a small glitch in the world, just another human being with nothing unique to preserve.

Sooyoung hated her life. She hated her computer, for being so full of humor and friends. She began to hate school for the happy people who walked the halls and for the meaningless lectures of teachers far past their prime. She hated her books for letting her down and not bringing her mother back. She hated how the sun still rose and shone, refusing to stop for the lost woman who now was all that mattered to Sooyoung.

But most of all, Sooyoung hated herself. She hated how she still had to live, leading a life of quiet desperation veiled with Death's fingers like layers of blood on a grassy battlefield. She didn't have a battle to fight without her mother, the angel who reigned over her days and brought endless warmth and light to her life. The joy was all gone with her mother, who had to disappear when gears were just beginning to spin.

As the nightmare progressed and the days passed, a dark, lifeless question began to fill the vestiges of Sooyoung's shadowed thoughts. She walked with one new purpose, seemingly a flawless idea that would resurrect her mother and somehow, even if it were only for a second, bring the soul back. The purpose of it? Even the creator didn't know, but she swore to herself she would find whoever did it and avenge the crime.

The killer would be sorry.