Anika hoped that Kyra wouldn't be away for too long. She would come back. "Give her some time," Anika said to herself on one freezing cold night, some weeks after Kyra's disappearence. She needed food and craved for that night when she was warming herself by the crackling fire and eating good, hot meat with her sister. Winter had suddenly kicked in. The ground was covered with frost and the wind howled so viciously that the tent had been knocked over uncountable times. WIth nothing but a deer skin draped over her shoulders, Anika felt like she was experiencinng frostbite all over her thin body. If she went outside, she would freeze. If she stayed inside, she would starve. The situation was dire. Eventually her hunger drove Anika out, and wrapping the skin around herself tightly, she took a deep breath and undid the catch on the tent with trembling fingers.

The icy air was phenominal. Nothing could be as cold. Anika exerted all of her strength just to stay upright. It was almost as if nothing else existed, except the cold. The wind bit at her raw, red skin and she clenched her eyes shut. For the few minutes that she was out in the elements, Anika was deep in thought. She could no longer feel her body, she could no longer feel the cold, she could no longer feel anything but emotions. And confusion.

Out of all the thoughts racing through her head, the one that kept returning to Anika was that she knew she could no longer live. She opened her eyes and saw nothing. She could hear nothing. She was oblivious to all senses. It was almost like she was in a dreamless sleep. Even her thoughts were slurred. How many times had she been saved from death? Anika could have smiled, had she been able to. Too many times to count. And yet, now she knew the end was coming. How many things had she been through? How much had she survived? The joy she felt when she found her sister, the despair she felt when her sister disappeared... They were all in the past. There was no future for Anika. The present was all she had.

Anika made no effort to save herself. All she wanted to do was to leave this depressing world. Nothing mattered anymore. Now Anika was nothing. The thoughts slowed and disappeared. All emotions were gone. All except for one, a dull ache in the back of her mind. That dull ache was love. Memories of her family played through her mind. A young infant, joyfully opening presents on her first birthday, surrounded by friends and family, the young girl drifting to sleep on her fathers knee, the two sisters exchanging secrets in their treehouse... An alarm sounded somewhere deep inside her, she couldn't leave her family behind, she couldn't...

Those were Anika's last thoughts as everything faded away.