Beep beep beep

A thin hand crawled out of the blanket like a white snake and began slithering along the surface of the bedside table in search of the alarm clock.

The owner of the hand, Helen, didn’t like the clock. The way it was loud and the way its sound was unpleasant were simply unfitting for setting the mood for the rest of the day.

Beep beep beep

*Smack*

Which is why she didn’t feel bad to throw it off the table.

“Sigh”

But off the table or not, the fact that it had delivered the message of the coming of the new day rang true all the same. A long sigh was all Helen could find in her vocabulary in protest to it before opening her emerald-green eyes.

Nicole said that even on weekends and holidays good habits needed to be kept. Waking up in the morning was a good habit. Sometimes Helen wanted to be bad, but it wouldn’t be today. She promised to meet Nicole at 10 and she only had 2 hours left after all.

Nicole was Helen’s best friend after all and Helen wouldn’t want to disappoint her.

With another long sigh, Helen began getting up from the bed with the speed of a particularly slow snail.

…

Humans are simple beings and have simple desires. They, in fact, need little for happiness.

Humans are also ever-changing and their mood is as flexible as plasticine.

These kinds of thoughts came to Helen’s mind as she greedily devoured her breakfast, a satisfied smile on her face.

--Delicious!

Only one word could do the breakfast she was eating justice and that word was “Delicious”.

She was completely different from the grumpy morning Helen to the point that if both of them were put together one would think they were different people.

“A delicious breakfast can save lives”, was what she thought as she finished hers.

…

A minor cut in the narrative later and Helen was at the specified place, at the specified time.

She was wearing simple clothes: yellow sandals with black socks, light-blue jeans, a plain white t-shirt, a greyish cap.

She was looking around in search of her best friend, but couldn’t find her.

Where did Nicole go? Was she late? But this was not like Nicole at all!

Helen’s eyes were suddenly covered with small cold hands, which startled her for a moment.

“Guess who?”

“Santa”

“...”

…

Obviously, the one who made a surprise appearance was Nicole. She seems to had come earlier than Helen and saw the latter approaching, so she decided to play a small prank.

Nicole, contrary to Helen, was dressed neatly, despite being informal. She wore a dark blue hat that went very well with her golden hair, a nice-looking jean jacket with a shirt that had wide blue stripes running vertically on it underneath, dark blue jeans and some kinds black platformed smoking slippers.

Helen and Nicole came together during the weekend not because of any recreational goals: as Helen had a light shut-in syndrome (she felt nauseated and dizzy outside of her room at home) she thoroughly avoided leaving it for small reasons and would not go out on her weekend if it was something she didn’t find necessary.

It was just that the two of them had a test next week on history, which was Helen’s weakest subject at school. She was so week at history in fact, that… um… that… well… that… erm… she couldn’t even come up with an example of how bad she was at it because of her lack of knowledge.

They could have Nicole come to Helen’s home, but Helen would feel bad for making the former go so far just for her sake and they couldn’t go to Nicole’s as Nicole did photography as a hobby and her home was eternally full of photos that needed to be dried… or something. Basically, they couldn’t go to Nicole’s.

In the end, they went to the public library that was closest to both of them. Incidentally, it was close to a rather popular mall with many cafes and all kinds of entertainment stores. Nicole wanted to go there and Helen didn’t want to feel like she owed Nicole, so they would go there after they were done with the whole test thingy.

It surprised Helen how excited Nicole looked when she agreed to go with Nicole. Her cheeks were dyed red, her eyes shone, even some drool leaked out… Nicole really loved these kinds of things, didn’t she?

Oh, there it was, the library!

The temple of knowledge… or whatever it was called. Nowadays everybody had access to the Internet, so nobody probably even went to the library anymore… was what Helen thought, but there was quite a number of people there unexpectedly.

The atmosphere was nice too. The smell of books, the silence, Nicole who sat strangely close to Helen as she pointed out places in the book that needed to be remembered and noted… Was Helen not the righteous citizen carrying the hopes of the people she was, she would definitely find ways to abuse the trust of her most treasured friend. Thankfully, the good moral values have been deeply rooted in Helen’s soul and she would not allow herself to stoop so low!

Though it also had to be sad that it was best for Helen to teach Nicole the concepts of personal space and the basics on how to be guarded around others… but it was a bit embarrassing to point such minor details out to Nicole for Helen and if she did, it would mean that Nicole might think she was conscious of these things, which would be even more awkward and embarrassing so Helen kept silent and tried to focus on the contexts that were told to her.

Nicole smelled nice and was a bit cool to touch too and whenever she talked, she would sometimes accidentally breath into Helen’s ear lightly or brush her hand against Helen’s and it was all very strange and Helen felt bad about being distracted while Nicole worked hard at tutoring her…

…

“Hm, I’m tired~”

“It’s been only… let me see… two hours and eighteen minutes, Helen, it wasn’t that bad”

At the end, Helen was very exhausted mentally and emotionally.

She sprawled on the table they were studying at as she complained with a pitiful voice…

Nicole was fine on the other hand. She sat with a relaxed posture and slowly brushed Helen’s black hair with her fingers. It felt nice, so Helen didn’t spend the precious energy for stopping Nicole. Besides, Nicole had always been like this, so Helen was used to it. When she was very excited she was even worse: she would ask for kisses and hugs or take Helen’s things out of nowhere, nothing big, just things like pencils or erases or locks of hair or water bottles that Nicole drank from… And all of this would seem very strange and at times disturbing to anybody other than Helen who had known Nicole for so long that she was completely used to whatever her best friend would demand.

“Alright, no time to waste, let’s go to the mall!”

“Yes ma’am… What do you want to do there?”

“How about watching that movie I talked to you about yesterday?”

Ugh. Movies. The bane of Helen. She didn’t like movies, most of them had ridiculous plotlines and flaws could be found pretty much everywhere. Like, how that actor’s wig came off at that frame or how the acting of another one ruined the whole scene or how it made no sense logically for that one thing to happen or how the characters didn’t behave rationally and realistically.

The movie Nicole talked about was fairly popular and was praised by many critics and had several rewards to its name… Besides, the premise of the scenario wasn’t nonsensical and from what she heard, the acting was good and the soundtracks were pretty fine, so maybe… A very big maybe, she could enjoy it.

“Okay, let’s go”

And they went. The movie was great, the acting was fantastic, the soundtracks were incredible and the plot was so well-written that Helen even teared up at the end when the protagonist jumped off of a cliff to save their loved one. Whoops, no spoilers.

Though the day was quite exhausting for Helen, so she couldn’t really think straight.

“It was great, wasn’t it?”

“Yes”

“It was kind of like a date”

“Yes”

“Did you enjoy today?”

“Yes”

“Do you want to do it again next week”

“Yes”

“Good! I’ll plan it out for you, I’ll promise you’ll love it!”

“!!!”

“*click* Oh, your face was so adorable right now that I couldn’t help taking a picture”

“No worries, but about-”

“No need to worry, it will all be fun! I’m so excited!”

Seeing the gleeful Nicole, Helen swallowed her words. It was her mistake to speak without thinking and she didn’t want to let Nicole down.

…

“Alright, bye!”

“Wait, I’ll walk you home. I did take you out on a date after all~”

“No, we live in different directions so I would feel bad to have you spent so much time”

“Okay. See you tomorrow then”

“Tomorrow is Sunday”

“Oh I meant the day after tomorrow”

…

On the way back home Helen felt like she was being stared at. It was quite unpleasant but she knew it was just her imagination.

She had always felt like this when she was alone outside, which was one of the reasons she preferred to stay home.

She still didn’t like the feeling even if it was fake. Especially in the evening. Besides, her parents probably worried. She needed to tell Nicole to plan it so that could return a bit earlier next time. Wouldn’t Nicole’s parents worry about her? Come to think of it, she never had seen or heard from Nicole’s parents…

What was she thinking again?

She kind of forgot for a moment there.

Ah, right, she needed to tell Nicole so that she would plan it so they could return earlier. Yes yes, indeed.

…

“I’m back”

“Welcome back”

“Hello, Helen, how did everything go?”

“Wonderful, mom. I and Nicole had a lot of fun”

“Helen, that Nicole, she isn’t-”

“Dear!”

“But!”

“No buts!”, her parents always argued. She wasn’t sure why or when they would suddenly start, but they loved each other and the arguments wouldn’t get too bad, so it was all fine...

“I’m glad you enjoyed today, Helen”

“Yes. I’m going to my room”

“Don’t forget to come down for the supper”

“Yes, mom”

…

“*click* fufufu, I said “see you tomorrow” but I couldn’t help myself, love. I hope you can forgive me”

Helen thought she heard something but it was probably her ears playing tricks.

She needed to get up early in the morning according to Nicole so she had to sleep.

…

“*in whispers* look, look, it’s that weirdo who talks to herself all the time *in whispers*”

“*in whispers*Shhh! What if she heard you? I heard that there was somebody trying to bully her and they didn’t come the next day!*in whispers*”

There were some noisy people discussing others. She didn’t know who they talked about, but there was no way such a person was in their school. Teenagers all had big mouths and a vivid imagination.

“Hi, Helen!”

“Hi, Nicole! What’s with the bags under your eyes?”

“I worked yesterday deep into the night, had to finish a project, so...”

“You are so hard-working! Can you show it to me later?”

“No, it’s too embarrassing!”

“Please?”

“Uhh, your puppy eyes look is so unfair! But still no. It’s not ready yet. I’ll show it to you when it’s done!”

“Didn’t you say that you finished it?”

“Did I now? I meant that I tried to finish it but there’s still a lot of work, like drying the components and-”

“Alright, I got! But do tell me when it’s finished, okay? I’m curious!”

“Fine! Let’s go to class, the bell will ring soon”

“Okay!”

…

“Are you okay?”

“Tired”

“Let me help you then”

“?”

Nicole put Helen’s head on her lap. It was a bit cool but not cold, and it was supremely soft too. She felt Nicole’s hand rushing through her hair in a soothing gesture… Bliss.

“Thank you...”

“Hey now, don’t fall asleep on me!”

“Tchyo weeeit (Too late)”

“You really are… Sigh. Well, something for you… and something for me”, Helen didn’t hear what Nicole was saying as she blissfully explored the dreamland.

Through her hazy consciousness, she felt something soft on her lips. Was it another dream?

…

“-up!”

“Hm?”

“Wake up, Helen!”

“What?”

“It’s getting late”

“Oh, yeah, of course”

“Let’s go home”

“Yeah”

“See you tomorrow, Helen!”

“See you tomorrow, Nicole!”

…

“Wait, isn’t your home in that direction?”

“Oh, I have something to do on there, don’t mind it! (in inaudible mumbles ”those brats, talking about my most-mumblemumble)”

“M’kay?”

…

“I’m home”

“Welcome back!”

“How did you do today?”

“Great! Nicole talked about...”

…

“(from afar) Did you hear? Jacob dropped out of school yesterday evening”

“(from afar) Why? Everything was fine, wasn’t it?”

“(from afar) I don’t know. Mark also didn’t come today”

“(from afar) Well, they were close, so maybe there is some kind of story behind it?”

It’s situations like this that made Helen realize that time flew and nothing stayed the same.

“Helen~!”

Well, her friendship with Nicole stayed the same though!

“Ugh”

And Nicole’s love for skinship was the same too, was what Helen thought as Nicole rammed into her…

“Hello to you too… Nicole”

“Yes yes, hi!”

“Can you let me get up?”

“No”

“But people are looking at as like we’re weird”

“Let them! Hmmm, so comfortable~”

“Don’t you fall asleep on me! Ugh, I am so scolding you today!”

“Yes, please, it would be my pleasure to be- Whoops, did I confuse what I was saying in my head and what I was saying to you? Teehee~!”

“Just what do you even think in that head of yours all the time?”

“It-”

“Sigh, don’t answer. Let me get up”

“Can’t we stay like this for a while?”

She knew… She knew she spoiled her friend way too much, but how could she resist these puppy eyes?

“Sigh, okay”

As Nicole giggled while holding onto Helen and as people that went by looked very weirded out and uncomfortable, Helen was thinking that Nicole needed to learn what decency and moderation were.

…

“You’ve worked hard”, Nicole gave Helen a bottle of water

“Thank you”, Helen lazily took the bottle as she lied on the desk and pressed it against her forehead, “It’s cold. Good”

“Erm, yeah. It is”

“Right”

“Indeed”

“What are we talking about again?”

“Errr...”, Nicole shrugged her shoulders

“You must have worked hard today too”

“No, but it’s really hot. Too much sun might melt me. As you know, I’m a ghost”

“Yeah. Of course”, Helen dropped her head on the desk and stared at the pale-as-death Nicole, “you really might be”, she said weakly.

“And I’ll haunt you forever”, Nicole hugged Helen out of nowhere. She was cool, so Helen didn’t resist and on the contrary hugged Nicole back, pressing her head against Nicole’s shoulder and absorbing the cold.

“Can’t we stay like this for a while?”

“As you wish, Helen”

Remembering the embarrassing incident this morning, Helen had to admit that her friend also spoiled her a lot.

…

The next day Helen found something strange in her locker. It was made of paper, had a rectangular shape and looked very neat

“An envelope?”

“What kind?”

Nicole appeared behind her like a ninja and snatched the envelope from Helen’s hand in one smooth motion after which she opened it without hesitation.

“Hmm...”, Nicole scanned it with her eyes in a second and then threw it inside a nearby trash can, not forgetting to shred it, all within three seconds.

“...”, Helen recovered from her daze after a whole second, “Hey!”

“What?”, Nicole looked so innocent that it looked like she did something perfectly natural.

“Why did you do it?”

“It was a love letter”

“Eh?”, Helen wasn’t particularly popular at school because of her sloppy and lazy nature and strange rumours about her, which would spring up from time to time, so she didn’t expect something like this.

“Waitwait, why did you throw it away like this?”

“Of course… Errr, it because they tried to play with your feelings! You are so gullible-”

“I’m not!”

“Yes, you’re not, but think about it: if they really wanted to confess to you, why wouldn’t they do it like a normal person but send a letter instead?”

“Well, hmm… You’re right? But what would you do if they confessed to me in person?”

“I would shred them and throw them into the nearby trash can, of course! After all, Helen is only mine!”, Nicole hugged Helen again and kissed her cheek, causing Helen’s face to burn as if it was on fire

“Silly!”, and like this, Helen ran away

…

After a whole day of… doing things, the morning incident was faint in Helen’s mind.

“You tire very easily, don’t you?”

“Shut up, Nicole. I’m tired...”

“Can you buy me a juice from the vending machine? You can buy yourself one too”, Nicole gave Helen some money from a pocket on her dark-blue jacket.

“Why are you wearing this jacket when it’s so hot? Just looking at you makes me feel dehydrated”

“School regulations”

“Which nobody follows”

“Whatever. So, can you go now?”

“Alright”

Helen shakily stood up from her seat and headed to the vending machine which was located a corridor away.

On the way she met an average-looking boy of whom she had little impression. His face was red from the heat and he seemed shy and didn’t meet her eyes. There could only be one answer! He probably needed to borrow her phone to call his parents and was shy to asked a stranger this favour. Bothersome.

“E-excuse me-”

She didn’t want to bother with talking to anybody in this heat, so she pretended not to hear and went her way.

There was a *thud*-like sound behind her but she didn’t care. Gosh, what’s with the heat?

Sigh.

Every step felt like ten… thousand… million steps. Don’t they have any air-conditioning here?

Oh, finally! There it was. The vending machine.

It might’ve been the Sun playing tricks, but to Helen it looked like it had a halo. Praise the vending machine!

Helen quickly bought the juice for Nicole and a bottle of water for herself and went back.

Gosh, this heat is…

“There you are, oh savior!”

“Take it. I also bought water because the juice is too sweet and it won’t help with, sigh, too tired to speak”

“Okay, will you share?”

“Yeah, if you want. Your money anyway”

“Is it the Sun playing tricks or is it you looking like an angel even more today?”

“I don’t know”

…

“The weekend, at last!”

“Yeah”

“Remember the promise from last weekend?”

“Yeah, did you plan anything?”

“Indeed. How about the amusement park?”

“Sounds good. Wait. It’s going to be very hot tomorrow too, so maybe”

“No, tomorrow will be cloudy I read”

“...”, Helen honestly didn’t want to leave the comfortable dark humid environment that was called her room, but she promised Nicole and the latter looked excited despite the heat. Yes, despite the heat as the girl’s complexion looked like she would emit smoke any second now and, despite it, she acted so livelily.

“...Okay”

“I’ll text you later about the details”

“Fine”

…

Beep beep beep

A thin hand crawled out of the blanket like a white snake and began slithering along the surface of the bedside table in search of the alarm clock.

...Yeah, let’s skip it.

…

Helen and Nicole met at the amusement park. It indeed was cloudy and warm. The weather was comfortable.

After buying the tickets they went through several attractions, like the roller coaster, which Helen found very fun and Nicole didn’t.

Or the Haunted house which Helen was very afraid in but Nicole didn’t seem to care about all that much.

Or the carousel, which both found incredibly boring.

While riding the Ferris Wheel, Nicole said, with a strange tone, “Sorry, Helen, I thought it would be fun and I really tried to let you enjoy today, but...”

It was obvious she was disappointed with how today went and beat herself over it. Helen couldn’t bear to see such a Nicole.

“It’s fine! Really! I really liked how today went and...”

“No, no. You don’t need to lie to me. It was boring. Sigh. I am really sorry”, there was a strange feeling inside her words that made Helen feel cold. Was Nicole this upset?

“No, I always have fun whenever you’re around, Nicole”, she meant it. Nicole was the only friend she had and she cared a lot about Nicole.

“Thank you, Helen. I can’t describe how much it means to me that you said it. I really really mean it… But this doesn’t change the fact that I failed. It’s horrible. It’s all my fault. I wanted you to enjoy this day as much as possible but I failed miserably. It’s all my fault. It’s all-”

“Nicole!”, Something was wrong but Helen couldn’t quite place it.

“I know it’s selfish of me, but… no, I don’t deserve it”

“What do want, Nicole?”

“I, no...”

“Tell me, come on”

“You know, it’s been so many times already but I still feel shy saying it”

“Just wha-”

“I love you, Helen”

“What?” the words of Nicole didn’t quite register in Helen’s mind

“I don’t really remember when I fell in love with you. I don’t even know why. By now being in love is probably just the way of living for me. I know it’s selfish of me but can you say that you love me back?”

“What?”, Nicole… loved her? Nicole, with whom she spent so much time… Whom she treated as a friend.. But was she treated the same? There were clear signs. Sometimes awkward and sometimes ridiculous but that was just how Nicole was… Wasn’t it

“I know it’s selfish-”

“Please shut up. I need to think”, did that come off as rude? She didn’t mean it. She never wanted to hurt Nicole. Did it mean she felt the same towards her? No no, there are clearly too many people she would never want to hurt. Too strange. The situation was too bizarre.

Why did Nicole confess so suddenly? Couldn’t she pick a better time? And she even wanted to have her to answer back immediately? The gut she had!

She would, she would! Just what could she do? She didn’t want to hurt Nicole at all, she didn’t want to reject her either. She didn’t understand what was going on.

“I’m so pathetic. Haha. So, so horribly pathetic. I should’ve done better”, Nicole hit the metal frame of the cabin

“Nicole!”, Helen rushed to Nicole and tried to look at the latter’s hand but her hand passed through Nicole’s as if it was air, “What-”

Helen didn’t get to finish the sentence as the Ferris wheel creaked and tilted…

“I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault”, Nicole’s eyes were empty.

***

Nicole woke up. She was inside an empty dark space. It seemed infinite, it might have been, in fact.

Her eyes were empty.

*clap clap clap*

“You couldn’t do it yet again~! I must applaud your insistence though”

A childish voice came from some direction. Nicole didn’t turn her head towards it, she didn’t react to it at all. She wasn’t moving, she simply stared at the emptiness stretching above her with empty eyes.

She looked dead.

“How does it feel? How does it feel to taste the death of your most beloved person for the thousandth time? You are the only customer who could insist for so long. Look, even your soul is so worn out you quite literally are nothing but a ghost that has to possess that little girl”

Nicole didn’t care about the voice.

She didn’t care about anything. She simply remembered the astonished look in Helen’s eyes as the latter died.

For how long has it been going? A thousand times?

Nicole remembered how much she struggled and despaired at first. The first dozen times she worked so hard that those days ended up being only a blur in her memories.

After that, she still tried. A few dozen times, she tried to save Helen, but it was only her own stubbornness making her do so. On the inside, she knew that it was impossible to save Helen.

After that… She was horrified that she found herself enjoying the twisted reality. Helen, the person she had ever loved, the only person who ever mattered in her life, living and dying only for Nicole… A week where Helen was hers, only hers, turned into an eternity…

She would never grow old, never die, not forever anyway, never lose her child-like innocence Nicole loved so much. She would always smile at Nicole, smile so warmly and with so much trust…

It still hurt her to see Helen die over and over and over and over again in front of her eyes...

How did she even end up like this?

Out of nowhere, a faded photo appeared in Nicole’s hand. Two girls, Nicole and Helen smiling beautifully at the camera...

***

Nicole looked at the blood on her hands. She couldn’t understand what was going on. She saw Helen, sleeping on the ground and the pesky humans making a ruckus. Then there was blood...

Wait, why was Helen even sleeping on the ground? This is so… Helen was lazy, to a ridiculous extent, but she wouldn’t do something so inappropriate. The asphalt was dirty!

She should wake her up, the people were making too much of a ruckus.

Why wouldn’t she wake up?

This Helen! Wake up! You!

How is your body so cold? Won’t you catch a cold at this rate? Hey!

Who is this pest, lying down so close to Helen? Are you not afraid that I will cut your head off?

It… kind of looks like… me? Good job, me! Wait! I am here! Who are you?!

Nicole looked at the cold body on the asphalt lying close to Helen.

She remembered! She and Helen went out for a date today. Yes, it was a date, not a date-like outing! Nicole confessed to Helen two days ago and only yesterday night did she receive an answer. A positive answer!

It was a strange feeling of disbelief at first and then a wave of joy hit her! Until doubts set in… Nicole didn’t sleep yesterday night.

So didn’t Helen too apparently, judging by the dark circles around her eyes. They agreed to meet today and when they did and saw the tired look on each other’s faces they laughed at each other together…

It was a happy day for Nicole.

Very very happy.

So how did it end up like this?

Nicole couldn’t remember.

What was going on?

Nicole didn’t understand, she refused to understand.

She didn’t think too much and tried to wake Helen.

“She won’t wake up~”, a childish voice sounded by her side.

She looked at the pest- What was it?!

There was some kind of terrifying creature in a humanoid form! It looked like a hybrid between a dog and a crocodile, with rotting slimy tentacles for fur. Its skin was transparent and eyes were floating inside its body. Those eyes had mouths growing out of them and they all looked like they were screaming in agony.

“She won’t wake up~”

The.. thing repeated again as its… eyes, all eyes stared at Nicole. Its voice was completely inconsistent with its body. She must not let this thing touch Helen!

“Hahaha, you are so funny! I like you!”, It’s crocodile maw opened and closed as it spoke. Inside the maw, there were other mouths that opened and closed along with it. What the hell was this thing?

“Yes!”

What was this “Yes!” for?

“I am hell, yes!”

Wha-

“And I’m here to make a deal~”

It touched Nicole with its disgusting claw. She tried to escape but the claw then turned to Helen, so in the end, Nicole had to defend Helen-

“Aaagh!” Pain! What’s with this pain?!

“It’s a pain to explain it for too long and to convince you for too long, so I’ll simply make you know! How did you like the pun I just made by the way? It’s a pain, and you are in pain, isn’t it, hehe, one hell of a joke?”

It hurts! God!

“No cursing! Where are your manners?”

Shut up! It hurts!

“You are probably now aware that both you and this girl died~ Isn’t it wonde-, I mean, my condolences!”

Shut up!

“Do you want to bring this girl back? I’ll give you two seconds! One-”

“YES!”, it hurts!

“No, it doesn’t! You have no nerves to feel pain! Haha! You are simply distracting yourself from reality by forcing yourself to experience pain! Surprisingly a lot of people do that. Believe me, I know! Whatever! About the deal...”, the thing took a dirty piece of paper out of somewhere, “Here’s the deal: your soul will be consumed – you will no longer exist, not in any way possible, you will be wiped out of existence. For that, you will get the chance to stop Fate itself! You and that girl were destined to die, so you will have to experience one week of your life until the girl survives at the end over and over again or until you give up. How is this deal to you?”

“I agree”

“Please sign here!”, She didn’t know how to sign the contract, so she simply touched it and accidentally cut her hand against its edge, “Thanks for choosing our services, don’t forget to leave a five-star review!”, the thing opened its maw and ate Nicole whole.

After it ate Nicole, looked around and the world melted into nothingness.

***

“H-Helen!”, with tears flowing from her eyes she hugged the familiar figure tightly. Helen, was alive. Nothing else mattered. She would spend an eternity trying until she saved her loved one. That was Nicole’s resolve...