After her husband passed away, Sylvia was left with a lot of work that had to be done, to support herself and her ten-year-old daughter. There was no time to grieve Jake and even if she was given time to mourn his loss she would not have taken it. She still believed that her husband was alive somewhere, somehow. It might just be her stubbornness to accept her husband's death or just intuition but she was not ready to believe that he was dead.

With Jake's death, it fell down to her shoulders to take care of herself. There was a time when she kind of stopped moving for a minute. Her mind screamed that she could not do it alone. She was stuck in the same place that Andy had been stuck in but she did not stay in that dark place as Andy did. All it took for her to stand up on her own feet was a look at her daughter and she knew what she had to do. She had to work for her sake and her future. She did not want to let down Jake or her daughter.

She kept the house for a while as things were manageable at the start but then they got worse. She was really struggling at first as the debts were really weighing her down mentally and financially. So she decided to sell the house and lessen her debts as much as she could. She sold her house full of happy memories of her family. She bought a small two-bedroom apartment for herself which was affordable and still close to their old home.

She had to support not only her daughter but Alice as well. She had lost her mother just as Ellen had lost her father. Andy held things together for a while but he just shut down. He could not keep up the way he had done before and after his accident, things got worse for him. So she bought a house near them so she could also look after Alice. She tried to look over on the bright side to make things easier. She had lost her husband but she had gained a daughter.

Sleeping is such a pain sometimes in one's life. If you have work to do in the morning, no matter how early you sleep it is always difficult to get up in the morning. The bed keeps you its slave and sleep weighs you down like shackles.

On the other hand, if you have nothing to do and can sleep as much as you want, you get up easily first thing in the morning. As if the bed that once held you captive forgives and frees you. This was the same for Ellen's schedule of sleeping. She knew that she did not have school tomorrow and was planning on sleeping in. The only problem was that this time she woke up even before her alarm went off.

Her eyes were wide open five minutes before the alarm. She got up and checked the time and it was 7:30. She could try to sleep again but knew she won't be able to anymore. She was up anyway so might as well just get out of bed. She got up and went to the bathroom to freshen up.

She remembered that it was her birthday today but she was not really excited about it, not anymore. It has been years since she has been excited about her birthday. First, it was always a festival that had to be celebrated with the whole family but now for her, it was just an excuse to have a feast and eat cake. Her birthday has never been the same since her father died.

She came out of her room and saw that her mother was awake and sitting at the dining table. A bunch of papers was sprawled in front of her and a cup of coffee was in her hand. She had joined the school that Ellen and Alice were applying to as a teacher and was probably grading some tests.

"Good morning Mom." Ellen walks up to Sylvia and hugs her from behind and gives her a kiss.

"Good morning Ellen. You got up early today, you know it's the day off, right? Or are you just excited about your birthday?" Sylvia kissed her back with a gentle peck on her cheek.

"No not really, I don't know, I just got up a little early today that's all. You know I am not as excited about my birthday as you. You are the one who still wants to do the whole thing even though I tell you not to. I am not a child anymore." Ellen sits opposite her.

"Well you are still a child to me and I want to celebrate your birthday the same way we always did." Ellen had grown to hate her birthday and Sylvia knew the reason but still wanted to celebrate it.

"You know that is not true. No matter what we do or how we do it it will never be the same as it was, Dad is not here." Ellen replied as she was looking through her mobile phone.

'Dad huh' Sylvia always tried to celebrate Ellen's birthday the way they used to. She did not let Ellen feel the absence of her father but unbeknownst to her it was having the opposite effect.

The word Dad or Jake had become an almost taboo word in this family of two. Sylvia was still insisting on her husband's survival and Ellen had accepted his death. She knew there was no way he could have survived. They had fought a lot of times over this very topic and now they just avoided it.

"Anyway, What do you want for breakfast?" Sylvia collected all the papers on the table and put them away. She got up and went towards the kitchen.

It was an open kitchen and they were sitting right next to the kitchen. The kitchen opened up into the living room where there was a dining table with four chairs and then a sofa set in the middle in front of a Tv.

"Bread and Jam with some tea." Ellen sat on the sofa and started fiddling with her mobile.

"Really? Just that? Let me make some eggs and bacon for you. You don't eat right you know that, right? You are studying for your entry test so you should eat something healthy. Besides it's your birthday have a little hearty breakfast today at least." Sylvia wanted her daughter to eat a little as she did not eat as much. Sylvia was a little worried for her daughter's health in this regard.

"Fine but only one egg and two bacon strips nothing more." She lay down on the sofa with her mobile. Sylvia got busy making her daughter breakfast.

It only took a few moments for the bacon to start sizzling and fill up the room with its fragrance. The bread was getting toasted as Sylvia was whisking eggs. The toaster dinged as it spewed out two pieces of bread when Ellen got a message.

"Happy birthday Ellen!" Ellen smiled at the screen as she read the message.

"Thanks, Alice but what are you doing up so early? You like to sleep in right? Everything ok?"

"That doesn't matter really what matters is that you will be getting the best birthday present of your life today. I could give you your whole life's worth of time and still, you won't be able to guess what it is I will be bringing you today."

"Wow, that sounds grand. What sort of gift did you get that I won't be able to guess even if I had all the time? Is it the new mobile phone that hunters use?"

"Nope! It is better than that a hell of a lot. It is something that you really want."

"What could it be? Can you help me awake as a hunter?"

"No silly of course I can't. I know you really want to be a hunter and are hoping to awaken but trust me it is something even more than that."

"Really?! I want it more than I want to be a hunter. Well, I can't really think of one."

"You will find out soon. Anyway, we will be coming over in an hour. Tell Aunt Sylvia that we will be coming early."

"Mom Alice says they will be coming over in an hour," Ellen shouts at her mother from the sofa.

"Tell her to make sure to bring Andy with her. I don't want him to be alone in the house brooding by himself. That's all he ever does anyway." Sylvia speaks as she gets the breakfast ready.

"Don't worry she says that Uncle Andy will be coming as well."

Sylvia brings breakfast to the table and they sit down to eat. They are having eggs, bacon, and bread.

"You know Alice and Andy are coming a bit early, right? How about we go shopping and bring the ingredients for a cake. It would be like old times we will bake the cake ourselves and then decorate it. It will be fun." Sylvia speaks as she steals a glance at Ellen trying to gauge her response. Ellen thinks about it for a second and then rejects her.

"I have said it before Mom but it won't be the same, Dad won't be here. Besides I was a kid then I don't have the time right now. I have to prepare for the entrance exam after breakfast." Sylvia wants to but does not really push her anymore after that.

They both start breakfast. Sylvia watches TV and Ellen is looking at her mobile. They are comfortable for the moment but then a sound pierces the room and fills both of them with dread. The sound that rings out is a siren. A siren that they are both well aware of. A siren that always bodes a tragedy. A sound that took Jake from them. An official siren that only the government can ring means that a gate had crashed.

"Ellen!"