Left alone in his room, Damien gazed out over the empty lawn, only maintenance men and vendors left, staring upward in silence as a policeman grimly mounted a ladder and cut the body down. It slipped from his grip, falling headfirst onto a bricked patio. And it lay there crumpled, eyes gazing skyward, mouth painted in a garish grin.

The days before Chessa's funeral were painted in gloom. The skies above Pereford had turned to gray, reverberating with distant thunder, and Katherine spent most of her time sitting alone in the darkened living room, staring into space. A coroner's report had shown that there was a high amount of Benadryl, an allergy drug, in the girl's bloodstream when she died, but this only added to the confusion and speculation as to why she had taken her life. To avoid the reporters who would try to embellish the story, Thorn remained at home, his attention on his wife who was, he feared, slipping into that state he had seen a few years before.

"You're letting this get the best of you, you know," he said one night as he entered the living room. "It's not as though she were a member of our family."

"She was," replied Katherine quietly. "She told me she wanted to stay with us forever."

Thorn shook his head, unable to make any sense of it.

"I guess she changed her mind," he said. He hadn't meant to sound cold, but his words were harsh, and he aware of Katherine's eyes finding his from across the room.

'Tm sorry," he added. "I hate to see you like this."

"It was my fault, Jeremy."

"Your fault?"

"There was a moment at the party."

Thorn crossed the room and sat beside her, his eyes etched with concern.

"She was getting a lot of attention," Katherine continued, "and I was jealous of it. I took Damien from her because I couldn't stand sharing center stage."

"I think you're being a little hard on yourself. The girl was deranged."

"And so am I," whispered Katherine, "if being in the limelight means so much to me."

Her voice fell to silence. There was nothing left to say. She slid into Thorn's arms and he held her until she slept. It was the kind of sleep he had seen before when she was taking Librium, and he wondered if the shock of Chessa's death had caused her to take it again. He sat there the better part of an hour before lifting her in his arms and carrying her into her room.