She stood before him with quivering lips, her face growing paler against her pink blush. The boy, on the other hand, screamed his anticipation and bafflement to himself.

"I tried to call you." Annie spoke apologetically in a shaky manner. "I really did but...the lines were probably down." She finished with a less than obvious gulp.

Evan remained silent. He knew that she knew that there were other ways to have relayed the message and that one fact made him clench his fists out of confusion. Why would she delay such important news? Did she intend to never tell? Her alibis made no sense to him. And neither did anything else for that matter.

His quietness shot violent tremors down her spine. She always hated his unnerving silence and eerie obsession with solitude. Safe to say that they were never close. But they were strongly bound by one frail factor and that was their dying mother.

"I'm so sorry." Annie whispered like a frightened child.

And Evan, being Evan, walked away, leaving the dim candlelight to itself. No words left his mouth. Not comfort, not salve. But the pain of bearing it all was numbing...so numbing he could feel Annie's shaking knees and quivering lips. His fists were still clenched, leaving it white.

Reality became so unbearable that he couldn't bring himself to say anything. He kept everything to himself, the cold blizzard, the crying girl outside his room, his screams. There was only an encompassing emptiness in silence. Their mother was dead and it left no room for words.