Thick tears fell down on the piece of paper. The black ink mixed with the letter and formed messy spots. The letter became heavier. And Alice, shocked as she was, did nothing to hold it.

The last letter from Rouen fell on the ground. This time not written by Bethany.

She made herself cry because that was what she wanted to do. The letter was from her grandsire. Yes, he had his own seal. Yes, she recognized his handwriting. Yes, he was most certainly old enough to make supernatural dominance a lot less likely. And her grandsire would never lie to her.

Her grandsire had written that Bethany Brown was dead. Her human sister was dead. The human sister who became Kindred with whom she shared the same grandsire had met her final death. Could it be true? Alice couldn’t find out. If she wanted to do that, she had to go to all places where her sister possibly could be hiding.

London. Paris. Rouen. Monaco. Maybe she was on her way to the USA to Alice? It would take several lifetimes to find each other without proper contact information. At least, it wasn't very likely she could use the address she had of her sister again.

More likely was that her sister was really dead. The one who she had grown up with had been killed. The only one that could make her smile by just looking at her was now a pile of ash.

Alice her knees couldn't hold her right now, she dropped to the floor together with her tears. 'No….' She didn't want this. 'Please nooo….' She hadn't asked for it to happen. 'NO!' She had no family left anymore. In frustration her hands grabbed to carpet beneath her.

She pulled her own hair as she started trembling. She needed to control herself. It helped that the letter told her the killers had been taken care off. The revenge of an Elder had been sweet.

She needed control to be able to see what else her grandsire had sent her. Together with the terrible news she got a package. Under the package paper a small wooden box was found, more a small chest. Still crying out loud Alice pulled the chest closer. She opened it and first saw herself, inside the cover was a mirror. The mirror showed two wet eyes and a lot of mascara dripping down her face. Inside the box were things more interesting though.

While her hands touched the stuff inside she could only whisper with her weak voice.

'oh god…'