Joe and Alice

In the quiet town of Crestwood, a place where dreams wilted and hopes faded, Alice's life was a tapestry woven with threads of suffering. From the very beginning, her existence was marked by hardships that seemed to cling to her like shadows, casting a dark cloud over her days. Alice's family, once brimming with promise, had become a shattered mosaic of brokenness. Her mother, a beacon of strength and resilience, worked tirelessly to provide for Alice and her younger siblings. But tragedy struck when her mother, in a cruel twist of fate, was shot and killed for no reason at all.

The loss was a devastating blow that left Alice and her siblings reeling, their lives forever altered. As a teenager, Alice found herself thrust into the role of caregiver, shouldering the weight of responsibility that should never have been hers to bear.

As the eldest of three siblings, Alice bore the weight of responsibility on her slender shoulders. She became the pillar of strength for her family, shouldering the burden of their survival. 

The rain poured down in a relentless torrent, each droplet a somber reminder of the tears that Alice had shed in the wake of her mother's tragic death. The dark clouds hung low in the sky, casting a pall of gloom over the rundown neighborhood where Alice trudged through the muddy streets. Her worn-out sneakers splashed through puddles, the cold seeping into her bones and chilling her to the core.

Clutching a tattered umbrella in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other, Alice's red and swollen eyes betrayed the countless sleepless nights spent mourning her loss. Her heart felt heavy with grief and despair, the weight of the world pressing down on her young shoulders.