I was surrounded by death. The death of the last chance for happiness, my family's happiness. The death of the hope for the other Influenza patients. The death that was delivered in a way that rendered me numb, leaving my senses cold and unfocused. The death of Edward.

I stood next to my mother and Taylor. Mother sobbed until her sobs seemed like dry gasps for air. Taylor just stared straight ahead, his face devoid of any emotion. A true soldier. There was a lone tear sliding down his cheek, however. I had one arm around my mother, in a fruitless effort to console her. How could I console her when I could not even console myself?

The minister spoke, and I heard the words, but I could not make sense of them. The only thing I saw was the closed coffin. A little voice inside my mind kept screaming at me, "Edward is in there!"

"The casket will not be left open; the Influenza virus may still be on the body. We cannot take the risk," the doctor had said apologetically, but firmly. His name was Colon or Colin, something to that effect. I didn't bother to remember his name, and frankly, I didn't care. I remembered being furious with him, wanting to scream that it didn't matter to me, that I would give my life to see my cousin again. But something had stopped me. There was something in the doctor's impeccable, pale face, full of innocence and concern, that had stopped me from losing my mind right then and there. Instead, I had stalked out of the hospital and to my house, making sure there was no one there, then locking myself in my room and crying my eyes out. I never let anyone see my true self, not since my father died. He had often said to me, " Be strong for your family; they are the only ones you have." He had lived this motto all his life.

Father…Uncle John…Aunt Elizabeth…Edward…they were all gone. I looked at Mother and Taylor with new eyes, horrified. I had just realized that they were the only ones I had left.

This was too much for me.

I ran out of the parlor, out of the house, and down the path. I heard my mother calling out to me, but Taylor must have stopped her, because she broke off mid-word: "Soph-!" I imagined what Taylor must have said to her, probably something like, "She needs some time alone, Mother. Let her be." Taylor always understood me, as I him. We were two peas in a pod, two sides of the same coin. We were twins.

I ran until I could run no further. I almost tripped a few times over my ankle-length mourning dress. I had worn it four times in one year.

Finally, I stopped. I looked around, dazed. I had been so focused on getting as far away as possible from the house that I had no idea where I had ended up. A second look told me that I was in the forest somewhere. This was even worse. The forest had formerly been my refuge, but now it reminded me of happier times. I remember when my brother and I used to go on adventures in the forest…with Edward.

" Stop!" I shrieked gleefully at Taylor, as he threw pinecones at me. Edward watched from a low branch on a tree, amused at this seven year-old children's play. Being ten, he considered himself much superior, which caused him to leap down from the tree and order us to stop. We stopped and gazed expectantly at him with admiring eyes, a look that could only be given to an older brother. Of course, he was more of a brother to us than a cousin, especially since his mother was sisters with our mother and his father was our father's brother. We were outcasts in the town for that, with most parents telling their children that we were part of a cult. That only made us closer. My mother, however, did not call it a cult; she called it a miracle.

"Ok, children, we are going to play War. I will be the General, and you, Taylor, will be the Sergeant. Sophia, since you are a girl, you will be the nurse," Edward instructed us.

"No! I want to be a soldier! I want to fight!" I protested, then threw such a tantrum that Edward finally gave in.

"Fine, then, Sophia. You may start out as a Private, and then we'll see if you can work your way up. Now, my army, the enemy are the squirrels that climb up the trees. We will try to take their territory, the trees, away from them, so that we can climb them and build clubhouses in them, and such."

"But we already climb them, and build clubhouses in them, Edward," Taylor pointed out. "The squirrels let us."

"No, Taylor, we are supposed to have complete ownership of the trees. We should be the ones giving permission to the squirrels, not the other way around. We have to show them who's IN CONTROL!" Edward stomped his foot on the ground. "Now, the most important thing to remember is that no matter what happens, we do not turn our backs on someone who is on our side. For example, if Taylor is about to lay claim on a certain tree, and he sees me struggling, in need of help, knowing that his choice is to either claim the tree and watch me die, or to come back for me, allow the squirrels to re-claim their tree, he should choose the second option. An army is like a family. Repeat: We never turn our backs on family!"

"We never turn our backs on family!" Taylor and I echoed, and then giggled.

"All right, soldiers, I believe you're ready. Let us march into the unknown and claim what is already ours!" He had a determined glint in his eye, as if this was The Revolutionary War. He turned around and marched deeper into the woods, only stopping to check if Taylor and I were behind him, which we always were.

I sighed. Then I got up from under the tree where I had been sitting. My face felt tight from the dried tears. My dress was filthy. I had no idea how long I had been sitting there, but it was almost sunset. I set off for home, hoping that there were no lingering guests from the funeral. As I was walking, I heard a sudden rustle in the trees. I looked up, startled. There was nothing there, save a squirrel. A squirrel. I smiled, momentarily distracted, remembering that day in the forest when we had waged war on the tree-climbing rodents, only to have them flee at our every approach. "Cowards!" Edward had yelled, shaking his fist. But I could have sworn that I had seen a flash of yellow, or gold.

I shrugged, attributing the vision to post-traumatic madness, and continued on my way, on the path I had taken so many times before, with Taylor and Edward.