All her life, Spinel Reynolds was a glass half-full kind of person. No matter what sort of situation seemed to come her way, she'd always approach it with a smile. This approach seemed especially relevant during the first six years of her life. She always looked forward to her Aunt Petunia's visits whenever the latter could visit. As her big sister Kimber had once explained to her, the reason Aunt Petunia couldn't visit as often as she'd wanted was because she had to transfer from a public school to a private school. Spinel couldn't understand what the difference between the two was, but she tried her best to be patient for Aunt Petunia's sake. Really, she had a blessed life going for her.
Then, when she was eight, everything changed forever.
Spinel would never forget the day that it happened. She'd never forget her mother telling her as gently as possible that Petunia, her godmother and best friend in the whole world, had taken her own life in front of a crowd of people. She'd never forget when it was also announced that her big sister had gone missing around the same time. Two people she'd doted on the most... just like that, they were gone. She was beside herself. Neither her mother nor the rest of her siblings could give her much consolation.
For a long while afterwards, Spinel would wait and wait for her favorite big sister to come back. She dreamed about what would happen when they'd finally find her. Happy dramatic music would play, they'd embrace warmly, everyone would clap for them as they were finally reunited, and they would live happily ever after. Alas, that reunion would never come. She was stuck having to eke out the rest of her childhood with her parents and the rest of her siblings.
Soon, a year passed since she lost her two favorite people. Nora and Jeremy started getting into fights that were so heated that Spinel could hear them all the way from her bedroom. Not that she would've cared, anyway; she was too busy watching old Disney cartoons on her Barbie TV to pay mind to any screaming and swearing. Meanwhile, JJ, Miranda, Aliena, and Puck were emotionally suffering from their parents' fights. JJ always found an excuse to hang out at a friend's house, if only for a little while, to get away from the screaming. As for Miranda, Aliena, and Puck, they found escapism in their schoolwork and their favorite TV shows.
A month after the fights began, Jeremy filed for divorce. The day after that, he started moving out. Spinel couldn't understand why Jeremy was moving out or why her parents wouldn't be together anymore. The thought of having to leave anybody behind scared her, despite how much she'd tried to convince herself, so she was upset when Jeremy got custody of her and she had to move in with him.
While she was living with her father, Spinel couldn't help but yearn for the days when her parents were still together... still happy. She never imagined how drastically things would change for her, especially when she was only nine years old. Her big sister had been missing for a year now, her best friend was dead, her family was torn apart... she wasn't sure how she could live like this, but she'd manage somehow. She was going to a new school and making a couple new friends. They seemed like nice enough people, at least. Still, she couldn't help but get that sinking feeling...
She tried contacting her mother one day while on the phone. The phone itself never received any calls from Nora or the rest of the family. Spinel couldn't help but wonder why any one of them wouldn't pick up the phone. They always picked up the phone when she called. She figured that she'd have to wait to try again later. Maybe they were just busy.
She tried again. Still no answer. Tried again. Still no answer. Tried again. Still no answer. Tried again. Just like the last several times, there was still no answer. By that point, Spinel figured that something was wrong. They always picked up the phone when she called. What the hell could've happened to them? Did they move and change numbers? Were they dead? Did they just not want to talk with Jeremy ever again, even if it meant cutting ties with Spinel? She couldn't just sit there and guess. She had to find out.
The next night, she went out and decided to do something investigating around Nora's house. She looked inside. To her surprise, no one was home... but why? Why wouldn't they be home tonight? Vacation, maybe? Spinel broke the lock of the front door and decided to continue investigating. When she managed to break her way inside the house, she noticed that everything seemed like it was. Nothing was out of place, nothing was broken, nothing was damaged... everything stayed as it was. Then it occurred to her to check the garage. Why, she had no idea, but something compelled her to check the garage. She did so, and it was then that she discovered that the family SUV was gone. So maybe they had gone on vacation... or had they? She had to get out of there before anybody could see. She snuck out of the garage through a tiny window that was as wide as her whole body, and she got away back to her dad's house.
She woke up the next morning to the sound of a news anchor announcing that a mother and her children had gone missing. What? When did this happen? Could they have been... her mother and the rest of her siblings? It couldn't be... but why? Why would they just disappear like that? Were they that desperate to get away from her and her dad? Surely not, right? A week after Nora Reynolds and the rest of the children had been reported missing, their bodies were found at the bottom of a cliff, still inside Nora's totaled SUV. The police alleged their deaths to have been a quadruple murder-suicide. When Jeremy and Spinel found out what happened to them, they didn't take the news well... especially not Jeremy.
Jeremy had tried coping with the quadruple murder-suicide of his wife and the rest of their children as best as he could, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hide the pain. Losing them... losing his purpose in life was enough to leave him a empty hollow shell of himself. As for Spinel, she had resorted to starving herself for days on end in order to deal with losing the rest of her family. Anything she ate came right back out. This was a terrible coping mechanism for a nine-year-old to employ, that much was certain. Still, she wasn't sure how else to cope. It got to the point where Child Protective Services were called because teachers thought Jeremy had been starving her. Jeremy had to provide them with mountains of evidence that that wasn't the case, and the CPS workers eventually backed off.
Spinel's troubles weren't over yet, however. Jeremy had resorted to drowning out his sorrows in order to try to forget about his dead family. It wasn't a great coping mechanism, but it seemed to help put his survivor's guilt at ease. It didn't always work, though.
"Spinel, honey?" Jeremy once called out to her.
"Yes, Daddy?" Spinel asked as she walked into the living room. "What is it?"
"It's just..." He sighed while guzzling down a bottle of Budweiser. "Sometimes, it's all just too much."
"What is, Daddy?"
"Life. Everything. I've tried asking myself why your mother would just drive her SUV off a cliff and kill herself and the kids, but I can't seem to come up with a good answer for it. It... it's just not fair. Why did she have to leave us all alone? Why?"
Spinel couldn't figure out how to respond to that. "It's gonna be okay, Daddy. Maybe someday, you'll find a new mommy."
Jeremy just scowled and threw his empty bottle of Budweiser at the wall beside him, breaking it into large chunks of glass. "Like hell I will! My life is pretty much over, Spinel. I have nothing left to live for. When your mom and brothers and sisters died, part of me died with them." He collapsed into tears. "Why couldn't I have died instead?"
Spinel was trying to understand the world of grown-ups far too quickly for her pace, but she didn't let on that she didn't quite get it. "I'm sure you'll feel better soon, Daddy. I could buy plenty of Band-Aids to help fix your boo-boo."
Jeremy just chuckled, amused by what Spinel had said. "Yeah, I guess that would help. Thank you, Spinel."
