Lienna sat down wincing, as her cot sank and creaked underneath her weight. She peered out the room door as gently as she could and sighed in relief, as she saw Mr. Xiao still fast asleep on his couch, clutching an empty bottle of sake like a teddy bear.

The past few hours had been a whirlwind, but finding out that the elderly soldier had once been a foster father years ago, and wanted to take her in, was probably the most surreal news she had gotten, besides the fact that her mother was dead now. She couldn't believe that the man had been deemed eligible to take her; however, Lienna wasn't about to complain. She could've gotten sent anywhere with anyone. At least the old man was somewhat of a familiar face. He was an alcoholic but he wasn't abusive as far as she could tell.

The first floor had cleared inspection by safety officials, but the second was deemed unsafe for living. Which is why Lienna now found herself in the man's stiff bed while he slumbered on his lumpy couch. Mr. Xiao had assured her that once he got his money from his retirement account he'd help her fix the space up and she could live there by herself rent free. She was surprised by his generous offer before she realized that he must be feeling immense guilt because of what had happened. Afterall, it was his building and as far as Lienna knew he hadn't gone up to try to save her mother.

Lienna looked down at the two letters in her lap fingering them softly. She heard the clock chime on the wall and counted as it rung, twelve rings, midnight. Her lips quirked upwards just the slightest bit, it was her birthday. That meant she was sixteen now. As exciting of a realization as that was she didn't feel very thrilled with everything that had just occurred a few hours ago. Still she knew her mother would want her to celebrate somehow. Celebrating a sixteenth birthday was more of a western custom, but ever since her grandparents passing her mother had been tending to indulge and celebrate those special days just a bit more making it a point to cherish her daughter while they were both living.

With no gifts that she knew of to open from her mother these envelopes were the next best thing. Lienna opened the newer of the envelopes her nails working their way in between the sticky paper triangle that kept it closed. The flap popping upward as she succeeded in opening it. This was the last thing her mother had touched. Technically, the last thing she had given her. Which made whatever was inside of it that much more precious.

She pulled out the folded slip of paper and opened it smoothing out the crisp creases. She didn't even have to read the words written on the page for her eyes to well with fresh tears. This was her mother's handwriting. She had written this there was no mistake. The brunette pressed the paper against her chest causing it to crinkle. Lienna would be mad at herself for doing that later, but in this moment all she could do was cry. Her mother was gone and she was never coming back. Nothing could change that. Nothing would ever change that. She was all alone now. No father, no mother, no extended family to speak of. Her grandparents having passed away a few years back. It was just her...

Lienna reached for her iPod, the item luckily having been tucked away in her backpack when she ran into the house. She scrolled through her music her thumb hovering over a sad song that matched her current mood, but she couldn't bring herself to hit play. Deep down she knew this was the type of sad that even music couldn't cure. A tear drop fell onto the pink devices screen and she threw the item down onto the bed away from her as the letter fell into her lap.

Wiping furiously at her eyes with both her hands she tried to make the never ending cascade of tears stop, but her efforts were fruitless as the tears continued to fall leaking from her eyes. Grabbing a nearby tissue to blow her nose as softly as she could, wincing at the elephant like noise that resounded throughout the apartment, Lienna tried to remember the last time she had ever cried like this. Had she ever been this upset? Had she ever cried so hard that her head hurt, her nose stuffed up and it was hard to breathe? She wiped her nose and crumpled the tissue in her hand balling it into her fist. Her mother wouldn't want her to cry, she always hated when Lienna got upset, especially if it was because of her, but she couldn't help it. All these feelings were welling up inside of her and they needed to be released before they just overwhelmed her.

Lienna laid down on the bed. The creaking springs cutting through the symphony of her sniffles. Mr. Xiao drunkenly rolled off his couch hitting the floor with a thud. His bottle miraculously remaining intact on impact. If it had been a normal night, and she was here under different circumstances, Lienna would have tried to help get the man back onto the couch to repay him for his help, but she wasn't in the mood to get up right now. All her energy was being focused into properly mourning her mother. She cried and cried and cried until she ran out of tears to shed. Memory upon Memory of her mother swirling to the forefront her mind. Her head throbbed and her throat felt as dry as sandpaper.

She took a steadying breath, breathing deeply. She didn't feel better, not one bit, but at least now she was positive her tears wouldn't smudge the ink that held her mother's last message. She wanted to read it now while the wound of her loss was still fresh. If she waited a couple days, months, weeks, or even just until morning she'd just have to deal with the pain of losing her all over again. Lienna wasn't stupid she knew that pain wasn't going away anytime soon, but it was better to rip off the bandaid quick as can be than to inch it slowly off.

Lienna resisted the urge to groan as she looked at the letter more closely now. Her mother had written this in English her eyes focusing intently on the foreign letters. The stupid in house rule had continued on even in her death and yet, Lienna would have expected nothing less from her mom. Actually she found it somewhat comforting. She only hoped she would be able to understand everything that was written, but there was only one way to find out. With that thought in mind Lienna picked up the now crinkled paper, and began to read.

Lienna stopped reading her eyebrows furrowing. Had she read that right? No, she couldn't possibly have. She typed the letter into google translate. Reading it in her native tongue. There was no mistake. No translation error.

Her father was alive.

And that was ch 2! Next chapter we finally get into the Doctor strange movie! Woohoo!