“Nicole, what’s wrong?” I asked, reaching out a trembling hand. My sister sat, hugging her knees and staring off at the unfocused world above my right shoulder. “Nicole, I want an answer.”


“I don’t know, Jared.” Her voice caught and she didn’t get to finish saying my name. The corner of her mouth twitched once and her eyes seemed to become more sunken in.


“Yes, you do. You’re just not telling me.”


She gave a wobbly sigh and exclaimed, “Yeah, I do know.”


“Tell me.” I said, my voice straining.


“No.”


“Nicole, please.” I pulled my hand back, seeing as she wasn’t making an effort to take it. “I want to get out of this alley. It doesn’t give me the right feeling.”


She finally turned her gaze towards me and locked her eyes with mine. She threw a simple sentence out into the open air of the darkened backstreet, “I need help, Jared.”


I pushed harder, “Why?”


“There’s this darkness inside of me,” she averted her eyes downwards again, “and it’s brewing and churning and making me sick over and over again. I want it gone. I want to leave it and all the other aches and pains it comes with behind.”


“Did, um, did something happen?” I was trying to hide the worry but my words had a bit of uneasiness dripping off the ends.


“No, oh, no.” She cocked her head a bit and found another unfocused world to look in to. “It just appeared. I’m so fragile, Jared. I’m like a dam. I get all these cracks and then I crumble and flood over with melancholy.”


“Is there anything at all that happened?”


“Of course. Lots of things happened. All they did was add fuel to the already ever-burning fire. I don’t want these people to make me unhappy. I love them all so very much.” Her voice started to become weak, “I want to be over them and the things they did. I just want to be happy.”



I offered my hand again, “Let’s get you help, okay?”


She looked back up at me and took my hand with a breathy sigh. I raised her to her feet and enveloped her in a hug. My sister has looked so very distant lately and now I know why and what I have to do.


“Thanks, Jared.” She said quietly before slowly taking another breath in.


“Of course, Nicole. Anytime at all.”