Death came in different forms. It was like a gift, one well packaged in a thick cardboard box, wrapped in eye-catching paper and closed with a beautiful shiny ribbon. When opened, it could explode into confetti, contain the best present you could have asked for, or be a complete disappointment.

In Nina's case, it was a combination of the unexpectedness of the confetti and the disappointment of the worst surprise.

Her family was not an example of benevolence and rectitude, in fact, they came from a long line of eccentric millionaires whose fortune was obtained through scams and crimes. She, however, was not guilty of these. Children were the fruit of their parents and perhaps, in the future, she would have been deserving of the punishment she received, but not at that moment, not when she was only fourteen years old and had so much to live for.

She didn't remember much about her mother, as she divorced her father as soon as her younger sister, Mia, was born. Both lived with their dad, Leonardo, a cordial and loving man, who always made sure to give them everything so that they didn't feel like they lacked anything. Despite her mother's abandonment, the two girls did not grow up without an important maternal figure. They had a wonderful grandmother, Mariale, who raised the family's wealth and name to a new level, one that she gladly handed over to her only son.

Nina admired her, no, more than that, she truly loved her. She thought she was the most incredible woman with her ability to find solutions to the most tangled problems, to make the most serious person laugh, and to see beauty even in the darkest corner of the old, hidden mansion where they always lived.

"Why are you afraid of the dark?" her grandmother asked her once. Nina was six years old, her father had left the country and she begged her grandmother to stay in her room until she fell asleep.

"Because I can't see anything," she replied simply.

To this, her grandmother laughed and lay down beside her on the bed, looking ahead, at the darkest point of the spacious room that, at that time, was only Nina's.

"Do you know what's amazing about not seeing anything at all?" she explained. "It gives you the freedom to imagine whatever you want. Don't imagine a monster, imagine a fantastic creature. Imagine that, behind that darkness, only a beautiful and good world is hidden."

"Like a fairy tale?"

"Whatever you want, that's the wonderful thing about imagination, you know?"

Nina tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, imagining that mythical creatures were hidden in that darkness. A unicorn, a fairy, even a mermaid. The simple imaginings of a six-year-old girl.

"What do you imagine, granny?" she then asked.

Her grandmother rested her chin on Nina's head and gently stroked her back.

"I have found very beautiful beings in the darkness," she assured her, "but I'll tell you about it when you're a little older."

Nina never knew what her grandmother had seen in the darkness, because over the years and the maturing of her mind, she had forgotten her words.

A year later, when Nina turned seven years old, her younger sister Mia was born. It was also around that time when their mother left them, but Nina never felt abandoned because she had her father, grandmother, and now her sister.

As Mia grew, Nina gained a little partner in crime whom she played with every day and protected as if she were her most valuable treasure. Their grandmother taught them everything, and was their best teacher, especially during times when, for their safety, it was best for them to study at home.

Nina's favorite lessons were when her grandmother taught them how to paint. They set up two easels so she and her grandmother could paint landscapes with paint, while Mia was given a large piece of paper and crayons to let her imagination run wild. Nina was not good at painting, she wasn't a natural artist like her grandmother, who painted with brushstrokes like it was a dance choreography, who knew exactly what colors to use and understood her motivation perfectly.

"What are you drawing, grandma?" Nina asked, setting down her paintbrush to approach her grandmother's painting.

She smiled and stepped aside so Nina could see the work. It was an open field with a shadow in the distance. It wasn't complete yet, but Nina could already sense a glimpse of love in that image, a deep gratitude. That was her grandmother's true talent.

"Do you like it?" her grandmother asked.

Nina nodded fervently.

"Who is it?"

"I'll tell you when you grow up."

Once again, she never got an answer to her question.

Years passed and Nina had already entered adolescence. Her grandmother no longer had the energy she once had, and her paintings gradually became more and more scarce, most of them left as simple sketches without form. That was when she realized the true weight of age.

Despite this, her grandmother was still as loving with her granddaughters as ever, still taking care of them, teaching them everything she knew. Nina swore she was the strongest person who could ever walk the face of the earth, until one day, she lost her composure completely...

"I told you this would happen, Leonardo!" she yelled, pacing the room with her cane.

Mia was in a deep sleep, like most children at that age, but Nina woke up when she heard a scream coming from upstairs. She tiptoed out of her room and peered into her father's study, where she saw her grandmother furious, fighting with her son.

"It's been years, I didn't think there would be a conflict now," Nina's father replied.

Her grandmother shook her head.

"Don't you understand the danger this family is in?!" she bellowed. "You know it should have never been stolen! We should have recovered it as soon as they took it from us!"

"We searched for it, you sent our entire staff to look for it, but we never found it, remember?" her son retorted. "Mom, I know it was important, but it was just one confrontation. It won't happen again, we don't even have it, they'll realize that."

Her grandmother sank onto the sofa and Nina was frightened to see tears streaming down her face. She had never seen her cry like that, with such despair and sadness. Suddenly, she felt vulnerable herself, as if the pillars of her strong family were breaking apart.

"Just one look is enough to make anyone obsessed, Leonardo," she assured. "This won't end until it returns to us."

Nina didn't know what they were talking about. It could be anything: money, jewelry, some relic. She had no idea what they were referring to, but she was aware that her family had always been victims of theft, that many of her grandmother's most valuable possessions had been stolen over the years, but she had never expressed so much anger and sadness over those losses. Why now?

"We have to protect the girls," Nina's father said, squatting in front of his mother. "That's what matters now."

The grandmother sighed.

"Get it back. If you do that, there'll be no need to protect them," she insisted.

"Danger is always lurking."

"This isn't the first time we've had one stolen, but now they want to claim it twenty years later."

"Mother..."

"Now you're the head of this family. Make the right decisions before you regret it."

Nina didn't want to hear any more. She turned around and ran back to the room she shared with her younger sister. She didn't understand what was so serious as to cause a conflict between her grandmother and her father, but she had a terrible feeling, one that made her heart race and a lump form in her throat.

She closed the door of the room behind her, and as she was about to get into bed, she heard Mia's shrill voice.

"Nina?"

Nina cursed inwardly. She didn't want to wake her up.

"I'm sorry, I went to the bathroom," she apologized. "It wasn't my intention to wake you up."

"I couldn't sleep," Mia admitted. "It's very dark. Can we turn on the light?"

Nina smiled softly and approached her little sister's bed. They were very similar, except that she had dyed the tips of her hair pink because of what her father called her "rebellious phase."

"No, the darkness isn't scary," she assured Mia, pushing her gently to make room for her in the bed.

"Yes, it is scary."

"No, the darkness is an opportunity to imagine whatever you want," she repeated her grandmother's words when she suffered from the same terror. "Imagine that behind that darkness, something beautiful is hidden."

"That's possible?"

"Try it."

Mia remained silent until she gripped Nina's arm tightly.

"Are you scared?" she asked. Nina tensed up. She couldn't confess the truth to Mia when she didn't even understand what was happening herself, so she just sighed and hugged her sister.

"I have you, dad, and grandma," she replied. "Nothing scares me when you're close by."

They fell asleep shortly after, but in her dreams, Nina swore she saw the door to her room open and heard her father's characteristic footsteps approaching them. He gave Mia a kiss on the forehead and brushed Nina's cheek with the back of his hand, whispering in her ear, "My brave Nina." Dream or not, Nina would never forget that touch, the tone of that voice, and those words. They would stay engraved in her memory until the end, and far beyond.

She just wished they were true.

The next few days were very tense. They weren't even allowed to step a foot outside the house, the windows were always shut, and they couldn't make too much noise. Only their father's employees were the ones coming in and out. Their grandmother was more tense than ever, and their father was so stressed that he would go days without sleeping or eating.

Nina still didn't fully understand what was happening. They were being threatened, and her grandmother insisted on recovering an object no matter the cost.

The pressure only increased when their father had to leave the city.

"It's dangerous, Leonardo," their grandmother warned him. Their father just shook his head and turned to his daughters. Nina watched him with concern, and Mia clung to her arm tightly. She was too young to fully comprehend, but she felt that something wasn't right.

"I'll be back soon," their father said goodbye, giving them each a tight hug and a kiss on the forehead. He looked Nina in the eyes, stroking her cheek and saying, "Be brave and take care of your sister, okay?"

Nina's eyes welled up.

"Is everything okay?"

"It will be," he assured her, then gave Mia a forced smile. "Obey your grandmother and sister, okay?"

"Yes!" Mia exclaimed, believing in her father's smile unlike her older sister. She envied her innocence.

Her father left after that. The front door closed, the car drove away, and they were left alone with their grandmother.

What Nina never thought was that it would be the last time she would see her father.

Two days passed, it was a hot and boring afternoon. Mia had fallen asleep watching television and Nina didn't want to disturb her grandmother, who was almost always on the phone asking about the search for the missing object.

Therefore, in her boredom, Nina went up to the third floor of the house where the attic was located. The attic was the least frequented place because it was dark, dirty, and messy. They kept everything there; antiques, furniture, old clothes, her grandmother's paintings, jewelry, there were even boxes of Nina and her sister's old toys.

Nina liked to explore up there, to take things that hadn't been touched in years. She turned on the dim light and began to rummage through the boxes, finding some beautiful necklaces that she put on while laughing to herself.

But during that exploration, she found a trunk. It was large, made entirely of wood, and very heavy. She opened it with difficulty, but her curiosity managed to overcome it. Inside were paintings, canvases wrapped in paper and cloth. They all belonged to her grandmother.

She opened them one by one, struck by the beauty of the paintings, by what they conveyed, by what they meant. They were not just any pieces, they were true works of art. There were only eight of them, but all with the same theme.

"Faceless Lady," she read aloud the title that all the paintings had on the back. She had never heard of them before.

"That's exactly what I'm looking for," said an unknown voice behind her.

Nina turned around and found herself face to face with a man wearing a mask, completely dressed in black. He had infiltrated her house, a thief.

She stood up and, when she looked up, she realized that he had entered through a skylight in the roof.

What were the odds? How unlucky was she to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

She would soon discover that such a thing as bad luck and unfair odds did not exist in moments like that. Things just happened, they were destined, no matter how tragic or ridiculous, some destinies were not meant to be avoided.

Panic seized Nina. She dropped the painting and when she was about to run and escape from there, the man pulled out a gun. Her first instinct was to widen her eyes and scream, but before she could open her mouth, she heard the shot, saw the bullet fly out of the barrel and, in a second, everything ceased to exist.

She died.

(...)

"Then you were murdered," Andrew said in a low voice. "I'm sorry."

Nina shook her head. "What happened, happened," she assured him, although she still felt the pain of what she had left behind, how incomplete her existence felt.

"So your insistence on cheating death is because of this," Andrew concluded. "You want to find whatever it is that your family lost and save them from that conflict."

"Yes, that's what I have to do. I think... I think that's the purpose of my death."

They had returned to the hotel room and Nina told them everything about herself, including what she wanted. Andrew had asked questions throughout the entire story, but Carmichael remained completely silent, strange to both of them.

"Carmichael," Andrew called.

He looked up from the floor. He seemed more tense than usual.

"What?"

"What do you think of the story?"

Carmichael barely looked Nina in the eye before avoiding them as if they were toxic.

"It was very tragic," he limitedly responded.

Nina felt a hint of anger. She frowned and shook her head.

"You insisted so much that I tell you about myself and now that I do, that's all you have to say?!" she exclaimed.

Carmichael remained silent and Nina swore he would leave without saying more, but instead, he turned to her and, in a serious tone, asked a single question:

"What's your full name?"

Nina didn't understand why he was asking this or the relevance of it, but she answered anyway:

"Nina Altamirano."