A young woman lay pale and still in a hospital bed, her chest heaving with the effort. I bit my lip and shuffled my feet, waiting for a simple sign that my mother would get better.

"I trust in you, little monkey," Mother would always tell me, "to do what's right for me."

I had always found her a strange, peculiar lady. She would often dust her pants and clothes until they were covered in a thin layer of crusty, dried mud. She would then walk down half the stairs before skipping back up and repeating this twice. When she finally arrived, faint smears of lipstick covered her cheeks, and her wild hair could match Albert Einstein's in a competition.

Her behavior often attracted looks everywhere she went, and I followed her along like a pawn, a hopeless little puppet lost in her little world. She would skip me along the cobblestone steps of the most unusual streets. I dearly wished for her to let go of my hand, to stop embarrassing me at school. She would burst in and hold a cupcake made completely out of glass and trip, throwing it in the air...and then, the glass would graze her arms as she fell, and the cupcake would go SPLAT!

Everyone had laughed at me and my weird family, and I silently wished for Mom to stop.

And now, my wish had shifted into a curse. 

Mother was so still, and her breath was ragged. She stopped, but I couldn't imagine her drifting away from me for real.

My sister, Cordelia buried her nose into my arm. Tears leaked from her eyes as I squeezed her closer to me. My vision blurred as the salty liquid dripped from my eyes and slipped down my cheeks. I walked over to Mother and squeezed her cold, limp hand twice. Her slack hand felt just like an ice shard about to drop and shatter, about to melt and drift away from me forever.

I needed to make it up to her. It was all my fault. My mistake was showcased now, and her words rang again inside of my head.

I needed to make her life the perfect little fairytale that she deserved. The life that I took away from her.

I took a deep breath. I needed to pay her fees. And there was only one job I could get to pay enough.

Impostor Facilities.