"That was a good movie. My favorite part was when-" I drowned out Julian as he rambled. Today was my 11th birthday and I hated the movie my mom took me to watch. It was an animated movie for babies in my opinion, but apparently I wasn't ready for big kid movies. I wasn't a teenager yet.

It began to rain as we walked, but I didn't mind, I just walked ahead, still humming. They began to talk about everything but my birthday, knowing I didn't really care about it as much as others my age; like Julian. Jackson told me to stay within sight when I walked too far, but I hated him so I didn't listen. Both Jackson and Julian stole my mom from me. And besides, there was a man with an umbrella, walking his dog approaching.

"Can I pet him?" I asked when they got close enough and saw proof of the dog's gender. The tall man smiled down at me. He had brown hair and eyes like the ocean, matching his Husky's eyes.

"Yes you may, Little one." I didn't waste any time getting under his umbrella and petting the fluffy dog. His tail wagged uncontrollably as he licked my face excitedly and I giggled. After a while the man looked at his watch and sighed.

"I must go, but I happen to have something I think you might like."

"Really?" I asked, rocking my heels in excitement.

"Yep. It used to belong to my daughter, but she," he paused, his eyes glazing over. "She's gone now and you remind me of her."

"I do? What was her name?"

"Her name was Joy and she used to carry around this key. She said it was the key to her heart, to her happiness and love. But it also locks the bad things away," he explained, handing me a rose gold key with a hole in the top, shaped like heart. At the bottom, there was a little red door. I smile up at him, about to thank the kind man, but before I could, he disappeared. Just simply....disappeared. I watched as his black umbrella blew away.

"There you are, June. I was so-" I turned in time to watch my mother disappear too, the yellow purse in her hand left to drop. I blink once. Twice. Then looked at the dog beside me, crying for its owner. I picked up the tag at his neck, hoping it had a name.

Milo. His name was Milo.

"It's going to be ok, Milo. I'll never leave you," I said into the fur at his neck, stroking up and down his spine.

And I didn't. Even when the rain beat down on me, but wasn't louder than Julian's sobs or Jackson's shouts of grief. Not even when we walked the rest of the way home with the man's umbrella or four years after that. Death did us part on my 15th birthday.

Maybe I've always hated my birthday because it signaled the end of the world, even if I kept living.

I locked up all the bad things with that same rose gold key and warped back to the cabin. I owed Alaric an apology and lunch.