Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The pendulum clock hanging on the wall, through the quartz clock face, the second hand, the minute hand, the hour hand are all rotating on their own unique speed, unhurried, as if no one can stop time moving forward.

There is a solitary villa build by the sea side, with only one entrance, neatly manicured lawns and beautiful gardens filled with flowers. In here resides the reclusive daughter of a famous wealthy man.

The whole villa is quiet with only silent sighs of flower petals blown by the wind and sea waves hitting rocks to be heard. One the second floor a woman, in her late twenties, sits on a wheelchair. The summer sunlight projects on the woman's pale and sickly silhouette through the floor to ceiling windows.

The woman is looking down at a book. Under the slender and drooping eyelashes, her brown eyes move with the index finger on the book on her knees, concentrating on it. Even sitting quietly on a wheelchair with no sensation below the lumbar spine, even though her pale skin reveals what kind of illness the woman is suffering from, their is a calmness  in her demeanor.

Thirty years ago, Serena Abben married Darrity Koane, despite the objections of her family. The Abben family had been dabbling in the ways of magic and supernatural for centuries and Serena's father had predicted that such a union was doomed from the beginning as the Koane family had too much bad karma accumulated. No offspring brought about that union would live past the age of thirty, no would their children be healthy.

But Serena disregarded the family's opposition to her marriage and even cut off contact with the family. So after marrying her lover Serena gave birth to a beautiful daughter, whose birth to death would be shrouded in illness.

All her life, the smell of medicine and endless hospital visits shrouded, Catherine Koane's life. Her maternal grandfather had once visited her at the age of ten and declared her soul was split and unable to  fit with her physical body it sought to escape.

But an indomitable spirit resided within Catherine and with the help of her parents she sought to improve her health. Experts were hired for her, reclusive masters were brought just to buy her more time. She did not want to leave her parents and so she worked hard and tried to live each day to its fullest. She wanted to have no regrets and her parents indulged her every whim.

So when she decided to study cooking and baking at the age of ten, they agreed. It was thanks to her eidetic memory and great hands on skills that it was all so easy for her. Her father always looked at her with such painful regret that. An excellent heir who would perish. So she asked for professors and tutors in finance, economics and business management and spent the next few years to her twentieth birthday delving in these. She became her father's virtual assistant from home, helping deal with the family business until her twenty second birthday where upon going to a fashion show with her mother abroad she became enamored with fashion.

So with a zeal and ambition that was shocking to her parents, she plunged into every thing related to fashion brands and luxury goods. From their history to everything mechanical related to them. Anything that could be learned Catherine learnt. She apprenticed with a number of famous designers from all over the world. She learned ancient embroidery styles, perfumery, wine-making, cosmetology- everything was of such interest to her. It was as if she had found her sole purpose for her existence in this world.

For the remainder of her life it was all she learnt. So when her maternal grandfather told her her time was running out, she had no regrets except for her parents. She prayed that whatever divine force was at work, it would have mercy on her parents. Her death would cause a lot of pain to her parents and she hoped and prayed that they would get out of it soon.

Days passed quietly but there was a shroud of impending doom in the villa, as her death day drew near so to did the sadness of her parents weigh on her. As she drew her last breath, she heard her grandfather telling her to go in peace as her death had paid her father's wages and a child was conceived by her mother. So it was with infinite peace that Catherine allowed a large suction force to take her away.