Many years later Lynn remembered her first experience with ice. She hadn't known what to think, like when her brother had tricked her into trading her new pair of socks for a bunch of fruit that had turned out to be made of wax anyway.

At the time she had been at the ripe age of ten and had been absolutely thrilled that she had something to eat that she had not mourned the loss of the only new piece of clothing she had gotten in three years.

It was not often she got even one meal a week, and she had always thought her brother was beyond reproach. Of course, back then she also thought that evil clowns lurked behind every corner and Santa Clause was going to steal her soul and take it back to the North Pole.

But she was getting ahead of herself; her first experience with ice was far from pleasant. It had been right after the night her father left her, her sister and her mother with nothing but an old dog that had more health problems then someone who fell into a blender and a mess of emotional troubles.

'Baggage' they called it.

I wonder if that's what they told Van Gough when he cut off his ear. "Dude, you got baggage."

The night, at least, had been a clear one, with not a cloud in the quickly darkening sky. Her and her twin sister, Mary, were out on the roof, watching her father as he drove off in his car. Lynn remembered thinking, 'Why us?' And as if her twin had read her mind, she responded. "Because we never stood up for ourselves."

Social services came soon after that bringing with them a large car, suits and a sense of foreboding. She and Mary had run out of there as fast as they could. It didn't matter they had nowhere else to go; they weren't welcome there anyway. Their mom was too busy getting high to notice her kids hadn't eaten in three weeks.

Somehow, they had gotten split up, and she had to go her own way, which, consequently, had led her straight into an ice covered pond.

To be completely honest, she hadn't really cared. She had no reason to live, no reason to die. Her life was ruled by a sense of apathy that didn't abate when she was hauled out of the frigid water and wrapped in warm blanket.

"Are you alright?"

Did it look like she was all right? But her mother had raised her better than that - or at least she had tried to - and she didn't say anything for the sake of politeness.

"Come on, let's get you warm."

That's when she passed out. She was never sure if it was from the ice or from all the 'baggage' weighing her down.

A/n: yeah, this was made from a really weird prompt. I like it anyway though. If someone wants me to continue it I will but otherwise this was really just a one shot dealie.