It was a whole different world in here, like her and her mother's apartment, only lower. The rooftop and back lot of the shabby old complex had been their haven; a little spot of green amid the gray and grime of the city. Aeris didn't much like the city; it was dirty and noisy; oven-like in the summer and frigid in the winter. But it was quieter than in the country.

She remembered the country, dimly, from when her mother and father were still alive. She had been very young then. There was a lot of empty space after that, and then lots of memories of mom. Good ol' mom, might she rest in peace. Mom had been mother to more than just Aeris, but the entire neighborhood. After she'd died, Aeris had tried to carry on in her stead, baking cookies for the neighborhood kids, making wine and soap for the uptown ladies, and scented candles and medicine for the mothers on her block. Except no one had wanted them once mom was gone.

Mom had spent five long years dying; years where Aeris should have been going out with friends, maybe find a job indoors, or get married. It wasn't that Aeris didn't want to do any of those things, but the fact that she hadn't done them seemed to somehow diminish her in the neighborhood's eyes. She didn't understand why. Mom being sick was unrelated to her lack of social activity, but everybody seemed to think it was the reason she chose to stick close to the house. Actually, it was all their damn gossiping that made her hate to go out the door. They all suspected her, because mom had been so strict about "gentlemen callers". Not that she really needed to be. Aeris was trustworthy, even if her boyfriends might not have been as honest as she. That wasn't the reason, though. Aeris didn't mind her mother's puritanical rules. As long as she kept her pants on, and came home on time, that was good enough for mom. It was good enough for Zack too, oddly. Mom had said he was a keeper. He'd been such a good sport about mom and her rules and her getting sick. But then the war had come and he had gone. And when he came back, it was only Aeris who saw him return. She still missed him.

The blonde boy who'd come to break the news she'd already known had helped fill his place for a while. But then he left too. When she saw him again, she knew things hadn't gone much better for him. People just kept leaving her. Because of her knowledge of herbs and plants, people wondered if it were her fault. Then mom died, and they were convinced it was her fault. In a way, they were right. Yes, she had helped her mom die, but it wasn't murder. She had asked for it, and Aeris, ever obedient, had done so.

Only bad witches were ugly, and Aeris had never been pretty. Mom had always said she ought to go back to the country, marry a farmer or something, where she could be in her garden all the time. Poor mom didn't know that away from all the living people, the dead ones only got louder. The church and the people the next sector over were the next best thing she could come up with. Hopefully, they weren't the kind to go burning people at the stake.