".....I've heard some ridiculous things in my life, but<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">that</span></span>has to be at the top of the list. Gods don't exist anymore. In fact I don't think they ever did. The only things guaranteed in this world is death and taxes. Heaven, hell, limbo, paradise. Are nothing but words and hold no truth." Nix said sharply.<br/><br/>Nix had often asked her father about life and death. This had been ignored, either by silence or the back of his hand. He had told her over and over that all that you can see in life is all there is. When she was a young child, he would shake and shake her if she asked about her mother. He would shout drunkenly that she was dead and that was it, never to be seen again, covered by the sod of earth and left to the worms. He would scream: 'If there were deities, why would they take my son, then my wife? Uncaring . . . A figment of the imagination . . . Crutch for the weak . . .'<br/>Nix would cover her head and curl up in the corner of the room as in his anger he threw what furniture they had around the house. He would then sob and sob and hold on to Nix in his grief, but she could never cry. All the crying was locked away, buried deep in her soul like the distant and faded memories of her mother.