Harper Brookstone had anything but a normal life.
Maybe it was the fact that she lived with her cousin, his friends and an old man that made her life so weird. Or maybe it was that said cousin and friends were trained ninjas, or that the old man was...
And that's something that Harper Brookstone has come to realize in the years that have not yet happened in this narrative. But as Fate is strange and unexpected, it is also cruel and unforgiving. It gives and it takes back. And that's something Harper has known since before the adventures that are to come even began. As Harper Brookstone's Fate is filled with the same cycle of loss and loneliness that is currently left unbroken.
Harper's first loss was one she doesn't even remember, but it was still the first step she unwillingly took into the path that Fate had set up for her. The death of both her parents brought her to a new life, and into the arms of her loving aunt and uncle. Oh, how did little Harper love her Uncle Lou and Aunt Lilly, who took her in without much hesitation. And how much did she love her cousin Cole. They were the perfect little family, ("a family quartet!" Lou had joyfully exclaimed).
Fate took and gave Harper a family, until it decided to take once again.
This time; Harper was four years old. Her Aunt Lilly's illness was no secret, and the family of four had long learned to treasure their moments together. That doesn't mean it hurt any less when those treasured moments ended. Lilly Brookstone died peacefully in her sleep, and that's all Harper was ever told about how her aunt passed away. When Fate took Lilly from her family, it was like someone had aggressively taken away the wrong block at a Jenga game, and it all came crashing down.
It was hard to explain to a four years old that she won't be able to see the woman she viewed as a mother ever again, or hear her voice, or feel her kisses, or bake with her and Cole. But it was harder for a child that age to see the two remaining pillars of her family crumble and tremble, the tragedy hitting them like an earthquake. Harper was unprepared and didn't know what to do, no one did, so she did what she could. When she found Cole or Lou, shaking and crying with silent tears at night, Harper would climb into their beds and hug them tight like they did with her. She agreed to all the dance and music lessons Lou had the idea to sign her into, as they all made her Uncle smile again as much as they made Cole frown. She would stay in her room and pretend not to hear when Cole and Lou started to argue more frequently as years went by, trying to drown out their fights with the sounds of her piano.
