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Coming up in life, this woman had a shitty life. Nico had been exposed to the darker side of life way too early in her childhood. Drugs, violence, and alcohol became a part of her all throughout her youth. Her father was a violent alcoholic and her mother was a victim of the constant abuse. Instead of taking the initiative to escape the toxic relationship, her mother chose to cope with the brutality with morphine. At first, it was just something to help her deal with the physical pain from each beating that she had received, however, it soon progressed into an intense dependence on it. Little by little, Nico began to see the effects the drug had on her mother. As a child, it was even easy to tell then that her mother was beginning to practically fade away as time went on. She was no longer the caring woman that she had known since forever. She was a husk - a person with no will or care for the world around them. The growing addiction soon became the end of her.

Nico was around the age of 15 when her mother had passed away from an overdose. The father wasn’t home, but she was. Witnessing the last moments of her mother were both tragic yet… unsurprising. The last memories that she had of her mother were of her laying on the ground, gasping for air while she had desperately tried to figure out how to help her. She could barely remember much of it now, but she knows for a fact that by the time the ambulance came, she was already gone. After the whole ordeal, her father only blamed Nico for not picking up on it sooner and for even calling 911. Saying it was “a waste of time” and that “she was gonna die sooner or later”.

Now, a few years later, things really began to blur for the young woman. She spent most of her time in high school with the wrong crowd. The parties, alcohol, random hook ups and even more drugs were the only thing that distracted her. Ironically, the things that had corrupted her young mind were starting to become her only solace. Basically, she was simply following her mother’s footsteps. By the time she had turned 18, Nico would experience her first taste of ODing in the bathroom of a house party. Her chest felt heavy and tight, and she could barely breathe. It was as if she were fading in and out of reality. Her initial emotion was just relief... Her suffering was done, or at least that’s what she had thought. It wasn’t long before someone had actually found her and called the ambulance. On a disappointing bright-side, Nico lived to see another day. And also a good long trip to rehab.

Things began to take a strange turn soon after. At first, Nico had thought that maybe the strange apparitions and voices that she had sensed were all just symptoms of withdrawal, but as time rolled on by, the shadowy presences never left. Ignoring the constant unease that she had felt from them in the beginning, Nico shortly “graduated” from her Rehab. Was she clean for a few short months because of it? Yes. Did that mean that she wasn’t going to go back to her old habits? Nope! But you know what did clean her act up? Her bouncing baby boy - Desmond. The idea of being a mother - a single one with no clue who the father was - was terrifying. She had no real clue had to raise a kid! Besides, the only thing about “parenting” that she knew were from her own parents. That definitely wasn’t the way to raise a good kid. She was the proof of that! However, for some reason, there was a spark of determination that had began to grow. Nico wanted to give this baby a better life than she had.