The matter was serious, and telling her it wasn't was a poor option at best. On the other hand, she just seemed so worried. He couldn't quite put into words why, but he hated seeing her like that. Alice wasn't the kind of person who should be worrying about demented ghosts bound to family heirlooms; concerns like getting good grades and the social intricacies of adolescence were what she deserved, trivial things that didn't really matter in the end. The certainty and inescapability of life, death, and decay were for him to worry about, though he could hardly shelter her from her own possessions for long.