Killing Me Softly

Catherine sunk to the floor of her Californian home.

It was all a mistake.

Everything.

She had been too blinded by her stupid, illegal romance that she couldn't even see the problem with letting her daughter travel to Iceland alone with her boyfriend?

Mike stood in the doorway, just observing Catherine's behaviour, taking note of the phone that hung limply in her hand. Just twenty minutes before hand they were in bed together, making passionate love to each other, both blissfully happy in one another's company. Now, it had changed.

Mike was too scared to ask what had happened, but he did anyway.

"Catherine, what's wrong?"

Her eyes remained totally empty, no sign on her face showed she had heard Mike's question. Mike pressed her, sitting in front of her, taking her face in his hands, shaking her head to make her look at him.

"Cathy, look at me. Tell me what's happened."

"They're dead." She said quietly, no emotion whatsoever.

"Who's dead?" Mike asked, a nervous feeling errupting in his stomach. He had a horrible feeling about this. Judging from Catherine's reaction something was wrong with Sadie, but Cathy had said "they're dead", meaning plural.

"Billie and Sadie. And Sara. Jonas murdered Sadie."

Mike couldn't even cry. He was so shocked, so upset, emotion couldn't even convey how he was feeling. Nor could words, or pictures, or anything else but how he himself felt. It was so horrible, he felt as if he were glued to the spot he was sitting at. He suddenly felt to blame. He should have been with them in Iceland. Mike started to feel sick as he realised Catherine would most likely blame him. He stood up slowly and walked into Sadie's room.

It was there, looking at her bed, at the photo frames that showed pictures of Sadie and himself and Billie and Tré, and Jason, that he broke down. He picked up the picture of just Sadie and him, and pressed it against his chest. He studied it, realising that he'd never see her again, he'd never see the girl he secretly was falling for.

Sure, Mike felt disgusted that he had used Sadie's mother to become closer to Sadie, but who could blame him? Cathy and Sadie looked so much alike it was unbearable. Sure, he loved Cathy too, but those feelings had only just began, and had to stay in place one Cathy explained she was pregnant, with his baby.

Mike then stretched a bit further and grabbed at another picture of him, Sadie and Billie. That's when the tears really flooded out of his eyes, making his head throb and his heart rip. He would never, ever see these two best friends again. And it hit him like a ton of bricks. He didn't know where to go, what to do. Instead he laid on Sadie's bed, smelling the pillows and her sheets, gripping for the last bit of her he had left inside of him.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Two Months Later.

The remains found from the Icelandic ocean arrived in California today. Mike, Catherine, Ollie and Tré all gripped one another as they piled into the waiting taxi. It had hit them all that never again would they see their children, their best friends, their saviours. When they arrived at the ceremony Mike met with Jason and some other boys who were friends of Billie's and Sadie's.

Some of Sadie's Icelandic friends attended the funeral, all dressed in black, reflecting the colour of everyone's hearts and souls. Tears had already made their way down everyone's faces. Mike, Ollie, Catherine and Tré sat together in the front row, along with other family members. Mike stood up to read a speech he wrote after the priest introduced the grieving party.

"Billie Joe Armstrong." Mike began, "best friend. My best friend. For over a decade. I was the first one he told about his parent's divorce, I was the first one he confided in when his step father abused him, I was the one who created the band with him. No words can describe how amazing this boy is, was. I will never, ever forget him. Right now I can't even feel that I can go on, but I know I have to, because I am now living for him." Mike clutched his heart symbolically. "He may not be here, on this earth with us, breathing and laughing and singing... But he will always live within me."

Tears poured out of Mike's eyes as he turned the page to read about Sadie.

"Sadie Ariel Williamson," Mike stated, "my other best friend. I had just gotten to know her, and she was ripped away from me. She was such an amazing, strong girl. The man that murdered her never gave up, and I still, to this day, admire her strength and courage. Life through hard challenges at her, in fact I don't remember a day where nothing went perfectly for her, but she still never gave up." Mike's eyes drifted to Catherine and her hands that were lying carelessly on her stomach, where his baby was steadily growing. "She taught me how to love, and how to be strong. I will miss her so much, and like I said about Billie, it will be a challenge to keep going. But whenever I feel like giving up, I will remember her, and her determination, and I will continue."

His face was coated in tears, and he picked the two bunches of flowers up from the ground, walking to Sadie's casket, and Billie's, and placing a bunch on each.

"So to Sadie, and Billie, wherever you are, thank you for making me who I am today. You will be greatly missed."

With that, Mike sat next to the mother of his best friend, the mother of his child, and sat while everyone else paid their respects to the friends that touched each person in the room.

They truly were going to be missed.