Haunted

Chapter 3

"Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality."
Emily Dickinson

I finally finished putting all my clothes in the slightly small but decent sized closet and slowly sat down on the bed...my bed. Uncle Will promised me that I could decorate the room any way that I wanted, and usually I would have already had the paint picked out along with new furniture. But I obviously didn’t.

My parents and older brothers funeral had taken place just two days prior, and here I was, sitting in a new room in a whole new town that I had to call home from now on. I looked at the picture frame that was on the table beside my bed, it was of my parents, Blake and me, and it was taken just a week...just one week before the accident. I felt the tears start prickling the backs of my eyes once again; it seemed I couldn’t go more than 10 minutes before I would start crying again. Uncle Will said he’d be taking me to see a psychiatrist within a week or so. I went along with it; I didn’t have it in me to argue with him. I just felt dead inside, like my heart and soul had been forcibly ripped from my body. The only thing making me feel even slightly alive was crying, feeling the wet drops fall down my cheeks made me realize, every time, that I was here and they weren’t.

How could that even be possible? To have them there with me, taking my brother to his soccer game and then being killed by some ass who decided to drive while drunk. Whoever he was would never know what he did to me. He would never understand what he took from me. He never even stopped! No one even knows who the hell he is. He’s going on his way doing whatever he feels like and I had to leave everything behind me, and move to Lima.

I loved my Uncle, really I did. But I wanted to stay in Cleveland, with my friends. They all came to the funeral and were with me while I cried, and came up with me while I spoke to everyone there about my parents and brother. But, Uncle Will had been a great comfort to me, he’d sat with me and just let me cry plenty of times, most times crying with me. After reading my parents Will it had been made official that my parents wanted me with Uncle Will in the event something happened to the both of them. My mom’s parents had passed away and dad’s parents both spent lots of time in Florida and I needed a stable home to live in, so of course they would pick Uncle Will.

A soft knock on my door interrupted my thoughts, “Come in,” I said quietly.

Uncle Will opened the door and stood in the doorway, “What are you up to?” he asked.

I shrugged, “Nothing.”

He nodded sticking his hands in his pockets, “My leave from the school is done tomorrow, you don’t have to start tomorrow if you don’t want to, take as much time as you want,” he said quietly.

Not that Uncle Will was every overly loud, but I had never heard him as quiet as he had been since finding out, not that I could blame him, I think I’d been quieter than him.

Again I shrugged, “Doesn’t matter, I might as well I guess. Go tomorrow, I mean.”

“Okay, well, I’ll let you get back to what you were doing then. Get to sleep soon, I’ll be leaving for school around seven forty five,” he told me looking around the room.

“I’ll be ready,” was all I said.

He nodded once again and closed the door silently behind him.

I thought about last summer when Uncle Will had taken me and Blake to Lima and stayed here for a week. Blake and I stayed in this room together, laughing until late in the night with Uncle Will, playing all sorts of music and singing and dancing along, just being a fun and happy family. There was always lots of music playing at Uncle Will’s place while one of us or both of us were there with him. But now it was absolutely silent. And this silence was absolutely deafening.

I stayed sitting on the bed and stared at that picture again, and I lost it. Tears began streaming down my face and I could hardly catch my breath as I cried. I thought about the Christmas’ we had together, and when we would go on an Easter egg hunt out in our backyard, I remembered my thirteenth birthday party when Blake shoved my piece of cake into my face and all of us laughing hysterically over it, I thought about our jokes, our laughs, dads piercing green eyes, moms smile, and Blake super contagious laugh.

I remember the last time I talked to all of them.

“Extra hot peppers, right Ry?” he asked smiling.

I stuck my tongue out playfully, I hated hot peppers, he just smiled and moved his duffel bag to his right shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” mom said smiling, “we won’t let Blake order your sub.”

I smiled back, “Thanks mom.”

“Alright, we’ll be no later than ten thirty. Study hard, kid,” dad said also smiling at me.

“See you guys,” I replied.

And then they went out the door.

I was finally able to stop crying after a few more minutes. But even though I stopped, I still heard Uncle Will’s faint sobs.

And just hearing that made me start all over again.