Far from Home.

The warning was intended for further on in the chapter. Somewhat disturbing content is described.

It was just around nine thirty in the morning, several days after Lucy had been found. Emily had been on the phone all morning for the past few days, trying to find a decent funeral home that would cater to her needs. At the moment, she was stuck between two. Her current candidates were Grogan Funeral Home and West Memorials.

And just based on the prices, Emily was siding heavily with West Memorials. The more expensive, the better quality. Lucy deserved to have the best funeral in history - After all, she was Emily's little bundle of perfection ever since she came into the world.

"Yes, I understand it'll be costly, but just answer me this." Emily waited for the clerk to reply before continuing with her sentence,"Okay, will I be able to arrange a funeral for my daughter this upcoming Thursday?"

The clerk excused herself for a few seconds before coming back onto the phone. "Yes, you will. We'll just need-"

"Babe!" Brian hollered as he shot up from his place on the couch in the living room. Emily gave him a scolding look. He sighed and sat on the counter infront of where she stood. Once again, Brian was given a warning look as Emily talked away on her phone.

"Yes, I'd like her to be buried with her favorite doll, if that's alrigh-I'm sorry, can I call you back later?... Okay, thank you very much. Have a nice day." Emily hung up and looked at Brian. "This better be important, I was arranging Lucy's funeral."

Brian smiled softly, just hearing Lucy's name, and dialed his voicemail. He put it on speaker, hearing it ring.

"Oh, speaking of funeral arrangements, have you seen Jangles? I can't find him anywhere-"

"Mr. Haner, this is Dave Bramson. I'm the coroner who examined your daughter and I'm calling to inform you that I have the results for the cause of Lucy Allison Haner's death. You can either come by my office with your wife or give me a call. Either way, I'll be informing you of the information. Thank you."

Emily looked up at Brian, ignoring the fact that the coroner had referred to her as his wife, and grabbed his phone from his hands. "We have to call him." She whispered, suddenly feeling a pang in her heart.

Gently, Brian retrieved his phone back from her and kissed her softly. "Listen, Em. I know this whole situation has been really hard on the both of us - Especially you, my love - But if you don't want to call him, that's fine. I'll call him myself, and whenever you're ready, then I'll tell you. You don't have to feel obligated, alright? I'm not going to judge you. This is in the comfort of our own home, babe. I'll love you regardless."

He looked into her eyes, trying to decode her exact thoughts. Emily looked down, breaking the gaze. "I'll be in our bedroom." She whispered. Brian gave her a delicate smile, showing her that he meant what he said.

"Okay," He replied softly, watching her as she disappeared into the hallway,"You can do this, Brian." He mumbled to himself, redialing the coroner's number.

It rang twice before he picked up. "Dave Bramson."

"Mr. Bramson, it's Brian Haner. You called about my daughter Lucy Haner?"

"Oh, yes, I did. Now, there are two things to explain to you. The first thing would be the pictures of Lucy that officers took at the crime scene. Basically, it's her physical appearance, other than what you say when you came to my office. The second thing, is my in depth report. Tests and so forth."

"I hate to sound so... You know, blunt and uncaring, but I'd like to hear the worst one, first."

"Ah," The coroner sighed,"The crime scene. Listen, would you mind stopping by my office, instead? I think... I think you'd prefer to see the pictures, rather than my words."

"I'm on my way. Thank you." Brian hung up and grabbed his keys, slipping into his shoes,"Babe, I'll be back." When he didn't receive an answer, he assumed she was sleeping and left the house immediately, fretfully going over the speed limit.



Brian shook hands with the coroner and expressed brief 'Good Mornings' to each other, before he was led to an examining table - Which was empty of any bodies, much to his relief. Occupying the table, however, was a giant white envelope with the red letters CONFIDENTIAL marked on it.

The coroner pulled up a chair for Brian, which he sat in, and stared at the envelope.

Was he ready to see these photos?

Without asking Brian the question himself, the coroner opened the envelope, laying out the pictures in two vertical rows - Four pictures in each row.

He was going to have to be.

Brian took in a very deep breathe and looked up at the ceiling. It took him a few minutes before he gathered up the courage and looked down, his eyes landing on the very first picture in the very first row. It was a somewhat distant photo. Brian could make out a pale little body in a field of tall grass, but nothing more.

The second and third picture were almost identical. They'd been taken a little closer to the body, but they focused on the ground. The second picture showed footprints embedded in the dirt; The third showed a piece of dirty cloth.

The fourth picture made Brian's stomach churn just a little. It was a picture of Lucy's hands and arms - Bruised and bloodied with scattered cuts and gashes. He shuddered and moved onto the next one.

Picture number five depicted a very large and nasty slash on Lucy's chest; Brian didn't dare look at it a second longer than he needed to.

A quiet and shaky sigh left Brian's lips upon seeing the sixth picture. It was of Lucy's torso. Her shirt was tattered and painted with blood and dirt. Brian put his hand over his mouth, pretending to cough, as he swallowed back his vomit.

Before he could set his eyes on the last two pictures, the coroner put his hands over them. Brian looked up. "These last two pictures... They might be a little too brutal. I just want you to really ready yourself."

Upon hearing those words, Brian let his head hang low. He thought the pictures that he had seen were already bad enough. But they got worse?

How much worse could this get for him?

"I'm ready, Mr. Bramson."

The coroner stared at Brian a bit longer, studying his face. When he showed no sign of faltering or breaking down, Dave removed his hands and put them behind his back.

Brian's eyes settled on picture number seven and he felt like he'd just been punched in the gut with a sledgehammer. He quickly closed his eyes, breathing through his nose, so the feeling of disgusted and intense nausea would go away just as quickly as it had came.

It took Brian quite a while to regain himself before he opened his eyes, looking at the picture again.

The seventh picture...

Brian cleared his throat, feeling the hot tears build up.

The seventh picture was of Emily's lower half. From her hips to her toes. She didn't have pants on, her sock and shoes were missing. But the part that had Brian on the very brink of insanity was the fact that... Lucy's underwear was pooled around her ankles and stained heavily with blood. He couldn't even tell what color the garment was - The amount of blood had turned the piece of cloth a very dark, almost demonic red.

With a quiet sniffle, Brian moved the picture to the far end of the table before burying his face inside of his hands, trying to fully recollect himself.

When he realized that was impossible, he sat up straight and put on his big man facade, looking at the final picture.

And if he thought that he'd seen the worst of worse, he was absolutely and terrifyingly wrong. A pained gasp sounded throughout the room and Brian sat back in his chair, his brain screaming that his eyes were absolute liars - That he wasn't seeing what his two brown gazers were portraying.

"What. The. Fuck. Is. That?" Brian asked, pointing to the thing in Lucy's mouth.

The coroner excused himself for a brief second before returning with a large, clear plastic bag. He held it up in the light, before realization dawned upon Brian. His eyes darted to the picture. "The fucking sick bastard stuffed her favorite fucking doll down her god damn throat..." He trailed off, the tears pouring down his face as he continued to stare at the picture.

It was a headshot of Lucy. Her face was pale, and she almost looked peaceful, except that her mouth was wide open - Jangles had his plastic head ripped off. His cloth body had been shoved down her throat, the legs sticking out between her lips.

"What killed her?" Brian asked quietly as he smothered his face with his hands, trying to stop the tears.

"The felt doll caused a lack of oxygen to her brain, causing an infarction - Which is the death of tissue within her organ. And without her brain tissue, Lucy's body went into a severe state of shock, which wasn't made any better when she was raped-"

Brian slammed his fist down onto the examination table, sending a few of the pictures flying.

Lucy was four fucking years old. Who the hell has the god damn audacity to take away a four year old's purity and innocence?

"Sorry." He mumbled an unfeeling apology, waiting for the coroner to continue.

"The numerous incisions and gashes on her body only aided in her death, causing her to slowly bleed out. The bones in her... Lower region were fractured - Probably due to the unexpected impact of the sexual force. But, out of all of that, further medical exploration has revealed that Lucy died from lack of oxygen due to this doll down her throat. I'm... I'm sorry."

Brian stood up, giving the coroner a quick nod. "Thank you... For everything." He spoke quietly as he left the office.

The entire ride home, Brian kept slamming his fists down on the dashboard in anger. He let the tears flow freely.

"Sick son of a bitch," He muttered, closing the door to his SUV.

Emily waited for him on the porch. She stood up and walked over to him, putting a hand on his chest when he tried to walk past her. "What happened?" She asked softly.

Brian's brown eyes met her curious gaze and he sighed, hugging her tightly. She rubbed his back comfortingly,"Baby? What happened?"

"I... I found out why our babygirl died." His voice took on that same grave tone that he had when they had seen Lucy at the morgue. Emily immediately knew that her daughters death - Just by how torn apart Brian sounded and by the hot tears that cascaded down his face - Wasn't innocent. For the past few days, Emily had convinced herself that Lucy might've drowned in a nearby lake or something. But it was beginning to look like the complete opposite.

"Tell me." She braved.

"Are you s-"

"Brian, please. I'm ready. Just please tell me."

A few seconds of silence passed between the two - Even the damn birds had shut up for once - before Brian sucked in a breathe, standing up straight and tall. "She was cut up all over her body, Em. They found her without any pants on, her underwear around her ankles, and Jangles was shoved down her throat. She was raped-" Brian grabbed her face in his hands when she began to cry; She needed to hear this,"-She was raped and the doll cut off her oxygen, basically leaving her brain de-"

Emily shook her head and put her hand over her mouth, trying to stop her cries from being heard. But Brian had enough of bottling up their emotions. He took her hand from her mouth and held it to his chest, as she buried her face in his shoulder, crying out to the world, almost. Brian shared her pained sounds, holding her tightly in his embrace.

Brian couldn't remember the last time he cried this hard, other than at Jimmy's funeral. That had been a bad time for him, as was now.

"I love you, Lucy." Emily whispered quietly through her tears as she tried to catch her breathe.

And that just made Brian cry even harder.