Just Us || Isaac Lahey x Reader

Chapter 23

I sat in Allison's bed with her. I could feel the silk sheets against my legs. Allison's hand was in mine, her skin soft. Her hair brushed my cheek where I rested it on her shoulder, both in comfort and in need to be comforted.

Victoria was dead.

I'd just gotton home when I found out. Tears hastily rubbed away, tracks of it still staining my cheeks. I'd managed to stop crying by the time I'd gotton home, though I knew this blockage would only last for so long.

I'd entered the house, the very air heavy. I hadn't been able to notice the difference between that and my own sadness, until I'd passed Allison's room and heard her muffled crying.

I hadn't been in a state to comfort her, but I couldn't very well leave her there alone, so I'd hesitantly knocked on the door and entered. I wasn't prepared to see Allison in the state she was in. I wasn't prepared to see her so... broken. It was as if someone took a fundamental piece of her, and she couldn't function without it; couldn't live without it.

"You heard about her?" Allison sobbed, noting my tear-stained face.

Something in my chest tightened. "Heard about who?"

Allison shook her head, hands starting to shake as she held a tissue in her hand, focusing on it rather than me. Panic seized me and I moved towards her, grabbing her hands and forcing her to look at me.

"Heard about who Allison?" I pressed. "What happened?"

Allison let out a sob, ripping her hands away from mine to cover her face. I waited with an ever increasing sense of dread, as Allison tried to choke out the words.

"Mum," she whispered, voice cracking. "My mum is- my mum is dead."

Allison was shaking again, sobs racking her spine as she shuddered over and over again, fighting viciously with the grief she was feeling. Fighting and failing. You could hear it in every gasp, every tear that fell down her face, every strangled scream and rock of her body. The grief was stabbing holes through her. Through her heart, stomach, head. Wherever it could. It was inside of her, scraping it's claws against her ribs, clawing at her insides, squeezing her heart.

I couldn't bare looking at her, knowing what she must be feeling right now. Her mother was dead. The woman who gave life to her, who raised her and loved her with everything she had. The woman who was supposed to stay with Allison for so much longer, who was supposed to cheer at her graduation and cry at her wedding. The woman who was supposed to be her best friend, there for any advice needed. The woman every child needs to lean on, until they're ready to run.

Allison wasn't ready to run. She was still just a child. It was cruel, taking her mother away from her. What was Allison to do now? How could she go on when her mother could not? How could she live her life when her mother was not there to experience it beside her? She wasn't ready to lose the one person that was supposed to understand her more than anyone. Allison hadn't even expected it. It took her by surprise, which was probably the worst part.

She didn't even get to say goodbye.

Without a word I climbed into bed with her, wrapping my arms around her shaking figure. I pushed my own grief away and let myself focus on her. She clung onto me desperately, fingers digging into my skin as she wept for the loss of her mother.

It was a while before she managed to calm down. An hour at least. Grief kept her going, kept her crying. She cried until there was nothing left, until her eyes were dry and itchy, her body exhausted beyond measure. After that she curled into my side and I let her, content to fall asleep and escape this horrible reality.