Filicide

5 - Taiga

It was still the usual dream. I walked through the freezing forest of skeletal trees and found the playground Marina and Tristan eternally played at. Today they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary - both of them were playing on the slide. I smiled to myself, walking over and sitting down on the bench.

Everything was going fine until Marina eventually noticed I was there. She turned and said something to Tristan, who was coming off the slide, before running over to me. Tristan remained behind, sitting at the foot of the slide.

She didn't seem to be coming to ask me to play with them, so I stood. I knelt down as she got close so she didn't have to crane her neck to see me.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

Marina hesitated, then nodded. I frowned. "What is it?"

"It's Daddy." Marina seemed sad as she spoke. I'm worried for him."

"Why now specifically?" It wasn't big news, really, we all knew he hadn't been dealing with his grief properly. Of course I didn't really know what that meant, but that's what Agnes said, so I trust that's right.

"H-he's talking to our graves again." Marina rubbed her arm. "I can hear him. H-he keeps responding to nothing like we're talking to him, and I don't think that's very good..."

"I'd... also say that isn't good," I said. I've seen him do things like that before, have conversations with the air or the wall. I think it's called talking to yourself. But it's, like, talking to someone else through yourself like they're standing right in front of you. What does that mean? Is there something wrong with Mazhun? Or is it normal? I've never seen anyone else do it, but I've only ever seen people in public. Mazhun doesn't really do it in public, so maybe people who do it hide it. I talk to myself sometimes, but it's not to someone else unless Marina and Tristan are talking to me. Or maybe that's just me. Maybe it's normal.

I don't know.

"I can probably talk to him when he gets back," I suggested with a shrug. "Maybe he'll tell me what's wrong."

"Okay, then!" Marina immediately seemed to feel better about the situation, an invisible smile crossing her mouthless face.

I smiled back at her. "Go on and play. I'll leave once I hear Mazhun get home."

Marina nodded happily and skipped back to the playground to Tristan, who got up and started running around with her. I sat down on the bench as usual, but I didn't read like usual. Instead I closed my eyes, listening intently. Through the gentle breeze, the raging snow outside the clearing, and rustling of pines that immersed most of my senses, there was another sound. A backlayer of penetrating silence, the overwhelming bass support of the natural symphony. It was almost too surreal, too fake to truly exist, but I knew it was there. That hidden silence was what I focused on, not the pines or the snow or the wind or my siblings. That silence filled me, muffling every other sound until that silence was all I heard.

As soon as a disturbance came my way, I told myself:

"Wake up."

-

The grey light split and made way for black darkness.

The disturbance was a noise, a noise that barely struck the night air. Silent, but audible. A creak of a door, a swoosh and click as it swings on its hinges and closes. Shuffling as a coat is taken off and hung on the coat rack by the door.

Still slightly groggy, but determined to help Mazhun, I got up and stood. After regaining my bearings, I slowly made my way across the dark room to the door. My hand felt around in the dark until a round, cold metal surface found its way into my palm. My fingers grasped at the object and turned it, pulling what was now obviously the door open to reveal the slightly less dark hallway outside. Less dark only because there was a light on down the short corridor.