Red For Rebellious

The Memorial

Glad you all liked the first chapter, this one's a little sad, but it will get much happier, I promise! 

 Pic of Colton to the side>>>

As soon as the words left my father’s mouth I knew I would never be seeing my sister again. The thought nearly destroyed me at that very moment, but I stood in place and tried to calm my breathing down. Sometimes when I got really nervous or upset I would get panic attacks, and the last thing I wanted was to end up in the hospital.

It was always a little fear of mine, way in the back of my head, that one night my sister would go out partying and never return. But every time she left I would tell myself that sort of stuff only happened in the movies. But this wasn’t a movie, and it was happening to me.

The pressure of two hands on my shoulders brought me back to reality and I looked up into the grim eyes of a cop. I shook off his hands and controlled my breathing quickly. “She’s dead isn’t she?” The words slipped from my mouth but were barely recognizable.

Somehow my father understood what I said and nodded his head.

“No, she can’t be gone. Oh God, Melody can’t be gone,” my mother wept, burying her face deeper into my father’s lap.

“You should go upstairs, Sutton. You don’t need to hear this,” the other officer told me, motioning towards the staircase to my right.

Too tired and shocked to fight with the man, I nodded my head and found myself shifting closer to the stairs. My feet came forward in short choppy movements, my legs numb of any feeling. Somehow I managed to pull myself up the stairs and out of view before I plopped down on the top step and listened to the conversation downstairs.

“When we got to the site there were only two people. Your daughter Melody and Mark Bockman. Melody had gone through the windshield after the car rammed into a side barrier. She was barely recognizable, sir. The only way we knew it was her was from her license and Mark’s statement. I’m deeply sorry for this terrible loss; Melody was an outstanding young girl.”

The officer’s words soured the air around me so I held my breath until little dancing dots appeared in my vision. My mother’s weeping grew louder as my father and the cop talked.

“Is Mark okay?” my father finally asked.

“He’s has a broken arm and he’s a little roughed up, but he was wearing his seat belt,” the officer stated.

Unable to digest anything else, I pulled myself up from the ground and made my way towards Melody’s room. I pushed open her door and inhaled her familiar scent. I knew that soon enough the room would be cleaned out and all the memories in here would be gone.

Finally, a little tear leaked from my eye and slid down my cheek. I felt my legs buckling underneath me, so I quickly rushed over to the bed and let my body fall onto the soft comforter. Flashes of our sleepovers rushed through my mind all at once.

I saw as little girls, crouched in the corner playing Barbies in her big pink and blue Barbie mansion. Melody’s golden locks were pulled up with a neat blue bow and my frizzy auburn hair flowed down my back while fighting over which outfit each of our Barbies got.

A sudden nausea passed over me, and I leaned over the side of the bed and emptied my stomach. How could she be gone? My best friend, my sister?

How could this happen to me, to the little ugly duckling?

*****

The next week went by in a blur of flowers and “I’m sorry for your losses”. The first night, I stayed glued to Melody’s soft blankets, unable to let myself out of the surreal dream world that had been built up around the bed. The walls were sturdy and unbreakable, and after two days straight of lying in her bed, my father had to physically remove me from the room.