Cigarette Ashes

Chapter Twenty Three

A week later

The world around me had stopped spinning, there was no longer blood running through my veins and there was no heart beating inside of my chest. I stared at myself in the full body mirror for what seemed like forever when I heard a knock on my door. CC's head peeked in. He was dressed head to toe in black, so was I. 

"Are you ready?" I inhaled deeply. "No, but I don't have a choice." Tears threatened my eyes, but I fought them off. CC silently nodded. I walked over to Octavia's crib and picked her up, her black dress twirling around her. I cradeled her in my arms, holding my breath as I tried to choke back tears. She looked so much like Alex.

"Come on, let's go." CC said quietly. I followed him out of my bedroom, closing the door behind me. I held Octavia on my hip, making my way down the stairs. The rest of the band was silently waiting in the living room. Each one of them was dressed in black. I set Tav down in her carseat, picking it up by the handle. I opened and held the door for the guys, each of them giving me a small, sympathetic smile on their way out.

CC was the last one out as I shut the door. I placed Octavia in the back of my car, she looked up and giggled, chewing on her fingers. I ceressed her cheek. "My beautiful baby girl... I'll never let you go." I choked on tears when she responded by grabbing my pointer finger. I lived in the moment for a few seconds before buckeling her in and climbing into the drivers seat, I drove off and headed to the cemetary, the guys following behind me.

-o-

As I pulled in, I saw many familiar faces. I grabbed Octavia and put her in her stroller. I headed toward the group of people dressed in all black. Depressing music played in the background. As I reached the crowd, a familiar pair of hands covered my eyes. "Guess who?" Her voice was so soothing, I quickly turned around and placed a kiss on her soft lips.

"Where's my princess?" Alex asked in a high pitched tone, picking Tav up from her stroller. "The place looks great babe, thank you so much for doing this. My grandfather would have really appreciated it." I kissed her cheek. "I'm glad you like it." She smiled as we took our seats.

About half an hour of tears and memories had passed before my name was finally called by the pastor. Alex reassuringly squeezed my hand as I stood up and walked over to the podium, a coffin covered in white flowers was set up next to it. 

I cleared my throat and brushed my hair out of my face. I looked around at all of the people in the crowd, my family, band members, old friends. I cleared my throat once more.

"As all of you may know, I perform in front of thousands of people for a living, but for some reason, I'm nervous just standing up here and talking to only a few hundred of you." I earned a few laughs. "I guess it's because I don't want to disappoint him." I solemnly looked towards the casket.

"My grandfather and I were always uh-very close. He supported everything I did. I, um... I remember the first time I brought him into the studio to have him record the introduction to a song of my bands known as Perfect Weapon. He had no idea how... big the band had gotten. The look on his face was priceless. I remember that after we had finished  recording, he wanted to hear the band and me play one of our new songs that we were working on, but it wasn't finished at the time so I told him to wait until we were done with it. Well, I didn't finish it in time to play it for him while he was uh-still here. But thankfully, because of his support, I have an awesome band that came here with me today to finally play it for him." Everyone smiled and lightly clapped as the guys and I walked over to the raised, black platform.

As soon as the guys got their intruments, Jake began to strum on the acoustic guitar. "This is called the Mortician's Daughter." As we continued to play, I could see almost everyone crying, including Alex. "But I promised you I'd see you again." And that's when I started to think about Alex. I had almost lost her once, and it was a mircale that I didn't.

I could've sworn it was a sign that my grandfather was sending me, telling me to live out the life he wanted me to have. That's when tears formed in the corners of my eyes, thankfully I was just finishing holding out the last note becaue otherwise I would have choked. "Thank you, we are the Black Veil Brides."

Everyone stood up, giving us a standing ovation. As the band sat down, I pulled out a crumpled piece of paper out of my suit pocket, placing it on top of the casket with a shakey hand. I then took my seat as the pastor went up to say the closing prayer and send the casket down.

Alex held my hand the remaining time of the funeral. As the coffin was lowered into the ground, I kept reminding myself of how lucky I was to not have that be Alex going six feet under.

A/N: Did you guys REALLY think that I would kill off the main character?! Well tbh, I was thinking about it, but it just didn't make sense to me so enjoy this giant plot twist! Let me know what you think!