Our Sick Inheritance (editing)

Ch 100 (colin)- Closer Baby, Closer

Colin got home before the sun came up but he couldn't sleep even if his eyelids blocked out most of the light. He turned on music, made sure his curtains overlapped to keep out the outside world from entering his room and he clicked a button on his remote that lit up a slow sideshow of galaxies on his ceiling so he felt like he was floating in space. It was to help him meditate into relaxation but all he could focus on was the brilliance of the colors which seemed more stimulating than relaxing.

The experience of burying Stacy made his soul tighten into a quandary of goose pimples. Colin wouldn't want his daughter stuck in the woods to watch over her body. As for his wife, he knew Tessa was here because he had her ashes buried up by the old big tree on the top of the hill of their garden. It was the only tree on the property that was pure white. Colin figured that was because Tessa had sucked the nutrients out of it. The tree was very much alive but maybe her ashes poisoned the color out of it which is what he thought but wasn't sure. He was glad he was leaving Tessa here and didn't think she would have as much of an effect on Nate because they had never met. At most Tessa would be an annoying voice or movement sometimes but Colin believed that would be the extent. Her spirit spent more time in the garden near her ashes under the tree than she did in the house.

On numerous occasions from his bedroom window, Colin had witnessed Anna walking by Tessa's ghost in the garden. He knew that Anna had no idea it was Tessa that was always surprised and upset that Anna had visited the garden. It was why she stood at the bottom of the garden waiting to usher Anna of it. This always pissed Colin off for even in death, Tessa hated her daughter so much that she wanted to deny her the most beautiful nature of earth, especially since Anna had a hand in creating such perfection. So, to say that it pleased Colin that Tessa's tree didn't provide color as if to deny her was an understatement.

Tessa's death was a benefit for others but Stacy's wasn't. He couldn't imagine finding Anna dead and broken lying under cold dead leaves full of ground life like spiders, bugs, and predators. The worst part was the repercussions Stacy's death was going to cause. The fact that her father is a detective and her brother is who Anna is following had him feeling cornered, trapped, stuck. Colin wasn't even sure they were going to make it to their island before he was arrested and thrown in jail to die. What of Anna, she couldn't recover from this. She would be ruined because it would look like she was the cause due to the girls' and Stacy's very public rivalry. If he had a magic wand he would flick his wrist and they would be at the island, Stacy would be alive, and he would get to live the rest of his life cancer free with his family in perfect bliss. But as it was, the Devil had a grip on his soul and that was something he couldn't buy himself out of.

Although Colin had cleaned every evidence of Stacy's visit while he had waited for Nate to show up before they buried her, he got out of bed from nervous energy and again took extra precautions by cleaning anything that Stacy could have touched.

Noticing Nate's car in the driveway gave him relief. Colin was relieved Nate had decided to stay and sleep after he had showered. Maybe it was the warm meal that Colin cooked him after they got back from the woods which heated his body to need rest. At least that was what he hoped would happen. With all the back and forth traveling that Nate did as well as helping him to bury a girl his sister's age, his body must have given up no matter if he had wanted it or not.

Convinced he had sanitized every inch visible, Colin was finally exhausted enough to fall into bed to sleep himself after cleaning himself up from puking the chemical mists that had entered his lungs for the last few hours. He knew the constant strenuous movements were the only way his body couldn't struggle from the grips of sleep for they weren't even strong enough to move.