The Hopes of Many, the Fears of All

Chapter 2

I sat there for a while, hyper focusing on the cracks in the wall. It was like there were millions of different trails in the wall that all led to different places if you could figure out which one to follow. It's amazing how much more detail you could see when you're trying not to melt. My whole world just got torn into a million shreds, and all I could think was how it must be wrong. They got the wrong kid. Somebody else's parents died. This kind of thing happens to other people. Not me. Not now.

"Are you sure that it was them?" I asked quietly, hardly able to process the information to even speak those few simple words.

"Yes. But we need you and your brother to come identify the remains and make sure." He said.

My parents are gone, and now I have to face them. Their lifeless shells. The door to the office behind me opened, but I hardly heard it. I was brought out of my thoughts when I felt my brothers hand on my shoulder, giving it a small squeeze that I found comforting.

"It's time to go." He said quietly, his voice catching. It wasn't very noticeable to anybody else. He hardly ever cried. He found it unmanly, and so he never cried or showed much of any emotion. But I heard it. A small catch in his voice that made the pitch of the last word he said go higher than normal. A sure sign that he was holding back tears, but his pride wouldn't let them fall.

I tried to stand, but my knees buckled and Hayden had to catch me. "It's alright, I got you." He said to me. I gave a silent nod.

We walked to the cop car together, sitting in utter silence. We walked by all of our classmates, who just watched us with curiosity, whispering questions to each other that they wouldn't dare ask us themselves. The officer opened the door of the car, allowing Hayden and I to climb into the backseat. I watched the landscape that I had become so familiar with pass by me without anything in the world to care. Nothing seemed interesting to me anymore. Nothing had life or color. I felt and thought about nothing. There was a certain numbness that consumed me that prevented me from feeling anything.

We got to the coroner's office, a single story brick building with overgrown shrubs and only a few cars littering the parking lot, and we were led into a morgue. The walls were lined with metal drawers that held bodies, and in the center of the room were two tables, each with a mound covered by a black tarp. I

stopped at the doorway, not wanting to go in, but Hayden eased me through.

"Come on, Tori. We have to go in." Hayden said.

I shook my head, silent tears falling down my face. "No. I can't"

"Yes you can." He whispered to me, getting in front of me and looking me in the eyes. "You can do it. You have to be strong for Mom and Dad." I took a deep breath and nodded. The coroner, a young man with an intelligent air, looked at the cop and nodded. He pulled back the tarps.

Underneath were two bodies that were apparently supposed to be my parents. Dad had blood leaking everywhere. His skull was cracked and open, revealing something I didn't want to think about and glass was still protruding from his cheek. Mom looked otherwise peaceful if it weren't for two blood steaks from her temple and nose. I choked on tears as I looked at them. They were my world, my parents. But they were gone. I finally let my tears flow as I cried. The coroner asked me if I knew them. But I just couldn't respond. Nothing could drive me to say a word, except for tears. My knees gave way as I fell to my knees and wanted to push everything away. I didn't want to see anything or for anything to come in contact with me. It was all too much to handle.

When I had recovered enough, I looked up, just to see everything in dishevel. The coroner and cop were

piled on top of each other, trying to recover from falling. Hayden was holding on to a table, looking up at me wide eyes and a small cut across his eyebrow and medical instruments were strewn everywhere.