HIDDEN VOWS

Preface

Her bare feet stomped against the quiet desolated road, her graduation robe, drenched from the earlier rain and her unstoppable tears.

Her mind wasn't her own as it had been handed over to the raging chaos that accompanied the news.

This wasn't how she wished to spend her graduation day. Heavens no. If anything, she envisioned a ceremony where her family and loved ones were present, celebrating one of the happiest days of her life.

The same family who were involved in a fatal accident on their way to her graduation hours ago. Well, her parents to be precise.

She cursed her fate for the wicked deed done to her. She cursed all that holds the power to make things right in this world and yet decided to take away the only thing she ever held dear.

The health staff in Clifford hospital watched in bewilderment as a young lady in a soaked graduation robe which matched her bloodshot eyes, burst through the doors of the emergency ward.

“Emery!”

Her father's younger sister, Diana, met her halfway and gathered her deranged looking niece into her arms. And in the quiet of the emergency room, their wails disrupted the peace of night.

“Please tell me this is not true. Someone please tell me this is not true!” her desperate struggles in her Aunt's arms made the frail older woman burst into more tears.

How could she lie to ease her broken heart? Can she lie to her every single day when she wakes up to an empty house that her parents were away on another couple's tour?

The door to the emergency room opened just then, followed by a lanky old doctor in blue scrubs. He took a deep breath as he looked helplessly at the two women.

“Miss Delado, I'm very sorry for your loss.” Was all he said.

It was not as if any purview of consoling words could ward off the heart-wrenching pain the death of a loved one brings. With one last sympathetic glance at the women, the doctor strode off.

Diana sat her niece in the metal loveseat by the door, her hold firm around the girl's shaky form. Against the heaviness in her chest, she continued to mutter consoling words to her niece who was still crying in hysteria.

It was after a while before Diana asked, “Do you want to see them before they are cremated?” her words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears since her niece went numbed by the word 'cremated'.

They may not be among Clifford's richest families but they sure had enough to give her late parents a decent burial. Hence if her Aunt was talking about cremation then that means the state of the bodies was not fit for public display. This realization seems to break her niece into more tears.

“You need to change out of these clothes. I can't have you falling sick.” Diana reasoned out. “Emery please talk to me,” she spoke in between tears this time as she brushed her niece's matted hair from her face.

“I want to see them and...Chris.”

The long hours of crying had made her throat patched and even her will to respond to anything or anyone had been taken away from her, but Emery managed to mutter in what she thought to be a strong voice.

Diana nodded hesitantly and helped her to her feet, guiding her gently into the cold room.

Emery's steps faltered when she saw the two lifeless bodies lying side by side on the long silver plate, their bodies covered with the usual white cloth.

Even in death they still managed to look like the powerful, loving, and caring couple they used to be. She took baby steps towards her heroes, her form shaking from the shock of the news that was still coursing through her system.

From her close proximity, she could see her mother's once high cheekbones, pale and bloated with cuts. Her father's once smiling face was no more there for the man who laid before her, had little to be called a face. She clamped a damp palm against her lips before she could give out another scream in pure anguish.

Her silent wails were muffled as Diana buried her face in the crook of her neck, and walked her out of the room. In silence, they strode towards her older brother's room, just a few rooms down the hall.

Regarding the comatose state of her once vibrant brother from outside the glass pane, Emery's chest contracted painfully with every tottering breath she took.

This was all that was left of the Delado household, a broken young woman who had no will to live again.