Burning Heart ▹ CIAMPA [COMPLETED]

37 ▹ present

The funeral was peaceful, to say the least. Everyone was quiet while the priest talked, as they should be. We all mourned in silence that was slowly eating us alive on the inside.

I was standing to Bianca's right with Tommaso next to me and, then, Johnny and Candice to his right as well. They wanted to come for moral support and all that, which neither myself or Bianca minded at all.

"Let's go to the Lord in the final prayer," the priest said, so we all bowed our heads and closed our eyes along with him. "In the Name of God, the merciful Father, we commit the body of Thomas Masterson to the peace of the grave. God, our Father, we entrust that he is in your hands."

He continued, but I briefly became distracted when I felt somebody's hand wrap around, their fingers intertwined with mine. It was my left hand, which Bianca stood next to me. Just to be sure it was her, I peeked my eye open and saw that it was, in fact, her. She was squeezing my hand, too, but I didn't mind.

"...May he rest forever in Your Grace, Lord. We all love You so much. In Jesus' Name, we pray," he paused, "Amen."

"Amen," everyone bellowed after him and, then, we were quiet again for the moment.

As his final act, the priest bent down and grabbed a hand-full of dirt. He threw it in, falling onto the coffin, followed by two more, and said: "From dust you came, to dust you shall return. Jesus Christ, our Savior, shall raise you up on the last day."

Then, it was over. The funeral, that is. The pain would remain, though, especially for Bianca, her mother, and her older-adopted brother, too. My pain would remain, but not how it would for them, though.

I was sixteen and wasn't anywhere near being consider "free." I had ran away from the orphanage... Again. I wanted to live with my best friend from school, Bianca, who was in the orphanage with me before she got adopted.

I climbed up the side of her house until I was at the window, which I gently knocked on. Her lamp switched on inside and she came into view, unlocking and opening up her window.

"Here," I whispered and reached my hand out to her. "Grab my hand."

She grabbed my hand and arm, right around my elbow, and dragged me inside, where I fell on top of her and our heads nearly collided together. She was always there for me.

After the service, everyone gathered at Eleanor's home, where we were invited to stay and eat. I never understood funerals and how, right after the service, people can just go and sit, and eat like this was a family reunion or something.

Immediately showing up and instead of diving right into the buffet of food, I decided to excuse myself from Tommaso, Johnny, and Candice to go out and find Bianca, who I hadn't seen since the service when she was squeezing my hand for dear life.