THE LOVELY BONES, daryl dixon

iii. long roads ahead

LUKE COULD ONLY slam his large hand against the wheel in irritation, shaking his head as his only plan had suffered terribly with their surroundings. There was no possibly way to drive North; all of his plans ceased to exist in the very moment that there had been no way through. As if the very moment he admitted aloud his plan has backfired would be the moment he were to admit his weakness. He was a failure, through and through. Though, his biggest critic would forever himself, for in Ellie's eyes he was far more than just her brother. Luke was their saviour.

"We need a plan," Ellie reiterated, hauling her daughter to the side of her in the car as they came to a standstill, "This isn't going to work."

"I suppose we can circle back, try and visit Mom and see if they're there," Luke proposed, shrugging his shoulders, "we might have caught them before they came to find us at the house."

Though uncertainty pounded at the back of her throat like a distant drum, Ellie nodded and gawked as her brother reversed from the nightmare of a car pile up, and drove down towards where their old family home used to be. An integration of stepparent and half-sibling left a bitter taste in the Sommers sibling's mouths, but for as long as they had one another, nothing had been impossible.

The pain of replacing their deceased father plagued the siblings for many years. They had often felt like outcasts in the family; the black sheep that had consistently been forgotten with time. Lorna-Rose, otherwise known as Rose, had lost all sense of purpose — belonging only to the shadows of grief that never seemed to leave her. Even if she had remarried and seemingly moved on with her picket-fence life.

The Sommers had taken all the best qualities their father had possessed, and blossomed into something beautiful. Far more beautiful than Rose could ever have anticipated.

As a rule, they had been a family that despised change. They had rules and requirements that absolutely had to remain rigid; there was no place for change. Yet somehow, the very moment their father had passed on, Rose could not handle the routine alone. She just had to find a companion to aid her through her wakening hell. Ellie nor Luke enjoyed the change. Yet, they had been blessed with a little sister. And she was simply everything that was right with the world.

They had devoted every second of their living lives before Coda had been born to raise their sister along with their mother, with pride. Rose knew of all the nights where Ellie would be awake past midnight on a school night as she sang her baby sister to sleep; all the times Luke had taken her to the park when she had a bad day at school. The siblings took pride in caring for their younger sibling, even when her father despised their involvement. He had a chip on his shoulder, frightfully angered at the tiniest thing, meaning they had, indeed, feared when his wrath would be unleashed next.