Second Chance

A Little Family Reunion

 He's gone, I can't believe he's gone. 

        I stare at his limp body as it lay on the hospital bed thinking, it's all his fault. It's all Liam's fault. Part of me wants to rip Liam to shreds. Damian didn't hurt anybody. He was such a good person. 

Was. Past tense. 

               Damien was a person that wanted to give. Who wanted to help others. Liam? His temper clouded his judgement and ended not only killing Damien, but almost killed himself too.         

            The other part of me wants to crawl in a hole and just cry until I can't cry anymore. Why did this have to happen? I believe in the quote "Everything happens for a reason." But why can't we always find that reason? Damien left to go make amends. Liam stormed off because of jealousy. 

"Maddie? Maddie, you okay?" Liam shook me out of my daze. After a few moments, once my conscious was clear and focused, I shook my head in response. "What do we do now?" I ask in a faint whisper. 

"We do what I started in the first place, we find out what happened to you," he responds just as softly. 

"But, what if I don't want to find out?" 

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't you want to find out?" 

"I don't know.. I guess I'm just scared of the truth." 

"It will all be okay in the end, you'll see." 

 "I have an idea." 

He went from sympathetic to ecstatic. "What? What is it?" 

"We're going to visit someone I haven't seen in a very long time." 

       My mind is spinning. The thought that has slipped into my head slyly, trying to go unnoticed but I found it. This is it. The one thing I hadn't thought of could be the solution to everything. The one person we can get answers from. 

Let's go visit mom. 

          He looks at me and I can see tears glistening in his eyes. More tears leap to my eyes and I suddenly feel them slipping out onto my cheek. Liam grabs me and hugs me so tight, that it gets hard to breathe. My hand clutches his hospital gown and I sob into his shoulder. I feel a thousand eyes on us. But now, I don't care. Not like before. That part of my life is gone. No matter how many tears I shed, or how many times I scream aloud, I no longer feel like a broken butterfly. Now, I feel like a mountain scraping the sky. 

"I am so sorry." Liam whispers. 

"It's okay, Liam. There is no way that you could have known that he was in the car." 

"That's not why I'm crying, Maddie," he responds. 

My hands find his shoulders and I push away slightly so I can look up at him. "Then why are you crying?" I ask. What else could possibly be wrong? 

"I'm crying because I know what you're thinking of doing. You want to see your mom, and I understand that you think that by seeing her, you have a chance of helping me move on. But I don't think you understand, she'll hurt you." 

"She's our only chance of finding out what happened to me. I don't care if she hurts me. I care more if she cooperates. If she does, we can forget about this whole thing." 

"What if she doesn't?" 

"I guess we'll find out and see," I reply. 

"Maddie, this is a huge risk." 

"What is so bad about me going to see my mother?" 

"When you put it that way nothing, but think about it. She thinks you're dead. You're parents think you're dead. Everyone except me and maybe a few other people, know that you're alive for some unknown reason. Ask yourself this. Is it really worth going to see your mother?"