Afterglow

tranquil

"Hello? Miss, can you hear me? Are you alright?"

I swatted the person's hand away, desperate to catch just a little bit more sleep before having to wake up and go to my classes which was definitely something that I didn't want to have to do, especially so early in the morning.

"Ma'am, I need you to open your eyes. Can you open your eyes for me please?"

I cracked one open, then two, spotting two EMT's squatting on the ground beside my fallen form, but before I could utter a single word, four police officers and a few detectives along with men and women clothed in FBI jackets escorted a screeching and completely incoherent Gerard Brooks from his home, that mouth spewing hatred and vitriol for everyone and everything in his path.

And then my brain finally caught up with everything happening around me and I searched the crowd of people watching behind yellow caution tape with rapt attention on their neighbor and local millionaire being dragged away in a swath of police and FBI.

There were ambulances and fire trucks and finally I spotted my family waiting behind that yellow tape, Sloane, my mom, Jessie and my dad, the intensity of the situation completely offset by the blinding brightness of the sun that finally decided to show itself after being dragged under the penetrative snare of winter.

Snow piles on the side of the road began melting, slush crunching underfoot as officer after officer entered the Brooks estate.

Green grass and weeds and purple-pink wildflowers sprouted through the heavy, densely packed dirt and popped up from underground, their life a tranquil reprieve from the desolate and destructive cold.

A bird's song could be heard overhead as the last few curses fell from Gerard's mouth before he was firmly shut in the back of a federal SUV, the bluebird's cawing melody a stark contrast from the violence it had covered up.

And then my eyes fell upon EMT's pulling a stretcher out of the house, a body lain on top with the head firmly encased in a foam mold to keep the neck stabilized. I was about to sit straight up and run to Lachlan when another stretcher was taken out, and my blood ran iced in my veins.

The body was zipped up in a black body bag, and my entire world tilted on its axis.

"Who-what? What happened?"

The words fell out of my mouth as I strained my eyes to make sure that it really was Lachlan on the stretcher out in front, and not in the body bag that trailed behind him.

"There were gunshots, and after your 911 call, as many officers rushed to the scene as possible. We don't know the identity of the deceased yet."

The deceased?

It really and truly hit me then that someone had died here, and that Lachlan was either in extraordinarily bad shape, or...

Or.

No, he wasn't dead.

Vera screaming off to the side of the caution tape caught my attention, her shrill voice cutting through the snaps of cameras and low chatter of the crowd gathered in front of the home.

I shivered despite the pleasant weather.

I couldn't move, couldn't do anything but watch as Vera pushed past the officers at the yellow tape and surged through the law enforcement, somehow managing to slide past everyone trying to contain her. They knew this was a tragedy, and I could tell that they didn't want to make it any worse than it already was.

She came up to the person on the stretcher, holding their hand and smiling down at them lovingly.

Blythe.