Marcus
The day of the funeral arrived
too quickly.
Or maybe time had just stopped
making sense.
I stood in front of the
mirror, staring at someone I barely recognized.
Black shirt. Black jacket.
Eyes that looked older than they had any right to.
I hadn't slept, not really.
Every time I close my eyes, I
saw fire.
Or worse-
I saw them alive. Smiling.
Then I wake up and remember
they weren't.
A soft knock came at my door.
"Marcus?"
Noah.
I didn't answer right away, I
didn't trust my voice.
The door opened anyway. He
stepped in quietly, like even sound felt wrong today.
"You ready?" he asked.
Ready?
I almost laughed. Instead, I
nodded once and luckily that was enough.
The church was already full
when we arrived.
People I knew, people I
didn't, neighbors, old family friends. People who said they "knew my parents"
but had never once stepped into our house before.
They all wore the same
expression.
Soft and careful. Like I might
break if they looked at me too hard. But maybe they were right.
Riley was waiting near the
entrance. She didn't say anything when she saw me. She just reached out and
squeezed my hand.
I held on tighter than I meant
to and didn't let go.
The service blurred.
Voices speaking, words about
love and kindness and how my parents "touched so many lives."
I heard it but it didn't land,
because all I could think was;
They're not supposed to be
here. They're supposed to be at home.
Mom in the kitchen.
Dad pretending not to laugh at
Ella.
Not-
This.
A polished box at the front of
the room.
Final, untouchable and wrong.
I looked away.
Ella sat beside me, too small
for this.
She hadn't said much since
yesterday.
Just held onto me like letting
go meant losing everything else too.
At some point during the
service, she shifted closer and pressed her face into my arm.
"I want Mom," she whispered.
That did it.
Not the speeches or the
silence but that.
My throat closed instantly.
"I know," I said, my voice
breaking despite how hard I tried to hold it steady.
"I want her too." She started
crying quietly.
She wasn't loud or dramatic.
Just soft broken sounds that made it worse somehow.
I wrapped an arm around her
and pulled her closer and for the first time since all of this started, I felt
the weight of it fully.
They were gone and there was
nothing I could do about it.
After the service came the
part I hated most.
Endless people with-
"I'm so sorry for your loss."
"They were wonderful people."
"If you need anything-"
I nodded and said thank you.
Shook hands I didn't remember.
Every word felt rehearsed and
empty. Almost like everyone was reading from the same script.
At some point, I stopped
hearing them altogether. I just kept smiling and nodding. Existing on
autopilot.
I found a quiet corner near
the back of the hall eventually. Just a minute to breath. That's when I saw it.
My mom's sweater. Folded
neatly over the back of a chair. The soft cream one she wore on cold mornings.
The one that always smelled
faintly of vanilla and laundry detergent.
For a second, my brain refused
to process it, because it shouldn't be there. It should be on her.
I walked towards it slowly.
Almost as if I moved too fast, it would disappear.
My fingers brushed the fabric.
It was soft, real and familiar.
I picked it up before I could
stop myself and just held it tighter than I should have.
And suddenly I couldn't
breathe. Because it still smelled like her.
"Marcus?" Riley's voice, close
and concerned.
The tears hit me sharp and
sudden. I turn away quickly, pressing the fabric to my face like it could hold
me together but it didn't.
"I can't-" my voice broke
completely. "I can't do this."
Riley didn't say anything. She
just pulled me into a hug and I let her. Because for once, I had nothing left
to hold back.
Later, outside.
The sky was grey and heavy.
Quite fitting for the burial.
I stood at the edge of the
grave, staring down at two coffins. Side by side. That didn't make sense
either.
The priest spoke. Words of
peace and rest.
Ella clutched my hand tighter
as the coffins were lowered.
I didn't look away this time.
Forcing myself to watch because if this was real, I had to face it even if it
destroyed me.
The bracelet burned then. I
flinched, gripping my wrist.
The heat spread through the
metal, pulsing once like a heartbeat.
My breath caught. Not now,
please.
I looked up instinctively.
Scanning and that's when I saw it.
At the edge of the cemetery.
Beyond the trees. A figure standing still and watching.
My pulsed spiked.
"Marcus?" Noah's voice snapped
me back.
I blinked and looked again but
the space was empty like no one had ever been there.
The bracelet cooled but the
feeling didn't go away.
That cold certainty settling
deep in my chest that we weren't alone.
As people began to leave, the
world felt quieter, hollow as if something important had been taken out of it.
It had.
I stood there a little longer.
Ella holding one hand and Riley the other.
Noah just behind me.
My anchors.
The only things keeping me
from drifting completely. I looked down at the fresh earth. At the place where
my parents now rested.
Something inside me shifted.
Grief still sat heavy in my
chest but beneath it-
Something else was growing
sharper, colder, determined.
This wasn't just loss, it was
a beginning and somewhere out there, the thing that took them was still alive.
I clenched my jaw. Letting the
feeling settle and take root because if there was one thing I knew now was
this;
I wasn't going to lose another
family.
Not again.