Quote:
The Holidays are supposed to be a time for cheer, and yet there's something strangely dismal about tonight. You're out by yourself and you pass by a building completely coated in a strange sheet of ice. When you catch your reflection, you're trapped reliving your loneliest moment. The illusion can last for as long or short a time as you like, but the hollow sensation lingers even after the memory fades. What memory did you find yourself reliving and, now that it's over, what are you going to do to shake this mood?
Vera had just finished her shift and was on her way to catch the bus home. It had been a hecked day and she was thrilled they had warned her to wear flats through the holiday rush. In and out. In and out. By the time they had told her she could leave, Vera wasn’t sure if she knew where the door was anymore. But she had managed to get out the back and was even looking to be a bit early to grab her bus. Maybe this time she would get a seat!
Glancing to her side, red eyes caught her reflect and she felt a smile play over her face. There was little denying she looked good in this new coat. And her job had gotten her a discount. Made the coat even more worth it. Just as she went to turn away, her mind opened up and she felt a sudden wave of emotion fly over her. Alone. She felt cold and alone…
The clock down the hall was the only sound she could make out clearly. Sitting on the edge of the bench, her body doubled over as she said the same part of the Rosary for the third time, she had been trying to distract her mind. The only other sounds were a pair of voices coming from behind the closed door she sat across from. While she couldn’t make out a single word, she could hear the tone of one pleading and the other scolding and annoyed.
She can still feel the silent tears streaming down her face even as she picked her head up to watch as the door opened slowly. There, in the doorway stood a man in a police uniform. Jeremy had a chance to get chewed out for this but still he took the risk to give her the truth and closer she had asked for. But he had given into her pleads.
Behind him she could hear the shuffling of the second person. Every now and then, she was able to catch a glance of a white-coated man moving through tables. Wordlessly she stood up, and in silence crossed the hallway to slip past the officer and into the room. Fluorescent lights burned her already sore eyes but she blinked back the pain. She had to fight through it. She had to see clearly and take it in. She had to know for sure.
Finally looking up to meet the eyes of the older man, she gave him a nod as if to say she was ready. His first response was to look once more at the man in uniform as if asking silently if he had too. She didn’t know what Jeremy did but the coroner reached down to pull back the first of a pair of white sheets.
The face of a man met her gaze and she was overtaken with emotion. She knew all too well that the second sheet would be the woman that was this man’s wife.
Her parents.
She was a split second from hitting the floor as her knees gave out when Jermey stepped in and caught her. As quickly as he could, the coroner recovered the husband and wife before turning back to speak. She couldn’t hear him. She fought back the internal fears. She fought back the internal screens even fought back the physical shakiness of her body. However it escaped in her voice as one barely whispered word escaped her throat.
“How?”
The coroner only looked at Jeremy. This was an active investigation and couldn't be discussed with anyone, not even with a family member of the victim. But having already gotten in trouble, out of sympathy, the older man spoke. “Inconclusive. No signs a Trauma or bullet wounds. The toxicology report hasn't come back yet but for such a large group of people poison or carbon monoxide wouldn't make sense as others at the party didn’t get sick…
She had stopped listening the moment he had said that there was no physical signs of trauma. She knew deep down the truth this was no freak accident. There was a part of her that knew they would never find the culprits. She could feel the loneliness and darkness in her growing as she used Jeremy to support her.
It wasn't a mistake but what she going to do with the truth, she didn’t know. She didn’t have a family anymore. Three people that could always count on each other and now she would have to see to everything. But everything would have to wait. The only thing she could do right now was scream. A scream so loud and so heart-wrenching so piercing that's she had to wonder if anybody else might fear she would wake the dead. Everything came though up in that scream. Her suffering. Her loneliness. Her anger. Everything she had was in that scream and then she dropped to the floor door open behind her…
Vera blinked several times as she felt the tears running down her face. She could feel the emotions that she had just seen in her mind welling up inside of her and she knew that wasn't just a spell or a Daydream or an illusion.
That was a memory. That was a memory of her life.
But that also explain now I never knew missing reports filed for a woman that looked like her. Who was there to file one when her parents had recently died?
(Word: 91 cool
