What Is Your Name?

Chapter 28: My Father's Name (Lillian)

"Sky, can we talk now?" Tempest asked. I smiled. They deserved this, they both did. Sky agreed, and they left.

"Well, he looked terrified," Grey commented.

"Well, what was it you said about girls wanting to talk?" I reminded him. "Fear, scale of 1 to 10: 11. You cowards."

"In my defense, girls who want to have a serious conversation are scarier than your dad," Grey retorted. "Uh, no offense," he added, glancing at said dad on his deathbed. "I didn't mean to... well..."

"Yeah, that was a little offensive. We might need to have a serious conversation about that," I teased.

"I hate you."

"Hey, that's Sky's line!"

"So, not to be a party pooper or something, because let's face it, I'm the life of the party, but should we start planning the service for..." Grey trailed off.

I nodded. "Yeah, we should. It's just... he used to be good. Even Sky couldn't deny that. In fact, Sky plays the guitar and writes songs because my father taught him how."

"Then maybe Sky should play at the funeral," Grey suggested.

"I don't think Sky's ready for that," I sighed. "Accepting someone's apology isn't necessarily forgiving them, nor does it have to be. Eli caused us a lot of hurt, and Sky has a right to take as much time as he needs to heal."

"And you both have a right to be happy," Grey pointed out. "I'm really happy for Sky and Tempest, I am, but you better make it clear to Sky that if he hurts my sister..."

"Grey!" I laughed. "You're even more dense than Sky! Have you seen the way he looks at her? Sky loves your sister, he has for a while even if he didn't realize it, and when Sky loves someone, he will do anything to make sure they have a perfect life. I'm not saying he always succeeds; my life is far from perfect, but he would never, ever hurt her."

The service was a few days later, and, as usual, I was correct. Sky and Tempest had decided to try their hand at dating, and though the funeral planning had made them too busy to actually go out yet, they were clearly obsessed with each other. There weren't many people at the funeral, but the four of us stayed together the whole time. And then we saw them. Or rather, Sky saw them.

"You!!!" he growled at a passing couple. "You did this to him! This is your fault!" The couple looked over, confused. "Oh, you don't know who I am? You don't know the part you played in the deaths of thousands of people?! You have no right to be here, do you hear me?! You never cared! You never cared! And your son was the way he was because you made him feel like he wasn't enough the way he was!"

Tempest grabbed Sky's arm. "Sky, what's wrong? Who are they?" I asked.

Sky looked at me, remembering I was there. "Right. Uh... Lillian... you've technically met them before. These are your grandparents."

A look of recognition registered on the woman's face. "Lillian? And Sky, that must be you! I haven't seen you two since... when was it? Oh yes, the court ruling!"

I looked at them. How had Sky and I not realized this before? It was Eli's fault, of course it was, but it was their fault, too. I looked my grandparents straight in the eyes. "You hurt my father." It was never a question. "He ended up the way he was because no one helped him through the pain he was only feeling because you hurt him!"

Another woman walked over to us. She looked way too professional and not sad enough to be at a funeral. "I remember you. You must be Sky, yes?"

"Who the heck are you?" Sky was still angry.

"Well, of course you don't remember me, you were so young. I'm the Aphelions' lawyer."

"Oh, yes, I remember you now." Sky's face twisted in pain. "You're the one who tried to take Lillian away."

This woman, the lawyer's, composure didn't break. "You shouldn't complain. She is still with you, is she not?" She gestured to Tempest.

"You idiot," Tempest sighed. "You think you're so smart, with your fancy law school degree. You have the nerve to show up at a funeral for a client you never cared about; you then try to act like you care, like you remember these people. Well, let me tell you, Ms. I'm- So-Smart, I am not Lillian. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I'm something I'm not. I'm not even someone who liked the Shadow, Eli, whatever you want to call him, but something I have that a million degrees from your precious law school will never give you is I'm here, at this funeral, because I care. And you can tell I care from the simple fact that, oh, I don't know, I can recognize the deceased's daughter on sight!"

I turned to Sky, smiling, and whispered, "This is the reason I shipped you two from day one."

Little did I realize that during all this, Grey was calling the cops. It would be pretty hard to prove the child abuse that happened years ago, especially considering Sky was the only living witness. But we had to try.

Those people weren't my family. Even as they claimed to be my grandparents, they weren't my family.

"Lillian?" Sky poked me. "Lillian, as soon as I turn 18, I'm becoming your legal guardian. I can't let them take you from me." I nodded. I'd just have to be safe until then.

Luckily for us, Eli's parents were removed from the service under suspicion. They weren't necessarily convicted yet, but they were brought down to the station for questioning. They were gone.

The service was pretty basic. Grantham hadn't offered us a very high budget, and no one cared enough to put a lot of work into it. Sky had been about to offer to give the eulogy, but I had waved him off. This was something I had to do.

"This would be the saddest part of most normal funerals," I began, "but my life has never been normal, so why should yet another funeral be any different? See, this is usually the part where I would be sharing fond and loving memories of the deceased. But I don't have any fond memories of the Shadow. The only memories I do have of him are terrible ones of him hurting the only people I have left to care about; the rest of those people are dead because of him. But another memory I have is that the Shadow wanted me to come with him. Not to join him and kill people, but because he wanted me by his side. And though I never intended to go with him, he did it out of love. He did it all out of love.

"What a crazy form of love, huh? Killing people to threaten me into coming back? But here's why: ... he was crazy! And of course you're all thinking you know that, but you have no idea. Mental illness is not simply some label. Mental illness only gained that stigma because no one cares enough to find out what it really is.

"The Shadow was not on drugs, nor did he ever even consider it. The Shadow was, to quote my peers, a psychopath, because he suffered trauma and no one did anything. The Shadow could never turn to his parents for anything because they hurt him, so he turned to me. But I couldn't go with him because then I would end up hurt.

"The Shadow tried to get me to come with him by telling me to remember my bloodline. Technically, until a few days ago, he was the one I shared the most DNA with. And he tried to remind me that blood is everything so maybe he wouldn't have to be alone anymore. And it led me to realize that yes, blood is everything. But not the blood we have in common with others. Rather our own blood and the people we are willing to shed it for. That is everything. And all this time, no matter how 'crazy' he got or how many people hated and feared him, deep inside the Shadow was always willing to shed blood for my family. And for me.

"A few hours before the Shadow died, a friend of mine asked him his name. Not because he didn't know his name, but because someone needed to point out that there was so much more left inside of him than his powers. See, he had a name. You all call him the Shadow, but he had a different name once. You call him the Shadow, but someone actually named him. They named him Eliott Aphelion, and it doesn't matter what you say; that's his name. Eliott was not always called the Shadow because there was a time when he was loved, and the girl who loved him called him Eli. But names don't define you because you can have so many. You can have nicknames, either kind or cruel, but what he was called and the way he thought was never who he was. Because you all called him the Shadow, but me? I called him Dad."