Leavitt Stafford and the Awful, Terrible, Not Very Nice Plan.

Chapter the Second: The Funeral

Trigger warnings: suicidal themes and dissociation

Leavitt had denied to himself that his dear wife had passed until he eventually cast his eyes upon her charred corpse in person. Even as he espied the corpse, he made an attempt to convince himself that the corpse in question had merely been placed there by mistake. But, as he told himself such lies, the realisation that he could not continue to deny reality dawned upon him, and so he began to weep bitterly, and then he cried, "CURSE THE LORD! WHY COULD YOU NOT SAVE HER?" The undertaker had been quite taken aback by such an ungentlemanly outburst, and by the sheer mephistophelian hysteria which had taken hold of this man, but Leavitt hadn't a care in the world! He felt as though his soul had been set alight in much the same manner as the body of Evelyn, and that God must be made aware of His iniquitous deeds!

During the weeks prior to the funeral, Leavitt hadn't the faintest desire to consume the slightest morsel of food, or even to part himself from his bedcovers. He displayed no physical ailments and appeared as though he were in perfect health, and yet his grief was as though a mysterious illness had taken ahold of him, an illness which appeared to consume his mind rather than his body, and which was determined to thoroughly incapacitate him. If Marjorie had not insisted that he rise from his bed, eat and drink adequately, and make his way to work in adequate clothing and hygiene, he would have certainly lain there indefinitely, for he had lost the only reason he had been happy for all these years!

Upon being forced to make his way to work, his ability to focus on the task at hand had plummeted drastically. As he attempted to fulfil his surgical duties, he forgot to obtain the necessary surgical equipment, and he almost forgot to make use of the chloroform.

"What is the matter with you, Leavitt?" Rupert bellowed. "Your surgical skills were superior mere days ago, and now you behave as though you have never done a surgery in your life! You must cease this capricious behaviour immediately, for I shall lose wealth!"

"Please forgive me, Rupert," Leavitt mumbled as the tears poured down his face in torrents, "but my dear wife has passed."

"Well, you must grieve later, for this surgery is urgent and I require additional wherewithal! Cease snivelling like a child and start the surgery!"

Leavitt could not prevent the tears from falling, though he reached for the chloroform and began to make the first incision upon the abdomen of the patient. He had to pay utmost attention, lest he lose his position of employment as a surgeon and be cast upon the streets, though his hand trembled with emotion. He feared he would make a dreadful mistake and kill the man!

"Save your weeping for later," Rupert barked.

He wiped his eyes upon his shoulder so as to avoid tainting his eyes with gore (although the tears had given them a rather gory appearance regardless of this), and he continued to extricate the tumour which had grown to a rather shocking size within the abdomen of the slumbering gentleman. He laboured for several hours, for the tumour had spread its bloody fingers across several organs, and a numbness crept upon him which subdued the terrible grief and allowed him to continue his work without the immediate threat of inconsolable weeping. All he wished to do was to make his way back to bed and never rise again, for his life was simply no longer worth living.

"You shall meet again in Heaven," Marjorie told Leavitt once he had returned home, "but please do not take your own life, for that is a sin, and I do not wish for you to be sent to Hell..."

But the wait is too long, Leavitt thought to himself, though he did not utter a word as he hadn't the energy to bring his mouth to formulate the sentence.

Marjorie seemed to know his thoughts, for she told him, "You never know when you may meet again. Have patience and enjoy your life, for the wait shall be worthwhile, and it shall be even more exciting to reunite once your time arrives..."