The Fluffy Sofa ✔️

THE PRESENT/THE END

{content warning}

The fast, continuous beeps of the vitals monitor echoed throughout the white, sterile hospital room. Zane's body was dying and the doctors worked hard to save him, however they failed. They tried different medications and lots of CPR but none prevailed.

"Time of death, 10:27am." The doctor declared, as the nurse turned off the monitor which was now one long, continuous beep, indicating no heart rate or pulse. "Let's inform the family."

The nurses and doctor exited the room, leaving Zane's limp, lifeless body alone. Jakob had now officially murdered Zane; his life will forever be changed due to the mistake he made. If only he had grown some balls and left the knife upstairs, confronted Zane with courage not cowardness. But what's done is done, and Jakob killed him. Unintentionally of course, but killed him nonetheless. Now he'll have to deal with the consequences. The police who were waiting outside of his door left to go back to the police station where Jakob was held on GBH charges, to change the charges to murder.

"Hi, it's the hospital, am I speaking to Ander Johnson?" the nurse said over the phone, as she sat down at her station.

"Yes it is," Ander replied as paced around Dotty's kitchen table, bracing himself for any news, good or bad. He had stayed the night in Dotty's flat just to be close to his family. They meant the world to him, regardless of the divorce as he still loved Dotty and always would. His plan was to be as close to the children as he could be and Dotty was fine with that.

"I'm afraid that your brother, Zane, has succumbed to his injuries and died just a few minutes ago."

"Okay, thank you for telling me." Relief washed over Ander as he ended the call. He shouted for Dotty and Felix to come into the kitchen and told them the news. "I'll go wake Octavia and tell her. I think she might be quite emotional about it despite what has happened."

Ander walked into Octavia's bedroom and saw that she was still fast asleep. Her body curled up in a ball, she looked so peaceful and relaxed. Something that she hadn't been able to feel for quite a bit.

"Octavia, sweetheart, I've got some news," Ander whispered so as not to startle her from her dreams. But she stayed asleep. "Tavi?" He reached out to shake her awake, but her body was stiff and cool.

Ander held Octavia's dead body as he screamed for Dotty to call an ambulance. But an emergency ambulance was too late. Octavia had died some hours before he found her. The sleeping pills were too much for her body and caused her heart to stop as she slept.

Felix came running into Octavia's bedroom and broke down in tears. The 10 year old had seen and experienced far too much in the past month or so. He looked up to his strong and brave big sister and now he had lost her. His heart will be broken forever. Dotty and Ander sat on Octavia's bed, holding her cold, stiff hands until the ambulance and police arrived.

-

Octavia's funeral was beautiful. Many people helped out, fundraising to pay for flowers and her coffin. The unexpected death of a child is truly heartbreaking. Octavia had a wonderfully bright future ahead of her if it wasn't for Zane.

The post mortem, which Octavia's parents fought for, showed that she had 4 times the recommended dose of sleeping pills in her system. With the fresh self harm cuts on her body, they ruled it a suicide. Her parents blamed themselves for not keeping an eye on her despite the fact that she presented very strong and somewhat happy. They had no way of knowing what was going on in her head.

Fin was beside himself. If only he'd have fought to stay with her that night. Just to sleep on the floor, or even on a chair, he wouldn't have minded. He and Tilly sobbed in each other's arms as Octavia's service started. Esme and Harley squeezed each other's hands, trying so hard not to break down again. How could anyone not have seen it? She had acted so strong and brave. There were no signs.

The day before, however, Fin was in her room and found her journal. She had spoken about the journal previously, and told him how Zane gifted it to her before she moved. A way to possibly manipulate her into keeping the so-called bond that they had? It felt wrong, but he began to flick through the pages. He read how the two of them met and how worried and excited she was. He read when she found out about her parents and Zane. Then he read how she found out she had been sexually abused by Zane. How heartbroken and betrayed she felt. How completely and utterly disgusting she felt about herself. How she started to hurt herself. He read her last entry of that night. She just wanted to sleep. She didn't mean to kill herself.

He gave the journal to Dotty and she held it tight; brought it to her funeral and as they lowered her into the ground, she placed the journal on top. She and Ander knew she didn't kill herself, she didn't commit suicide. It was purely accidental and trying to fight the official cause of death would be a fight too hard for them to handle. She was at peace and that was all that mattered. She left her family and friends with a gaping hole in their hearts but relief that she was no longer being haunted by Zane and the memories that came with him.

Every time they looked up to the sky, they could see Octavia flying through the clouds, free of the monster that turned her life upside down and free of the self hate that he brought upon her.

Zane was in hell, they hoped. He was burning and being tortured for all eternity for what he had done. It was the least that he deserved. He was a vile, master manipulator who had a disgusting fixation on Dotty which turned to Octavia once his needs weren't entirely met with Dotty. The repulsive paedophile was dead and he had no one to mourn him.

Octavia would look down on him from above and laugh. Oh, look how the tables have turned, darling. Fuck you.

-

{author's note: thank you so much to everyone who had read this! it was my proper first writing after about 5 or 6 years so it is still rusty, however I will at some point go through and edit some bits to make it a bit sharper. i hope some of you will check out some of my other works as right now i'm currently writing a boyxboy so maybe have a read? thanks again!}