Briar Yates stood in her one-bedroom apartment that overlooked the river, wondering to herself whether or not today was reality, or some twisted figment of her imagination. It didn't feel real to her. It was as though she was living in some dream-state where nothing truly mattered. She was hoping that at any minute she would wake up, everything would be fine, and her mother would be alive. But deep down, Briar knew that wasn't going to happen. No matter how many times she pinched herself, she knew she wasn't dreaming – yet still, she continued pinching the skin on her arm anyway. She just couldn't come to terms with this reality that her mother was really gone.
Briar visibly shuttered at the thought of their last encounter, the last words they had said to each other. She couldn't take them back. She would never be able to make things right.
She received the news of her mother's stroke last Saturday evening and rushed over to the hospital. But by the time she made it there, it was too late. She didn't even get a chance to see the body or say goodbye. They had taken her mother away so quickly, ready to dig into her organs, prepared to preserve them to disperse to those in desperate need of a transplant. After the organs were taken care of, the body was sent off to the morgue where it would await cremation. The whole process seemed far too fast – unusually fast, actually. Briar was no doctor, but she knew that the family members should be able to say their farewells. Her best friend, Lily, had lost her father when they were in their first year of university, and Lily was able to remain by his bedside, long after he was gone.
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Murder at a Funeral
Mystery / ThrillerUnder normal circumstances, funerals conclude in the following fashion: the guests leave, the family goes home, and everyone is left grieving. But at the end of this funeral, there will be a murder. At only fifty-seven-years old, the wealthy and pre...
