Alone *UNDER CONSTRUCTION*

Chapter Eighteen: Goodbye

Song for this chapter is
Reality is Lonely by Thomas-Adam Habuda

The night felt like an eternity. I could barely sleep without thinking about Anthony.

We did everything together growing up. When he was a baby, I would always make him laugh just by smiling or making a goofy face. When he was up and running around as a toddler, Anthony would always want to go wherever I was going. We were inseparable.

Until the day everything changed.

I should have stayed there with them. I should have been there when they...

Never mind. I don't want to talk about it now. It's just going to bring back a lot of bad memories.

When I look outside the car window after my sleep, all I see is white. I wipe my hand across the cold window so I can get a better look, and I see that snow has fallen during the night. I begin to panic, realizing that Anthony is still out there, covered in snow. I grab the door handle and jump outside, the freezing air biting at my face. I rush over to where I left Anthony, digging around in the snow until I can't feel my hands.

He actually isn't too hard to find. I scrape off a few layers of slushy ice to find the blanket still protecting him. I gently peel the top of the blanket off of Anthony's head to get a look at him. I am met with his dead gaze, his skin now even more pale than before, almost blue. After a few moments of us staring at each other, I finally build up the strength to close his eyes with my hand.

I look around where I stand, making sure that I'm safe for now. The sky above is still gloomy, which means that it might snow again later today. Greeaat. I used to love the snow growing up but now it's just a pain in the butt.

I need to keep moving, but I don't want to leave Anthony.

Not like that.

So, I carefully drag his body over to the side of the road. I decide I'm going to try to bury him. Since I don't have a shovel, I have to use my hammer to dig a grave. It takes about an hour, the grassy ground being nearly frozen solid, and when I'm finished the grave is only about a foot deep.

It's better than nothing.

Using all of my strength, I gently set Anthony's body inside the grave, once again covering him with a blanket, and I tie to sticks together to create a makeshift cross and place it in front of him.

I wipe a single tear from my cheek. I can't bear to leave Anthony behind, but I don't have a choice.

"Goodbye, Anthony", I whisper into Anthony's ear.

I don't look back as I walk down the lonely road to Woodford.