Jigoku Shoujo: The Saved and the Damned

Insult to Injury Part 3

The months that came after the funeral were a blur to Michelle. She was hardly living during those days. Her mind was dulled with grief. She and her husband, Allan, ate Hamburger Helper every night because she couldn't muster up the strength to cook. For the first few weeks, Samuel ate dinner with them, but then he started disappearing more and more often at night. He would stay out late and sometimes not come back home until early in the morning. Michelle would find him lying on the couch in the morning, and he wouldn't wake up until noon or later. His college classes were completely neglected. Whenever Samuel woke up, he would have a terrible headache, and after a while, Michelle was forced to admit that he was out drinking every night. When she tried bringing up the subject to him, he snapped at her, then apologized dully and wandered up to his room.           

As the memory of Jason's death began to soften a little, Michelle worried more and more about Samuel. She cried every night—not sure whether it was for Jason or Samuel—and though Allan tried to comfort her, he couldn't do much because he was struggling with the same things. Samuel only grew more distant. He started going to the bar earlier and staying there later.            

One morning, he didn't come home at all.

Panicking, Michelle called the police and gave them Samuel's license plate number, saying he was missing, and begging them to find him. In a few hours, a policeman showed up at her doorstep. He was the same policeman who had been there at Jason's death, and he looked like he didn't want to say what he had to tell her.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am," he began painfully, "But...your son Samuel is dead. Best we can tell, he died from alcohol consumption. His blood alcohol content was .45."           

Michelle felt like she had been stabbed in the heart. She wanted to beg the policeman to tell her she was only having a nightmare. Stumbling back away from the door, she turned and ran to the living room. She cried on the couch for a whole hour before she was able to call Allan and tell him what happened. They scheduled the funeral for Saturday.