Hidden Magic: The Call of the Prophecy

Chapter 1.1: The Sisters' Sorrows Continued

My mind is this big empty void. This vast space of nothingness, but I can hear voices nearby. Someone is calling my name, so I open my eyes, and I see Annie leaning over me.

"Are you okay?" she asks with a worried look. "You fainted while I was on the phone with the paramedics and the police."

Everything starts swirling back to the present. My mother is dead. I start to tremble as a cry breaks free from my lips. Annie sits down and holds me as my cries escalate. I'm crying for the loss of a mother, crying for my sisters', and crying for this entire fucked up situation.

I take a deep breath and wipe my eyes. "Where's mom, Annie? Tell me this is just a dream?"

She looks at me with tears in her eyes. "She's dead, Mary. You fainted in her room."

I pull back as Annie starts to stand, and she helps me up just as emergency services arrive. As soon as they make it in the house, they start rendering aid to Mom, but I know it's too late. I'm not sure how long I was out, but I know she's not coming back no matter what they do.

She's just as lifeless as she was when we found her. The police started pulling each of us aside to collect our statements. First Miranda, then Annie, me, Stephanie, Ashley, and finally Sydney. The whole time, I think this has got to be the worst day in the history of days.

"They're going to take the body to the Medical Examiner," Miranda says as emergency services finish what they're doing. She's shivering, no doubt from the shock of Mom's death. "They don't suspect we had anything to do with how mom died." She takes a deep, shuttering breath. "Once everything is done, we can start preparing for the funeral."

She stares blankly into space as she starts spouting off things that need to be done, but the police tell us we can't touch anything until they finish their work, so we head to our rooms to wait things out.

Turning around, I walk slowly to my room. I count the stairs as I go up, remembering all the times we played on them as children. Sliding down on cardboard boxes, falling down, and even falling up the stairs while laughing hysterically.

My steps falter in the upstairs hallway as I glance sadly at all the photos hanging on the walls. Photos from our birthdays, Christmases, elementary school graduations, family trips, proms, and high school graduations. We're all smiling and laughing without a care in the world, and I had no idea our lives would turn out this way.

Finally, I make it to my room and fall heavily on the bed. It is here that I let out all of my sorrows. I'm crying so hard the bed is shaking from the force of it. So many tears are streaming down my face as I remember what we lost and what could have been. Until finally, I drift off to sleep.

After a couple of days of merely existing around each other, we finally get the all-clear to clean the house and plan for the funeral. The police are done with their investigation, and the medical examiner is finished with the autopsy. It's been ruled that mom died of a heart attack.

We're shocked by their findings, especially after what we told them. None of us were in the room with her, and it's hard to believe all the commotion was caused simply by her having a heart attack. Unfortunately, neither of us had any evidence contrary to what they found. Miranda's voice penetrates my thoughts.

"Mary, you can start with cleaning the kitchen. Sydney and Stephanie, you guys can start cleaning the common areas," she tells us while looking around at anything but our faces. "Annie and Ashley can clean everything else while I start cleaning Mom's room."

After shaking our heads okay, we start cleaning in our designated areas. As I'm loading the dishwasher, I hear someone pounding on the door.

"Oh my God, guys, open up!" the frantic female voice yells.

"It's Rebecca!" I shout as I run to open the door. "Oh my God, you came."

"Of course I came," she says while wiping her eyes. "Miranda called and told me your mom died. What was I supposed to do, sit at home and wonder if you guys were okay?"

She walks through the front door, taking off her coat and shoes along the way. "What do you need me to do?"

Everyone gets to work on cleaning the house. I clean the kitchen and dining room, then sweep and mop those areas. Sydney and Stephanie cleaned the living room, and den, and then vacuumed. 

Annie, Ashley, and Rebecca clean everything else. Windows, shelves, laundry, and whatever else that needs cleaning, and we are almost done. I turn around and walk down the hallway toward Mom's room. Miranda is standing in the middle of the room with a vacant expression.

"Why is there so much blood?" she mumbles while looking around. "How was this a heart attack?"

Moving quickly, I hug Miranda tightly. "I don't know. We may never know, but all we can do is take it one day at a time."

Ashley walks through the door, looking at all the mess. "You know mom was unstable. She could have broken the window and cut herself. She could have worked herself up so much that it gave her a heart attack. But we'll never know because none of us were in the room."

"Come on, we'll clean her room together," I say as I grab Miranda's hand.

Slowly, everyone joins us as we clean the damage in Mom's room. We're sweeping away all the pain and agony. Mopping and rinsing away the tears. Throwing out the trash and cleaning dirty memories away from the home. Once we finish, all that's left is an empty room full of dead memories and the only option we have is to pull together and move on.