Collapse: Book Two (bxb) ✔️

9. Please don't leave me, too.

Raven Fox

There once was a boy named Kaiser Remmings, and he loved exotic animals of all kinds, but more specifically, Kaiser loved Pandas. Pandas were unique because they were loner animals who loved to eat. Much like Kaiser. They were beautiful, calming, intriguing creatures that Kaiser simply could never get enough of.

One day, Kaiser's grandparents gave him a stuffed panda with the initials of everyone Kaiser loved, monogrammed into his bottom left paw. And boy did Kaiser love his gift. Only, shortly after Kaiser turned seven, he was excited to spend the summer with his amazing grandparents. They laughed and played so much, but one day, his grandmother fell ill. Pneumonia, they called it. It was from a virus she'd caught but ignored. And right after? His grandfather caught it. 

They both died only days later, leaving little Kaiser very confused with a permanent memory of how he was the only one around. The only one who could hold their hands as they passed away within an hour of each other. The little boy had his parents, though, and he was grateful. Kaiser went home, and he healed with those amazing parents who treated him like the center of their world.

Kaiser did get better, and even then, he continued to carry around that stuffed panda because it was the only thing he had left of his grandparents now. They were together, and Kaiser's Mom explained to him that it was the best possible outcome for them. Like fate, but the dreary kind that puts a cloud above one's head.

A year later, Kaiser was mending perfectly. He sat in the backseat of his parent's car, singing loudly and proudly with them to the lyrics of a song he wasn't even sure of the artist's name. He didn't care, though. They were going out to have dinner, and after, they promised Kaiser they'd take him to his favorite local ice cream shop, and they'd get a big bowl of ice cream. Kaiser would get to choose whatever toppings he wanted.

But they never made it to have ice cream.

The once-smiling parents of Kaiser Remmings didn't see the car driving on the wrong side of the road. They didn't swerve with enough time, and it was a direct head-on collision that ruptured Kaiser's eardrum. Or, at least, it felt like it had. Everything in Kaiser's world went dark then. It took him minutes to finally wake up, and he knew when he looked in the front seat, he wouldn't see his parents with smiles on their faces anymore.

Kaiser would admit to almost anyone that it felt as if he felt their souls were no longer inside of their bodies because the light was gone. There was blood... everywhere. Kaiser started crying because he didn't know what else to do. A boy at the age of nine was having a panic attack, and what boy at the age of nine should be having a panic attack, right?

He crawled out of the front window, having to climb over his Mother to try and find someone to help them with the hopes they could still be revived. As it was, even if Kaiser felt they carried no souls any longer, he didn't know they couldn't come back. He was nine. He didn't understand. 

Clutching his panda, he screamed for help from the side of the dark road, crying so hard he never thought it possible. He kept looking at the car, wondering why this had to happen to them. They were good people. They loved Kaiser with everything they had. They treated each other and Kaiser so well. 

Help showed up, but the paramedic tending to Kaiser told him they couldn't save his parents. Kaiser didn't stop crying. He begged them to keep trying. To bring back his mommy and daddy, but there was truly nothing they could do. How did you help a nine-year-old boy understand death at such a young age that he'd comprehend it? There wasn't a way.