Given An Unwanted Second Chance

Chapter 33

TW:  Cancer mention

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"$^**(!^...we're sorry."

I opened my eyes, looking up.  I tensed slightly at the faceless people, but I relaxed upon realizing it wasn't my "parents."  It was Ethan's parents.  I don't know how I knew, but I did.

I tilted my head.  "W-What do you mean?"

They looked at each other before looking back at me.  "We tried to contact you...but your parents said you weren't home."

I frowned, my heartbeat speeding up slightly.  I heard Nightmare materialize nearby, but I let myself go with the memories, trying to figure out what was going on.  "Where's...where's Ethan?"

The woman looked away as the man answered.  "Ethan...he..."

I swallowed my anxiety.  "Where is he??"

"He's...gone."

My heart skipped a beat.  "G-Gone...?  What do you mean gone?!"

"He...our Ethan, he..."  The woman began to cry.  The man continued for his wife.  "He got cancer about 4 months ago.  He asked for you...so much...but he passed about 2 weeks ago."

"No, no, he can't...you can't be..."

"We're so sorry...we can take you to his gravestone if you'd like..."

A numbness ran over my body, and suddenly, nothing mattered anymore.

I took a step back from his parents.  "No thank you...I...I need to go."

"*(^%^, wait...!"

I turned away, running past Nightmare.  I got about a few steps beyond before the scene shifted and changed.  I stopped running, yet despite having ran a few steps, something told me I'd been running the whole time to get to this point.  My body ached as I looked up at a scarily familiar concrete building.

A cold feeling enveloped my wrist.  "Eclipse."

I started shaking.  "Now I understand.  I understand why I did it.  I remember...I had gone to their house to see Ethan...I had been kicked from my house.  I was 18 and officially out of the system.  I just wanted...Ethan...I..."

"You killed yourself so you could be with Ethan again."

"I know he wouldn't've wanted that...but life was already so horrible...I had no means of taking care of myself...he was my only light, and he was taken so early..."  I whispered.

"Eclipse, you can't dwell on the past any longer."

I tugged my wrist away from the tendril wrapped around it, collapsing to my knees.  "He was everything...he was the only reason I endured the torture my 'parents' caused.  Once I was old enough, I'd be free.  I could visit him more.  I could watch him grow and learn...have the life I couldn't.  And it was taken from him.  He was taken from me..."

I felt a sob crawl its way up my throat before I let it out, burying my face in my hands.  "I had nothing...less than nothing...what was the point of living...?"

Nightmare was silent as I continued speaking through the cries.  "He cared for me...he loved me like a sibling...and he's dead...he never got to grow up."

I heard Nightmare come closer as I sobbed.  "He wasn't just everything...he was MY everything...  Now I'll never see him again..."

My sobbing was cut off suddenly when I felt arms wrap around me.  My head shot up, looking at Nightmare with confusion.  "W-What are you...?"