Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter 64, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen (Ep. 5: Shock Jock)
When Daphne was eight years old, she attended her first funeral.
Death was a sensitive topic in the Sinclair family. It was avoided like the plague, because in a way, it truly was. It would arrive out of thin air, infect without warning, and take someone's last breath without permission. Death was a tragic phenomenon and to a curious child like Daphne, she couldn't help but be intrigued by it.
Not in a way that was concerning. This interest was due to lack of understanding. She was aware that it was inevitable like the seasons changing, but there was something so perplexing about life coming to an end.
A point of no return, like many say.
"What happens after we die? Do we just stop existing? Do we come back as another person? Will we know when we're about to die? Will it hurt?"
She would try to get her parents to explain, but their disturbance dismissed their daughter's queries, so Daphne would resort to late night contemplations that often led to an existential crisis.
It wasn't until one rainy day when death was announced like the seven trumpets declaring the day of reckoning. The phone rang at seven thirty and Daphne remembered because it was when her favorite show, Scooby Doo, was airing. She was so painfully unaware of the tragedy until her mother's cries were heard.
Daphne was left in her aunt's care while her parents made the drive to the hospital across town. She remembered sleeping in the guest bedroom and listening to little four year old Lucas crying out for his favorite toy. Sleepovers were one of her favorite things, but even if she was just a child, she knew this wasn't a regular sleepover and only happened out of her parents' necessity.
She spent hours looking out the window, waiting for her parents' car to pull up, but once the clock hit midnight, she surrendered to the devastation that she'd be spending the night away from home. No matter how hard she tried staying up, her exhaustion soon got the better of her and darkness took over.
At the crack of dawn, Daphne was awoken by a pair of arms placing her in a backseat. Her father had returned, but didn't say a word on the drive to the hospital. She thought of asking about her grandmother, but the fact that her mom wasn't present told her everything there was to know.
It wasn't until her parents took her to a funeral home when she understood. She listened to her mother ask about prices, explain how she wanted the funeral to be, and how long she expected everything to take.
Daphne remembered how obscure the property was. The walls were a dark gray and every piece of furniture was painted in a rather depressing color. There weren't many decorations, except for a few frames holding images of wilted flowers and haunting faces. She strayed from the discussion, but it wasn't until the words, "Open casket," were heard when everything shifted.
