Cherry Lake

Prologue

"Stop! Sarah, just stop! I can't do this anymore!" His voice sounds hoarse and vulnerable. Defeated, a voice dares to whisper. I have never heard his voice sound like this before, and thought I never would.

"Mark..." My mother tries, but I don't know if even she knows what she was going to say. I hear my father breathing heavily on the other side of the door as if he just ran a marathon. The sounds of a man with a breaking heart, a breaking family, and a breaking life. I guess their fighting has gotten so bad that they didn't realize that they were screaming at each other right outside my bedroom door... At four-thirty in the morning.

"Sarah... We both knew that this day was coming. We have to admit it to ourselves." He sounds like he's in so much pain. My heart hurts for them. I knew this day was coming too, dad. "With the fighting and the yelling, we've just been hurting ourselves and Brylan. It has to end Sarah, we can't let this get any worse." There is a deafening silence in the house which causes me to hold my breath and fight off the chills running havoc on my skin.

"We've grown apart..." My mother whispers softly, and then I hear her choke out the most heart breaking sob and begin to cry. I cover my own mouth to prevent myself from sobbing and alerting my parents that I'm awake and that I hear them deciding to destroy our family. My family, I think in a sudden burst of possessiveness.

After a few moments, my mother composes herself and I can almost picture her standing outside my door with her hands dangling from her sides with a defeated look on her face.

She sighs, "We've tried and tried to keep this marriage alive but it's as dead as a corpse." My father begins to laugh weakly, but it ends as soon as it began. My mother laughs softly as well. Then my father laughs again and they both start laughing hysterically. After a few moments they both start sobbing.

I can't take it anymore. I get up from my bed and walk out of my room door to find my parents on the floor hugging and crying. They look at me as I come out and take a glance at my tear stained face and beckon me into their hug. I rush over and huddle with them and we cry until the sun comes up, never once breaking our family huddle. We hold on desperately to one another knowing that for the first and last time, we know we will never be the same family again.

After the sun begins to rise, I am the first to stand up and break our protective hold. My parents are soon to follow. My father and mother share a glance at one another and then they both look at me, as if asking me what they should do. I take a deep breath and shrug my shoulders.

"Let's go make some breakfast. I'll make it Bry's famous banana pancakes?" I try not to look too hopeful as I look between my parents. I need this, I try to speak with my eyes. This final closure is what I need. They open their mouths as if to protest. I cut them off. "Please..." I plead, trying to push back more tears. There's been enough of that Bry. They then nod their heads and follow me to the kitchen with solemn looks on their faces.

After a very quiet and somewhat awkward breakfast, my dad takes a backpack full of clothes and walks towards the door. He turns to me and smiles sadly.

"You have my number honey, call me anytime. I'll be back in a flash if you need me. No matter what." With that he kisses my forehead and then walks down the stairs after a quick glance at my mother.

This is it. I thought to myself. My father is leaving and my family is broken. Before I could register what I was doing, I was running down the front steps of our home. "Dad?!" At the sound of my voice he turned around right as I crashed into his arms.

"Brylan? Honey, I have to go now. You have to take care of your mother, okay?" Despite what he says, he wraps his arms around me in a suffocating hug. After a moment, I pull away a bit and see the intense sadness in his eyes. I nod and pull away completely.

"I love you dad." I croak out. I look at his somber face as he smiles sadly.

"I love you too baby." With that he turns and walks down the walkway to enter the waiting cab. Once he's inside of the cab he glances out the window and he's eyes catch mine as I stand alone on the front lawn. My heart is breaking with every passing second. With his hand on the window, the cab pulls away from the curb and my dad disappears. With my hand in the air, waving goodbye, tears fall from my eyes and onto the ground.

"Brylan, let's go inside? We can watch movies or something together if you want..." I wipe the tears off my face as my mom walks up behind me with her arms around her waist, as if she can hold herself together if she keeps her arms around her. I take in her appearance; her limp hair, her blood-shot eyes, and her slumped over body, and realize that she's asking to me this because she needs to distract herself more than anything. I have never related to my mother more than I do right now. I fake a smile as big as I can and turn towards my mother.

"I would love to mom." With that, we turn and start up the walkway and to the still open front door. My mom wraps her arm around my shoulders and guides me up the front steps. I pause in my walk up the stairs and look back at the road where my father's cab is just about to turn the corner. I wait. I want to see him off and he's not gone yet. I turn all the way around with my mom by my side, looking confused by my action. Though confused she doesn't say a word. I watch as my fathers' cab turns the corner, but then the moment takes a turn for the worse.

All of a sudden, my father's cab comes flying back around the corner, being pushed by a large red pickup truck. My father's cab flips over due to the speed the truck hit him at and tumbles into the yard across the street from our home. It seems like hours before the car finally stops spinning and then, I'm running. I'm screaming words that I can't hear or understand. Everything's gone quiet. I run towards the cab and all I can think about is my dad. I hope he's okay. He better be okay. I just lost my family, but I don't want to lose my dad. I reach the cab, about to climb through the windshield when I hear the truck start up again from behind me. I turn around and face the truck and its reckless driver. I can't see in the window, but it doesn't matter. I don't care who's in that car. They should pay for what they did.

All these thoughts run through my mind, and I begin thinking of all the possible things that I wish I could do to that car and its driver if my father's not okay. Blowing it up would be great or maybe drowning in the lake nearby, or both. I could blow it up first and then drown it. I shake my head free of these thoughts while I stare down the truck. After a moment of contemplating whether to face the driver or pull my dad out, I turn to the cab.

Just as I turn to the cab, I hear a loud groan. I freeze up for a moment. I look at the side of the cab and see that the gas tank is caught in the metal mailbox. The gas tank is dripping. All of a sudden I hear a scream. It's loud and high pitched, borderline screechy. I look around, but then I realize that the screaming is me. I try to get a hold of myself and try to rush back to the cabs upside-down windshield. I'm looking inside trying to keep a clear head. Before I can get a good look, I feel arms pulling me back. I struggle against them screaming for my dad, but just as I break free and rush back towards the cab... It bursts into flame. I keep running towards the car and then the car explodes and I'm flung backwards onto my front yard. I groan in pain as the wind is knocked out of me. I quickly sit up, but become dizzy and then lay back down. I see my mother's face above mine tear stained and worried. She's speaking but I don't hear her. The only sound I hear is the engine of the truck as it pulls away from the cab, and drives away. I turn my head away from my mother and watch it go.

There is to be no justice then. I think, just before the whole world goes black.