Shine For Me

Chapter 15 - Shine For Me

Two days later, Louis got a call that Luna was gone. He was staying with Tom until that day came, but he didn't want to leave. He actually decided to go to Luna's room that night and fell asleep on her bed, enveloped by her smell. The call woke him up from a dream where Luna was healthy, singing with her guitar under a tree. When he woke up, reality slapped him in the face and his life was ruined.

He got a taxi to the hospital and found his way to Luna's room. Tom was standing next to her, Jay was being comforted by her parents against the back wall, and there was a nurse turning the machines off.

Louis went to the opposite side of Tom and covered his mouth as the sobs continued to come. He never has felt so much pain, unbearable pain. The day he wanted to kill himself was no match to what he felt while staring at Luna.

Louis knelt beside Luna's bed and kissed her dead hand, wishing he felt the warmth her hands always emitted, even when she was freezing.

No words were spoken in that room, it was silent to a point where someone had to say something. If the silence were to last for too much longer, it would surely make Louis go crazy. Tears slipped down Louis' face and splashed onto the sheets of Luna's literal death bed.

**

Tom asked for Jay's and Louis' help with the funeral. Louis didn't like thinking that Luna will be put into a box and burried in the dirt. It actually frightened him beyond his wits. A few days ago, a day after Luna's death, Tom gave Louis a letter that had "Louis" written on the front of the envelope.

"It's from Luna," Tom had mumbled to Louis when he handed it to him. "Don't read it until the funeral."

So, the letter has sat next to Louis' head everynight when he went to sleep. His mother, even sister, had come for Luna's funeral. The three of them were staying in a hotel in the middle of town, quietly talking and catching up. Louis has felt the need to at least call Luna and speak to her, but when he picked up the phone and dialed her number, he realized no one would pick up, causing Louis to feel a pain he never thought he'd feel.

At the moment, they were getting ready for the funeral service. Louis' mom and sister were dressed in similar black and grey dresses while he was in black pants, cuffed at the bottom, a dark grey button up shirt, and a black blazer with a daisy in the pocket.

"Are you ready?" Louis' mom asked, eyeing her son up and down. 

Louis patted his pockets, searching for the letter he slept with. He turned and saw the white envelope placed at the end of the bed. He grabbed it and held it tightly, as if it will blow right out of his hands, as if it's the last thing of Luna.

When they entered the funeral home, Tom was standing next to the casket, hugging everyone who passed him. He looked just as broken as Louis and Jay. If you were to stand the three next to each other, it'd be as if you took a picture of the same person three times, if you could capture such emotion that they were letting out.

Louis walked towards Luna's father and tried his best to smile. Tom sent one back and pulled him in for a tight hug, saying nothing as Louis wrapped his arms around the large man.

"I was hoping she would still look how she did," Tom mumbled, turning towards the casket.

Louis nodded in agreement, realizing that they couldn't capture the actual beauty she held. They simply made a corpse look pretty, not Luna. The body there wasn't Luna. The golden freckles that Louis loved so much were nothing but small dots on her cheeks. 

"She's still beautiful, though," Jay muttered as she stopped in front of the casket, laying a piece of folded paper on Luna's stomach that had some story that Luna found funny at one moment in time.