Remember Me (Currently On Hold)

Chapter Three: My Dead Heart

Chapter Three: My Dead Heart

"Hercules!" I yelled looking under the bed. The dust confirmed that no one has ever been under there much less my dog. 

            "Where are you?" I muttered barely audible over my heavy breathing. I ran back into the bathroom frantically looking for any sign of Hercules. I knew he wasn't here but it was like my body was on autopilot. I refused to believe that Hercules is.... is ...gone.

            "Where is he?" I screamed. I didn't care that I was too old for temper tantrums. HERCULES IS GONE!

            I was on my knees at this point and begging for Hercules. The tears weren't flowing yet but my body was shaking from the dry sobs taking over my body. Hercules was my only connection to my dad. If he was gone that meant everybody was gone. I was by myself in this big world. My brother was in the Army and my mom is somewhere, apparently not worrying about me.

            "Shh," Somebody, Liam picked me up and carried me somewhere. He was whispering things in my ear but they didn’t get past my depressing thoughts. 

            Something snapped within me, gone was the sorrowful thought I had. I was out raged! How had I let Hercules slip through my fingers? I untangled myself from Liam and landed with a thud on the ground. I ignored the pounding in my arm and stabbed my finger at Liam's chest.

            "Where is he?" I said in a low threatening voice. I swiped a piece of hair that had managed to fall out of my ponytail. "Tell me."

            I fought Liam's hold on me as he tried to seat me on one of the living room couches. He blew out a mournful sigh and sat down by himself. He looked troubled and that scared me. What was he going to say? I had a feeling, but I didn't want to believe my muddled thoughts right now. I need to hear it from him.

            Liam rested his head in his hands.

            "Me and the boys worked on our second album and we loved it so much, that management decided we could do a tour with the new songs. So it was coming up and I was excited to bring you along. I couldn't--"

            "What does this have to do with anything?" I cut in sharply.

            "Just listen, I'm getting there." He said softly. Liam took my hand in his and managed to pull me into the space next to him.

            "I was lucky to bring you along with us. Well, you only came for the last three weeks of the tour because of schooling but anyway. While we were away, you hired a caretaker to water the plants and care for Hercules. The schedule went on like that for the three weeks," Liam's words were slowed and I knew the bad part was coming. I could practically feel my heartbeat in my fingertips.

            "When we came home, you were ecstatic to see Hercules again, as that was the longest you ever went without him. Well, I guess you were both so excited that you didn't see...." His last words cracked. Liam paused. "Neither of you saw the car coming. It was a hummer and the driver didn't see Hercules running across the street...Oh God, there was blood everywhere. You looked at me and begged for me to do something. I didn't know what to do because I never had a dog before. You fell to the ground by his side, and watched while he took his last breath.

The next couple of days flew by in a blur; you didn't talk to anyone or acknowledge anything. You shared a couple of yes's and no's with me but that was about it. I constantly had to remind you that you didn't eat anything that day. You were so depressed and that depressed me. Finally after about three weeks, I talked you into doing some exercises, running if you will, and you seemed to take all your emotions into that. Slowly but surely, you moved on. We never talked about him after that. It was so serious that I told the boys not to even mention pets. The day Hercules died, was the one-day you refused to sleep in this house. You kept saying that there was too much of Hercules in the house, it was all too much for you. I took it into my own hands and told you to stay with El for the night while I cleaned the whole house for any trace of him. You didn't like that my idea was to forget about him so we still keep a picture of him. It's in the hallway.