Another Dark Day,

Chapter Six

10 minutes later, the house is surrounded by police cars and ambulance vehicles. I'm still glued to the place where I found Tom's body, cold as ice, collapsed on the ground. Melissa's a wreck. I can see her out of the corner of my eye crying as she tells the police what happened. I still don't know what occurred myself and I don't think I should press her for that information until she's well and truly calmed down. A few hours pass and as the last of the investigators leave, Melissa finally comes inside and slowly shuts the door behind her. She meets my eyes and struggles to say 'W-would you like a c-cup of c-coffee?' 'Yes please, I think we could both use one.' We sit there in silence for a while as I analyse Melissa without her noticing me. Her eyes are dark, blood shot from crying and her hands still continue to shake as she brings the cup to her mouth and takes a sip of the coffee. Mine has gone cold, but I still continue to drink it. Trying not to break the silence. But Melissa notices this. 'I-I'm sorry' she says. 'E-everything happened so fast, I-I'm loosing track of what occurred myself.' 'It's alright Melissa, I understand. Will Tom be alright though?' 'Y-yes, I h-hope so. W-we can go visit him in the morning and I m-might drop in tonight to bring him some clothes and his toiletries.' 'Well, for now lets just worry about making sure your ok-ok?' 'How about you go have a rest? and I'll wash up and quietly watch some T.V while you rest.' 'T-thank you Rebecca, I-I think that would't be a bad idea.' As she made her way carefully up the stairs I washed the cups, stacked them in the dishwasher and returned to the living room to watch some T.V. There wasn't much on, but then again it was better to distract myself then trying to comprehend what happened. Could he have tripped? Or slipped on the wet floor? What if he and Melissa were fighting and she pushed him and Tom banged his head? There were too many unanswered questions and I knew the answers to none of them. That's when I decided it probably wouldn't hurt me if I had a rest too, but as I started to shut my eyes I heard movement from upstairs. Melissa going to the bathroom? I thought and shut my eyes again. I then heard the creaking of the staircase and that's when I knew she was coming down stairs. I shut my eyes quickly and pretended to be asleep and as she made her way past the kitchen, into the living room and towards the front door, I opened my eyes just in time to see her quietly shut the door behind her.