Dying Hopes

The Funeral

A/N

First of all, thanks to overzealous for the artwork over there :D. Alright so Guess what? My birthday is in 5 days!!! YAAAY! December 3d!

Second of all, for my early birthday i became a more natural ginger, lol. BTW i wont be on much on my bday because im going to eat wit my Grammie AND i have indoor marching band tryouts.

Thanks to all my fans, and all the people who have been reading this book :D

Sorry for the short chapter....

I'll upload again when i get 10 comments :D

love ya'll!! ~EABandGeek123

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Clare pulled away from me and looked at Lynn, who in return glared at me. After a moment of silent communication between the two, Clare turned back to me.

"Tassie is- well, she- Tassie died, Riki! She died and she's not coming back! She was- she was in a car accident and..."

"That's enough, sweetie" Abigail said softly, hugging Clare and trying to get her to stop crying.

I could feel my eyes getting watery. I broke for a minute, and cried until I realized every one was watching me. It felt unreal, like my body knew Tassie was dead but my mind couldn't process it. I kept thinking that Tassie would come and hug me and make everything better.

Dana stood up with a grim looking expression on her face. I could have sworn, though, I saw the faint sign of a sneer when she looked at me. She slowly began to speak in a mourning tone.

"After you snuck out to go to your party, she went looking for you."

I shook my head. This isn't happening!

"She thought you had run away again."

"No." I replied in a feeble voice, but Dana took no notice.

"She said she didn't want to loose you and her father in the same day."

I shook my head again, and the room began to sway.

"She called you while she was driving. She was leaving a voicemail when she got hit."

"No!" I said a bit louder.

"The police said she was dead at the scene..."

"NO! SHUT UP! STOP LYING! SHUT UP!"

The room got blurry and in an instant of motion the ground rushed to meet me. Clare broke free of Abigail and caught me in mid-fall. Suddenly I felt so numb. I couldn't move, or talk, and it was a struggle to breathe through the heaving tears. Everything sounded so far away. Everyone kept repeating Riki, as if it was a chant.

Chants didn't matter, though. Nothing mattered, except Tassie coming home. I wanted Tassie to come bursting through the room and yell at me for running off. I needed Tassie to protect me from this mean, awful, horrible Dana.

Emotion built up inside me until everything hurt. I needed to vent it. I looked angrily at Dana and screamed. I screamed until my voice was sore. The glass around me shattered and cut into my exposed flesh, but I was too numb to feel it.

Hatred stretched across Dana's face. She took a single stride toward me before grabbing me by my hair and smacking my face against the nearby wall. She might have done it again, but Clare pulled my limp body away.

"Stop! Don't hurt her! Just, stop please!" She screamed at Dana as she cradled me and wiped most of the blood off my face.

Dana turned on her heal and stormed out of the room. Clare took no notice and continued to cling to me.

"It's okay Riki. It's okay. Clare is here for you. I'm here for you. It's okay" She heaved through sobs.

Nothing she said or did fazed me. I was still numb, lost and in the depths of guilt and pain. I felt insane, and all I wanted to do was end everything. Somehow just...end everything. The rest of my sisters tried to pry Clare off of me, but to no avail. She kept clinging to me as if I had died.

"Clare, crying won't bring Tassie back." Sky said in an uncharacteristic effort to comfort her sister.

"Riki might come back if I cry. Maybe I don't have to loose Riki. I have to help her. She is sick and I need to help her get better."

From that moment on it was perfectly clear to all my sisters that Clare would not leave my side until I came back to earth. If I'd known this then, I might have come back earlier, but insanity is such a hard thing to return from.

Eventually my sisters gave up and Clare took us both up to my room. For the next couple of days she and Sam were my best friends. They forced me to eat and drink, they copied down homework notes, and they tried all they could to pull me out of it. Abigail also helped by putting on my makeup in the morning, about the only thing she could help with. Even Sky tried to help by performing some gothic ritual (we must remember, it's the thought that counts).

In my mind, I was out for a couple of long minutes, but in reality it was a week before I snapped back. For a week I was numb and my sisters (except for Lynn, who blamed me for Tassie's death) and Sam had to help me with everything.

The thing that actually brought me back to life was Tassie's funeral. I almost wish I could have stayed numb for that.

It started out like the last couple of mornings. I woke up in a daze right next to Clare, who got me dressed. Then Clare went and got Abigail, who did my makeup a little darker than usual. Abigail and Clare walked me downstairs to where Sky was waiting with some really black jewelry. After my appearance was done, Clare cooked breakfast and Sam walked in and fed me. When everyone was ready, we went out to the graveyard behind our house with Clare and Lynn carrying Tassie's dead body on what looked like a stretcher.

We laid Tassie down next to the hole and tombstone. We each said a few words (it was a few because everyone started crying before they could say much). I was last, so Clare stood next to me in case I couldn't speak. That wasn't the case. The minute I started talking, I couldn't stop. Everything I had felt and been feeling came out. The more I talked, the more I cried. The more I cried, the more I hurt. It went on like this until I stopped dead in the middle of telling everyone about a memory I'd had with Tassie and fell to the ground crying. I cried so hard that my chest heaved, but this time Clare didn't hug me. When I had stopped crying, she looked at me solemnly.

"Riki? Are you back?"

"Yeah, I'm back."