Reversal (Camren/Norminah)

Chapter 27: A Family Never Forgotten

XXVII. 

"I can see insecurity in Shawn's eyes; I can see the need to prove himself to himself, and more than anything I can see a childlike charm that's never going to fade."

On foot, Lauren found she could cross town via rooftops far faster than roads. Retrieving the mental picture of the Jauregui household, the girl left Camila to tend to the car while she returned to bring Mike the good news.

Upon arriving at the home, she then knocked at the door, stepping back nervously and wishing for a moment or two that Camila was there with her. The tiny brunette gave off such a powerful air of confidence that around her, everything became easier. And if there was anything the green eyed teen needed more at the time, it was for things to become easier.

"Lauren." Mike opened the door, smiling when he saw the girl. "It's good to see you back here. Come on in, lets talk."

Lauren followed, politely removing her shoes and looking around the room for other signs of life. "So... it must be quiet around here when the kids are at school."

"It can be, yes." Mike gestured for her to follow back into his study. "Luckily neither of them go too far, so they'll sometimes come home for lunch."

"I'm sure that's fun for you."

Mike chuckled. "You would think so, but ever since their mom left those two have becoming increasingly self-sustaining."

"It must have been hard on the three of you, losing her like that."

The man nodded a sound affirmation. "Clara has a wonderful heart." He told her. "I have no idea how she found out about Silent Hill, and she would never tell me no matter how many times I asked. I guess in a way, I had always expected her to do what she did. The one thing she hated more than anything was people being mistreated."

Lauren looked down. "I never thought of it as being mistreated." She told him honestly. "In a way, the morales drilled into our heads aligned more towards it seeming like they were doing us a favour. Death was our destiny, the people around us with the guns and gas masks really only helped it come in a way that was as quick and as painless as possible."

Mike gestured towards the open chair on the other side of his desk. "Do you think that the death was painless?"

"I do." Lauren nodded. "Death was the reward. It was the reason we lived. We were born to die."

Mike leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. To Lauren, he seemed like a gentle soul. He clearly showed fierce love for his children, raising them on his own while dealing with the pain of an hollow loss. "Clara believed the exact opposite." He replied to her only moments later. "She believed that no human should be brought into the world only for their bodies."

"She never told me that."

"She was never allowed to." Mike sat forward and reached down into his bottom desk drawer, removing a series of papers and setting them down before Lauren.

"What are these?"

"These were attached to some of the letters." The man explained. "I didn't show them to you when you were here before because of your friend, I believed that you should see them first in case there was anything especially personal."

Lauren reached forward and took the papers, turning them over as a unit and leafing through. Each page looked like it had been thoroughly loved, torn at the edges and stained in a strikingly similar way that the letters had been. What had Lauren's breath, were the drawings on each page. Some had just one, others had up to a dozen, but on each sheet of paper was a drawing of two interlocked triangles, one on the top, and another on the bottom.