The Neogene Project

Chapter 1 - Funeral

Chapter 1 - Funeral (Unedited)

Trenton sat solemnly in his chair, twiddling his thumbs. The suit he was wearing was a rental, and it was just a little bit too tight. The tie that came with it was almost choking him. He already felt like choking by just being here, knowing that this whole ordeal was his fault.

Jade reached over and touched him lightly on the shoulder. She was kind, she was understanding, she was empathetic. She was also very attractive.

But she wasn’t Aria.

Trenton shivered even though they were inside. He could hear people’s thoughts today; he didn’t have the energy to push them away. They bounced around in his mind, as if his head was hollow. The thoughts weren’t helping his mood out in the slightest, although they never really had. Today, however, they were making him feel as horrible as ever. And it was all his fault.

He heard a shift in the audience and looked up from his feet. Aria’s parents were solemnly making there way up the stairs to the stage with depressed expressions. They looked out at the crowd and sighed deeply, as if in sync. Out of the corner of his eye, Trenton spotted two relatively large men with black and white suits and dark sunglasses and earpieces. He subconsciously tensed up and balled his hands into fists. It was truly them who had killed Aria. He glared at them involuntarily, but if they noticed, they didn’t act like it.

Aria’s mother tapped gently on the microphone to test if it was on. Trenton felt Blake suck in his breath and his shoulders tense up. He was just as shaken up about this as Trenton was, maybe even worse off than him, even though it wasn’t his fault. Although Rowen was on the other side of Jade, Trenton knew that he was girding himself for what was about to come as well.

Aria’s dad took his place in front of the microphone and slowly exhaled. “Thank you all for coming,” he spoke, his voice trembling. “We are here to today because-” his voice cracked. His hands shook. His wife glanced at him with concern and sadness. He continued, “We are here today for reasons you are already aware of. Of course, we are here to acknowledge these terrible events. But we are also here to celebrate some amazing people. We are here to rejoice because of the impacts they made on us. We are here to celebrate my daughter, Aria Summers, and Steven Kohen, one of her closest friends.”

The room was so quiet that you could hear a mouse’s footsteps in the basement of the church. No one felt like saying anything. Aria’s mother switched places with him at the microphone. “We will start off the service by asking you all to join us in the pledge of allegiance.”

So everyone stood, took their hats off, smoothed out their dresses. The crowd simultaneously rotated to face the flag. Everyone droned on, pledging allegiance to a flag in a monotonous tone.Why do we need to pledge our allegiance to America? Trenton thought. What good does it do if there are still people out there who don’t honor it. Like Rosemary. So halfway through it, Trenton stopped. Partly because it seemed as though he couldn’t talk without choking on a sob, partly because of how he was feeling. He never wanted to say the pledge of allegiance again.

When everyone sat down, Trenton zoned out. He remembered the two men in the black suits and the dark sunglasses, and how they spoke about how sorry they were for the loss of Aria and Steven. They made up an excuse about why they had died- they said it was a shooting by the same person who had killed Sherryn that same hour. No one in the audience would ever know that the person who had killed her was actually dead. Maybe the two men didn’t even know either. But Trenton knew. It was so unfair. No one would ever know the real reason she died. It was an insult to her memory. Trenton balled his fists in anger for the whole speech. When they finally finished, they took their leave. They couldn’t have been any slower as they walked down the steps to the stage and disappeared out the door.