Dead Connections

Chapter 28 - The Funeral

By the time that life had given me time to grieve, and had let me calm and realise that my brother was permanently gone, Dallas, Drew and Ember had found a place where he could be buried peacefully, to rest in tranquillity.

I stood in the middle of the graveyard, staring down into the large, long and deep whole I had just bug. It seemed big enough, but this wasn’t how I wanted to end my brothers time on earth. All I was doing was put him into a dark hole, depositing them into the ground.

I placed the shovel to one side and sighed, rubbing my head with my hands, trying to stop the tears immerging once again. I had changed since his death. Something inside me was now lost, and I could never get it back, no matter how I searched. He was gone. He was now just surrounded by nothing - The void of everything.

Dallas came up to me slowly, resting his hand on my shoulder.

“Are you alright?” he asked solemnly.

I nodded, gulping. I couldn’t’ say anything because I knew I’d choke on my own words and break down into tears. The lump in my throat grew and I closed my eyes, turning away.

“I just wanted to let you know that they’re coming,” Dallas said softly in my ear, respecting that I didn’t want to say anything. “Shall I get Ember to bring Zack’s body so they can be buried together?”

I nodded again.

My parents were here; both of them. They weren’t here for me. In fact, they had no idea that we were even there.  They were here because Zack’s actual body had been found, discovered when fire fighters searched the building in which his body had been burnt. Now they were here to bury him, and I had dug out Zack’s 2nd dimension grave next to Zack’s 1st dimension one.

I stood on my tiptoes, looking over the hedges and spotting the coffin slowly being carried in this direction. That was his original body. When I looked in the other direction I now saw Ember carrying a small bouquet of white and pink flowers and Dallas behind carrying Zack’s body.

They had wrapped Zack’s body up in bed sheets because they hadn’t been in the best looking shape. Either though he was bundled up and wrapped well it still brought tears to my eyes. I recognised his small frail body shape, and the hole in my heart expanded.

As the funeral started for Zack’s real body, I looked over at my parents who stood side by side, holding hands.

My dad: A skinny man in a black suit was stood solemnly, facing the coffin with a numb look of sorrow on his face. His eyes were dry. He was too upset and devastated to cry, but I could see the pain embedded within.

Mum was stood next to him, wearing a long black dress that reached her ankles. She wore a large posh looking black hat that covered her eyes, and in her left hand she held a tissue. In her right hand, she gripped onto my dad’s, trembling with grief.

Dallas took a step forward first, dropping slowly to his knees and lowering Zack up at the bottom of the grave that I dug. I shivered, tears silently rolling down my cheeks. I didn’t wipe them away. It was strange how I was feeling, watching Dallas deposit my brothers body into the ground. I hunched my shoulder and brought my thumb up to my mouth, biting the nail and squeezing my eyes shut, sniffing loudly. Next to me Drew smiled, giving me a comforting pat on the back. Although he was not quite as devastated as I was, he still had a pretty teary face and his eyes were red round the sides. I attempted a smile but all that escaped was a silent sob.

I couldn’t bear it. Turning away from the open grave and towards Dallas, I buried my face into his chest and wept. He gently stroked the back of my head with one hand and wrapped the other hand around me back. We stayed like that for several minutes and my tears soaked his T-shirt.