Ascension

Chapter Five

((here is a picture of Lina! hope y'all enjoy this chapter😊))

The funeral is in two days.

Most of The Basin is invited, and the few people who knew him from Briar Hills are invited as well. Almost everyone from The Basin knew who he was but rarely spoke to him. He was a quiet man; one lived alone and preferred to stay in his home rather than venture out into the world.

I know this because he was my next-door-neighbor.

Since there were no visible wounds on his body, the coroner confirmed that he either died of a heart attack or brain failure while swimming in the Rec pool.

And I was the one who discovered his dead body.

After interrogating Drew and me for about an hour at the police station, they finally let us go home. We walked home in a dead silence, still too shell-shocked to speak.

We didn't tell our mother what happened, not wanting to add an additional worry to her already overflowing bucket of worries. Too sick to our stomachs to eat dinner, Drew and I both went upstairs to our bedrooms that night, telling her that we didn't feel well.

To add to the series of unfortunate events that was playing out in our lives, we received a phone call that night from the Council, informing us that our father would not be coming home for a few days. They said he was okay, but the job was taking longer than expected and he would have to stay underground for a few more nights.

Drew and I could hear our mother crying from below through the thin ceiling, her sobs echoing throughout the small house. I heard a knock at my door and looked up to see Drew, standing in the doorway. He walked over to my bed and soundlessly pulled me into a tight hug. I don't know how long we stayed like that, but we both didn't want to let go. It was the only comfort we felt.

Now, today is the day of the funeral.

I look at myself in the mirror, eyeing the way my loose, black dress hangs right below my knobby knees. My hair is down, a rare sight as opposed to my typical ponytail, and I've applied a small amount of makeup to my face, also a rare sight.

"Lina, we're leaving!" I hear my mother call from downstairs.

"Okay!" I call back, then quickly slip on my shoes.

I walk downstairs to find Drew and my mother waiting by the front door. Like me, my mother is wearing a plain, black dress, and Drew is wearing an old suit of my father's. We walk outside. Dark, ominous looking clouds cover the sky, and the air is thick and soupy. It feels as if it going to rain any minute now.

As we begin to walk down the road toward town, I glance back at our neighbor's house.

Jim's house.

I don't even know his last name.

All that I know about him is that he worked for STARLINE. I think he was one of the engineers or something like that.

If anything, though, Drew and I probably interacted with him the most out of anyone in The Basin, due to the fact that we always performed various odd jobs for him. Like for instance, in autumn, we rake the leaves off of his lawn. Or when it snowed, we would shovel his driveway.

All of the curtains are drawn in his house, making the house look even gloomier than it already is. I suddenly feel a wave of the chills run down my spine, and have to quickly look away.

Creepy.

By the time we arrive at the church, a light drizzle has begun to fall, creating an eerie mist in the air. Fitting weather for a funeral, right?