The Disappearance Of Will Black / REWRITING /

⸢ xi ⸥

William liked to play the piano. I'm guessing he could play the didgeridoo as well, so it can't be a surprise.

He attended four piano recitals and was pleased by the attention he got. So then he moved on to guitar after mastering the art of the piano and grasped the skill very quickly. I heard him play Through The Valley by The Shapeshifters several times before and the simple tune sounded beautiful through his guitar's strings. Willaim had an equally amazing voice (surprise!) and, of course, was marveled by the entire school female population for it.

It's not like I was jealous.

My brother maintained his piano and guitar skills even when pursuing an electric guitar. It didn't take long for him to form a band while keeping up with his A+ grades and balancing the pressure on his broad shoulders.

James was a part of his talented band and took a lead on the drums. He didn't seem the type but he pulled it off better than anyone could. I sometimes watched through the shutters of the music room when my brother played the electric guitar with his three 'band buddies'. They all took a toll on soft rock, not the screechy, loud kind.

Dad hated Will's rock, but when I came home from my therapy session he was sobbing into his electric guitar, drunk as a skunk. Mom tutted under her breath and decided that she was too tired to scream at him for drinking again. I sat down beside my father and didn't speak until she took a long time to get up the stairs under the weight of her pregnant belly.

"Dad, speak to me," I said to him, gazing wearily at his drunken state. His whiny sobbing continued, tears falling onto the shiny metal of the guitar. I felt the urge to prise his fingers away from it to prevent it from staining William's property.

He took a huge gulp a minute after my question and finally turned his head to look at me. He opened his mouth to retort, eye blazing, but thought better of it and dropped his chin to his chest.

"Why is this happening to us?" he asks no one in particular. I was surprised by the strength lingering in his voice. "Will is strong and smart. Why...how could anyone outsmart him? He's my-" his fist starts to bang weakly on the dark blue guitar, "he's my son. What kind of reason can anyone find to take him away from usss?"

I ignored his slurring and put a hand over the one that gripped the edge of the guitar. I squeezed it to let him know that he wasn't alone, even through the dark fog of the alcohol that clouded his thoughts. I didn't know what words to use to comfort him, so I just held his calloused palm.

I think I preferred my Drunk Angry Dad rather than Drunk Depressed Dad.

* * *

I woke up the next day before my alarm rang.

I heard my mother hiccuping and wailing in her bedroom. I sat up in the dark to go comfort her, trying to pry my eyes open since I had major insomnia the whole night. I thought that the source of her crying was another horrible thought of what happened to her son, but when I entered her room, Dad was sitting on the edge of the bed, eyes bloodshot, while Mom held her phone to her ear while shouting hysterically.

"What's happening?" I asked, bracing for the worst, but no one seemed to hear me. I held the sides of Dad's warm face and forced him to look me in the eye. "What. Happened?"

Dad just shook his head, the veins in his eyeballs exploding.

I stood up and walked past him to my mother's unintelligent state and aimed for the phone. I thought that she would be too weak to retaliate, but she kept a firm grip on her mobile and pulled back. I refused to spend the rest of the day not knowing what happened and snatched it away with everything that I had.

Mom released an inhumane noise when it slipped from her fingers and into mine. I put the smooth surface against my ear and heard a man repeatedly say, "calm down, ma'am, please remain calm."

"My name is Sarah Black. I am the daughter of the woman you were just speaking to and the brother of Willaim Black, and I want to know what's happening," I spoke, waving off Mother with one hand, who was reaching again for the phone.

"We found a piece of unsettling evidence in William's case," the police officer replied, sounding mildly uncomfortable. "And it suggests that the case will not longer titled as a disappearance, but mostly as an undiscovered murder. However, I guarantee you we will look deeper into the case..."

The rest of his words were unheard of as I couldn't peel my eyes away from Will, who was standing in the corner of the room, smirking.