Rebellious

❇ Chapter 2 ❇

I immediately turn the phone's glow away. For just a moment, I'd caught a glimpse of my father's dead body. It was a quick snapshot, a horrifying image; it was etched in my mind and could never be unseen. 

The strange thing was, he looked so normal, besides the bullet wound straight to the chest. His limbs hadn't exploded; most of him was still intact. His face was shocked, with eyebrows arched way up and his mouth open. His eyes were the widest I'd ever seen them. He could've tricked me into thinking he was still alive, just frozen in time. But it was his eyes that gave him away. They were glazed over; lifeless; they were the window to his death.

The bullet wound, of course, was what my eyes quickly averted to. A small, dark hole expanded straight into his rib cage, tearing through his T-shirt and creating a large diameter of blood on almost all sides of the wound. Most of the stain was going down, although it was present on all sides. 

Every hair on my body stood up until it felt like it was going to fall off. Chills ran through my body and pangs in my stomach made me want to cringe and vomit. With all my soul, I wanted to run away and scream. I wanted to be anyplace on Earth except standing right there.

And yet, my eyes were glued to my father's body. I couldn't avert my gaze no matter how hard I tried. I was glued to that very spot. I had gone rigid to the point where I thought I was dead. I couldn't move a single muscle. I was frozen in time, just as my father had been when he was shot.

I slowly closed my eyes. I squeezed them tighter and tighter, hoping to unseen. But things can never be unseen. They can be forgotten, but they can never be unseen. No matter how hard I tried from that moment forward, I would never be able to remove the mark that image left on me.

And yet, without my knowledge, I feel my hand raising the phone to illuminate the rest of the scene. I can't stop it; I've lost control of myself completely. Beyond my father, I see the rest of my family lying on the trail, their faces just as shocked and frozen as my father had been. They all have similar bullet wounds right in the middle of their rib cage. Whoever shot them must've known exactly what they'd been doing.

I stare at my loved ones for a moment, all of them lying dead, past the point of return. I dare not inch any closer towards them for fear of more images I will never want to see. Again, I don't move; I simply stand there and take in the horror my life has become.  Without these people lying dead, I am nothing. I might as well lie down with them and wait for hypothermia to settle in or let the creatures of the woods seal my fate.

Seconds pass; maybe minutes; maybe hours; I can never be sure. Then, the phone turns off. All on it's own, as if it no longer wants me to see what I have seen. I check it and it's run out of battery. Looks like it's finally broken me out of my trance.

I drop to the knees and fall straight into the dirt of the trail. Waves of despair wash over me, consuming me, falling through the tears in my eyes and pouring into my soul. My family is dead. They are gone. They aren't anywhere else. Just gone. I cannot think about anything else or remember any other fact.

My

family

is

gone.

If their killer came through these trees to murder me right here and now, I don't know what I'd do. I might try to tackle him, kill him with my bare hands if possible after what he's done. Or, I might just let him take me, too. I'm in such a weak state, I might as well already be dead. Lying on the ground, body shaking with tears, I am nothing more than yet another death waiting to happen in this forest.

I can't be just another death in this forest. I can't just die right here, after I've been the last in my family blessed with the gift of life. Despite all my body's efforts to curl up on the ground and lie there forever, I pick up whatever's left of my soul and drag myself into the concealment of the trees beyond the trail.

I can never step on that trail again. I curl up underneath a tree and am put to sleep by my own depression.