The Fifth Trial

One: The Sound of Emotion and Confusion.

Chapter One

The Sound of Emotion and Confusion.

I’ve always loved the sound of the doorbell every six o’clock at night. The tiny noises used to indicate that a special someone is already home—particularly, my dad. When the vibrations hit my ears, I always quickly jump out of my bed, run downstairs and greet him with a smile. And then he would kiss my mom’s forehead and hug her tight before he puts his attention to me, saying “How are you, little bud?”

But then, I said the word “loved”. It’s all in the past. I worship the tingling sound, but not until now. True enough, it still denotes that my dad is home, but it doesn’t simply mean that everything is the same way as it used to be.

What I have done now is way too different from what I did when I was a kid. I lazily climbed off my messy bed, walked like a turtle to get downstairs, opened the stupid door and made a straight face before facing my dad.

“How are you, little bud?” He muttered those words the same way whenever he’s in front of our door. Maybe if I was seven, I would have said “I’m fine, dad! And I took care of mom for the past ten hours. How’s work?”

Sadly, I instantaneously remembered that I am eighteen—that I grew eleven years older. So instead of saying the exact words, I just said “I’m not a kid anymore, so drop the ‘little bud’ thing.”

If he didn’t leave mom for another girl, I would’ve felt guilty just by seeing his neglected expression. But then again, I said the magic word “if”.

“You ready to go now, bud?” His current expression changed to a smile as if he won a lottery. He didn’t even think that I might get more pissed for dropping the ‘little’ and retaining the ‘bud’. He might want to think again if I’m still his buddy.

I sighed to prevent myself from snorting. “Do I really need to go with you? I mean, I’m eighteen not seven and I don’t think it’s necessary for me to stay with you every weekend. “

Dad smiled bitterly. “Do you hate me that much?”

“Isn’t it too obvious?” I grinned inwardly, ignoring his fake smile.

“But it’s just a whole day and a half. I’m just asking for a limited time,” he said. “You have the whole week with your mom. Isn’t that enough?”

With his previous statement, I finally snorted. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Maybe you should throw away Millicent first before you could have my full attention.”

Millicent is her new wife. I admit she’s a really good person. Whenever I’m staying in dad’s house, she’s always there to entertain me. She gives me random stuff like new bags, shoes, clothes and she even serves me my favorite food. But how can I like her if she’s the main reason why I and my mom are miserable? No one would want to imagine his dad marrying a woman who is not his mom—at the age of nine.

I clearly remember that day: I was wearing a mini coat and tie. Flowers were everywhere and all I can see were peach and white fabrics—even people were wearing those. I was busy checking the place while my mom tightly held my right hand when I heard bells. And then we both started to march inside the church.

As we were both walked down the aisle, I vaguely saw a figure at the altar. After a few steps, I immediately recognized my father. My heart was leaping for I thought that he was going to marry mom again after their divorce last year when I was eight. But when I stared at my mom, the tears began to pool out of my eyes. She’s wearing a peach dress.

I sobbed loudly in the middle of the lane asking my mom why she was not wearing a long white gown. She never explained to me why. Mom just smiled in spite of the murmurs around us and continued to walk. However, the mystery that I won’t ever forget is that why she didn’t cry like I did.

“Julian, I already have your stuff packed!” Mom’s voice snapped me out of my swirling thoughts. She’s walking towards us with a smile plastered on her lips, carrying a black leather backpack which I presume is my things.

When she’s finally standing on my left— with us at the front door, I groaned. “Mom, why did you do that? I purposely did not pack if myself because I don’t want to go with him.”

“Jules, he’s your dad.” Mom sighed in frustration. I always acted like this for nine years, and I think she’s getting tired of my attitude towards her ex-husband. If she’s upset enough, why can’t she just shrug it off and let me stay in our house every shitty single day? She knows how much I loathed staying at dad’s.

I folded my arms in front of my chest. “I know. I wouldn’t be here in front of you if I don’t have a sperm donor.” Then I smirked.

“Jules!” My parents said in unison. My smirk dropped off as I glared at him.

“Don’t you ‘Jules’ me because we’re not even friends,” mom exhaled. “So now I can’t even say the word ‘sperm’? What am I, ten? You know what; I can say whatever damn word I can. Sperm, egg, pussy, dick, sex—“

Mom cupped my left shoulder. “Julian Chase, enough.”

I heaved a very deep sigh. “Okay,” I murmured as if I am the greatest loser in the universe. She handed me my stuff and kissed me on both my cheeks.

“Bye, mom. I love you so much,” I whispered in her ears and I couldn’t stop myself to smile as I saw her lips quirked up.

I walked out of the house and I swear I could sense my dad trying to walk as fast as I am. When we get to where his car is parked, he inserted the keys and we both hopped in.

We live in a peaceful neighborhood near a lake, but dad lives near the city, thus I have to endure a two-hour drive with him. Since I don’t have anything to say to him, I placed my ear-buds and blasted songs on my iPod and dozed off to sleep.

In my short dream, I saw a girl sitting on grass. I thought it was just field until I saw hundreds of white stuff above it. When I got closer, I realized that it wasn’t just a normal field where anyone could lay and see the sky; the tombs were laid all over. I’m stepping on a land of the peaceful dead.

I walk closer to the girl. She’s sitting on a catacomb. I’m currently facing her back, so I could just scrutinize her long, wavy brown hair dancing with the wind. She’s wearing faded pants topped with a white shirt. Before I could even have the chance to touch her back, she stood up and started to walk away. I tried to call her, but no voice came out of my mouth.

My eyes gazed on her back until she started to slowly fade in the middle of the burial ground. I looked down to check out the stone that she was sitting on earlier, but I just knotted my forehead with what I saw.

A blank tombstone.

Then a sound of a siren woke me up.