The Heroes of Legend

Chapter 3: Despair

04/05/XXXX

The following day, William was determined to take his mind off of what he had seen the day prior. He planned to hang out with his brother and talk to him after the school day in attempts to brighten the mood.

It was another day in Miss Easton's class. It was William's final year in Elementary school, for next year he would move up to Junior High School. William's thoughts scattered as the morning announcements were made through the old speaker on the front wall. English was the first subject that day and William was suddenly panicked. He had forgotten to read the novel for English, for he was with Daniel last night. The morning announcements finished and Miss Easton spoke to the class.

"Can anyone tell me why they believe George wanted to prove something to the other villagers?" Miss Easton asked the class, holding up the paperback novel the sixth-graders were to read.

Joe raised his hand, waving it left and right hoping Miss Easton would notice.

"Yes Joe?" Miss Easton called upon Joe, for he was the only person raising his hand.

"I think that George... SHOULD DIE!" Joe exclaimed as he rubbed his hands, malicious smile displayed on his face. Miss Easton was taken aback by this.

"W-what? What does that have anything to do with what we're talking about?" She asked with anger building up in her voice.

"Well, I uh... uh... I didn't actually read the book..." Joe stated sheepishly.

Miss Easton shook her head. She was highly disappointed in Joe.

"Elesa, did you read the book?" Miss Easton asked.

"What book?" Elesa asked with not a clue as to what was going on.

Miss Easton shook her head once more, her fingers against her temples. "Did anyone read the book?"

Few in the class raised their hand. Only a handful of students did.

"W-what is happening to this class?" Miss Easton asked, clearly confused by this shocking turn of events. To her surprise, not many students had read the book she had assigned which surprised and disappointed her.

She focused her attention on William. "William, you're normally on top of things, why didn't you read the assigned chapters?"

"I-I'm sorry Miss Easton. I was just... distracted yesterday." William said in embarrassment.

Miss Easton frowned and lowered her head onto her desk. She proceeded to bang her head against the wood table.

"I think we broke her," Elesa stated.

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After class, William, Joe, and Elesa decided to hang out in the park. Once they arrived, William decided to sit on the nearest bench and bask in the glory of the shimmering sun and calm winds. Daniel was to return that night from the pharmacy, so William decided being outside could ease his mind.

"Okay, so I think we've figured out this game," Joe explained.

"What? Are you guys still on about hopscotch? You guys should have figured this out long ago," William shook his head in disbelief, laughing at the thought of their last failed attempts.

"One time you guys just put scotch tape on the ground to make a bunch of boxes and hopped in and around the boxes," William laughed.

"This time is different! I know how we play this game. With this!" Elesa exclaimed and pulled out an egg covered in breadcrumbs.

"Is that a scotch egg?" William asked.

"Yeah, try it. It's really good!" Elesa proclaimed as she gave the scotch egg to William.

Once William took a bite, the texture of the piece within his mouth felt awry, and he spat it out in disgust.

"What is this made of? Scotch tape?" William asked with a mildly confused expression.

"Well no duh! That's how you make a scotch egg!" Joe exclaimed, shaking his head at William.

"Okay, so now we hop on the scotch egg you spat out!" Elesa cheered and began to hop on the scotch egg.

As Elesa was jumping on the scotch egg, she was incautious. She was having way too much fun hopping on the egg until she tripped, her legs flying in the air until she landed right onto her bottom.

"Ow," Elesa pouted. She looked up to see Joe confused as to what went wrong and William laughing.

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"I'm home!" William called as he closed the house's front door.

Daniel once again wasn't coming down to greet William. William shrugged and thought it was possible that Daniel was still at the pharmacy. Once Daniel returned home, William had a plan to spend the rest of this tireless day with him and make him feel important, for William believed that Daniel was the most important person in his world. Before William made any assumptions as to Daniel's whereabouts, he decided he would look for him.

William curled his hand on the cold wooden railing and ascended upon the stairs towards Daniel's room. He took a right to the wooden door. Without hesitation he opened the door and barged into the room. There was not a single sign of Daniel.

"Where is he?" William thought aloud.

William left Daniel's room and took a right from there towards the washroom. At the end of the hall, the small mirror light in the washroom was seemingly seeping through the bottom of the washroom door. William reached the door and knocked.

"Daniel, are you in there? Mom?" William asked as he knocked.

There was no response. How strange for there to be no response from anyone in the washroom. William leaned against the door, making the doorknob click and slide the unlocked door open. William scrambled as he was caught by surprise.

"D-Daniel?" William asked, this time more sheepishly.

William peeped his head into the washroom, and was met with absolute horror. A chill climbed up William's spine as he crept into the washroom. An empty bottle of pills lay in Daniel's still hand. Pills had been in Daniel's gaping mouth and on the ground next to his body. His body showed no signs of movement as it lay on the carpet that had been rolled out on the bathroom floor months ago. William walked on the cold tile floor to Daniel's body and got on one knee. He reached to check for a pulse, a small tiny spark of hope flaring in William. Shock engulfed his entire being. Nothing.

"H-how did this... how...?" William stared blankly at the ground, his hands shaking profusely.

"Daniel..." He whispered softly.

Several tears fell from William's face and stained the carpet, quite like the memory that would stain his heart. However unlike the tear stains that were destined to fade, the stain in his heart would remain quite possibly forever.