Apocalypse (The second book of the Trilogy)

Chapter 39 Kimberly

It's been three days sine May left this Earth. We had been keeping her in a deep freeze in the basement until the funeral. Today is the day Amillia insisted we have the service. Arica, Matimba, and I were barely functioning. Amillia and Cole had been kind enough to set everything up. All I had to do was tell her family. That was something I had been dreading since the second May's last breath came out. I shuddered at the thought. I decided to unlock my door, and smelled white lilies. White lilies were May's favorite flower. They must have bloomed within the past three days because May had promised me the best bouque I had ever seen, once they had bloomed. A few tears formed in my eyes as I looked down the hallway and saw a bouquet on every door. Along with a lime green ribbon, which was her favorite color, tying the lilies together. It was absolutely beautiful. I started to walk down the hall in a daze. I saw Max's dad, Jim, walking towards me. He was carrying even more lilies. He smiled kindly at me.

"Hey, Kimberly. Don't you worry about a thing. We have my agents making sure everything is perfect," he said with a sincere look of sympathy on his face.

"Thank you," I mumbled before falling back into my daze and going outside to a huge garden of many types of lilies.

I started to walk up and down the maze of flowers. It was almost like the apocalypse never happened, and we'd never known grief. I realized I had a small smile on my face. It had felt as if May were standing right next to me. I was in complete bliss, until I heard talking.

"Mommy! It's so pretty!" Emma, May's little sister said from around the corner.

I rounded the corner to see May's family sitting in a communal area in the middle of the garden where the lilies were the whitest. I looked at the happy family I was about to bring devastating news to. Poor Emma. She was barely seven, and she would never truly know how amazing her sister was. Olivia, I had know her since we were young. Heck, I went to her wedding with Chase. She had just been reunited with her daughter after five years. Chase, he had always been there for May. His whole life was centered around May and now she was gone. His life was gone; His baby girl.

I took a step closer trying to gain the courage to speak. How do you tell a family that their daughter or sister is dead? I heard a snap. I had stepped on a twig. I took in the view of the blooming cherry blossoms and the willow trees. I glared at the trees. Stupid trees! Chase and Olivia spun around and looked at me.

"Kimberly! It's good to see you! Where's May? Isn't this lovely for her birthday?" Olivia said hugging me, and then she held me an arms length apart from her.

Chase came up behind her waiting for my reply. Then what Olivia said hit me. Today was May's birthday. Just three more days, and May would have been seventeen. I choked down a sob, and I looked down. I couldn't look them in the eyes. They were so happy right then.

"Kim? What's wrong?" Chase said alarmed. I looked up with tears streaming down my face. My lip trembled a bit too. Chase had a look of disbelief.

"Where... Where is my daughter?" Olivia stammered.

"Right here, mommy," Emma said looking up from the flower she was mutilating.

"WHERE IS SHE, KIMBERLY!" Olivia choked, tears pooling in her eyes. Chase was shaking his head muttering the word no.

"three days ago..." I started and swallowed down another sob, " There was a fight... May got into the crossfire... and was... I..." I said in between sobs.

"Is she dead?" Olivia choked out.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't save her," I said looking down.

Olivia screamed screams of agony and grief as she fell into Chase. They fell to the ground sobbing and clinging to each other.

"Mommy, what's wrong. Where's May?" Emma said as she grabbed and tugged on Olivia's shirt. She was clueless to what was happened.

"I'm... I'm sorry," I stammered.

"GO AWAY!" Olivia screamed at me hostilely. "You killed her!'

"I'm so sorry," I whispered as I ran out of the garden sobbing.