Birthmarks and Bruises

The Proper Burial (part 2)

Felix crossed his arms in thought, his mind clouded and confused. As was everyone. Even Marcus, who had once again managed to calm himself, had tried to rouse his brother from his sleep. But nothing. It was... concerning to say the least.
As dead as the Snatcher was, its eyes still glared into their backs from across the room. Felix thought he spoke for everyone when he said he wanted to leave from the moment he woke up.
"Well... we could just..." He started, biting his lip in doubt. Could they just leave him here? Was that even morally correct?
"Yeah. We're gonna have to." Andrea added, softly.
Yeesh.
"I can handle the body. Lewis." Maxine corrected herself hastily, with a quick glance towards Marcus. Poor kid was basically choking back tears which wouldn't even flow if he tried. Of course, Felix was upset himself. Incredibly, deep down. Again, it just didn't seem... real. Especially after being unconscious for a good hour- though a small poke to his own ribs soon brought him back to reality. Andrea said it was fractured and there wasn't much she could do about it, which was understandable. There were more important things to sort out.
"I don't feel right about this at all." Felix grimaced, once again anxiously checking his friend's wrist for a pulse.

Its ok, Felix. He's alive. He's ok. He's alive. Stop fucking worrying.

"He's... not in a coma right?"

Ugh, I swear I just-

"I wouldn't think so. Nothing like this would cause it." Andrea confirmed, easing one of many of Felix' irrational concerns.
A few moments of regret-filled silence.
"I guess-"
"Yep."
"Of course. We'll tell him after."
So Daniel was propped up against a pile of cushions, brow furrowed even in his sleep.

It was a painful couple of minutes, even if it really was just a few. Marcus would wince at every movement Maxine would make with Lewis- even the smallest jerky footstep would send him into tears again. Both Andrea and Felix tried their absolute best to console him but, ultimately, what could they do?

Marcus' hand clenched his brother's tightly, his thumb brushing over the top of the greyed skin feverishly. It was almost as if he was trying to rub warmth back into the long dead body of his twin. He just wouldn't let go, both physically and mentally- though Felix couldn't blame him. Of course he wouldn't. Sure, Felix was an only child, but... it seemed agonising. Losing family so quickly and suddenly. He walked alongside the rest of the group- Taking slow, careful steps with Lewis held delicately between the three of them as if he could fall apart at any moment. It matched his own unsteady pace, thankfully. Felix' rib still hurt like a bitch and he had a bad gut feeling about the future problems it could cause. He wasn't sure if he could run.
The ground beneath his feet became spongy as he stumbled onto the grass of the back garden, grave just a few metres ahead. It was strange, he had so many memories here- with Lewis, too. He remembered the water gun fight, the makeshift shields him and Daniel had made when Lewis announced he was filling a dozen water balloons with boiling water. Or when he pretended to pour bleach into one and Daniel ended up screaming like his life depended on it. Which it would have. Except it was actually dish soap.

And now, they were carrying his limp body across the grass, about to be buried under the tree where they'd tried -and admittedly failed-  to build "the most awesome, bad-ass lookin' tree house ever created.". Something tugged on his heartstrings, maybe nostalgia, maybe fondness, maybe grief.
They stopped at the grave.
"How do we bury him?" Andrea asked. It seemed like a stupid question, but when Felix thought about it... they couldn't just dump him in there, right? A sharp inhale could be heard from the left of him, followed by soft mutterings of "I don't want to" and "I can't". Marcus' grip had turned his own hand a shade greyer. Even Maxine had dropped her stern gaze.
Everyone was silent, but Felix could almost hear the thoughts they were sharing.
Both the girls had already started lowering their arms, crouching so that Lewis hit the soil with a soft bump- his head tucked down into his shoulder at such a peaceful angle that it looked as if he could wake up any minute, screaming about how we'd all fallen for his prank. Well, if it weren't for the arm.
What are we doing with the arm, anyway?

No one had anticipated what it would be like to actually fill the hole back up when there was a person inside of it. Especially when two of the diggers were people who knew that person well, who'd grown up seeing him regularly, who to them was part of their childhood. Maxine had closed both his mouth and eyes- as a sign of respect, Felix guessed. Once the first spray of dirt had been tossed on to his brother's corpse Marcus was set back into hysterics.
"You don't have to look if you don't want to." Andrea soothed, refraining from touching him as he seemed to tense up whenever she did so. "I'm sorry, but this really is the best way to do things."
"I guess" sniffed Marcus through his tsunami worth of tears.
Layers upon layers of damp, gritty dirt were piled into the grave, filling Lewis' clothes, his ears, sifting through his lifeless fingers. With the power of three people combined, the mound of soil soon had consumed all but the boy's shoulder- the fabric of his shirt twitching every so often in the soft breeze. Marcus patted it down, now facing his fears and accepting that simple touch of his brother as his last.
Another shovel load of earth and Lewis was gone, beneath the oak tree and surrounded by a mass of clovers and daisies. Yes, it was a nice place to be buried. But that didn't make it any less grotesque. Trousers covered to his knees in soil, Marcus kneeled over the mound, hiccuping his tears back.
Then gradually, the rain started.
Felix found it was actually pretty refreshing. For what was probably the hundredth time, he was standing in the middle of Daniel's back garden on an autumn early afternoon, in the rain. Though never had he ever seen a person cry as hard and as long as Marcus had over his brother's grave.