Blessing In Disguise

Original | Chapter Twenty

(Sierra's POV)

I watch silently as they slowly begin to lower the casket into the burial plot. Maddie cries as everyone stands as rigid as statues, heads bowed and hands clasped. The adults seem to be struggling to hold back their tears. Although the day is a morbid one, a day to mourn over the loss of a young woman's life taken much too soon, the sky is clear, the sun bright.

"She was too young," Maddie sobs. "She didn't deserve to die."

"Who deserves to die?" I retort.

"Murderers, child molesters, rapists, the kid who stole my Oreos during snack time in kindergarten, but not her. How are you not crying?"

"I guess I wasn't as attached to her as you were."

Or maybe I'm just good at masking my emotions.

I watch as a friend of the spiritual, strong life lost places a single rose upon the top of the casket.

"What's her name again?" I ask, referring to the friend.

"Jennifer," Madison replies. "But she prefers to go by JJ."

I nod.

"Why did she have to be the one to die?" Maddie continues to weep. "Why didn't she hold on? Why didn't she keep fighting?"

"It's not healthy to ponder over questions that you know can't be answered."

"Shut up, Dr. Phil. I'll ponder over whatever questions I choose to, thank you very much," she sniffles. "She was too young," she repeats. "Far too young. She didn't even get the chance to get married or start a family."

"It's tragic."

"Quit bottling your emotions up. I know that you're just as sad as I am."

"Why are you crying?" Dallas enters the room, eyeing Maddie as if she has completely lost her mind.

"It's just so sad!"

I roll my eyes at her dramatics and gesture towards the television tucked away in the corner of Demi's hospital room.

"We're watching Criminal Minds," I explain. "It's the episode where-"

"Don't say it," Maddie pleads.

"Emily-"

"Don't say it."

"Dies."

"Oh, you said it! How dare you, Sierra?"

"I'm not sorry," I shrug.

Dallas glances back and forth between the two of us.

"Okay," she slowly breathes out. "Do you wanna know what it sounds like from the hallway?"

"You could hear us from the hallway?"

"I could hear you from the hallway, yes," she replies to Madison's inquiry.

"I'm guessing that it sounded like Demi had died," I infer.

Dallas nods as I turn in my chair to face Demi who lays in her hospital bed, still not awake. Her hand that was cold upon arrival is now slightly warm because I haven't let go of it since we arrived. The angry, red cuts visible on her arms because of the short sleeved, hospital  provided gown contrast heavily with her pale, ghostly complexion.

"When do you think she'll wake up?" Maddie softly questions, as if reading my mind.

"The doctor said that it should be sometime soon."

"That's a pretty vague answer," I scrunch up my nose.

"Yeah, it is," Dallas chuckles. "I kind of wanted to punch him when he gave me that response."