This is the final calm before the storm if it could be called the calm anyways.
enjoy x
word count: 1,157
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SHE STANDS WITH her parents a year after her beloved brother had died and the only thing she can see is her broken family's reflection in the tombstone.
Her mother is weeping hopelessly on the ground, Dalileh figured losing a child is a pain she'll never experience. But she understands that losing someone you wanted to invest love, time, money, effort, care, encouragement, and kindness is an irreparable trauma. Her father comforts his wife on the ground but Dalileh doesn't miss the tears that are streaming down his eyes at the agony of losing his only son and the pain of his lover's grief. On the other hand, she woke up today with a numbness to the date labelled on the calendar downstairs in the kitchen.
The girl's emotions are frozen in time with a constant harassment of flashbacks. She's already seen him bleeding three times between waking up and now. Her dreams mirrored her emotions —or lack thereof—walking in the snow with Omar in the cemetery only to come face to face with his tombstone caused her to wake up in a cold sweat. A shiver courses down her spine at the reminder of it.
Her parents wallow in their agony and it causes a certain detachment and barrier to be set up that doesn't allow her to reach them for any source of comfort. But she tries to provide comfort instead by placing the bouquets of flowers around the tombstone; a symbol of beauty and life amongst the land of the dead. Then she embraces them with as much warmth and sympathy as she can muster despite her emotionally unavailable heart. The family sits on the cold, wet ground huddled together with their melancholy and grief being more important than the possibility of sickness.
When they stand, its together. When they decide to talk to Omar its together, each person is given their own time to discuss personal thoughts. When its Dalileh's turn she whispers, "I hope your okay baby bro. Don't worry about me okay I'm going to be okay. Maybe not today, or tomorrow or any time soon but someday I'll visit you with good news. I promise. I love you so much." She steps forwards and hugs his tombstone before departing and joining her parents as they walk towards the exit of the cemetery.
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Dalileh anxiously steps into Omar's nursery; it's been left untouched for a year, and as a result also not cleaned for a year. Her parents can't bear the possibility of the cleaners moving anything in the room, and they don't want to delude themselves into thinking he's in the room if a noise of a rattling toy emitted as a result of the room being cleaned. But Dalileh closes the door and opened the curtain upon the window so as to allow light into the shrouded area; his spirit doesn't deserve to be swallowed by darkness. She looks outside at the white expanse and whispers, "Isn't it beautiful Omar? I'm sorry for not being brave enough to come in and open it earlier. But maybe you'll find peace in this."
Her socks softly patter on the timber as well as the rug in the middle of the room. She's trying to be as quiet as she probably can for no reason, in particular, it's not like there's anyone sleeping in the room. Yet for some reason, she feels as though she's disturbing the silence even with her breathing. Omar's bed is decorated and shaped like a rocket on the sides, to suit the celestial theme upon his walls. Dalileh sits down on the bed and that's when she sees all the dust in the room, how it deteriorated with his absence. And her blood begins to boil, the first emotion she's felt that day.
She then spends hours upon hours late into the night cleaning the room despite her parent's protests. Her anger lashes out at them launching a fierce response, "How can you bear to let his room die with him? That's all we have left of him and you've brushed it aside as it'll burn you." When she's done cleaning her heart continues to pump anger as she reflects upon the injustice that was served after his death. She grabs her phone and headphones deciding to play music and sleep in his room to keep him company. The moonlight shines into the room providing a sense of peace. I'm going to decorate your room so much that it'll look alive. Pressing play upon the track she sees a peculiar notification from Melanie of all people.
It reads,
"I know you hate me and I don't blame you now that I know what part of what you went through because of me is like. But you CAN'T let egon go to that party dali. Do whatever you can in your power just don't let him go there, it won't end well for anyone. I have a bad feeling about tomorrow. I'll help you as much as I can. I owe you so much. Im so sorry again and if he does show up to it I guess I'll just have to be there. I didn't want to go. I'm sorry for Omar, I really am. But maybe we can at least save egon, we're both to blame for what he's going through. see you on Monday when this is all over"
Tears drop with the melancholy in her ears as she reflects upon the time she told him to loosen up when he had found out. And the time she pressured him into trying. And the time she pressured him into trying it again. And every single time after that he took it from her with conflict and disgust in his eyes until there was no emotion left. Just a passive look.
She doesn't answer the message, she just cries on the ground until she sleeps next to her dead brother's bed imagining he's in it asking why she's upset. Behind sleeping eyes, her little brother has wisdom beyond his years as they sit in the room playing with figurines. "You can be a superhero Dali" says the four-year-old; Dali noticed that he's growing up in her dreams and if he was alive he'd be going to school the following year. He passes her a figurine of a woman superhero and she processes what he says then places a kiss on his forehead. "So can you baby" she responds.
"I'm not baby, I'm big boy."
She chuckles and continues to play with him until she wakes up on the ground holding onto the rocket-shaped bed with rays of the sun shining through the clouds into the room.
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