The Edge of Sentiment

Prologue | A Time to Cry.

Prologue | A time to cry.

My head was weighed down by my thoughts, I slumped forward and leaned heavily against my brothers trembling frame. It was impossible to set my eyes upon the pair of identical charcoal caskets as they were lowered six feet into the earth one by one. My entire world was torn apart and separated into two black boxes.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust..." I could no longer hear the prepared words of the pastor, the loud pulse in my ears completely drowned out all sound. I couldn't hear my own breathing, I didn't know if I still was capable of taking a breath.

For a moment I began to wonder if this was all a perverted nightmare. The reverberating thud of thick dirt hitting my fathers' casket brought me back to reality. After another clunk, it was then that I realized a part of me had perished along with my parents. A sharp pain stabbed at the middle of my chest as a whimper escaped my oldest brothers' mouth. My lips began to tremble and I began to sob.

"Noo! Why us Michael?" I bawled and he squeezed my hand tightly as my other brother Evan pulled me into a tight embrace. Hoarse cries were muffled by the sleeve of his suit as my gaze fell upon the two portraits. Black and white prints couldn't obscure the joyful light in my father's eyes or the elated expression across my mother's face. Two happy people didn't deserve to die in such a sad way.

There they were... Together, side by side, in death as they were in life. Laid to rest under a flimsy green tent and I felt just as frail as the thin fabric. The thread holding my sanity together rapidly began to unstitch. Before my eyes rolled to the back of my head, before I lost consciences, the last thing I recall seeing was my mother and fathers smiling faces.