The Cry

Tess

Today was an off day.

Since Tess died every day has been an off day but today was particularly off.  Today I buried my sister.

The weather was bleak. Heavy drops of rain fell to the ground like lead. They fell from concrete clouds that covered the sky like a blanket.

She hated flowers. She would have hated this whole thing. People she hardly knew pretending to sob but really they were only here for the food afterwards. The songs playing from my mothers phone were morbid. They really added to the shitty mood in the church. Which brings me to another thing she would have hated. Tess was not religious. She never got on with the local vicar so watching him spout rubbish about how close he was to her made me want to smack him.
I didn't even pretend to sing the hymns in the service. Through the whole thing I sat and stared at my shoes. This really annoyed my mother.
She never got on with Tess they were always bickering. This whole thing was her idea. It was so unlike Tess I felt like I was at a strangers funeral.

'People are staring' She hissed in my ear.
'Let them' I whispered back.  I was beyond trying to please her.
'Is this really what your sister would have wanted' She snarled.
This is when I saw red. How dare she tell me what Tess would have wanted.

'You don't know anything about her, you hated her!' I screamed at my mother.
It was harsh I realised that as soon as the words came out of my mouth. She sat there in what looked like despair. She was devastated when the police came round and told us she had died. However that didn't stop me being angry.

I stood up and ran for the doors. I could hear people whispering. This was clearly entertaining for them.
Once I had fled from the church I got on the nearest bus.
I had no clue where I was going. But I didn't care, I didn't want to be anywhere.

It was only me and a teenage boy on the bus. He sat with his headphones in and his hood raised looking quite simple to be honest.

I don't like to think about that night. But it keeps flashing in to my mind. Tess and the car on that old country lane. She was all alone.

The crash had been labelled an accident by the police. Apparently she just wasn't looking where she was going when it hit her. But this didn't sound right.
The Tess I knew was bright. Much smarter than me. I mean she had been known to neck a few vodkas now and then if  at a party. But she would never go out on her own especially down some creepy old lane in the middle of no where.
Everything felt wrong.

I could feel the tears beginning to run down my face. I wiped them away furiously. If Tess could see me now crying like a child she would be appalled.

I barely heard it at first. I was deep in thought and I automatically put it down to being someone in the street being stupid.
But it just kept getting louder in my head. It was like a scream but it wasn't panicked. It was the opposite.
I looked up. The bus driver seemed unfazed by it. Maybe he couldn't hear it. The boy with the headphones remained with his head hung low under the hood of his jacket.

I sat back. Maybe it was the fact I was thinking about Tess. Maybe it was all too much for me.

But then the boy sat up.

He did it so fast it made me jump his head no longer hung down all sad. He was sat up so straight it looked unnatural.
He mechanically batted away his headphones. His movement was almost robotic. Then he repeatedly pressed the emergency stop button.

Looking confused the driver stopped the bus.
'The next stops only round the corner mate.' He said turning to face him.
The boy pushed him aside. He strode off the
bus.

What happened next will forever haunt me.

I heard the scream again. And by the looks of it so did everybody else as they turned to look at him.
Another bus came round the corner.

The boy ran in front of it.

Some screams were ringing in my ear. I couldn't tell if they from the earlier scream or from the people who were stood around the bus in horror.

The thing that really got me, was as I turned to look at the boy,through all the blood was a tattoo. It wasn't there before. It was  a crow.

And underneath read:
The Cry