Identity

CHAPTER 9 || You're Gone

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Identity

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I walked to school, pretending that I was okay. I was broken. I didn't even know who I was. Who was I if Dad wasn't around? What was my identity?

I looked up to the sky, ignoring the fact that Dawn and Gary were right in front of me. They looked at me with sympathy.

"Serena, are you okay?" Dawn asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm feeling fine." I smiled weakly.

I pictured Dad in a hospital bed, and I shook my head.

No, he's not going to die. Stop feeling negative about this whole situation. There's a chance he could survive. Make your friends happy.

"Are you sure?" Dawn asked.

"Yup," I replied.

My phone buzzed, and I quickly picked it up.

"Hello?" I asked.

Dawn and Gary continued along, so they wouldn't be late to school.

"Serena, you're missing school today. Dad's about to die. The gunshot was worse than expected," Mom explained. "I'm coming to pick you up. You better be walking to school right now."

I blasted into tears. Luckily, Dawn and Gary couldn't hear. I hung up after Mom said that. I cried just as hard as last night. The only way I could stop myself was telling myself that he'd be okay, and there's a chance.

There's not.

I saw Mom's car pull up from behind me. I quickly got in the front seat. We were silent once I closed the door. No radio station. No laughing at Dad's stupid jokes. No fighting over who's right. Just... silence.

"He's going to be too weak to talk at the hospital, but he told me to give you this," Mom said, interrupting the silence.

She handed me a necklace with a little locket in it.

"He told me to make sure I don't read the paper inside the locket, and that only you do. I was curious, but I won't ask you anything about it," Mom explained. "Make sure you don't tell anyone about it except the people you trust the most."

"Wouldn't that be you?" I asked.

"I can't keep secrets, don't tell it to me," Mom admitted.

A long and quiet drive continued. We soon ended up in the hospital. Everyone watched a broken mother and daughter walking to the elevator, trying to find their literally broken dad.

"Alright," I sighed. "To Dad we go."

"Try not to cry, he won't want to see you broken," Mom instructed.

I nodded. The elevator dinged, signaling that we were on the right floor. Mom and I exited the elevator without saying a word. We found Dad's hospital room's door, and we entered it.

I saw Dad laying on a hospital bed with a bandage all around his stomach. My eyes swelled in tears just seeing him laying down, continuing to die.

"He's going to die from loss of blood. We found a second gun shot straight through the kidney, and we can't do anything about it now. Too many machines wouldn't work, and we can't just fix the kidney that quickly," A nurse explained.

I bent down by Dad. He opened his eyes.

"Serena..." He mumbled.

Mom looked at him with shock. I was pretty shocked too. He could still whisper?

"Serena... you aren't the only one," Dad whispered. "Your... identity isn't... solo..."

His eyes shut again. We checked the heart rate machine's number. 0.

"What do you mean?" I cried, hugging his neck.

He was dead. I looked at the necklace around my neck. The locket, it must've referred to that.

I cried, and Mom cried too. The nurse left the room to give us some time alone.

"We should go. We need to be strong for Dad," I said, standing up with my hands in fists. "I'm not going to cry. He doesn't want to see us like that."

I rubbed my arm over my eyes to wipe away my tears.

"I'm not going to cry."

"You're right," Mom agreed. "I've just known him for that long, and to see him die from a gunshot... no, two gunshots... sucks."

I nodded. We quickly left the hospital.

I'm not going to cry anymore. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to.

Dad, I love you.

I wish that you were still here with me. I wish we could still pick flowers by the mountainside. I wish we didn't move. I wish we were still a happy family by the country. I wish we could still greet the Eevee's and Flabebè's with bread crumbs that they always loved to eat. I wish the things I could remember you by wasn't just a locket. I wish that you weren't dead.

But all good things come to an end, and this event was destined to happy eventually. What you said about my identity... I'll just have to figure that out. I don't even know who I am right now, but I'm sure I'll know eventually with the help of your note in this very locket.

Dad, I love you.

Serena.