Broken - Isadora Quagmire

Chapter Three - The Funeral

"Morning" said Aunt Agnes "we're leaving in around an hour"

"There's some clothes in the closet for you and your brother to change into" said Aunt Vivian

"Thank you" I said

"Don't thank us dear, we are your guardians after all"

I woke Duncan up and got changed into the black dress that my aunties had left me. Duncan then got changed into his suit and after brushing our teeth, we went downstairs where Liam and Valerie were waiting with their mothers.

Valerie was sitting down jotting things down in her commonplace book as Aunt Vivian brushed he beautiful red hair, they were both talking with Liam and Aunt Agnes who were sitting on the opposite them. When they all saw us, they stopped their secret discussions and turned their focus to Duncan and I.

"Morning Quagmires" said Valerie, standing up.

"Have we interrupted something?" asked Duncan.

"We can go into another room" I continued.

"No ned, we were just discussing what to eat for breakfast, weren't we?" said Aunt Vivian.

"Yes, I said that I think we should all have a nice bowl of cereal" said Liam

"I said porridge would be a good fuel for the day" said Aunt Agnes.

"What do you think Valerie?" I asked.

"Oh...me...well...I...I think...maybe...pancakes?" she stuttered. Liam and his mother's smiled at the young girl as if she had just been awarded a medal of bravery or something prestigious like that. She smiled too, she was obviously trying to contain it but I could see her smile. At the time, I thought she just really loved pancakes or something along those lines, it's only now as I sit here in a dark closet surrounding by my surviving family, a villainous fairy dress and an assortment of shoes that are also weapons, that I realise that she wasn't smiling because she wanted pancakes, she was smiling because it was the first time she had to cover up a meeting with her family about a secret organisation that I was was going to learn about it in the following months.

"Pancakes sound lovely" said Aunt Vivian. She and her wife walked out of the room, each of them holding one of their daughter's hands.

"Are you two okay?" asked Liam "I know today will be hard for you two, I was even younger than Valerie when I lost my parents"

"Your parents are dead too"

"We're sorry"

"I was young, I barley remember it now, Valerie was around two years old and I was seven, she was terrified. But the next day, we arrived here and even though they aren't our biological parents, Agnes and Vivian have taught me and my sister so much. They will never replace what we could have had with our biological parents, but they are my parents now. Hopefully, you two Quagmires will come to feel that too" he paused "later we're all going to talk but before that we have to get through this funeral, I know it's very soon after their deaths but unfortunately that has been happening a lot lately for people in our line of work"

"What do you mean?" I asked "did you work with our parents"

"Your parents were brave and noble people, yes I worked with them. But for now, don't worry about that, just get through today, I'll be there all day, we all will. Then later, or whenever you are ready, we'll tell you everything"

"Pancakes are ready!" Valerie exclaimed coming into the room.

"Thanks Val, I'll be through in a sec" he said getting up "you two coming?". I got up and was following him out of the room when Duncan held me back.

"Isadora, you don't think..."

"Fire?" I continued "again..."

"We have to figure out what's going on" I said.

"No, we don't. Duncan, we have to get through today, like Liam said. Then we'll find out 'everything' and hopefully we will be able to find happiness here"

"Without our parents, and Quigley?"

"It's not like that"

After we finished breakfast, we'll got into Aunt Agnes' car. Aunt Vivian and Aunt Agnes sat in the front, Valerie was sitting in the middle and I sat in the far back with Duncan.

Five minutes after we got into the car, Liam still wasn't there.

"Aunties, where is Liam?" I asked.

"Liam Just has to make a quick call to Mr. Lyons, dear" said Aunt Vivian.

A car door then opens and shut, Liam had got into the car.

"Everything okay?" Aunt Agnes asked.

"Yes, he said that he would take them"

"Take who?" Duncan asked.

"His children" said Aunt Agnes.

"The Lyons were quite close with your parents and we invited them to join us today to say goodbye to your parents"

"Oh, okay.." I said

"More people that we don't know, that knew our parent" Duncan whispered.

An hour later, we arrived at the cemetery. I initially thought we had actually missed Quigley and our parents' funerals, because of the amount of people that were there - the people that I didn't know.

"Who are all those people?" I asked Aunt Vivian.

"They all worked with your parents" she replied

Duncan and I stood in a corner of the church for the next ten minutes as Aunt Vivian, Aunt Agnes, Valerie and Liam walked around, talking to the various people that I didn't know. Babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults... So many people and I didn't know a single one.

Then a small family of four walked in, a man with three kids a little girl who looked younger than Valerie, a boy who looked around my age and a girl around Liam's age who I assumed was his girlfriend because she immediately ran up to Liam and embraced him in a hug before kissing him on the cheek and hugging him again. She talked to him for while and after Liam briefly pointed towards us, the girl's brother walked up to them. He looked quite strange, his black hair fringed over his left eye and, as well as his siblings and his father, he seemed tense and alert, all the time.

An hour later, the service had ended and we had buried the empty caskets of Mother, Father and Quigley. Me and Duncan lay some flowers on each of their graves as our new family watched from a small distance. Duncan and I each said a few words and though I am sharing all the events that led up to where I am now, I would prefer to keep this private. Only me and Duncan know what was said and only me and Duncan will ever know. We stood up after we said what we had to say and then we linked arms as we started walking towards the others.

I would prefer to end this part on a somewhat happy note, I left the funeral with my new family, we arrived home - to safety - and a picnic on the beach as they told us all about a secret organisation. But unfortunately, I cannot and it brings tears to my eyes because I have have to write that I didn't leave the funeral with my new family not all of them. And even though I will forever wish it, nobody could stop the gun from being fired.

"Mom!"

"No!" the woman screamed kneeling down her wife's side,

"Mom!" Liam said getting down as it started to rain. All the people I didn't know from the funeral started running over to us, Liam's girlfriend at the front of the crowd. Her daughter was screaming, her son was crying, her wife was weeping, Duncan was crying, I was crying. My new family knelt beside our fallen member.

Then she breathed her final words "The World Is Quiet Here..."

"Mom!" Liam cried. His girlfriend arrived and knelt down beside him.

"Vivian? Vivian! Wake up! Wake up!" Aunt Agnes called.