Blue Skies: Sean & Kaycee | Short Stories

Buried Alive | Part 2

Warning: sad.

I'm sorry.

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Kaycee hated cars. She hated being in cars. And the drive from San Francisco back to Los Angeles was a long one.

She rolled her head to the side and blinked slowly at the passing landscape. After her family had moved, it was over ten months before she allowed herself to step into a car again. One day her mother had found her sitting in the passenger seat of her sedan as she was leaving for the grocery store. Nothing was said between them, but it was understood that Kaycee had put aside that particular fear. She could ride in a car. But not a truck. Never a truck.

"Is it too hot back there?"

Kaycee pulled off her headphones, raising her eyebrows at her dad, who was halfway turned around in the passenger's seat to look at her.

"What?"

Brad sighed.

"I said, is it hot back there?"

Kaycee had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "Dad, its fine. I'M fine. I promise."

It had been a steady stream of questions ever since they started the road trip home. Although her parents were delighted that she was finally ready to pick up her life again, she could see they were apprehensive about the sudden change.

Laura shot a worried glance at her daughter through the rearview mirror as Kaycee pulled on her headphones, going back to staring silently out the window at the passing landscape.

"Do you think she's ready for this?" Brad breathed.

Laura pursed her lips, her fingers tapping anxiously on the steering wheel. She didn't know. But over two years had passed since their lives were turned upside down; over two years since Kaycee had retreated from the world, diving so deep inside herself she had silently worried her daughter wouldn't be able to find her way out.

She and her husband had watched helplessly as their bubbly, ever-optimistic daughter—a girl who could light up a room with her smile and giggle—transformed into a hollow shell of her former self. Nothing they could say seemed to help, and the ineffective words had dried up so quickly; all they could do was provide a steady ladder of love and support for their daughter, and hope she would find the strength to climb back out and face the world again.

Over the past few months, small smiles and jokes had made their way back into their lives. Kaycee's unchanging blank expression had slowly progressed to aware then pensive. Even the night she started talking at dinner was a small, yet tightly-cherished victory. And Tricia's gift had further pushed Kaycee along the path to healing. Now they were headed home. A place Kaycee hadn't stepped foot in since that summer. But it was time, for all of them.

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Kaycee stopped inside the front door, tightly clutching her duffle to her shoulder. Her eyes flitted across the foyer, taking in the dusty wood floors and stale, musty air. But it looked exactly the same as it did on the day they left, almost as if time had stopped, preserving the home for whenever she returned.

"We'll get the cleaners in this week to spruce it up again," her mom said as she passed Kaycee, carrying in her favorite potted plant.

As far as Kaycee was aware, the only time someone had been back in this house was when her dad would stop by to check on it every few months or to pick up more of her mother's belongings.

Almost three years it had sat abandoned, full of memories none of their family were ready to face, but yet unable to let go. She and Kylie had listened to her parents' heated discussions about selling the house. They never came to a real decision, so it was left empty, gathering dust to fill the silence.