Roxy

chapter 58: The light

Yeah. Remember when I said it is time to face my family. Yeah, that's not happening. It's ironic you know?

I'm not afraid of the living but of the dead. Not that I'm afraid, I'm just ashamed. Terribly ashamed.

After I chased the reporters away, I was walking towards the rest of my family, when my eyes spotted four graves.

Alessandro Ferrer

Maria Ferrer

John Ferrer

Ricardo Ferrer

Well, I wouldn't say I ran away at the sight... I just turned away and walked away with impeccable speed, leaving a very confused Louis.

So right now, I'm standing (not hiding) behind a tree a few feet away from the grave site.

"You okay?" I turned around with a scowl on my face.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Louis.

"Well, one second you were walking beside me the next you were running away...."

"I didn't run away." I grumbled.

"..... So I decided to check up on you." He concluded.

"Well you have. You can go now." I said dismissively and turned around to get a good glimpse of what is going on.

I heard a sharp intake of breath from behind me, "Roxanna, I think you should be there with the rest of your family."

I turned around with narrowed eyes, "why are you still here?"

"You seriously want me to leave?" He said and I decided to reply that with none. He seemed to have gotten the message and sighed. "Alright. But just so you know you are not the Roxanna I know."

That. Now that seemed to have gotten my attention, "what do you mean?"

He shrugged, "The Roxanna I know is fearless. She isn't afraid of-"

"May I ask you something?" I interrupted.

He seemed to have been taken aback, "uuh yeah okay."

"What do you think I'm supposedly afraid of?" He looked even more shocked by my question.

"Well... uhhhh.. I just meant..."

"You just meant what?" I hissed. "If Kelly were to die saving your life, kindly explain to me how you can proudly show your face in her funeral?"

He lowered his eyes to the ground, a moment of silence passed between us before he started walking away. But not before saying something that I most certainly did not expect as an answer.

"I would cower like a dog and never show my face ever again. But that's just the thing," he paused. "I'm not you, and your not me. You are you and I am me. That's the difference and the answer."

And just like that, he was gone.

What?

That was most certainly not the answer I was expecting. I looked back at the grave site and saw my family looking at me.

With a sigh and one last reassuring breath, I marched towards the rest. As I got closer to the rest, I got closer to the grave site, I got closer to the casket which was very much open.

I stopped dead in my tracks, unable to move. I just couldn't, I honestly think I'm close enough. Approached me was a crying Ruby.

"R-R-Ro-Roxy... R-Ranger..." She sobbed and attacked me with a hug. My arms were limp by my side as I stared at the open casket. I couldn't see him inside from the angle which I stood, and I am perfectly fine with that.