Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Monday Morning ❯ What Do You Do... ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

“You're lying.”

The tears came. The screaming.

“You're a fucking liar!” She slammed down the phone, sobbing, her tears betraying her belief, no matter how much she denied it. Spotting InuYasha, a blank look on his face, the look in his eyes demanding to know what was going on, and struggled to walk towards him, struggled to keep upright.

She almost succeeded. Falling into his arms, tears running down her face, and the bagel fell to the carpet as he caught her. He held her close, tenderly, like she was a delicate object that could be easily broken if used too roughly. Kissing the top of her head, he tried to understand, tried to calm her, tried to comfort her. But he could do none of these things knowing nothing.

“What happened?” He murmured into her hair, keeping his voice soft to try and coax her into talking about it. “What's wrong?”

“I…I don't think I can go to class today…we have to go…”

His face was the picture of confusion.

 

I don't think that I can go to school today…without you.

 

Barely an hour had passed by since that phone call, along with another one, to a separate location. An hour where kids made their way to their classes, complaining that it was Monday and they had to suffer through another five days until the weekend, mothers strapped screaming kids with runny noses into their highchairs, workoholic businessmen made their way in their fancy suits and briefcases to their offices, their escapes.

Every single one of them was blissfully unaware that a sixteen-year-old girl was dead.

Except for the solemn group sitting in that same seventh floor apartment, each alone in their grief, yet at the same time all joined there to support a single person, as well as the others.

Jack had an expression on his face to that of someone who's soul has died. There was nothing behind his eyes any more. It was like the light had gone out in them. He didn't give any sign of registering that the others were there, just sat staring out into space, Meg's locket clutched tightly in his hands, which had been recovered from her body at his request. He hadn't wanted it thrown into the ground for no one to see, like she was going to be. The heart-shaped locket was open, and revolving slowly as he moved it through his fingers, the pictures of himself and Meg on opposite sides of the locket slipping in and out of view.

Kim and Seto had arrived as well, and the silence in the room was almost overpowering, the only thing remotely reminding them that time was passing was the clock on the wall, its ceaseless ticking slowly filling Kim's mind until she found that if someone didn't stop it soon, she would be forced to stand up and throw it at the wall until it smashed into a million pieces, breaking up her rage into those pieces, her rage against everything that had happened, her rage against Meg for leaving them like this, her rage against the drunks who had turned into her murderers.

Maxine lifted her head from where she'd been staring intently at her lap. When she managed to get up the courage to speak, her voice was soft, yet seemed loud as it interrupted the numb silence. “The…the mortician called earlier. Her body is ready for burial. Said we should start planning the funeral.”

Kim's look at her was murderous. Max's expression was meek, but explainable. What else was there to talk about, when there was nothing else to say? When there was nothing else on everyone's minds?

Seto, sitting beside Kim, his hand clutching hers tightly, was the one to look towards Jack to see how he took the news, and found, with little surprise, that he didn't give any indication that he'd heard Max at all.

 

And how are you supposed to deal with everything you've gotta do, when you can barely believe it's true?

 

The day was spent this way, the persistent ticking of the clock turning into the only sound, ticking away the moments, taking them farther and farther away from the time they had last seen their friend alive, smiling, joking, laughing.

 

Twilight settled upon them. The feeble light tried to force its way into the room, but slowly and surely it was getting weaker, unable to fully illuminate the room for much longer. And still, they had barely spoken to each other. Each held on to their own little hopes, that if they didn't speak of it, then it wouldn't be true. And then there was the fear that if they did make a sound, it would shatter the air, somehow destroy the vapors of her life that still hovered through the apartment, that haunted them from her photographs, that tormented them from her yet-to-be-washed laundry on the floor.

It couldn't be true. Couldn't be.

Yet it was.

Finally, when it became too dark to see anything, Seto stood up, however instead of flicking the light switch, he instead lit some candles and set them down around the room. Too bright of a light seemed an inappropriate invasion on their grief.

It wasn't long after Seto sat back down that Kim was the first to break out of her shock. A single tear slid down her cheek as she stared at the candle, and after that, she just couldn't seem to stop. A sob broke out of her throat, and she threw herself into Seto's arms, heaving and crying into his shoulder uncontrollably. Her tears set Max off, and the two of them both tried to stifle their tears and regain control as the realization set in that they would never see her face at their doors again, grinning deviously, arms loaded with movies and pizza to crash on the couch with them for the night.

 

And Jack simply stared into space. The meaning of his life had gone into the next world, where he couldn't follow.

 

 

 

[[Anything in italics in this story are fragments of song lyrics. The source of these lyrics will be recorded at the end of every chapter.

 

Lyrics: Monday Morning by Prozac]]