Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Monday Morning ❯ I'll Never Be The Same ( Chapter 5 )

Monday Morning

I'll Never Be The Same…

 

Kim sat on the couch of her living room on the day before Christmas Eve, watching the news. In one hand she clutched a dark gray mug of green tea, the other lightly resting on the remote.

It was dark out, but the lamp on the endtable beside her, the harsh light of the television and the calm white lights from the Christmas tree gave enough light to illuminate the room. It was a large space, and Kim had managed to decorate it in a classy, gothic yet modern sort of way. The Christmas tree was decorated in all gold and white, a freshly cut tree because personally she simply liked the idea of having a real one. The carpet was white, as were the walls, but there was classy black furniture everywhere, including black gothic candleholders on the walls. Having decorated the entire house herself, Kim couldn't have been prouder of it.

But at the moment, she didn't notice any of that. She sat there, dressed in one of Seto's old t-shirts and black and red checkered PJ bottoms, her long hair falling loose and careless around her shoulders, eyes glued to the television screen. The tea in her hand was forgotten.

Finally, after a long few months, a local television station was finally airing the trial of two middle-aged men: the two drunks who had turned into Meg's murderers.

The story had been all over the papers. Apparently, the two men had been brothers-in-law, and had discovered that their wives had been cheating on them. “Thrown into the pits of despair”, or so their lawyers said, they'd gone to the bar downtown to try and drink away their problems. With a loss of proper thinking and no one around at such a late hour to steer them towards better judgment, they'd gotten into the older man's pickup truck and started to drive home.

And then, there on that dark, deserted highway, they'd steered drunkenly into the wrong lane, hit the oncoming vehicle head-on, and sent the car, along with the young girl inside, spinning away and straight into the guard-rail, before the car flipped over three times, still moving at a fast speed, and coming at last to a stop by smashing into a nearby telephone pole.

According to the coroner's report, she'd died instantly.

It took all of Kim's will not to cry while she watched the news report, and all her self-control not to leap up and cheer when the announcement came back that they'd been found guilty, and had been arrested and convicted of murder. They'd both be spending the rest of their lives behind bars because of their stupid mistake. A mistake that had destroyed a life, and torn apart the lives of everyone who knew her.

But somehow…it was a hollow victory. It didn't seem right. Even though they were in prison…they were still alive. They deserved the death sentence, to serve the same fate that they'd bestowed upon an innocent girl.

 

And of all the evil souls that do survive…how could this world take such a beautiful life?

 

The room was suddenly illuminated as a car pulled into the driveway. Almost as if the headlights had pulled her out of a state of shock, Kim remembered the green tea in her hand, and she drank it quickly, barely registering that it had gone stone cold, the leaves swirling around all chunky and gross.

A moment or two later, Seto swept into the room, and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “How're you doing?”

She gave a little shrug. “A bit better today, I think.” She motioned towards the TV with her mug. “Those Maloney bastards were convicted today.”

He sat down beside her, loosening his tie. “Yeah, I know. It was on the satellite television at work. So they get life now, right?”

“Yeah, the jury had a lot more sympathy for a beautiful dead teenager than with two butt-ugly drunks who couldn't handle rejection properly.”

“Understandable.”

The two of them sat in silence for a while, half-watching some commercial for cat food. It took a few moments for Seto to finally speak up about what was on his mind. “So…Christmas tomorrow.”

“What? It's Christmas Eve tomorrow.”

Without a word, Seto pointed to the clock, and Kim discovered that it was after midnight. “Oh. Right then.”

He tried to continue where he'd left off. “Yeah…so, Christmas tomorrow. What…what exactly are we doing?”

She turned to look at him, defensive action slowly starting to surface in her bright eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” He hesitated, obviously trying to figure out how to best put what he was trying to say. “Are we going to do everything…like every year?”

“Well…sure. Why wouldn't we?”

Even as she said it, she knew it was stupid. They were all broken apart now, shaken to the core. That was why.

Kim sighed deeply, and placed her now-empty mug on the black coffee table in front of them. “I…don't know. I think that it'd be best to try and keep things as normal as possible…considering the circumstances.” Her words sounded hollow. Nothing would ever be normal again.

Seto looked at her thoughtfully, his stare half admiring, half concerned. “How are you doing it?”

She tilted her head to one side. “Doing what?”

“I…I don't know. It's just that since the funeral, you've been able to keep your cool better than Max has.”

She sighed again, and glanced out the window. Max had been admitted to a rehab center a few weeks before, since it seemed that she had a dangerous addiction to the numbing effect of drugs and alcohol. She'd been allowed a pass from the place for Christmas Day however, so at least they could all look forward to the comforting thought of seeing her.

“I don't know how I'm doing it,” she finally managed to say. “I guess it's because deep down, I know that she's probably happy…and that's all we ever wanted for her.”

And yet, deep down inside, she knew that she didn't believe that. In fact…she was no better off than Max. Since Meg's funeral, she'd been taking the prescription pills she found in the medicine cabinet. They seemed to help, and gave her a feeling of being separate from the world, separate from her emotions…it was a feeling that she only needed to feel maybe a few times a week, but it was still comforting to know that it was there…that she could pretend everything was the same again, for just a little while.

But oh, how it hurt so bitterly.

 

And how could the same world that brought you in just come and take you away?

 

Seto nodded, completely oblivious to her dirty little secret. “I figured that you, at least, would be able to see that.”

She nodded, not trusting herself to answer, and decided that a hasty change in topic was in order. “Have you spoken to Jack lately?”

Seto's face clouded over. “No. And I think he's getting worse, not better Kim.”

Kim sighed, and moved her legs so that she was curled up in the corner of the couch, hugging her knees. “It's kind of expected though, isn't it? I mean…” She tried not to let her voice crack. “She was everything to him.”

“I just thought…that…well…he's Jack Sparrow…he can recover from anything, can't he?”

Kim turned to look at him with a piercing, meaningful stare. “It's damn near impossible to recover from a broken heart.”

 

 

 

[[Song lyrics: Monday Morning by Prozac.]]