Blank Space [Barry Allen/The Flash]

c h a p t e r : 14

"With the merger between Queen Consolidated and Wayne Enterprises completed, the united companies will be hosting a big fund raiser. A masquerade ball... No big deal."

"Is this just a crappy way of asking me to go?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Bring that boy with you too?"

Lilli paused.

"I can ask."

Jade glared at her only sibling with great suspicion.

"Why do you say it like that?"

Lilli bit her lip and looked at her feet.

"I don't know. I think I might've done something."

"Oh god."

"I don't know! I'm so stressed and I don't want to talk about it. I think Barry might be going through something he's not telling me about."

"Did you say Barry? As in Barry Allen?"

Lilli's eyes snapped up from her socks and coughed in surprise at her sister's words.

"Yes... How do you kn-"

"Mutual friend."

"Okay..."

Jade pushed herself off the tall bar stool and brushed off her shirt.

"Well, I gotta go do, uh, something. I'll be back by dinner. Maybe."

Lilli ignored her sister and poked at a pancake. She was used to it. Jade had done this quite frequently when they lived together a few months back. As she left, Jade slammed the door as she went out and the apartment plunged into complete silence.

Eerie silence

---

The weather was gloomy and rainy - typical for a funeral. Barry held an umbrella above both his and Lilli's heads. Barry had only muttered a few words when he met Lilli at her apartment.

When Barry first asked Lilli to accompany him to the funeral, he seemed devastated. Devastated that his co-worker had been murdered.

Murdered by his girlfriend. Murdered by someone unknown to him.

Lilli laced her arm around Barry's as the two walked to the grave site. The gravel underneath Lilli's shoes seemed to crunch a little too much, and the raindrops falling from the sky seemed endless. Lilli knew they were near when she heard crying. Just over the crest of a hill, stood the family, and all the friends, of Officer Graham.

What Lilli saw next made her sick.

A woman about Officer Graham's age cradled a little boy, no older than five, in her arms. Another boy, about seven, clutched to the woman's legs. The two kids had the exact same hair and facial features of their deceased father. Lilli felt a pain in her chest and her stomach churned.

Lilli's breathing became shallow and she clutched onto Barry's arm so hard, her knuckles had turned white. Barry looked down at the crying girl on his arm and his eyebrows crawled up his forehead.

"Lil, are you okay?"

She looked up at him and into his sweet green eyes. Barry can cry, not me.

"N-No Bare," Lilli stuttered. "I'm not okay."