Loving Ashlynn (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 30 - End Of The Road (Brennan Conrad POV) Pt.2

Chapter 30 – End Of The Road (Brennan Conrad POV) Pt.2

Then. "W-what –B-Bren?" Samson croaked out, his eyes barely able to stay open or focused, I swallowed. Hard.

Just looking at Samson was heart wrenching, he'd be a reminder of what was lost and what was still around.

One brother lost another right in front of me. We're all able to see him. Touch him. Yet even in the sadness, there was a small part of me, which was growing as I watched Samson come out from under the sedative drugs uncle Trevor had given him.

"Si," he mumbled and looking away, I gasped in a breath. Holding it in, my vision blurs. "I – I cannot be the one to repeat it Ansel," I heard my mother crying after the third time waking Samson.

"Each time he wakes, it's breaking him," mom wept.

Inhaling and letting out that breath shakily, I move closer to Samson, removing the restraints that held him in place. My pain for losing a brother was crippling, but if I just look and listen to my parents, theirs was beyond.

Truthfully beyond grief was not something I wanted to experience. I know that they never expected this to happen. When they had Samson and Silas, I don't think even with our kind being in danger, they couldn't have planned for this.

One minute they had ten children; Talia, Thaddeus, Samson, Silas, Samantha, Paige, Katerina, Simon, Amy and myself. They wake up and it's a new number. Except it's not just a number.

Losing a whole person was not the same as losing one of the crayons in a pack. It wasn't like losing or misplacing money. And it most certainly wasn't like not making enough cupcakes. All those things that seem like they are the biggest and cruelest of occurrences didn't prepare anyone to lose a person.

Taking Samson's hand in both of mine, not letting go when he meekly tries to pull it away in annoyance, I stand above him. Hoping that he would look into my eyes and just... he didn't have to grieve on anyone's schedule but we couldn't continue to sedate him.

All that was doing was creating a cycle.

Letting him go to a place in his mind where he could pretend that reality was all a bad dream, and the fake situation in his head was the truth.

When his eyes gaze up into mine, still unfocused, I see it.

His lips turn downwards and I can imagine in his head he's trying to merge reality and dream. Every time he's woken before it was to mom, dad or Uncle Trevor. This was the first time I would be with him as he left the dream world where his twin was alive.

I exhale shakily and a small part of me wonders how my parents had done this for nearly two weeks? How had they broken Samson's heart repeatedly and still have the strength to do anything?

"Siigh-lus," Samson mumbles, and I have to steady myself. The urge to vomit increases and my mouth fills with saliva. "Samson," I croak, clearing my throat, I couldn't leave room for argument.

I'm his big brother.

I can do this.

My parents were being incredible but they couldn't continue doing this with Samson, it was breaking mom up inside and I knew her as the strongest woman. I had to make this easier for them.