I didn't go to school the rest of the week. Maggie and Dover promised to stomp out any rumors about me and my dad. I'm sure people found it weird that my dad and Lucy and I were the only ones to survive but really all it was was a horrific coincidence.
I sat in my room most hours of the day. My dad was busy arranging the ten funerals but honestly it was nothing new, him always busy and all. I did bring Lucy's crib into my room so she slept with me at night. The house was eerily quiet and I didn't like it.
It wasn't until Wednesday, the day of the prayer service, when I had an actual conversation with my dad.
I was standing in front of my body mirror in my closet when he knocked lightly on the doorjam. I looked up from admiring a diamond necklace my mom had gotten me many years before to see him holding a blue box. He smiled sadly.
"How you holding up kid?" he asked, taking my acknowledgement of his presence as an invite inside my closet.
I shrugged. "All right I suppose." I hesitated. "You?"
The answer was easy to see for myself. His body seemed to have sunk in on itself. His eyes were bloodshot, his nose was red, and he had bags upon bags. But I still felt it was only polite of me to ask.
"I'm...getting along."
"Sounds about right."
I went back to smoothing down my black dress. I tucked the hanger straps into the dress and then looked through the mirror at my dad to see him absentmindedly playing with the blue box.
I smiled. "What's that?"
"Oh! That's what I came up here for. Its something for you."
I walked over to him and he handed me the box. I opened it and the smile slipped right off my face. Sitting on a thin sheet of satin was a necklace. It had beautiful, colorful beads on the chain. It was a dreamcatcher and it had a small wooden wolf in the middle of it. The wolf had swirly designs decorating it.
"It was your, like...eighteenth great grandmas. Its been handed down for a while. I figured you could wear it for this."
I couldn't speak. I could feel the necklace humming. It seemed to have life. I'd seen it before.
"Let me help you put it on."
He guided me to the mirror and stood behind me with a look of concentration as he clasped it together behind my neck. After he finished, I dropped my hair; it cascaded down my back like a wall of flames. He smiled at me.
"You look stunning."
I looked down to see my birthmark peeking out from beneath my dress. I tugged it down over the birthmark and dismissed my dad with a shaky smile.
After he left I slid to the floor and put my head in my hands. I'd been having horribly realistic nightmares since the track incident. They were about...death. Horrible deaths. I was in each one of course but I looked different in every one. The reason I hated Blaze so much when I first met him was because-
"Electra! It's time to go!"
I jumped at the sound of my dad's voice just outside my bedroom door. I smoothed out my dress once more then ran out of my room to find my dad waiting at the bottom of the staircase for me. The prayer service moved on uneventfully. Lot's of crying and condolences. The last thing I wanted was to be pitied. Unfortunately, though, I was in the wrong place for that. Every person I met had pity dripping from their gaze and words. It's probably bad to say but I was happy when it was over.
I waited until everyone was downstairs eating before quietly sneaking upstairs. All ten coffins sat cluttered together at the front of the church. It was a sad sight but all of the funerals had to happen because we feared the bodies would...go bad if we waited too long.
I walked up to my mom and slowly went to my knees and rested my head on her casket. The funeral director had closed it and locked it before we all went downstairs to eat. I imagined holding her hand as I closed my eyes. I took a shaky breath.
"Hi, mom. I...I'm sorry that I've been rude to you a lot. I'm also sorry that I'm just now apologizing when you're a day away from being put in the ground." The tears started flowing. "I'm sorry, mom. I miss you so much already. I don't know why we fought so much. I don't think we used to be that bad. I-I love you, mom. So much." The last part came out as a whisper.
The sobs choked me and I couldn't finish talking. My body shook with sobs and I didn't even start when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Somehow I knew it was my dad. Eventually I cried myself dry and my dad brought me home.
