The Twisted and Mysterious Life of Collin Pierce

Chapter Three: The final goodbye

It had been an entire day since Collin learned the tragic fate of his long time best friend Alex Daniels. Today was Alex's funeral and Collin knew he needed to see him one last time. "Collin, wake up it's almost time for the funeral," Collin hadn't even noticed that his father had entered the room. "I know that this won't be easy but I'm sure you will feel much better if you do this." Joseph had always been the kind of person who knew how to talk to people and understood the pain that others go through. " I should probably wear that fancy shirt right?" Collin said finally getting out of his sleeping bag that he had placed on the floor. After Alex's death Collin had slept for 32 hours and he didn't want to wake up, his dreams felt so much better than his harsh reality. "Yes, I suppose that would be more appropriate than your normal hooded sweater and jeans." His mother had said after slipping into the room. "I think I'm going to walk to the funeral." Collin said as he walked out past his parents and down the stairs.

He got dressed into his 'fancy' shirt and made his way down to where the funeral was being held. First there was something he had to do.

Collin walked up to Phil's store and waited for him to come to the front desk. As Phil approached he tried to give Collin a smile but, smiling was a hard task for every one right now. "Collin,the usual I suppose?" Phil looked him down. "That would be great right now," Collin replied. "Phil, are you going to the funeral?" Phil frowned. "I was not invited, Mr.Daniels doesn't want me at the funeral because he believes that I should have done more than what I had done." Collin looked at him feeling bad. "He's probably just upset right now," Collin was probably right, Thomas Daniels was a very emotional man for the time that he had known him and very easily upset. "Phil did you see anything about the killer that might be important?" Phil smiles weakly at the young teenage boy. "A few things actually, first, this man was very tall. Probably about six foot six at least." Phil usually exaggerated things but he wouldn't do that now. "He wore a black hood so I couldn't get many details but I did notice a tattoo of a bird on his right arm." Collin thought that a tattoo would be a good thing to add to a picture in order to find this man. "Thanks Phil, you have been most helpful." Collin almost made it out the door before Phil said one final note. "One more thing I think you should know, after the man fled, he dropped his weapon of choice behind." Phil pulled out a steel dagger with a hilt made of gold, the end of the hilt had been shaped into the head of a crow. "I'd like you to hang on to it, maybe it'll come to be helpful." Collin took the blade by the hilt and held it upward. "It should have a name," Collin said feeling happier than he had in quite some time now. "Phantom." He finished. Collin gave a big grin to Phil before rushing out the door.

Collin hid phantom inside his bag as he jogged toward the funeral. He had arrived at the church where Alex spent his Sunday mornings. Collin made his way inside and sat beside his parents who were sitting near the front of the room. He didn't know what to do at a funeral seeing as he had never been to one before. After the paster of the church had finished speaking Collin had been asked to go up and talk for his deceased friend. This was Collin's final time to talk to Alex and he wasn't going to screw it up.

Collin slowly walked up the isle and then up the steps towards the casket that lay opened on a table. Collin looked at his friends pale lifeless body he noticed the wound where he had been stabbed. Collin had never found anything frightening about a dead body, at least not in the movies. But this was different, this was his best friend. He thought quickly about what he would say in tribute of Alex, and began to speak. "Hello, my name is Collin Pierce, Alex was my best friend and I know that I would never forgive myself if I missed this. We always had great times, and I apologize if this sounds a little blank but I didn't have much time to think of this. I know that my life, and probably all of yours will never be the same now that he is gone. He will be missed and I will never forget him. Alex always told me that when he died he wanted to be in a bed beside his family and to peacefully fall asleep, not to be," Collin stopped. He couldn't bring himself to say it, he began to tear up and continue. "To be stabbed at thirteen. I think it's unfair that he had to go like this and I would do anything to have him back here but all I can do is say: good bye Alex, I wish you well." And that was it, Collin had officially said goodbye to his friend whom he would never see again.

Collin returned to his seat where his parents were still paying their respects to Alex. "I think we should get going." Collin's dad whispered. "Yeah, you're probably right," Collin replied. As they went out to the car, Collin realized that he wasn't ever coming back to Staten Island and that Manhattan was going to be his new home. And then another thought hit him. "Mom, dad the ferry leaves in 10 minutes. And so they began there journey to Manhattan.