𝙁𝘼𝘾𝘼𝘿𝙀 (𝐚 𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲)

|Chapter 23 |

~ Jason ~

"... I want my daddy. I want to see him. I want my daddy," the little boy cried.

"Daddy is gone. He is not coming back," a woman consoled him.

The little boy shakes his head. He looks around the house at the people looking at him with red and swollen eyes. "I want to see my daddy. Daddy. Daddy." He kept calling.

The women looked at each other with sad eyes. They don't know how to console the little boy any longer. And it hurt them to see him crying and continue to call for his father.

An elderly man walks into the house with a woman that seems to be his wife. He gazed angrily at the people in the room. He moved his gazed to one of the women in the room then he gestured for her to follow him. The woman stood up, wiping her tears with her wrapper, sniffling. Then she followed after the elderly man, leaving the weeping people in the room.

"What happened?" the man asked the lady immediately they got to a quiet and secluded corner of the house. "Why is the boy crying?"

A frown masked his face.

"Dad, we told him. Mom asks us to tell him," she answered brushing the tears that was falling down her eyes again. But more tears seem to find it way down her cheeks as she continues. "He had been asking for his father and we had no choice but to tell him. We didn't know it will make it worst."

She seemed sincerely concerned and worried.

The man face contoured to a deep frown. He wasn't pleased with what he had just found out. They were not supposed to tell the little boy about his father demise but they have and it only made the matter worst.

He looked at the direction of the boy where he was huddled in the arms of his other daughter, crying profusely. .

"Why did you tell him? He still young for that," the man said angrily.

The lady's face fell more than it already was. They did not have a choice but it look like they had made regret with that choice they made because her father was glaring disapprovingly at her.

"I'm sorry dad." The lady apologized.

"Where is his mother?" he asked, arms akimbo.

The simple question worsen the expression on the lady's face. She gazed at the man with sad eyes.

"She has not been herself," she answered. "She had locked herself in her room ever since," she replied.

"We understand that she just lose her husband but she still has a son that she need to attend to. That boy needs his mother. We got to do something about this." The man seem restless and also exhausted.

"She is not strong enough to console her son," the lady said in defense of the woman who wasn't in their midst.

The man sighed angrily. And then he walked up to the little boy who was still crying and asking for his father. He called his name softly then pulled him to a tight embrace while saying soothing words to his ears.

"I want my daddy. My daddy," the little boy cried in the man's arms. "Mommy." The man looked up at the women surrounding him and their countenance fell.

After so much consoling and the boy won't stop, the man had to make a hard decision.

"We need to make him sleep." Everyone peered at the woman. Some stared at him like he had just made the most ridiculous opinion because that had been the goal of almost all the people on the room. To make him stop crying or better still sleep. But it turned to be a workload for everyone as they couldn't console the boy.