DISAPPEAR

Chapter 1 - The Funeral

--- This is my first story, I'd love it if you could read this chapter and give me some feedback. Hope you like it! ---

*(watch the video for visual/sound visualisation of the scene, no relation to the plot)*

Pretty much everyone's here. My mom, my dad, my grandparents came too.

The place is full. A lot of people from school but I don't recognize them (I didn't really get along with my brother's friends that much).

I do know some of the adults, (Apart from the ones from my family) they were my brother's teachers and now they're mine too.

I don't really understand what's happening here. We are not a religious family so this whole thing is just a pretty - and actually very expensive - way to dispose of a body.

I know that sounds illegal but I assure you it's not. We call it a funeral. Honestly, it just sounds disturbing to me.

My parents are both crying. My mom's tears are real, not so much for my father's. He never understood James. They didn't really get along tho I'm not sure why.

It's not like they hated each other but I can't remember a moment when they were both actually having fun together.

He was always closest to my mom. Everyone says they have (had) a lot in common. She loved that. I like my parents.

I'm not really close to neither of them tho. They don't truly know me, they just know the version of me I choose to put on when I get home from school.

(I feel like that's very common for people my age nowadays.)

Btw, my name is Lucas, and my brother killed himself yesterday.

All these people... they probably hadn't spoken to him for years but here they are, crying and shooting their sobbing "RIPs" like paintballs. They don't even know the truth, what truly happened.

My parents told everyone Jame's passing was caused by a tragic accident involving his epilepsy medicine.

That's definitely not what happened. In fact, I was the one who found him. He was in his bedroom, and the scene was actually very peaceful. Almost poetic. In one hand my dad's gun (mom hated it, he loved it, now she hates him too) and in the other, a photo of the four of us. In the back, written, "Love you guys". He wasn't even bleeding that much. I didn't react, I called my mom and just stood there waiting for her. She sank to her knees.

They come to talk to me sometimes. "I am so sorry for your loss", "He's in peace now", "How are you holding up?".

I just feel like telling them to fuck off but my mom said that if I didn't behave I'd be in a lot of trouble.

It's not that I didn't like my brother, quite the opposite. He was nice, we liked the same kind of music, we'd watch movies together.

Sometimes we'd go out to eat just the two of us, and after the first five minutes of weird silence, we'd actually get to talk. Who could have guessed he was actually a very interesting person?

He was also a good listener, but I wasn't that good of a talker so that didn't really help us. Sometimes we'd just sit there, eating. Maybe one of us says something but it doesn't really start a conversation.

But it's ok, I liked it. I guess I will miss that.

Ever since we arrived people have been making their way through the line to pay their respects.

There's this guy, he looks older (probably my brother's age), I recognize him. I think he was in James's class or something. Yeah, I've seen him in my brother's yearbook.

He looks sad, I mean everyone looks (or pretends to look) sad today. But something's different with him.

Shit. He's walking in my direction.