Somewhere Else

Chapter 14: Good-bye

Jane stood grief-stricken against him as she looked at the monitor in the corner of the room. The medical examiner pulled the paper thin blue blanket away from the body on the gurney. She couldn’t figure out why they would show her such a thing. The medical examiner reassured the officers most of the damage had been to her lower body. Cause of death was smoke inhalation – not the fire.

There was her baby. Up until that moment, she’d been able to believe this was someone else’s baby. She never wanted anyone to go through something like this. Least of all her winter looked peaceful. She didn’t know if she could have handled looking if her expression had been of fear. She should have been there to protect her. That was her baby.

Hard as it’d been to even nod her head to show she recognized the girl, their next request was harder. They wanted her to identify James. James… the man that took her innocence and her life from her. Covering her face with her hands, she shook her head. Knowing he’d perished with her was of no satisfaction to her. Seeing him in the same manner she saw her daughter would not ease her.

“I can. I knew him for three years.” He’d not gone without seeing him entirely over the years either. He’d changed drastically since school but good old James always stayed the same.

If he had any reassurance that he had suffered, his mind would be eased. The body was in worse condition. He was disgusted by how much this pleased him. The identification could be made though.

“That’s him. That’s James.”

Gripping Jane tighter, he guided her away from it all. He bundled her up and took her home. Despite knowing neither would sleep, they retired to their own rooms. Brecker made sure to keep his door unlocked, just in case she wanted to come in later.

As he sat up in bed, staring into the distance, he finally cried his own tears. A fire… it should have been those green eyes and that hungry blaze. Sending her with dad wasn’t a good idea, and he knew it. He should have stopped it somehow. If he hadn’t been so dense he could have saved her.

In those moments of blurred vision and temporary insanity, he could have sworn he saw the girl standing in the middle of his room, at the end of the bed. Denying that she’d even died was the first sign of mourning.

Of course she didn’t know this. Nothing stopped that little girl from climbing onto the foot of his bed and leering at him as though he was the ghost. Frozen where he was, he watched to see what she’d do next. Crawling to him, she tentatively reached for his face. As soon as her fingers made contact, she yanked her hand back, as though she’d been blistered by his skin.

Curious, he reached out against her arm. She was still wearing the sweater he’d given her when she felt solid, he felt queasy. He didn’t want her to think it was her though, as he would any other time. He pulled her close and held her tight. Winter was the one who spoke first.

“I’m sorry.”

Baffled by her apology, he pressed his nose to her hair and let his tears fall free. “For what? You have nothing to apologize for.”

That was when she started to cry as well. Short, soft sobs that felt like hiccups against the body. “I’m sorry you died!”