“She won’t get up! She is just lying there! My god, the awful smell,” he could hear his parents’ hushed whispers about his sister. He stood there, silent, knowing that whatever he says never helps. That doesn’t matter now, where they will be going is a place filled with peace. His sister was going to take them there and no one could stop them now. All he ever does is watch. He saw it all, especially that look in her eyes as their parents broke her.

“She’s just being dramatic, she’ll get over it. School starts in an hour and she has yet to take a shower,” the mother whispers back rolling her eyes, annoyed at her laziness. He knows Alice doesn’t want to get up, all she wants is to be left alone, to fall into an endless sleep. He wants to say something, but what could he say? There was nothing to say, no one would listen to a little boy who just doesn’t understand.

“Get up! You have school in an hour and you haven’t showered! Don’t make your brother late!” He watched as their father ripped the blanket off of Alice and dragged her to the cold bathroom. Her face was void of emotion and her eyes looked empty as if there was nothing left to feel. 

“Come on let’s go, your father will deal with this. I will not have this behavior from you. Do you understand?” His mother harshly tugged his arm as she led them to his room to change out of his soft dark blue pajamas. “I can’t believe this! She has it all, the money, the friends, and the scholarships! Your father and I worked hard to get her here. We worked day and night, endless hours to get here and all she does is lay there! She never does anything!” his mother arrogantly complained to him as she chose his clothes. A white button-up with a black cardigan and black dress pants. His outfit felt heavy and coarse, he hated it. His mind replayed the look on her face, dead and void. He was determined to go there now. The nagging from his mother is distant as he hears the yelling from his father through the thick brown-painted walls. He was probably complaining and nagging like their mother. It was always like that. The high expectations of obedience never left room for argument. “Don’t you agree?” his mother asked. It was a trick question. He knew not to say no. He wasn’t listening, not that he needed to.

“Yes Mother,” he replies quietly, not wanting to upset his mother. He thought about Alice like he always did, “She’ll be okay, right? Is this really worth the wait? What will it be like? Will she be okay when she gets what she wants? Is it as she had said?” he never stopped thinking of her. 

He and Alice walked wordlessly down the sidewalk. Her black skirt flowed in the bitter wind. They didn’t need to talk, they both knew where they were going, the bridge. The trees were turning brown as the days got colder and crueler almost as his parents did, yet still more pleasant than them. 

The freezing water looked friendly to them. He isn’t worried about her anymore. He understood what it was really like now, as they stepped on the ledge on the other side of the rails. She reached out her hand to him and he took it as they looked at each other. The wind blew their brown hair in their identical faces, but the smiles they had were as clear as a summer day. They stepped off the ledge, falling elegantly down to the water. They had finally felt the warmth they longed for their entire lives.

“Another story,” Death looked upon them as their souls were lifted into his loving hands, “another death.”

“So young,” Life cruelly retorts as she looked upon their souls in disgust, “so fragile.”