REMEMBER THEM PART 1
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I was staring at the large gate.
‘I was in the right place, right?’
If my information was right, the house I was looking at belonged to the coach.
There were dogs left unsupervised, some of them were eyeing me curiously. I won’t lie even though I had superpowers, the teeth on those dogs scared me a little.
I took a deep breath and said to myself, “Okay here goes nothing!”
Ringing the intercom near the gate, I waited for a few seconds before a woman’s voice responded.
“Yes?” The voice of an elderly lady spoke through the intercom.
“Yeah, my name is Peter Parker. I’m Will’s… I was Will’s friend, Coach Sharpe said he had to speak with me.”
The intercom muted. After a second the static came back and the lady’s voice spoke again,
“Come in.”
The gates unlocked by themselves.
The dogs thankfully were well trained and didn’t tear my head off the second I came in. They stood exactly where they were, wagging their tongues out. As I got close to the main door, the knob turned, and it opened.
‘Wow self-opening doors!’
Unfortunately, there was an old man waiting for me behind the closed door, he must be the butler.
‘I always knew they were rich, but this was old money rich…Harry Osborn rich.’
“Right this way,” He didn’t greet me or say hello, instead just turned around and walked back into the house.
Soon we reached the deepest parts of the house.
“The madam is waiting for you inside, Mr. Parker.” He said without a drop of enthusiasm.
“Madam? No, you don’t understand. I want to speak with….and he’s gone.” I watched the butler leave without acknowledging my questions, so I decided to enter the room.
The entire sequence felt like a weird dream, something out of a poorly written fantasy.
The room was bright, the windows open to greet the afternoon sun and lit candle lights hung over the walls. It gave me serious 19th century Transylvania vibes. The room was a complete contrast to the rest of the house which looked modern and nothing like Dracula's lair.
At the center of the room was the old lady in the bed, she looked old but still had beautiful long gray hair. She still had remnants of beauty, high cheekbones and a sharp jawline.
“Ma’am…I came here with the intention to speak to Coach Sharpe-”
“I’m Coach Sharpe’s mother.” Her old but firm voice replied in response. So this was Will’s grandmother.
“Come here.” She tapped the chair beside the bed.
I was reluctant, she looked like a witch from one of those old fairy tales. But not wanting to insult the old lady, I mustered the courage and sat near her.
“So….you know about my grandson?”
“Yes……yes I heard about it from the papers.”
“And why didn’t you come to the funeral?”
“I was in a coma; I woke up yesterday…I didn’t…I’m sorry.” I really did want to see all of my friends one more time.
“I see…so you’ve been through a lot yourself-”
“Grammy?” I heard a girl’s voice call out from the other side.
It was her, Paige. One of Will’s sisters.
The quiet one.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Um……. Peter?” She recognized me with a slight delay.
“Paige.” I got up from the chair.
“What are you doing here? Grammy, what’s going on?”
“Peter here wants to see your father, take him upstairs and pour him some tea while you’re at it.”
The old lady turned sideways and ignored both of us.
Paige quietly scanned me and then said, “Follow me,”
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She had tear stains and a cracked voice, probably crying until recently.
“Do you want sugar with that?” She asked sniffing,
“No, I’m good, thank you for asking.” I reply while looking down at the floor.
“So…I heard you were hospitalized, are you okay now?”
“Yeah….”
.
.
.
.
.
“I’m sorry I’m not good at grownup talk.” She admitted wistfully.
“It’s okay, we don’t have to talk until your father comes back home.”
She gave a weak nod and continued to sip her tea.
Her eyes were red, and face swollen. She looked like a mess but who wouldn’t be in her situation.
After a few awkward minutes, she broke her silence,
“What happened there? Dad won’t speak about it. What really happened…on that day?”
She had tears, her eyes desperately seeking answers.
“There was a fire first……”
I hesitated; I knew much more than what I was going to tell. There was a part of me that said that she deserved to know what really happened. Not the cock and bull story that the government told them.
They deserved to know the rogue mutants' involvement in all of this. People lost their family and dear friends. They deserve to know the truth.
“There was a fire first, we somehow managed to get everyone to safety. We thought that we were safe…but that didn’t turn out to be the case. When those men in the cars came... we thought they were the cops, that they were there to make sure everyone was safe and investigate the fire. They…I’m not sure the government is telling us the full story. I don’t know why but…I don’t get it but I think there's more to this…much more than we think!”
I closed my eyes and confessed.
I didn’t disclose Magneto’s existence or talk about the Brotherhood of mutants. They might have kidnapped Theo and might be actively trying to kill off humanity. But…they didn’t kill her brother. Those sons of bitches in the masks were responsible for that.
“You…think that ‘they’re’ lying?” She asked with a shocked look.
I knew I was playing a dangerous game letting her in on this. I knew that she could potentially risk saying this to the wrong person. It could totally compromise me later on. But right now…none of that mattered. All I saw was a sister grieving for her brother, who happened to be my late friend, Will.
“Yes, I definitely think there's some kind of huge cover up.”
“But……. why?”
“I’m working with some journalists to find out the truth.” I lied partially.
An empty promise to find out the truth about her brother’s death won’t keep her quiet. It would definitely agitate her, and she might end up doing stupid later on.
“You’re working with journalists?”
I know.
I should have just lied.
I should have just told her that some terrorists gunned her brother down and left it at that.
But I ask you this if it was your loved one that died, would you want me to do the same thing?
I know that I would have demanded the truth, no matter how nasty it was.
“Yes, and in due time, we’ll punish the people who were responsible for your brother's death!”
She looked completely shaken at the revelation.
‘Shit maybe I should have just lied-’
“Thank you. I always k..knew that he..he didn’t, that there was more to it-” She started bawling like a child.
She was a child; she shouldn’t be dealing with all of this at her age. Even though we might be the same age, I was mentally at least twice as old as her. The nature of my past occupation also made me psychologically stronger.
“Your brother was a friend of mine; I wouldn't let the people who took his life walk away scott free.”
“Thank you, thank you so much.”
“But until then you must keep quiet about this. Until the day where we reveal everything…until that day you can’t reveal about our conversation. If you do then the chances of someone getting away is highly likely.”
At that moment I realized that I had a similar conversation with Janey, Theo’s sister. The only difference was that Janey’s brother was still alive.
“I…I always knew that there was more to this. There had to be!” She said looking agitated.
“But if we can’t prove it, then it won’t matter. We’ll just be considered conspiracy theorists or delusional people making baseless claims. They'll just call us crazy. Paige, listen to me carefully… All I have to go by is my gut instinct that things aren’t matching up. If we go public with our suspicions right now, they’ll know about us. More importantly they’ll be prepared for the case we’re building against them.”
This time the message got through her,
“I…see…so these ‘Journalists’ that you’re working with?”
“Give me six months, by then I promise I'll bring the people responsible to light!” Here I go, making promises that I don’t know if I can keep.
There was a pregnant pause, she wouldn’t say anything for two whole minutes. She was thinking it over, I guess.
I don’t regret telling her and if she starts making accusations, then i’ll have to deal with it someway.
She wiped her tears away and said, “I don’t know about you too much, other than from what Will told me about you. He trusted you, so I will put my trust in you.”
Her sincere display of trust got to me. I won't lie.
She had all the reasons to shout and scream at me to go into more details, but she didn’t. Instead, she did the thing that most people couldn’t do…to put faith in others.
It was up to me now to prove her faith.
DING
The doorbell rang.
“That must be dad, I’ll go fetch him.” She got up and wiped her eyes once again.
Just before she left, she told me, “William considered you, his friend. He talked about you constantly…. thank you for everything your kind words from before but even more than that thank you for being his friend. He really liked you.”
She smiled sadly before going downstairs.
When her footsteps disappeared, I said to myself out loud, “I know.”
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