Loss
Chapter 1 - Lost boys: Chris Emerson and Edgar Frog
This and the upcoming chapter are short episodes from my post The Tribe storyline.
Disclaimer: No profit is being made off of this work of speculative fiction, no ownership is bring claimed over these copyrighted characters.
They'd
left him sitting in the police station. They'd been kind enough,
giving him a spare shirt to replace the one stained with his sister's
blood, offering him a coffee, asking him if he had any family to come
for him. He'd just shaken his head numbly, and they'd left him
alone.
He wasn't sure what he expected when he dialled the
number on Edgar's card. What was he looking for from this man?
Maybe sympathy, some comfort, or maybe rejection, proving that he
really was entirely alone in the world. The phone rang, and rang.
Chris almost hung up.
"Hello?"
"Eddie.."
Chris swallowed.
"Who is this?"
"Edgar…
Nicole, she's dead, I-" Chris could hear a sob choking his
voice, but he couldn't stop himself.
The roads had been slick.
Nicole had told him to slow down, and he'd bitten her head off. She
sulked, turning up the music on her walkman and staring out into the
darkness. She was as angry and frightened as he was, but she handled
it better. She'd always been the stable one.
They'd lost the
apartment, unable to pay the rent their aunt was demanding. She'd
finally thrown them out when they'd confirmed all her fears, being
caught smoking weed in the house.
It had all happened so fast.
Chris still didn't know how he'd lost control of the car. His
sister had started screaming, and all Chris had comprehended at first
was that they were upside down, and Nicole was bleeding. She was
bleeding so badly…
When he was done, there was silence on the
other end of the line, and Chris winced at the thought that Edgar had
hung up. There was a rustling from Edgar, and he spoke. "Where
are you?" He asked.
"The sheriff station…" Chris
replied.
"I'll come get you."
Chris nodded, and then remembered he was on the phone. "Y-yeah… Thanks a lot Eddie… I.. really, thanks."
Chris could
hear Edgar pause, ready to correct the diminutive, but he didn't.
"Stay. I should be there soon." He said gruffly and hung
up. The young man left the police station, wandering out into the
parking lot, sitting down on the curb. He shivered in the cold, but
his mind was too raw with grief and guilt to leave any thought for
his own comfort.
He didn't even realise that Edgar had arrived
until he felt someone wrapping a warm plaid shirt around him.
"Chris." Edgar's deep voice cut through the painful trance
he'd slipped into. "I'm here."
