Grief
"And Jesus Wept" ~ John 11:35
Artemis was in third block when the announcement came on.
With a choked voice, the principal explained that an elementary school in Connecticut had been shot-up. The number dead was unknown, but the closest estimate was eighteen children and six adults.
A numbing, all-consuming silence settled, students wide-eyed. Mouth dry, stomach heaving, she left the room, her feet unsteady and her fingers trembling. Somehow, she made it to the bathroom, where she gripped the sink so tightly that her knuckles turned white and took deep, broken breaths.
As the daughter of an assassin, as a hero, she saw death. From a young age, it had been a part of her life; it was inescapable, unavoidable, undefeatable.
This, though, this struck her more than anything else, because they were just children who shouldn't have been in the line of fire. They were innocent and gentle and sweet and now they were nothing, gone, stolen, ashes in the wind.
Wiping away the tears that had forced their way down her cheeks, she prepared for a return to AP Biology. On her way, she met Dick Grayson in the hallway. Sapphire eyes glossy, the usual smile was absent, and he seemed so old, as though he had lived a thousand lifetimes and was tired of seeing the world ripping itself apart.
She wasn't a hugger; he wasn't a hugger. That afternoon, they embraced, clinging to something real.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Raquel was goofing around in homeroom when the television snapped to life. Instead of the Say No to Drugs video that was supposed to be playing, a live action feed from an elementary school appeared on the screen. Inconsolable children and crying adults haunted the background while a reporter tried to explain what had happened.
Throat closing, she buried her head in her hands and wept. The tough girl, always armed with a quick comeback or a readied fist, she lost any composure because all she could think about was her next door neighbors, Jessica and Keisha, the ones who played hopscotch and wanted to be veterinarians when they grew up and begged her to be their babysitter and were the same age as those precious babies with no more breath to breathe.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Wally didn't learn about it until he got home. Barely a foot in the door, his mother slammed into him, crushing him against her. Through bouts of sobbing, she told him what she had seen. The information pressed upon his soul, squeezed his lungs, and he collapsed to the floor. From the corner of his eye, he saw the carnage on the news. Tearing from her grasp, he reached the kitchen just in time to vomit in the trash can.
Vaguely, he was aware of his mom behind him, gently rubbing his back while he emptied the contents of his stomach, but all he could focus on were the children in his mind, with their unseeing eyes and still hearts.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Connor and Megan heard bits and pieces at the end of the day, kids relating what they could gather from their iPhones. The Martian practically took off in a run, and the Kryptonian followed suit, hoping that all those with trembling voices were somehow wrong.
Zatanna was already in the living room, staring at the TV. Flying to her side, Megan turned her attention to Kat Grant, live from Connecticut. Within minutes, the two girls were crying, holding onto one another, unable to say a word.
Retreating to the training arena, Connor began destroying punching bags, wondering where that water was which kept dripping onto his face, not processing that they were tears until he tasted salt on his tongue.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Kaldur was in Atlantis when Orin approached him, gently saying that they had to return to the surface for an emergency. On the way, he related the horrors which had taken place, and the teen listened in stunned disbelief. So much potential lost. So many futures stolen.
He thought of Orin's son, less than two years old. The prince would grow, learn, love, live. These children…they would not. They would not play in the snow, splash in the ocean, kiss their parents, celebrate another birthday or holiday. Everything had been ahead of them, and everything had been taken from them.
Life was not fair. Being a hero had taught him that. It just had never taught him that it could be so cruel.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The Team stood in front of the school, clustered together, staring at the ground rather than the hundreds of parents and siblings and friends and neighbors who had come. Batman was giving a speech, something about tragedy and sorrow and hope, but they weren't listening. They couldn't because they were heroes now, and that meant being strong, bearing the burden for these poor people.
A child's cry, growing from sniffling hiccups to uncontrollable wailing, shattered their defenses. Megan, overwhelmed by the despair reverberating in her skull, began to weep. One by one, the others joined her.
Throughout the crowd, a chain-reaction spread. The sight of their heroes crying for their loved ones brought fresh waves of tears. Hands sought other hands until a circle had formed of all those present. There were no heroes or civilians, Republicans or Democrats, atheists or theists. There were only people with bowed heads, thinking about the twenty-six victims. Twenty beautiful children who were too young to die, who were gentle and sweet and kind, who would have made this world a better place. Six adults, teachers and educators who had dedicated their lives to helping the coming generation, who had been taken before they could help all those that needed them.
In that instant, they imagined a crystal kingdom in the sky, a salvation, a home for all these precious souls. It was up there, somewhere, it had to be, because twenty-six people had been killed and they couldn't just become nothing, no, they were much too important for that. They were somewhere above this earth, laughing and dancing, skipping across the stars, and one day, those that mourned would join them.
Now, though, all they could do was weep, diamond tears to adorn that crystal kingdom.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
My thoughts and prayers are with all those who were killed, all those who were affected, and all those who grieve. This was a horrible, unbelievable tragedy, and I mourn with you.