Piper stumbled backwards, both of her hands placed over her mouth as she shook her head in disbelief. She fell to the grass, oblivious to the rush of people around her and their pointed stares and whispered pity. Slowly, her body folded in half. Her face pressed against her knees and hands gripping her shins while she rocked slightly. Back and forth, to a rhythm only her mind could compose and only she could understand.
She called for Ihim/I, over and over again. Alternating between calling desperately in her mind and begging for him in a hushed whisper. He came eventually, appearing by her side but unable to bring his stare away from the scene before him. Panic flashed across his eyes when he realised that his wife sat alone on the grass. There was no petite little girl, with her usual two long brown pigtails crouched protectively inside her mother's arms. He focussed on Piper, curling his fingers gently around her arm pulling her hair back over her shoulder.
She jerked and brought her face away from her knees, fearfully glancing around her before meeting his eyes. "Leo." She unfolded and shifted her weight, kneeling before him with her trembling hands held out in front of her. "I…it…I couldn't…" She couldn't force her mind into creating logical sentences and the first tears began to fall down her pale cheeks.
"Where's Melinda, Piper?" Leo asked gently, searching the immediate area when Piper shook her head. "Piper." He wrapped his hands around her forearms and shook her slightly, "Where is Mel? Tell me what happened."
Sobs escaped Piper's throat and she bit hard on her lower lip, breaking the skin and producing a line of deep red blood. "I'm sorry." She gasped, "I'm sorry." The words were repeated continuously, her high-pitched emotional voice gradually becoming monotone and void of energy. Leo shook her harder, trying to break her into reality and gain at least a minimal explanation for the devastation in front of them. She shrunk away. The last of her apologies drifted quietly into the air before she curled up on the grass in the foetal position. Leo reached for her face, wiping at her cheeks before running his thumb over the thin line of blood that remained on her lip. Piper blinked and pushed his hand away, closing her eyes shutting away the world.
Leo rose to his feet, stepping forward and underneath the familiar yellow police tape to stand in awe in their driveway. He was interrupted by a police officer; clipboard and cell phone in hand. "Sir, this is a restricted area. I'll have to ask you to move away."
Leo scowled, "This is my home. What happened?"
The officer raised his eyebrows and looked him over. "Mr Wyatt?"
Leo nodded, "Where is my daughter?"
"Just wait here and I'll get someone that can you help you, Sir."
The young man walked away and seconds later, Darryl appeared. "Leo." His voice was filled with regret and hesitation as he took in Leo's confused look.
"What happened?" Leo questioned with a hint of anger. He was already tired of asking questions and receiving no answers. He needed to know why his home was in ruins and his daughter was missing.
Darryl coughed, slipping his hands into his pockets and drawing his eyes away from the pavement. "There was a fire, Leo. They think it was a candle…" He trailed off and Leo swallowed heavily. "From what I could get out of Piper, she tried to get Melinda out. But she couldn't get upstairs where Mel was playing. The stairs collapsed."
Leo nodded involuntarily, walking away without further comment. He went back to Piper, pulling her body off the ground until she lay limp against his chest. His eyes stared straight ahead in a daze as he slowly rocked Piper and held her tightly in his arms. She started muttering apologies again, her words coming out fast and low, "I'm sorry…sorry…so sorry…"
"It wasn't your fault." Leo whispered, choking on his words as two officers exited the mass of debris, a small black body bag supported respectively between them. Piper twisted her head to follow them, the realisation of what they were carrying coming just seconds later. She screamed. Leo forced her face back to his chest and lowered his forehead to her shoulder. Tears trickled down his cheeks and he clung to Piper's form as she struggled momentarily before relenting.
Hours passed in a blur and gradually, the mass of people disappeared. The police cars were the last to drive slowly away, not before one officer approached them quietly. He took off his hat and held it to his side before crouching before them. "Do you have somewhere to stay tonight?" He questioned gently and Leo nodded. "We found this." He began softly, "It's damaged, but I can see how beautiful she was."
He laid a small frame on the grass and left quickly, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat. Both Piper and Leo leant forward, staring at the slightly blackened photo, the glass that had protected it broken and gone. Leo traced the image with his finger. His baby girl, all dressed up and sitting on Santa's lap, just before her fourth birthday and only six months before.
~~~
"Mommy! Mommy!" A little girl, with long brown hair, tied into two loose pigtails ran into the kitchen. "I made something for Melinda!"
"What did you make, sweetheart?" With a mischievous grin, she brought an object out from behind her back and held it up. "Do you know what it is Daddy?"
Leo smiled, standing behind Piper and wrapping his arms around her waist. "I think I do, Ariana." He began slowly, "It looks like an elephant to me."
Ariana giggled loudly, "No it doesn't! What do you think Mommy?"
"I think it's a rose, A. Did you make it all by yourself?"
She nodded eagerly, "You said it was her birthday today. And since her favourite colour was red, then she must have liked flowers."
"She did." Piper nodded, "And you have a very good memory."
Ariana grinned, "Tell me a story about my big sister, Mommy."
"Okay…" Piper leant back against Leo and closed her eyes, recounting Ariana favourite story for the upteenth time. Where most children savoured the fantasy from a fairytale, for Ariana, the memory of a hero she would never meet became a story she would pass on for generations. Melinda, the Angel created specifically for little girls with long brown hair and two pigtails.