Chapter 10

"All That Remains – PART 1"

So go on and scream
Scream at me, I'm so far away (so far away)
I won't be broken again
I've got to breathe
I can't keep going under

"Going Under" by Evanescence

He'd been too late to stop Zack. Too late to talk him down off the wall and too far away to pull him back by force. Mr. Moseby had watched in horror as the tear stained face of the young man looked away from him and he heard him apologize for what he was about to do. Then he was gone.

It had been so sudden…

It had been so violent…

Zack was dead…

Just like that…

Moseby had screamed Zack's name as he plunged to his gruesome death. He'd managed to reach the edge of the wall just in time to see Zack about halfway to the ground. Time seemed to stretch out making seconds feel like minutes as the man slowly descended, his body flipping end over end. Just a small shape now, Moseby's keen eyes could easily see Zack stabilize for a split second and reach out with one arm towards him as though begging to be saved. Warm golden sunlight erupted around Moseby as the dreary clouds above momentarily separated, as though the heavens were glad to be rid of the troublesome twin and wanted for all the world to see him fall to his demise.

In his final seconds of life, Zack had reached out to him. Had he been afraid to die? Did he reconsider the choice to end his life after it was too late to do anything about it? Maybe, just maybe Zack had come to learn the value of life and regretted what he had done?

Now Mr. Moseby stood at the edge of the roof, looking down over the low wall surrounding the edge at the street below him. Somewhere down there was the broken body of Zachary Martin, a young man that he had once wanted nothing more than to go away to make his job managing the Tipton easier.

He had never wanted any children of his own and after living through the torture that Zack and his brother Cody put him through on a daily basis, he was sure that he wasn't a family man. However, as the boys grew up he'd gotten to watch them to become more mature, less troublesome and more responsible. Reflecting on the previous years, he now knew what a wondrous experience it had been even if there had been many rough times. He had started to think of them like sons and began to take a more active role in their lives.

Now it was all gone though. The entire Martin family as he had known it had been wiped out over the course of a few days. He'd heard about Kurt Martin passing away, then Cody was murdered a few days later and shortly after Carey had been claimed by the cancer eating at her. Now Zack was the final one to exit the world.

Moseby was deeply saddened by Zack's final act, but how could he blame the young man? His first crush, girlfriend, father, mother and brother had all died in a short space of time leaving him nothing to live for and no one to comfort or take care of him.

"Oh Zack…I'm so sorry. I should have been there for you more than I was…I'm so sorry…"

In the darkness of Suite 2330, Mr. Moseby entered through the front door briefly washing the room in the bright white light of the hallway behind him. Closing the door behind him, he stood there in silence. He wasn't really sure why he was there, maybe he just wanted to be in a familiar place where the Martins had lived together. Maybe he stupidly thought that they would all be here safe and whole when he arrived, the entire past few weeks merely just a nightmare. Unfortunately it was all too real…

A blinking red light on the kitchen counter drew his eye and he crossed over to stand before the answering machine for a moment before pressing the play button.

"New message, Tuesday, four fifty pm," the machine announced. That had been the very same day Cody had been killed, maybe a couple hours after it had happened.

"Hi Mrs. Martin, I'm Doctor Raymond Phillips calling from Boston Metro Hospital about your son Cody Martin who was shot this afternoon at a bank downtown."

Time slowed down once again for Moseby…

"We have him here -

and we wanted to inform you that -

we've managed to revive him -

and stop the worst of the bleeding.

He's in critical condition,

but we believe that -

he'll pull through eventually.

Please call me back as soon as you get this."

"End message."

Moseby fell to his knees as he heard the words of the Doctor. He couldn't believe what he'd heard. Not because he didn't want to, he was overjoyed to hear that Cody wasn't dead as they had all believed, but because of what that meant in the grand scheme of things. Zack and Carey had never heard this message. Carey had died believing that her beloved younger son had perished and Zack was most likely driven to kill himself with his brother gone.

If only Zack had known Cody was still alive… However close he had been to dying before, at least he was still in this world…

If only Zack had known…

A/N: It was no dream and it was nothing of anyone's imagination… Zack has finally fallen leaving everything behind, including the twin brother that he had thought was lost to him. Cody is alive and though he may be hanging on by a thread now Zack probably would not have done what he did if he had known. A breakdown in communication and his frequent disappearances from the Tipton to get out and think made it that much harder for that piece of critical information to reach him…

Stay tuned for Chatper 10 – All That Remains – PART 2

Don't worry, it's pretty much complete. I'm just revising it and breaking ground on Chapter 11.

Please review and let me know how you liked Moseby's part!!!