"Oh, you know it makes me so angry, 'cause I know that in time I'll only make you cry. This is our last goodbye." Last Goodbye / Jeff Buckley
Chapter 26: Gone
"Helen." He said softly.
"I'm sorry."
Helen simply sat there on the floor in the back of the van. Her hair was ragged and her face was blank, staring down at the floor
"I'm sorry." Craig whispered again.
She looked up slowly, her face had seemed to have aged immeasurably since yesterday, when Leroy was killed on the roof of the gymnasium. She glared back at him, her face slacken and blank, but her eyes were hellfire. "You said you would get us back. You would save us." She said flatly. "All you had to do was do the trade and everyone would have walked away…. alive."
Craig felt about 1 foot tall as he stood there, not daring to reply.
"I trusted you. I took a great leap of faith with you. I was wrong." She said sternly, her anger building, but contained.
"I can't trust you."
Craig could do nothing but look at the ground and nod dumbly.
He looked up timidly as Helen stepped forward towards him. He flinched as she reached out towards him and stepped back, expecting her to punch him, but she instead grabbed the handles for the van's back doors and pulled them shut, slamming them closed in his face, leaving him staring at nothing.
Craig shifted nervously and uncomfortable, gripping and ungripping his hands as Donald stepped around from the front of the van, Craig frozen, dumbstruck.
"Craig." Donald said softly, his eyes showing understanding. He raised his hand, open for a handshake which Craig gripped absently. "I'm sorry for this. I really am. Helen wants to leave and we can't not go with her. We have to look after her."
Craig simply nodded back, tears welling in his eyes.
"Goodbye, Craig. Take care." He said warmly and turned to head back to the front of the van.
"D-Don." Craig stammered. He stopped in his tracks and looked back at him. "Take ca-care of her for me….. please."
Don smiled slightly, understanding and nodded, before disappearing around the van.
Craig continued to stare at the van doors, vacant and closed before him, the door windows clouded and blurred. He tried to look in, but all he could see was a brown smudged blur.
He stumbled back as the van coughed to life and vibrated on its wheels. Craig willed the van to not move, to break down or something, and it seemed as though it was somehow working until he heard the clank of the gearbox and the engine rev and the van started away slowly.
He simply stood and watched, biting his lip as tears spilled down his face, gathering on his chin and hanging on for dear life before dropping down onto the asphalt at his feet.
He watched as the van slowly drove away and disappeared down the street, out of view as it turned behind a line of houses. The sound of the engine revving wafted back towards him in the air, but slowly died away and disappeared completely, leaving him standing alone in the street, staring down the horizon.