Silens Umbra
The knife thunked against the cutting table with a known, soothing rythm, almost dictating the movements of the man that held it. Danny Hebert prepared dinner with a small smile tugging at his lips, a small melody at the back of his throat, eyes seemingly darting there and there, catching and measuring wich ingredient to add at what moment.
Since Annette's death the house hasn't been the same. The bed was colder, the atmosphere stagnant and opressive, and the house itself had aquired an ominous, almost menacing – accussing – tone. But having gotten home early from a lack of work at the Docks, he aimed to give the cold house a homely feeling once more thanks to a nicely cooked meal, one of his wife's favorites, to be exact. Even if cooking wasn't his forte nor passion, Danny decided that today he could spare some more time for his daughter.
Even if he hadn't really been there, at least, not since Anette's death.
Danny didn't get preocuppied for Taylor and her apparent lateness. After all, she surely had friends to hang out with, even if it was just Emma. It wouldn't surprise him if they were hanging out at her house, talking about wich way blows the wind there and that, and all those topics he was too old to understand.
Danny chuckled to himself, a little moment of merriness cut short thanks to the landline telephone blaring to the world in a screeching, teeth-clenching wail. With a sigh, he dryed his hands and took the phone, already prepared to dish out verbal hell to whatever company chose today to bother him.
"Yes?" He asked with a certain undercurrent of bitterness. Even if it was a landline and not a mobile phone, he still despised the thing. "Who is it?"
The voice at the other end didn't sound friendly nor hostile, merely cold and hard. "Danny Hebert? Im Doctor Owen, from Brockton General. I'm calling you to report an incident concerning the health, mental and physical, of your daughter, one Taylor Hebert if I'm not mistaken?"
His heart jumped into his throat forming an impassable, asphyxiating lump of lead that threatened to suffocate him and oh god not Taylor too please please please please-
The doctor snapped him out of the spiraling hole of panic and anxiety he was digging himself into with a quick, worded snap. "Mister Hebert, I need you to come to the hospital to go through the appropiate motions and procedures. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, yes! I'll be there as fast as I can!" The phone almost didn't survive the force that Danny used to hang it up.
Almost physically flinging himself into the drive's seat once he got out of the house, Danny stepped on the throttle as fast and as hard as he could, leaving skidmarks all over the porch and sidewalk.
He never turned off the stove.
Speeding along the road, Danny Hebert passed across various red traffic lights, paying no heed to the various cries and slurs flinged about his way, his concern about his daughter overshadowing everything and anything that didn't had anything to do with the wellbeing of Taylor or how to get there faster. His breathing was coming in quick, strangled gasps, his throat parched and his eyes bloodshot and almost feverish in their pinpoint focus.
A loud, obnoxious car horn grated on his ears and rattled his teeth, making him look at the window at his left.
The light blinded him.
A silent scream.
A last apology.
An unshed tear.
Unending darkness.