Chapter XIX: Mockingbird
FD: This chapter was inspired by the hit song by Eminem, "Mockingbird", dedicated to his little daughter, Hailey, and Lainey. If you like it, please let me know. I apologize about the chapter before this if you did not like it.
"I know sometimes, things may not always make sense to you right now.
But hey, daddy always tell you.
Straighten up, little soldier. Stiffen up that upper lip.
What you cryin about? You got me."
The light vanished, and the boys, Robert, Valon, Alister, and Jin, were standing back in the room. They looked down and saw that Tiffany and Yuji were on the ground, moaning, like as if they were waking up. Malik was off across the room, unconscious, as they could tell, his cape torn into shreds, looking like he was beaten pretty bad. Valon and Alister went down to help the girls back up, while Robert and Jin looked around to try and find Sarah. They found her lying on her side, but they couldn't tell if she was unconscious.
Robert rushed over to her, her face pale, her skin cold. Tiffany, Valon, Alister, and Yuji came over, Tiffany limping on Valon's arm, Yuji carrying her arm, which was sprained. Jin came over to, his eyes no longer filled with excitement, but sadness.
"I'm trying to give you the life I never had.
I can see you sad, even when you smile.
Even when you laugh. I can see it in your eyes.
Deep inside, you want to cry.
Cause you're scared. I ain't there.
Daddy's with you in your prayers.
No more cryin, wipe them tears.
Daddy's here, no more nightmares."
Sarah's breathing had stopped. She wasn't alive.
"No… no! No! NO!" Tiffany sobbed into Valon's shoulder. Tears formed in Robert's eyes and fell from his face onto Sarah's arms as He held her up in his arms.
"It can't be. It just can't be," Alister said softly. He was not one to cry immediately, but inside he wanted more than anything to have her back, or to cry. Valon broke free of Tiffany's hold and fell onto his knees in shock.
"This… . She used all her strength to defeat him, that she did. Now, I'm not even sure it was worth it," Jin spoke. Yuji looked up at him, and then down at Sarah. He was right. Having her dead was way worse than anything she could think of.
"The world we got in this world
When it spins, when it twirls, two little beautiful girls
Looking puzzled in a daze.
I know it's confusing you…."
"What happened to Malik?" Alister asked. He rushed over to the unconscious boy and was there for awhile. Tiffany wanted more than anything to beat the shit out of Malik again and again. He caused this. He caused Sarah to go through all this pain. He caused her to relive her worst memories.
"He's alive, but just barely," Alister said.
"That bastard!" Yuji cried, Jin holding her back before she completely took off to beat him up. Tears fell heavier than hail and Yuji, one who had never sobbed in her life, fell on all fours, crying loudly. Tiffany yelled out in pain as she had lost her best friend.
"Please, Sarah, you have to come back!" she cried.
"I try to keep you sheltered from it, but somehow it seems.
The harder that I try to do that, the more it backfires on me
All the things that daddy had to see
Daddy don't want you to see
But you see just as much as he did."
"I can't believe this. I just can't!" Tiffany cried. She turned and ran toward the door leading out, but stopped briefly when Jin called out to her
"Tiffany, I know it's hard. I have a confession to make to you," he said.
"What?" Robert asked.
"I'm…I'm Sarah's brother. Long-lost brother, from her mother's side," Jin confessed. Robert's eyes widened.
"But… I thought she only had one brother?" he asked.
"She did. One full-blood brother. I'm half," Jin confessed.
"We did not plan it to be this way.
Your mother and me
But things have gotten so bad between us
I don't see us being together ever again
Like we used to be when we were teenagers
But then everything happens for a reason."
"I was born by her mother, a Seminole heir, and by an Irish man named Charles. I was their son by accident, never meant to happen. Then I was orphaned by my mom. I traveled to America to find Sarah, but that's when I bumped into Malik," Jin confessed again.
"You said he blackmailed you. What was it he was using?" Valon asked.
"Um… my father died by my grandfather's hand. And people suspect it was me because I had motive and stuff. The motive was was that my father was preventing me from going to America where my mother was," Jin said. "Malik used that to his advantage."
Robert looked away back at Sarah. How could this have happened? A few days ago they were together, happy, not a care in the world, being the perfect couple they had wanted to be. Now she was deep in sleep, lost forever.
"It's something we have no controll over.
And that's what destiny is
But no more worries
Rest your head and go to sleep
Maybe one day we'll all wake up
And this will all be just a dream"
Robert knew well Sarah was a Daddy's Girl. Now how would her father react when he told him that his little girl was gone? And how would he explain it to him how she died? He wouldn't believe him, no matter how hard he tried.
Robert held her close, tears falling fast off his face. Sarah, his first and only love was gone. And how could he live without her? She meant so much to him. More than he knew.
"Now, hush little baby, don't you cry
Everything's gonna be alright.
Stiffen up that upper lip, little lady
I told you
Daddy's here to hold you
Through the night
I know mommy's not here right now
And we don't know why
We fear how we feel inside
It may seem a little crazy, pretty baby
But I promise
Mama's gonna be alright."
Suddenly, Alister and Tiffany rejoined them. But though they believed her for dead, truth be told, memories were flashing before Sarah's conscious eyes.
An image of her as a baby in her daddy's arms, being fed through a bottle, a smile on her dad's proud face. The image faded to a memory of when Sarah was four, she fell off her tricycle and scraped her knee. Her dad was there immediately, holding her in his arms, comforting her.
"All I ever wanted to do was make you proud.
Now I'm sitting in this empty house, discriminising
Looking at your baby pictures."
The memory of when she was four was faded to a memory of when she was six, hiding in a corner, looking up at her mother and father fight and yell over her. Her mother stormed out of the house, and her dad saw her shaking with fear in the corner. He approached her and picked her up and held her as she cried into his shoulder.
Then the memory was replaced by the one where she was in the hospital where her mother was holding a baby in her arms, her dad smiling at the new born Lavigne, her little brother. That memory faded to one where she was ten and at a pool party her dad accompanied her to. He was taking pictures of her diving into the pool.
"It just trips me out
To see how much you both have grown
It's almost like you're sisters now.
Wow, I guess you pretty much are.
And daddy's still here
I like the sound of that, yeah.
It's got a ring to it, don't it
Shh, momma's only gone for the moment."
Then she saw the memory of when she was thirteen, standing behind a cake litted by thirteen candles, a tiara on her head, sparkling in the light. Her dad was in front of her with a camera in one hand and his cane in the other, holding him up. Alister was helping him hold the camera while Valon was behind her, trying to get a good blow on the candles without being noticed. Then that memory was replaced to the one of her sixteenth birthday where her dad was holding out to her a small box that held her cellphone and a holder.
Then that one was replaced immediately by a memory she did not recognize, but she was back in a hospital, her mother was much younger, like eighteen, crying, holding a baby in her arms. The baby was light skinned with dark fuzz on its head, and it's eyes were closed slightly, but a few sparkles of gray slimmed past. Her mother than handed the baby to an elder man. Her dad, but at eighteen. He didn't look too much different, his hair lighter, a goatee missing, but he didn't seem too different. Tears fell from her dad's face as he held the baby.
"Hey, pretty baby, I'm your daddy. Sarah, that's your name, and it'll be the first word you'll ever say. Dream like the true angel you are. You are an angel, surviving that accident," he said. Tears fell from Sarah's eyes as she realized that this was the day she was born. So, she had almost died once on the day she was born. That was the saddest thing ever. And her daddy saved her. Her daddy saved her life more than once.
"Now hush little baby, don't you cry
Everything's gonna be alright
Stiffen up that upper lip, little lady
I told you
Daddy's here to hold you
Through the night."
Sarah moaned as she opened her eyes to find her friends around her, crying, and smiling. "Guys, what's going on?" she asked weakly.
"Sarah," Robert sighed. He embraced her, and she looked up to see Valon and Alister smiling as they tossled her dark hair.
"You made it back in time, sheela," Valon said. Sheela. She remembered. Valon was not the first one to call her that. It was the nickname her dad gave to her when she was three when she started imitating the Australian accent. That was before she met Valon and Alister.
"Yeah, guys, I'm back. I'm never leaving again," she said, embracing Robert back. Then she looked up at Tiffany and Yuji. "Ines says hi."
They smiled and they all gathered around to welcome their friend back. Sarah was back. And she knew she wouldn't leave again. This was her destiny, to live together in the world she wanted with her friends. It was destiny, but something in her heart wanted her to go back to America. What was it?
"Daddy…" Sarah sobbed silently.
"I know momma's not here right now
And we don't know why
We fear how we feel inside
It may seem a little crazy, pretty baby
But I promise, momma's gonna be alright.
And if you ask me, daddy's gonna buy you a mockinbird
Ima buy you the world
I'll buy a diamond ring for you
Ima sing for you
I'll do anything for you to see you smile
And if that mockingbird don't sing, and that ring don't shine
Ima break that birdies' neck
I'll go back to the jeweler who sold it to ya
And make him eat every karot,
Don't fuck with dad."
FD: Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading this fic, and no, this is not the end, but close. If you did enjoy this chapter, please, either send an IM, e-mail, or review. If this chapter was sadder than anyother in the fic, which I believe, please, let me know.
