Tag #19 – Eye of the Beholder
For a long moment he couldn't move, couldn't even breathe, staring wide-eyed at the impossible sight before him. They were so…normal, healthy, alive…!
"Daniel?"
"I'm sorry, this area isn't open to the public."
Daniel barely noticed the voices behind him, focused completely on the sounds he hadn't heard in twenty-four years except in his nightmares. A strong male voice echoed faintly underneath the chained coverstone, and Daniel hardly registered the words themselves. Tears threatened his sight as a soft woman's tones answered, and he felt like something torn was being haphazardly glued back together in his chest.
"Daniel, what's going on?"
"No," he breathed instead, sensing the ragged edges of his heart weren't totally how it used to be. "This can't be real." It can't. It just can't. It doesn't feel right, but…He exhaled shakily, struggling to hold back a wave of hysteria. I haven't felt this since…
"Who are these people?"
Finally he became aware that Sam was standing right next to him, but he didn't turn to look at her. "They're my parents," he said in disbelief.
He watched, transfixed, as they moved and talked and breathed. He wanted so badly to run to them, to hold them tight and pull them away from the danger, but he couldn't move an inch. Even when the coverstone started to wobble, all he could manage was a near-silent cry of denial. "No…"
Realization of what was able to happen snapped him out of his trance, and he screamed. "Get out of there, Mom, get out of there, Dad!"
His warning came too late, and the ominous snap of the chain breaking rang out like a gunshot. The horrific death-scream of his mother, the same one that had haunted him for twenty-four years, ripped through him and he felt his half-mended heart tear into shreds once more. Paralyzed with agony, he didn't even register it when Sam gently took him by the arm and pulled him away from the ghastly scene, lightly pushing him down into a seat against an exhibit case, facing away from the sight he had never, ever forgotten.
"Oh God," he whispered, wrapping his arms tightly around himself, not even noticing when a second pair of arms embraced him in an effort to ease some of his pain. "Oh God, oh God…"
Soft words fell on his ears, but he couldn't understand them anymore.