Chapter 3: The Loss (2)
"I am sorry to say but your father Carl couldn't survive the shot, the bullet went through his cerebral cortex which caused blood to be collected inside his brain and trigged a haemorrhage and he died before he could even be treated and as for your son, he has went into acute depression and has a minor crack on his head but that is nothing to be worried about and you can take him home tomorrow after our doctors run some tests on him." "Thank you very much doctor", his mother replied with sorrow tone and tears in her eyes and half of the words couldn't even come out of her mouth and her BP was also down after the incident but her husband was sadder than her as he loved his father very much as he had struggled a lot for him to succeed and seeing him having such gruesome death could shock anyone. He wasn't taking at all and his was covered with tears only. While his family was completing the producers and the form for the body of their father, Josh was inside a room attached with an I.V Glucose to restore his body stamina and bandaged was applied on his head due to crack he had from his crash with the car but the damage was more to the mental side than on the physical, he was horrified seeing the death of someone close to him and he couldn't do anything even though he knew self-defence and still saw the whole thing like a scared cat and now he feels guilty for it and hasn't spoken a word or showed any expression just a horrified face and was like that the whole night. Next day Josh was discharged but his grandpa's body was still there as the family decided to do the funeral after two days. Josh was sitting in the car quietly and his family tried to persuade him to talk but their attempts were fruitless as he didn't answered or nodded his head. When they reached home, Josh went to his room, locked his door and ran towards his bathroom and saw himself on the mirror and shouted and begin to cry and shout very loudly that everyone could hear it in his house, while all of this was happening Alex was very confused of what was happening and tried to ask his family of what was happening and his father told him the whole story which also shocked Alex and he was also sad of hearing this and thus cooperated with them to convince Josh. Nothing worked out and they all lost hope and sat silently in the hall and the atmosphere was also very lonely without his presence but Alex did not stopped and continued to knock on his door speaking, " Please open the door, let me talk to you and we can figure something out, just be open to me please brother. " "Just go away!! I don't want to talk to anyone right now please" but Alex didn't stopped knocking and so Josh finally gave up and opened the door and let him. They both sat down on his bed and then Alex put his hand on Josh's lap and told him quietly, " Don't worry, I miss him a lot too and he loved you the most and you should not held yourself responsible for his death, whatever happened was their fault and they should be held responsible." "But I didn't do anything and just saw the whole situation like a scardy cat while he was getting beaten up and even when I tried to save I was knocked and bruised up badly, I am nothing but a killer." "You are not a killer and stop this nonsense even if you did nothing you were at least there for him and he was not alone getting bruised up and remove this self-guilt of yours and come down and join the family." "Fine, thanks for the talk and for the record your mouth sure works a lot for a 7 year old."
Josh and Alex came down, his parents saw both of them and cried a lot and hugged each other for the loss. Even though he showed the family that he forgive himself he was still in self guilt and didn't talked much that night. On the day of the funeral lots of people came, mostly were his colleagues from work and best friends from college and rest were relatives and his family. Everyone told a speech on his funeral and then it was Josh's turn. He went on the stage cleared his throat and then begin to speak," My grandfather Carl was a very nice man and also a very good father and husband a person could get, he struggled a lot in his life and because of that struggle my family is very happy today. I was there on the day of his death and saw the whole incident but couldn't do anything and I consider myself responsible for that, I wish to god that if he is here he would forgive me of my sins and that I love you the most even though I never got a chance to say to him face to face, I will sure miss him a lot and I would always wanted to let him know no matter whatever type of heroes will come in the future, he will be always no.1 for me, May he find peace In death which he couldn't find in life. Amen." As Josh ended his eyes were covered with tears and he muffled some of the words and his family was also crying after hearing the speech. The funeral went well and everyone gave their last goodbyes to Carl. Soon the Anderson's life was back to normal except for Josh who has PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder) and every night has nightmares of his grandfather's death and wakes up in sweat and sometimes shouting Kara out loud. His mother had therapy sessions with him but they were not enough for him to recover and 4-5 hours of sleep is wasted every day and due to that he always stayed in a dull mood and doesn't talk much to everyone and always stays in his room and doesn't even talks to his friends and spends his time with family only and gets angry very easily at small-small things like if his brother even annoys him a little then he will start shouting on him or when hot water is not coming then he would begin hitting the wall or throw things around the bathroom, his life was very stressed and was going through a lot of mental problem.
One day Josh woke up 3 at night from his nightmares, he was as usual sweating and was also breathing heavily so he went to the bathroom to wash his face and came back and sat on the bed for a while, he heard someone screaming help from outside, he went to his window and draw the curtains and saw some people getting robbed by 2 Kara members and that's exactly when a some kind of switch triggered in his mind and his mind beginning to hurt and he saw the memory of the time his grandfather scolded him for not helping them and then the time when he was shot down and it triggered like flashback which was blurry to him and he could only hear the voice of his grandfather. He sat down on the bed and begin to breath heavily and glanced at the window one more time and saw they were still there trying to fight back and that's when he decided that he would not do the same mistake he did that time and became determined and he was no more of that adult who once was very friendly and was scared of fighting and thought that helping them could cure his PTSD and so he went down stairs quietly grabbed his navy blue jacket and put on his hoodie and wore a scarf of his mom and went outside to stop them and free himself from this torment. The tourists were being pushed around the corner and were almost about to be robed that's when Josh shouted from behind," Leave those guys alone you money thirsty animals." All they saw a pitched black man wearing a hoodie and a black scarf, one of them shouted," Go home kid, not a place to hang around or else your future will be the same as them." Josh didn't said a word and ran towards them and kicked on one of the members stomach, the second mobster grabbed his hands from behind, Josh tried to free himself and so kicked on his leg which loosed his grip and then he pushed him backwards and he fell hard on the road, by that time the first guy stood up but Josh punched him hard on the face and he fell down again although Josh hand was also hurt since it had been a long time he had done martial arts, while he was concentrating on his injured hand the other guy from behind came and kicked him and Josh fell on the road and then the first guy also stood with a red face and both of them started to kick him on the stomach and also tried to take out his jacket and scarf to see who he was, Josh tried to defend himself by covering himself with his hands but it was not a fruitful move so he grabbed the other guy's feet and pulled towards him and he fell on the road very badly and blood begin to come out of his head and rolled to the left side of the road to avoid the kick of the first member gets up fast before he could kick again and then both of them begin to land punches on each other before one of them falls. Josh hands begin to pain a lot and that's when he saw a wooden box and just before that guy could land a punch he quickly ran towards that box and hit him on his head knocking him down also and then fell down himself due to less stamina, his face was all red and was little swollen also and there were lots of scratches on his jacket and was very dusty also. Both of them surrendered and ran away from there, before they ran one of them screamed," You will pay for this! Kara won't spare you. We are going right now but we will, remember we are everywhere and nothing hides from us." "I'll be ready always." The tourists thanked Josh for their help even though they were unknown of his identity and departed from there. Josh came back the same way he came here and took a shower so that no one suspects a thing and went for sleep. The next morning he woke, he was surprised that he slept very peacefully without any nightmares and Josh sensed hope for curing his PTSD and determined and made his mind to save the city from Kara but for that to happen he first needed a comeback in martial arts again.