Again the ride of pain. Like the other time when they had been kicked out of the palace. Only that she was doing this ride alone, unlike the last time. There was no Leroy to hold her hand, or peck her cheek, or kiss her forehead. There would be no Leroy to whisper lovely nonsense in her ears while they slept together in bed.
Fallon screamed again. Chica quickly wound up the tinted windows of the car. There was traffic, and people in their different vehicles were staring at Fallon.
"Wound it down." Fallon told Chica who was still coming to terms with the fact that her new friend had lost her boyfriend. Once the glass window was let down enough for someone's hand to get through, Fallon stuck her head out.
"What are you doing?" Chica asked tiredly. Chica had heard Fallon scream her lungs out back at home. Leroy's death had done something to Fallon that Chica couldn't understand. The poor girl was clearly losing her mind.
Fallon kept yelling at the vehicles stuck in traffic like a lunatic.
"Y'all listen now," She began, her palm hitting the exterior of Chica's Avalon for attention. Chica turned off the car's engine and held her down.
"Don't do this Fallon. Keep your head inside the car!" But Fallon was too grief-stricken to listen.
"My boyfriend died in an accident today. His boss died today, right, Chica?" Fallon asked. Chica sighed resignedly. Fallon didn't get any response from her, so she stuck her head out again to continue her mad performance.
"Those people, they took one of my twins away from me. Those people, they threw my boyfriend and I out. With our little baby. Tragic story, Hun?" Fallon was losing her young mind. The strong girl Chica knew was gone, and had been replaced few hours ago by a teenager whose fate had turned bloody red. The traffic was easing up a bit. Cars in front started to move. Chica revved up the engine, hoping Fallon would sit back into the car. She did, however, only to reach out to Danika whose cot was in the backseat.
Fallon couldn't touch her because of the small space, but she looked at the baby with tears in her eyes.
"She's all I've got now." Fallon sobbed. Chica nodded, unable to talk. Fallon kept to herself after that. The only sane thought on her mind was yelling at the sky and beckoning on the forces of nature to fight on her behalf. The royal family had taken two people away from her. Had succeeded in tearing her heart to irrecoverable shreds.
"Fallon." Chica's voice reached out into her dreams. In her short trance, she had been standing on a hill. She and Leroy had climbed up the hill together, but when they got to the top, admiring the view of the world around them from the top of the hill; Leroy's hand which was entwined with Fallon's began to melt away.
Fallon turned to grab onto his shoulders to hold him still, but in her sleep-induced state, she grabbed onto Chica's shoulders instead and screamed. Chica whispered her name and covered her mouth with her palm.
"You're going to promise me one thing." Chica told her quietly. Fallon nodded, looking around to see where they were. They were at Hansens hospital. She had probably fallen asleep during the sad drive.
"When we get in there, promise not to scream. You'll hold yourself together. Promise?"
"I promise." Fallon said shakily. Chica opened the car door fully.
"Let's go. I'll carry Danika."
As soon as Chica introduced Fallon to the hospitals receptionist, the woman alerted the morgue attendants and coroner. Chica was asked to stay back because of baby Danika.
"This way please." A woman in green scrubs and cap told Fallon who followed promptly.
There was a narrow her, more of a stretcher in the wide room. The walls were painted grey. If anything, the colour of the paint resonated well with the stift air hanging in the room.
There was somebody on the table, zipped up in a black overall bag. That could be Leroy…. Fallon thought to herself. There were two other nurses, a man and a woman dressed in same green scrubs and cap.
The man tugged at the zip, lingering on it, as if guaging Fallon's reaction. Fallon braced herself for the painful revelation. Slowly, the zip slid down to the person's knees.
"Leroy." Fallon sobbed. His black hair pooled over his forehead. His once boyish face had blood and bruises all over it. His left eyebrow was torn, and if she had the heart to look closely, she would see the large cut on his neck. Just what had happened?
His chest was bare, and Fallon could see more of the deep cuts he had sustained in the accident.
Fallon turned her back. She didn't trust herself not to lunge at the table to wake him up from his deep slumber. She had promised not to scream, but at least she could cry.
"From the kind of injuries he sustained, we found out he was the driver of the Ford. We searched his pockets and saw his driver's license, and job description on his ID."
"There was a head on collision with another car, but strangely, the defaulting vehicle had no occupant in it. As if something had propelled it forward to hit Leroy's car."
Fallon couldn't tell which one of the morgue attendants had spoken, but she didn't want to hear any of it. She was boiling with rage and a new found hate for the Ardenwoods.
A car with no occupant in it? Why would a car suddenly turn to hit another car? It sounded like a juicy crime scene to Fallon who was too aggrieved to say anything. No one would believe her if the coroner was yet to come up with a complete analysis of what could have prompted the accident.
Fallon knew prince Maxwell as a man of action. He would stop at nothing to take out possible threats. She turned to look at Leroy's bloodied face. When time was due, she would take out every member of the Ardenwoods household.
Fallon was overcome with strangling emotions. It kept coming at her like an angry avalanche. This was the dream. Leroy had climbed up the hill with her, but he never down the hill with her. He didn't get the chance to. Fallon let out a bloodcurdling scream. Once. Twice.
The man zipped Leroy up. Fallon watched the movement of the zipper. It went over his face, sealing his bloody fate permanently. Fallon swallowed hard. She ushered herself out of the morgue. In all her nineteen years, the morgue was the worst place yet.
The drive home was quiet. There was nothing to talk about. Nothing made sense to her anymore. Chica was becoming blurry eyed with tears in her eyes. Twice, she parked by the side of the road at intervals to grab a box of Kleenex to wipe her eyes.
At home, Fallon moved around like a ghost. She felt incomplete knowing Leroy was never going to return home to her. His husky laughter would be a memory and his smile would only be a blurry image she was going to fight to remember.
There would be nothing from him for Danika to hold onto. She had only spent two and half months with him. The thought of raising Danika alone sent jitters down her spine. She would have to start job hunting soon enough. Life had given her a sucker punch, and she couldn't retaliate.
The Ardenwoods were child thieves and blood sucking people. When the time was right, she would avenge Leroy's death and take back what was hers.