"What's going on? How did I get here? Where are my children? Where's Jocelyn? Tell me!! What happened to my wife and children!!!"
As I kept pleading for my wife and children, Jacqueline simply wept while looking at me and my state. It took my dad escorting her out of the room for my mom to finally fill me in.
"Hun… Henry. You have been in a coma for almost 4 months. The police back then said you and your family were forced off the road by a truck fleeing the police and crashed. The crashed left you in a near vegetative state, while Jocelyn was killed… I'm sorry, sweetheart." Mom whimpered as she spoke.
"The good news though, your children were spared with only a few scrapes and bruises, thank God. At first, we didn't know if you would make it given the number of machines needed to keep you alive. The children already lost their mother, we didn't want them to lose their father too."
As mom told me what happened, I began to weep. The well of tears caused my face to burn. I couldn't stop the saltwater river from pouring out onto my still battered and scarred face.
Like Jacqueline, I wept for my wife and children while blaming myself for not being more aware of the road. If I had been paying more attention, Jocelyn would still be here, or I would have died but saved my family in the processes. In my grief I cursed, thinking my children would be better off with their mother alive than me. It was here something truly broke inside.
Even after my release, I never drove a car again, instead I would opt for an Uber or a taxi. Being unable to stay in Virginia due to all that happened, I later took the kids and moved to Massachusetts. Informing, my job, I transitioned to working remotely full-time and raised my kids until they were old enough and were tired of being over shrouded by their extremely overprotective old man. Still, they knew I had their best interest at heart.
On another note, I never remarried after the accident. Mom or Jacqueline always felt like I needed to have another woman in the house for the sake of my children. One day during a family gathering, mom couldn't hold it in anymore and confronted me about it. I can remember all eyes on us. Dad even tried to leave the room, but was stopped by Josephine. Like a entertainment spectacle, mom asked me in from of the family,
"Henry… Don't you think it's time to move on and consider allowing your children to have a mother take care of them?"
As a response to her question, Julianna, who was 12 at the time and her brother Anton, age 8 ran over to me. They hugged my legs as I stood there stunned by the question. Of course my children needed to have a mother figure in their live. I just couldn't imagine another woman as their "mother" raising my kids other than Jocelyn. So I answered,
"The love of my life has left this world because of my own shortcomings. When she passed, so did my ability to love another woman in such away. If I didn't have the children to take care of and watch them grow into fine adults on her behalf, I would have joined her a long time ago."
My honesty shook the room. I had been suffering from broken heart syndrome. (For those who don't know, Broken Heart Syndrome (aka Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy), is a condition which the suffers may die of sadness. Much like a certain galactic Senator.) If it wasn't for my children, I may have died a lot sooner. Still, I had more to say,
"Mom. I understand what you are asking. Only, I am at this point where I cannot trust any other woman save our family to raise my children in a way that would make Jocelyn proud…"
I continued to be a single father until my children were old enough to no longer want to be with dad. After they moved out of my house, I took to playing video games to pass the time. Eventually, I developed a new reason to live, full immersion virtual reality gaming. Too bad everything went to shit on a silver platter.
Regardless, every time I dream of this moment and reach the point where I am truly heartbroken, I wake up from my dream. Each waking moment accompanied by tears flowing from my eyes. Looking towards my chest, laid Ivy nestled in my embrace.
Sometimes, I feel like I have known her from another life. Other times, I feel like I am doing the memory of Jocelyn a disservice. Usually, I come to my senses as I rationalize with myself given, I am no longer on Earth, and my life there is billions of Earth years in the past. Still, it's taken some time to come to terms with me being not so 10-sols old here on Ohmdorra.
(Jocelyn, wherever you are, I hope you have found the happiness we once had.) Oddly enough, Ivy spoke in her sleep as if hearing my prayer.
"Don't worry, I am happy now. Even more so now that I am with you again…"
What kind of dream was she having to say such a thing? No matter, I won't pursue the topic since it's only a dream. I too remember being happy in dreams with celebrities like H*l** B**r*, or Re***a H**l or the many other actresses.
All of which I bedded in my dreams like a certain British spy. Anyway, I let her sleep soundly for another hour or so while I collect myself from memory lane. Afterwards, I gently stroked her head, waking her up from her dream. It was time for us to leave this place. After 15 minutes, we both were up and fully packed.
With nothing left to worry about, we headed to the large room we used for meetings, and cooking food. Once there, everyone was present and ready to go. Nodding my head, I lead our party towards the stars to the next floor, Katya's golems behind us as we began our descent. We continued down the stairway to the next floor for about an hour and a half before a bright light filled the stairway.
"Be ready for anything."
I said while igniting my plasmasaber and evoking my fire shroud over my head. I didn't need to look back as I knew everyone else was preparing for whatever may greet us on the other side. I maintained my pace but shored up my steps as crossed the threshold. Once over, I was greeted by a wall of heat, and molten lake of fire.
The 2nd floor, paradise for fire and earth elemental monsters. Here the most common monsters are those found swimming in the molten lava. Luckily, these monsters will live at let live so long as you don't trend in their territory.
Now shall our journey to the 4th floor progress in haste. Stepping forward, I lead my party through the molten realm that is the 2nd Floor. Hopefully nothing like meeting that serpent will happen here. I have had enough of being someone's prisoner to last me all of my incarnations.
-End of Chapter