Mourning the Dead

Riley stood in a graveyard, staring down at a headstone that read 'Xander Fennchapel Carver.'

He was ten when he died, a skittish little nerd with a perky attitude.

Tears started streaming down her face. Lucinda had never known him, or any of
their brothers.

"I'm sorry." She muttered, falling to her knees.

"I tried, I really did Xander." More tears came as the emotional floodgates were knocked down.

"It just happened so quickly.. I didn't even know what to think."

She bit her lip, feeling a cold presence around her, and she could have swore she felt a hand on her shoulder.

But she turned, and no one was there.

Make contact with the dead..

"Xander?" She asked, tears flooding faster down her cheeks.

This was the first time she'd visited his grave since his funeral.

The vague memory of a thirteen year old in a white sundress, crying in a crowd of depressed people came into mind.

Then the memory of Xander flooded in.

"RILEY!" Lucinda screamed walking through the graveyard and seeing her sister standing over a grave.

Riley looked up in surprise, "Hi Lucinda."

She wiped a few tears away with the edge of her hand.

"What are you doing here?"

"Logan and Victoria told me that you were looking for me." She said grabbing a tissue and wiping her sister's tears.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Oh, I'm just trying to get over something that happened a long time ago. You see... We had a little brother."

She pointed at the headstone and then pulled the letter she had got out of her pocket.

"And also... our dad is dead.."

Riley pointed to the headstone next to Xander's.

Danny Carver.
A loving father.

Her eyes filled with tears, that dripped down her eyes and on Xander's tombstone.

Then, she looked at her dad's more tears filled her eyes.

"I barely even knew them." She choked out

Riley pulled a picture of each out of her pocket.

She showed them to Luci, first her dad, then Xander.



"Xander," She said through tears, "Why that little nerd.. I was his only friend in the world..."

Riley covered her face at all the memories they shared, when he got his head stuck in the toilet, when they shot their first deer together...

They did everything together.

Memories of the seperation flooded back to her mind

Their mother looked down at Lucinda. "This one goes with me. You can take that little sack of puke." She said sneering at Riley in her baby carriage.

She never knew Xander, Eric, Josh, or their dad.

"I gotta go." She said grabbing her broom.