Overbearing water droplets collide with the clear glass door. Your hand rests softly on the opposing side of the glass, and your focuses rest in the darkness that lives beyond. The house is silent tonight, and the leaking faucet in the kitchen drips slowly. You curl your fingers gently against the glass as you continue to search through the world with blind eyes for your answers. Where are they? You gently whisper to the glass as the thought escapes your mind. They should have been home over an hour ago. The onslaught of questions continues to dance inside your mind before the silence is torn asunder.

The phone on the other end of the room exclaims for your attention with a loud ring, ring, ring. You’re slow to turn around as the chills of fear creep from your mind into a foreseen reality. Once around, you back pressed heavily against the glass, unwilling to move. The space between you and the phone seems to fade away with each ring. Right, left, right, left, as your feet scuff across the living room floor towards the phone. Each step worse than the last, and each ring louder than the one before. Who could it be?

You make it through, and now you stand to stare down at the phone that still screamed for your attention. It feels like a thousand years have passed since you were looking out the glass. Your shaking hands slowly make for the phone that grew more impatient as the seconds rolled by. Nervously, your fingers wrap around the phone. You lift it off the receiver, and time is slower than ever before now. Each second divided by thousands as your miserable hand rides the phone along a path to your ear. Hello? You whisper horrified into the phone.

“Hey, babe! I’m so sorry that I’m running late, work was crazy tonight! But I’m on my way home now, I should be there in about fifteen minutes”.

It was their voice on the other end of the phone, relieved. You smile softly as all your fears race away. You thank them for letting you know they are okay. You giggle a bit as they tell you they love you, and you tell them the same. They hang up the phone and you do the same, happy to know that everything was fine.

“I love you so much…” you whisper softly to yourself before turning around back towards the glass.

The first step in the hardest as your families all dressed in black stare at you with soft worn eyes. You swallow back the tears working overtime in your throat. Right, left, right, left, as your feet shuffle down the path made clear by those attending the funeral. You make it past the last of them and once again are standing in front of the glass. The rain drops still smash into the glass from the other side through the darkness. You scream and send your fist directly through the glass, shattering it into a million microscopic pieces that drizzle onto the ground below your feet.

Tears one after the other slide down your cheeks and the rain drops now free to soak your black attire. You find it harder to breath but still find the strength to turn around one last time. Their large silver casket drifting into the ground blessed by the loved ones in black. You watch until the casket disappears completely into the earth.

“I love you”.

You tell them one last time before turning back to face the rain drops that rained down on you. Right, left, right, left, you start to move forward. Alone.