Remington and Emerson were just too shaken by Leanne's passing that preparations and arrangements fell onto my shoulders. It was unfair, actually, to assume that that her brother in law would be able to sufficiently celebrate her life. This should be Emerson's job, but he had Merick. My poor nephew was switching between denial and falling to pieces, and it was so obviously killing Emerson inside. Remington was doing the best he could with consoling and being there for Merick, but the only person the fourth grader wanted was his mother.

There was a crackle on the phone, and the nauseating elevator music cut out suddenly. A calming feminine voice spoke through the speaker as I hastily scooped the phone back up. "Hello. Thank you for holding, how may we assist you?" I cleared my throat. "Yea, hi. This is Sebastian Kropp, I was calling about your mortuary openings?" I tried as best as I could to keep my voice steady. The woman across the line made an audible inhale before she spoke again. "I'm sorry, but we don't have any openings. I can give you some numbers to other funeral homes if you need?" She offered. I sighed, and scratched one more string of digits off the list in front of me. "That would be great, thank you." I whispered, rubbing the side of my face in exhaustion.

Who knew there were so many dead people in the world? Especially today, of all days. I know for sure I will never be able to see August the twenty-fifth the same ever again. I tensed, then relaxed as I felt cold hands massage my shoulders, releasing some stress. My grief addled mind didn't think it was odd until the sensation creeped down so the sides of my arms, where I should've been able to see hands. Except, there were none. "GAahh!" I shot out of my seat, almost falling on my ass as I fell backward into a cold draft. My foot was still resting on the chair I was previously in, my phone sliding across the floor, and the coldness disappeared. I could have sworn I heard a woman say "how rude...".

"SEBASTIAN!! SEBAstian!" Remington shouted, his voice lowering to a normal volume as he slides into the kitchen with me, body slamming the doorframe. "Ow, Fuck- Sebastian!! I just saw a ghost!" Remington gasped, holding his arm as he raved like a mad man. "You saw a... what?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at my younger sibling. "A ghost!! Leanne's ghost!" Remington said earnestly, sitting in my discarded chair. He picked up the phone, put it to his ear and heard the dial tone. He hung up, then looked back at me. "Hand to god, I saw Leanne." I sighed, moving to crouch in front of Remington.

"Rem... I know you miss her, but this is a little ridiculous." I placed my hands on his shoulders, but he just shrugged me off. "I'm not crazy." He spat. "I saw her. I talked to her." He stood up, and gestured violently behind me. "She's right there!" I spun around, but saw only cabinets. "Please tell me you see her. She's cussing you out right now." Remington said, voice breaking. I laughed shakily, "Well, that does sound like something she would do. But Rem, I don't see her..."

Remington grabbed my face and spun me around again. "Look. Really look." He said near my ear. "You have to want to see her." I took his hands off me, and stepped to put some space between us. "I don't want to see her." I sighed, shaking my head. "Can you understand that, Remington. I do not want to see my dead sister." I yelled. When disaster strikes, i don't cry. I get angry. Remington stepped back, he looked hurt. Like my words physically hurt him. Then he got in my face. "You think I DO? I don't want to see her, not like this!" He shouted back, tears in his eyes. "Hey, Hey! What's going on?" Emerson interrupted, Merick resting on his hip.

Remington and I exchanged glances as the ten year old rubbed his eyes, his silky brown hair ruffled messily and his heterochromatic eyes he inherited from his mother glassy with tears. "Uncle Seb? Remi? Why are you yelling?" His young voice is just as adorable as ever, but for some reason it just rubbed me the wrong way today. Possibly because his eyes are his mothers, and I just can't deal with anything about her right now. "No reason Bud, we just felt like it." Remington answered for us, looking at me. "Yeah, yeah. Sometimes you just have to... scream into thin air." I added hastily. Merick smiles and giggled, "I wanna try."

"Go for it little dude." Emerson encouraged, "We'll all yell on three?" Merick nodded happily. "Let's do it." I agreed, walking up to Emerson's side with Merick, and gripped Emerson's shoulder. Remington went to his other side and held his other shoulder. "Three!" Emerson cheered, and we all yelled at the top of our lungs. My throat screamed in protest as I screamed raggedly at the sky, closing my eyes and letting a few tears slip from my eyes. It's not fair. It's not fucking fair.

Merick's voice screeched next to me. He found more joy in this than therapy, like the rest of us.

While we screamed at the sky, while we felt our emotions at peak capacity- whether it be the joy of inclusion, the pain of loss, or anger at the world- I could have sworn I heard a woman screaming with us, her voice ragged with sorrow and regret. Her voice told a story of how much life she still had to live, that was yanked out from her chest. As I looked to the source of the heart wrenching voice, I stopped hearing momentarily. I saw a snippet of time that would haunt me forever. Merick, with his hands wrapped around his fathers neck tightly, Emerson with wet cheeks as he held his son tightly, Remington with his tight grip on Emerson's shirt and his red face. Their mouths were opened as wide as they could be, pain etched into every natural shadow of their faces, heads pointed towards the ceiling.

And Leanne, standing in Emerson's arms, hugging Merick, screaming with us.

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Alright. I'm done, I'm not longer touching this book. Final chapter, for real this time. Thank you, so much, for 4K+ reads! I can't say I'm particularly sorry for the emotional damage I may have caused. After all, that was the whole point of this book, to make people feel. I hope you enjoyed, and read again at your leisure!

Also, a little self promo: if you haven't, PLEASE CONSIDER reading my other book, I Don't Believe In Ghosts {Remington Leith}. Love y'all, thanks!