chapter 01: Wedding and a funeral

Kaino's POV

"Do you, Kaino, take Parker to be your wedded husband, to cherish in friendship and love today, tomorrow, and for as long as the two of you live, to trust and honor him, to love him faithfully, through the best and the worst, whatever may come, and if you should ever doubt, to remember your love for each other and the reason why you came together with him this day?" The priest asks while watching me.

"I do." I reply.

"Do you, Parker, take Kaino to be your wedded husband, to cherish in friendship and love today, tomorrow and for as long as the two of you live, to trust and honor him, to love him faithfully, through the best and the worst, whatever may come, and if you should ever doubt, to remember your love for each other and the reason why you came together with him this day?" The priest turns to Parker and asks him the same question.

"I do." Parker utters lifelessly.

We then exchange the rings and I place a light kiss on Parker's cheek before facing the others who are here to attend the marriage. It's just our families and close friends that are present here. What was supposed to be a grand and splendid wedding witnessed and blessed by many turns out to be a simple one while everyone attend this with heavy hearts. The tears that are glistening in their eyes speaks for itself even without them saying a word. Any outsider who sees them would think these are happy tears but me knowing better, I can see the pain in everyone's heart and could feel the same along with them.

With a heavy heart, we walk down the aisle and stand in front of our parents.

"I want to go to the cemetery." Parker states while he blankly stares at ahead.

"Parker, it's not good to go to a cemetery after the wedding. Let's go tomorrow, yeah?" Mother says while trying to change his mind as her tears starts spilling.

"I have to go now." He mumbles, repeating the same thing.

"Parker, listen to us. You can't go now." Father states showing the fake seriousness.

"I'm going." Parker whispers as he takes a step as an attempt to walk away from here.

"I'll take you." I stop him by holding his hand while assuring him.

It's not good for him to go alone knowing in what kind of state he is in. He angles his face towards me and I give him a slight nod in a manner to show him I mean what I said. He doesn't respond to me anything in return. It's not like I need a confirmation from him or anything. I totally understand his situation.

Walking us towards the parking lot, I make him sit in the passenger seat, put on his seatbelt and then walk to the drivers seat. I see our family coming out of the wedding hall and getting in their own respective cars. When I settle in, I start the car and pull away from the area. Parker gazes out of the window during the whole drive to the graveyard. Though, I can't see his face I could see the tears falling on his cheeks.

Twenty minutes into the drive, I reach the place where Parker so wanted to be. Before I could even go to him, he hurriedly pulls away the seatbelt and stumble down while getting out of the car. Not bothering about anyone, he races towards the place where his most loved person is resting now, for eternity. I run behind him and by the time I reach him, he's already on his knees and bawling his eyes. Not wanting to disturb his moment, I stand by the side, a little away from him. I'll have my time with my brother some other time but for now it's all Parker's. Having no intention to witness the scene in front of my eyes, I look at the other side and see our family marching towards us.

Mother collapses beside Parker as father pats her shoulder in an soothing way, even if he's own set of tears are cascading on his cheeks. My parents move and stand next to me while we wait for them as we don't want to invade their family moment. When everything is going well and you're so ready to start a new beginning with your loved one but everything turns 180 degree and your life almost comes to a point of shutting down, no one but only you can understand the pain. And that's what Parker is going through now. He was happy till a day ago with the dream of starting a new chapter in life but his dream just remained as a dream and his world scrambled down in a mere second. He lost everything, his heart and soul and what remained is his body, just a shell.

Time keep skipping, afternoon slowly turns into evening as dark clouds starts to surround us.

"Parker, let's go home now." Mother says while trying to pull herself together. It's hard for her, just like Parker.

"No, I'm not going anywhere. I don't want to leave him." He screams while swinging his hands in an accept to push her away.

"Please don't be like this Parker, he won't be happy knowing you're sad." Father tries to convince him but to no vail.

"Parker please, we don't want to loose you as well." Mother cries out.

But that only makes the sound of Parker cries to increase. He cries with agonizing pain as if he lost everything in life which isn't far from truth.

Father signals me to take Parker away and I nod while taking a step and moving forward. Standing behind Parker, I lay my hands on his shoulder and when he looks up at me I say, "let's go home."

However, he shakes his head no and looks away from me. I sigh before sliding my arms under his hands and lifting him without his approval. That causes him to thrash in my hands as he attempts to pull away from me. But I keep my grip strong and after a lot of struggle, I finally succeed in standing him up. In the process of trying to get away and being exhausted from crying all day long, he faints at the end. I pick him up and carry him in my hands. Walking back to our car, I securely place him in the seat and pull it down so he could lay. I close the door and walk to the other side of the car. Seeing our parents, I stop from getting in and wait for them.

"Should I take him to their house?" I ask father.

"That place would only bring back the memories to him. But we have no other choice. For now take him there. I'll quickly find a new house for you two." He says and nod at him.

"Then, I'll get going." I tell them.

"Take care of him, Kaino. Always stay by his side and look after him. He's not in right mind now, we don't know what he'll do." My mom urges me while holding my hand.

"Ofcourse, mom. I'll make sure to stay by him. You guys don't worry, go home and take rest. If there's anything wrong, I'll let you guys know." I assure them as I hold my mom's hand.

I believe everyone is drained from what we encountered yesterday and all they need now is rest. We can't turn back time and change whatever happened. All we can do is accept it and move on. For some it's easy but for some it's the most difficult thing to do. While some people need less time, the others takes a lot of time to move on. Easy or hard, less or more all we have to do at the end is to let it go and continue the life. That's how a life is.

"Okay, Kaino. Let's leave now." Father says and we do as said.

While they go to their cars, I climb into mine and drive to home. The distance between the house and the cemetery is long. It almost took me 45 mintues to reach home. Parker is still passed out, so I carry him into the house and bring him into the room. Setting him on the bed, I remove his overcoat and shoes before covering him with the blanket. I set the temperature low and let the room get cool. Locking the door, I take the keys with me as I go to get washed up. I'm just making sure. What if he gets up while I'm in the shower and just walks out of the house. I promised my brother and everyone that I'll look after him, infact even without the promise Parker is my responsibility now. So it my duty to take care of him.

Heading into the bathroom, I remove my suit and throw it in the basket. I turn on the tap and let the cold water pour on my body. Taking a very quick shower, I dry myself and walk out with a towel wrapped around my waist. I take a look at Parker and see him still sleeping, I quitely walk into the closet and pick a pair of shorts and a tee before throwing them onto me. And then I sit beside Parker and make it my mission to look after him.

His swollen face and puffy eyes tells the story on their own. He might have not cried in his whole life as much as he did in the past 24 hours.

Slowly lying on the bed next to him, I look at him until my eyes starts to close on their own accord. Almost two days of flight journey is finally taking a troll on me. Tiredness and exhaustion hits me hard and in no time I drift off of to sleep.

Loud cry in the otherwise silent room immediately wakes me up from my sleep. I open my eyes and witness the heart wrenching scene. Parker sat up as he hold his chest tightly while crying his heart out.

"Parker, what's wrong?" I ask him while hurriedly sitting up and moving closer to him.

It's not like I don't know the reason, I'm just making sure. Because he hold his chest, it makes me think maybe he's not feeling well.

"H-he.. I saw him Kaino. There's so much of blood. H-he... I-I..." He couldn't even finish what he was going to say before another heart breaking cry rips out of him.

"It's okay, Parker. Shh, don't think about it anymore." I try to control him while I instantly pull him to me.

I rub his back which is wet with sweat. I don't mind tho, I just continue to soothe him. It takes alot of time but eventually his cries subside and yet again he passes out. Without much movement, I lay him back on the bed and grab a tissue from the night table. Gently wiping his sweat and tears, I put the tissue away and lie on the bed to sleep.

I grab hold of Parker's hand just to let him know there's someone by his side and that he's not alone. I make sure he's really sleeping before I close my eyes and sleep for the night while hoping when the next time I wake up, it's in the morning. And that Parker shouldn't be having anymore nightmares.