Chapter 4 Part 2 of 3 (Patreon)

Delilah watched as the police officers took the lists and raised them to the board, nailing them in place. People huddled nearby, watching them, holding their loved ones close; husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. They waited as the police officers finished putting up the lists and moved off, heading to the next noticeboard.

Delilah was holding onto her shirt.

“Come on,” her mother said. They lined up with the others.

I feel like a coward giving this to Captain Arenson, but I couldn’t.

The Ryan family waited, Zhiwei adjusted her and John’s daughter on her hip. Greg looked drawn from his long days and nights working in the factories. Her mother was similarly tired-looking. She had been working on the wounded transported from Vuzgal when the totem had been working. Her father held onto her and strode forward, guiding the family.

Suzy, Nolan, Kyle and Rachel were with Delilah at the rear. Suzy and Rachel stood near Zhiwei. Suzy was wagging her finger at the little one, entertaining her.

Nolan rested his hand on Delilah’s back. He had grown large and strong in the fields. Delilah smiled at him.

“No, no. Not my little girl.” The man at the front of the line touched the paper as if he could reach through and grab his daughter. His friends pulled him onward, supporting him. Some passed with relieved expressions while others collapsed under the loss; some demanded that the list be checked. Some yelled. Some were silent. Grief was not uniform.

The Ryan family was quiet as they walked down to the list, reaching the R section.

Her mother spotted it first; she simply started crying against her father’s chest as his face shuddered and broke into tears.

Greg reached the words and turned back.

“Jamie and Joanna.” He shook his head in disbelief. Delilah turned into Nolan who wrapped her in a hug as he clenched his jaw.

“What of John? Where’s John?” Zhiwei pushed forward, studying the list, searching for his name.

She gripped the blanket that wrapped up her daughter tight as she let out a shuddering breath of relief.

“He’s been wounded,” Greg said, moving to help her as Nolan pulled over Rachel who was crying and Suzy went to the board, her finger tracing down the names before it fell limply by her side.

“Come on, let’s go home,” Joseph Ryan sniffed.

They huddled together with pale faces, red eyes, and tears.

Delilah looked off at memorial park and looked away. Today she couldn’t face it, today she was just Delilah Ryan who’d lost her brother and sister to fighting.

***

Taran stood before the house. He looked at the door, a weight on his heart and in his chest.

Tan Xue made me promise.

He gathered his courage and knocked on the door. There was no answer from inside. He waited, and knocked again.

Taran reached out and turned the door handle.

“Julilah?” he called out softly. “Julilah, where are you?”

He closed the door behind himself. He heard crying upstairs.

“It’s Uncle Taran,” he said as he climbed the stairs.

He followed the sound of choked sobs.

“Julilah,” he said, pushing the ajar door to Tan Xue’s dark room open. He flicked on the light, illuminating it.

It was sparse with a simple bed, a desk that looked out over Alva with different plans, protractors, pencils, angles and rulers covering it. A closet to one side and a picture mounted on a wall of Taran, Tan Xue, Qin and Julilah at the crafting competition with the two girls looking horrified as they ate food with Tan Xue laughing at them and Taran with crossed arms with a wry grin on his face.

Happier times.

Julilah was on the bed, wrapped around a pillow. She looked away from the door.

Taran didn’t say anything, he just sat down and stroked her head.

Just because she has done so much it makes one forget just how young she is.

“There, there Julilah.”

She let go of the pillow and hugged his side.

Taran raised his arms in alarm before he wrapped them around her shaking shoulders.

After some time, she calmed down, falling asleep, exhausted.

As gently as possible Taran picked her up and carried her to her room, taking off her shoes and putting them to the side, tucking her into her sheets. He stepped away, getting to the doorway before his own silent tears rolled from his cheeks.

I’ll honor my promise, Tan Xue.

He turned to close the door, seeing the lines on Julilah’s forehead as uneasy sleep claimed her.

He closed the door as quietly as possible, his shoulders slumped as he wiped away the tears. He looked through the house, the times he and Tan Xue had worked on projects on the kitchen table, or when he had come to wake her to make sure she was at her classes on time. The laughter they shared, the smiles.

Now, it was just a house, quiet and dull. He let out a shaky sigh, his eyes looking for items, for things that drew his mind to Tan Xue, that brought with them memories. His feet-unbidden took him to Tan Xue’s room, seeing the picture again. He smiled as fresh tears ran down his face. “One hell of a lady and a smith.”

He chuckled, and raised his hand to the light, he held it above the formation but couldn’t bring himself to turn off the lights. He dropped his hand.

He took in a shaky breath, looking around the room, it was just as Tan Xue had left it. Her boots lay where they had fallen when she’d kicked them off. The clothes she’d rummaged through to find something clean were still in a half-hazard pile.

These little reminders struck Taran harder than if the room had been spotless.

He turned, went downstairs, and sat down on the couch. Memories floated through his mind of the people that had been lost as he stared out the main window at Alva.