A Memory Faded - [Twenty-Three]

Fletcher woke up with a sore side, a tense thigh and a feeling of company. His mom, dad, Alex and her parents were stood around him, looking rather upset. It took him a while to be able to think straight enough to speak, but when the sedative wore off enough to do that, he asked everyone why they were looking so sad, and received an answer that took his heart and crushed it into sand.
“She’s really…?”
Alex took Fletcher’s hand, and nodded. His face wrenched in self-aimed anger and sadness. Tears tore down his face silently as he bit into his lip with gritted teeth. Blood began to leak from within his lips, dripping down his chin and onto the bed sheets. His grip tightened to the point where it was painful on Alex’s hands - if she had been wearing a ring, he would’ve drawn blood already.
“Fletcher…please, you’re crushing my hand…”
“Sorry, Alex…I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s alright, I understand how you feel…and I’m right by your side, through and through. No matter what happens, I’ll be with you, okay?”
Fletcher nodded and wiped blood and tears from his face with his sleeve.

Four days later, a service was held in the local church. Fletcher walked Alex in politely, formally. She was dressed in a long black frock, trimmed with lace and small red flowers. She wore a small veil from a headpiece she had bought. Fletcher wore a black shirt with a red tie, and a black suit. It seemed so clichéd but there was a good reason behind it. The band was going to do a cover of a song, but in the actual way the video for that song was filmed, or pretty much anyway.
The priest from his pulpit spoke to the masses of people present.
“And for our final song, Alice’s brother’s band will be playing ‘Helena’.”
A few people looked around confusedly, but kept quiet and picked up their song sheets. Fletcher went across to his sister, laid in her coffin, looking pale and serene. He gave an uncomfortable laugh. It looked like she was just asleep, like when he tucked her in on a night. Leaning forward, he pecked her on the forehead, and whispered, ‘This one’s for you’.
Strumming the opening riffs to the song, he closed his eyes and concentrated. He wouldn’t mess one single note up. This was for Alice…this was her song, and he knew he’d never be able to listen to it again without thinking about her. But maybe that was a good thing. She had been such a big part of his life, whether positive or negative, it wasn’t fair to simply forget about her. She was his sister, dead or alive, and he would make sure to give her the remembrance she deserved. Alex watched her boyfriend play in the most emotional state she’d ever seen him in. The makeup she had applied for him was running down his cheeks, and his hair was beginning to adhere to his face from the sweat he was producing from such concentration. He was a wreck, but a heroic wreck, and that made him seem so much more than just a boy, more than even a man. He’d hit a new state of existence, something that transcended spirit and body and mind. Collapsing to his knees, he broke into the bridge of the song, and the pallbearers took the coffin from behind him, and began to walk it down the aisle.
He hit the final line as the hearse’s door closed.
Staring up into the roof of the church, he felt overcome by fatigue and emotion, collapsing to his knees. Taking his guitar from his shoulders, he tossed it down the aisle, watching it skim along the floor until it came to an abrupt halt by means of Alex’s shoe.
“This isn’t how you’re supposed to use a guitar, Fletcher,” she said, her voice echoing, “It’d be such a waste if you broke it. It‘s a beautiful guitar.”
“I know, but I don’t feel like it’s worth anything anymore, I don’t even feel like we’re worth anything anymore. I don’t know what meaning there is to this life.”
“How can you seriously say that?! Do you think Alice would be impressed by this kind of attitude?! ‘Cause I don‘t! She was your sister, and she loved you to pieces. The last thing she‘d want for you to do is waste your life away at her expense!”
“How can you say anything?! You didn’t even know her! She wasn’t your sister!”
“Maybe I didn’t know her, but I knew about her, and you’re an imbecile if you think wasting your life is going to impress her or please her.”
“Alex is right,” Elizabeth added, “Alice would be so upset if you ruined your life just because she died. And I knew her so you can’t use the same comeback you did before.”
“I knew her for almost as long as you, Fletcher,” Ami inserted into the debate, “She loved you ever so much, she wouldn’t want you to mess things up, and she loved our band too. If anything I think she’d want us to play our hearts out for her.”
“Why are you all so concerned with what you think she would’ve wanted me to do? Why are you all against me? You just keep out of it, alright?!”
Fletcher stormed down the aisle, knocking into Alex with his shoulder as he passed. She didn’t turn around, she just held still. Tilting her head down, she felt tears run down her face, the saltiness burning into her skin. He had changed, and now she was worried whether she could bring him back to the boy he once was.