Then The Tears Fell

By Aryn Lynn

Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimful of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again tho’ cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pluse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago.
-Christina Rossetti

My name’s Cassie. I go to school like anyone else. Everyday it’s the same thing wake up, eat, go to school, come home, do homework, eat, sleep and then start the whole cycle over again. Today was supposed to be just another day but it wasn’t.

I walked down to the kitchen. My mom was reading the paper and listening to the radio at the same time. I kissed her on the cheek, showing no indication that I wanted to talk about what happened last night. As I poured the cereal into my bowl my mind strayed. < Cassie, stay back! >

< Jake, you guys need me. >

< Keep doing your job and we’ll do ours. >

< Rachel? >

< Cassie, shut up and do as Rachel and Jake tell you. >

< But…>

< Listen to Marco. >

< Rachel, Jake, Marco, Tobias? > I pleaded. Nothing but silence.

“Honey you’re pouring to much milk.”

“Dad?” I snapped back into reality.

“You okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine.” I glanced at the clock. “I got to go, bye.”

I kissed my parents and tried to block out the seven words that stung my heart forever.

“Four kids died in an explosion yesterday…..”

I got to the bus stop just in time to see it round the corner. When I got on, I kept my head bent not wanting to see the kid’s faces that were staring at me. I sat down in the seat that Rachel and I usually sat in. Rachel wouldn’t be on today that I knew. I stared out the window, with memories flooding my thoughts.

-5 years ago-

Why I had to go to an elementary school that had lockers, I’ll never know. I had dialed my combo twice and it still hadn’t opened.

“Here, sometimes you just have to kick it in the right places.” The girl with the locker next to mine said. She kicked my locker twice at the bottom and once at the middle. It flew open.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” She continued to get her book bag into her locker.

“I’m Rachel.”

“Cassie.”

“Where are you from?”

“Vermont, my mom just got transferred here. She’s a vet.”

“Where does she work?”

“Someplace where it’s like a amusement park and a zoo.”

“The Gardens?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“That place rocks!”

I just smiled.

“Rach?” Rachel walked around to the other side of my locker. There a Hispanic boy was waiting. She kicked the same pattern as she did with me and it opened. “Marco,” She said. “This is Cassie.”

“Hi.” I smiled and shook his outstretched arm.

The bell rang.

“Whose class are you in?”

“Campell.”

“Oh, then you’ll see my cousin.”

“What’s his name?”

She never got to answer me, there were to many kids in the hall to hear.

I kicked my locker twice at the bottom once in the middle. It opened. I laughed; Rachel’s method always worked and had been useful for years. Marco, Jake and I always used it and it always worked. I was getting my books out when the three most popular people in the grade walked up to me.

“You’re Cassie right?” Ashleigh asked me.

“Yeah why.”

“You’re one of the two surviving Animorphs right?” I cringed, the words two surviving felt like needles into my heart.

“Yeah so?”

“We want to apologize for what happened. We were a controller, the three of us and we felt like it was our fault they got killed.” Leia told me. The other girl Kaysey started crying.

“Umm why is she crying?”

“”She was kind of going out with Jake. They loved each other a lot.” I’m sure my face turned red with anger, the things people did for attention!

The bell rang.

“I got to go. Bye.” I slammed my locker shut then ran to math.

Then the tears fell.

“Mrs. Fayes? I need to see student 228962 please.”

“They’ll be right there.”

I stood up, 228962 was my number. Surprise, surprise. I filled out my pass, had my teacher sign it and left. I turned down a hall. The same hall, which had Jake and Rachel’s locker in it. I stood in front of the two that were side by side. They each had a memorial on them. On the outside it was covered with thoughts, poems, stories, memories, drawings and even old report cards. I dug into my pocket and took out a picture and hooked it in between the lockers. On the front it was a picture of the six of us in the snowstorm throwing snowballs at each other. On the back it had a single word and a single date, Animorphs, December 22nd. I took one last look at the lockers and started walking towards the office. Then the tears fell.

***********

”Mrs. Water, I’m here to see Mr. Chapman. The secretary looked up to see my tear-streaked face. The secretary had only been here a year, but she was kind to everyone.

“Oh sweetie, you’ve seen the lockers haven’t you.” She pulled me into a hug. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

“What?”

“Go into his office and he’ll explain.”

I walk into it and stood in the doorway. “Hi.” He said.

“Hello,” still by the doorway.

“Sit down.” I sat in one of the two chairs. “Come on in Gem.”

A beautiful girl came in. She had shoulder length hair, green eyes and she was very, very tall, at least 5’11. The first thing you noticed about her beside her height was how thin she was. Considering her height she was extremely thin at least 30 or 40 pounds under weight. It looked like se had become anorexic for a while, but was now trying to regain weight.

“Cassie, this is Gemini. Gemini this is Cassie one of the remaining Animorphs.”

“Hi.” She smiled a dazzling smile at me.

“Hi.”

“I think Gem can help you get over the emotional part of your loss.”

“I lost my best friend to cancer a year ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m willing to give you two the rest of the day off. You can talk, see a movie anything. Just as long as you make up all your work.”

“That would be great.” Gem told him. I just nodded.

“Here’s your pass and your permission slip. You may go.” We turned to leave.

“Oh and Cassie.”

“Yes?”

“We’re having a memorial service for the Animorphs. You will be honored and so will you. I was wondering since you knew them best, would you mind giving a speech of memories, pictures, stuff like that?”

“I would love to sir.”

“Thank you, Cassie.” I left never letting any sign that I heard the last line. Right now, I didn’t want thank you’s I just wanted my friends back.

************

I stared straight ahead at the teacher. A note landed on my desk. I picked it up and opened it.

‘Hi.’ It read. As I looked around the room for who sent it I saw the boy beside me smile.

‘Hi. What’s your name?’ I slid it back to him.

‘Jake. You?’

‘Cassie.’

‘That’s pretty.’

‘Thanks.’ I smiled at him and he smiled back.

**************

Gem and I were sitting at the food court in the mall, drinking smoothies.

“What was your friend like?”

“Oh she was so pretty. She had curly brown hair that fell to her shoulders. Her blue eyes were always laughing and her cheeks were always rosy. She always wore a smile and she was always, surrounded by people. She was so sweet and kin and never pushed anyone away. She never gave up trying and always encouraged others to do the same.”

“What do you remember her by?” I wanted to know.

“Well I picked out the best memory, how she always called me Gemmy and I used to call her Jewels. And whenever I missed her I always thought of that memory. I imagined she was sitting right there with me remembering with me too.”

“Can I ask you something else?”

“Yeah go ahead.”

The tears formed in my eyes and as I said it I choked on my words. “When does the empty feeling go away?”

“Cassie,” she looked me straight in my eyes. “I wish I could say it does but the truth is it will always be there, causing you pain whenever you’re happy and causing you sorrow whenever you’re glad.” She reached for my hand, and held it as we sat in silence. Then the tears fell.

**************

“I bet most of you would have loved to do what I did after school. Morphing into an animal sounds like fun huh? That’s what we thought when we first started this. When they died I didn’t think that anymore. This game took the lives of four of my best friends, not all human, the only friends I ever loved. The only friends I ever knew. I~” I stopped. There standing in the doorway was Ax. When he saw my mouth form his name he turned to run. I ran after him. He was an Andalite in human morph I was human I caught him very soon. “Ax stop, please for me!” I pleaded he did and turned around to look at me.

There staring straight into my eyes were my eyes. Ax was in a morph that was a mix of the Animorphs, Jake, Rachel, Marco and me. I guess the school noticed it to because stunned gasps could be heard from the crowd that followed me into the hall we were standing in.

“Is it true Cassie?”

“Is what true?”

“Is Prince Jake and the others dead?”

“Yes Ax that’s true, why.”

“In that case, I came to say goodbye Cassie.”

“Goodbye why?”

“My prince is dead Cassie.” I knew what he was going to do.

“No, you can’t.” I hugged him so tight that his human body stopped breathing, but it didn’t matter he was morphing. Half the school fainted when they saw him, the rest were probably free controllers so they had already seen one before.

Gem came over and pulled me off him. She covered my eyes when his tail blade went into his main heart a sign of honor for his dead prince. Then the tears fell. And when the tears fell, she rocked me stroking my hair while I cried.

“Goodbye Gem.” I whispered.

She held her grip on me tighter.

“I won’t let you go.”

“Gem you only lost one, I lost five.” She cried harder but released her grip. She kissed my forehead, stood up and moved back.

“You’re wrong you know. I lost two.”

That was the last thing I heard before I cut my wrist with Ax’s tail blade. By the time Mr. Chapman and my parents got there it was to late, I had already joined my friends in eternal peace.

********************

Epilogue

A woman figure stood in a graveyard. Six graves stood side by side different from all the rest. The middle one, surrounded by friends read the three words, ‘You’re Never Alone.’

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