Chapter 28-3

When my eyes adjusted to the lighting, I saw that the first few rows of pews were filled with people, that the front of the church was decorated with an array of white flowers and cloths spread over the altar. And set up on a stand in front of the altar was a mahogany casket covered in even more flowers. "A funeral." I turned to Havoc in confusion. "Why am I at a funeral?" Havoc spread his arms out with a wide smile. "Take a closer look." I took a few tentative steps down the aisle, afraid of what I might see, when I recognized - "Zio Vito? What is my uncle doing here? I don't - " I took off down the aisle in a sprint and nearly landed flat on my face when I skidded across the stone floor as I reached the first pew. "Mom? Mom, what's going on?" I sunk to the ground in front of my mother, my mother who was pale in the face and had a dead look in her eyes as she stared straight ahead, seeing nothing. "What are you doing here?" My mother said nothing, oblivious to the fact that I was more or less shouting right at her, and instead looked down the pew. I followed her gaze and felt my insides constrict. "Hadley." I quickly stumbled my way to my feet and reached out for Hadley, who was sitting down the pew, past my three little sisters. If it was possible, she looked even worse than my mother did. Her face was thin and pale and there were dried tears streaked across her cheeks. Her hands were twisted together tightly in her lap and her lips were trembling. She looked like she had seen...well, death. She looked worse than she had the day she found out Havoc had returned and even worse than when she had been in that car accident. I had never seen her look like this before, and it was more than painful. And what was the most blatantly obvious was that she wasn't pregnant. "Hadley, what happened?" I gripped her face in my hands, and her skin was as cold as ice. "What's going on? What happened to the baby? What - " "She can't hear you, you know." "What? Why?" I rounded on Havoc as he approached me, gripping fistfuls of his shirt. "What the hell is going on here? Where's the baby? What - " Havoc burst out laughing. He laughed and laughed and it bounced off the walls of the church, echoing in my ears, making this even creepier than it already was. "What is so funny?" "Just who's funeral do you think this is, Archer?" If the people sitting in the pews were my family, then who's funeral was this? I took a step back, my hands falling to my sides, at a loss for words. "Now you seem to be getting it," Havoc said with a growing smirk. "This is... my funeral." I looked around again, the somber air in the church almost suffocating. "I'm dead." "Bingo." Havoc perched himself on the edge of a pew, tossing his arm around my mother's shoulders, giving her a firm shake. "Welcome to your greatest fear." "My greatest fear isn't dying," I snapped. "I'm not afraid to die." And I truly wasn't afraid to die, because at one point I had almost taken my own life. "I know dying isn't your greatest fear," Havoc agreed with a nod. "But losing your family is." He wiggled a finger down at Hadley. "I don't think your precious wife is taking your loss so well. She looks sort of sick. And, well, she was pregnant, wasn't she?" "Don't." "Well, I mean, I'm just stating the obvious, aren't I?" "Don't you dare." "I'm simply saying that I don't see a baby anywhere, is all. I'm wondering what could have happened." Right from the very beginning I should have realized that this was my greatest fear. Not just losing my family, but our child. Our baby that deserved the right to live. I was preparing myself to slam my fist into Havoc's face and not stop when footsteps began to echo off the walls, sounding extremely loud in the eerie quiet of the church. Havoc and I both turned around at the sound of the approaching footsteps, and that was when everything literally went to hell all over again. "Well, don't look so dumbstruck, boys," the woman said, hands on hips, smiling at the both of us. "I thought you'd be happy to see me." Havoc rose to his feet, his jaw a tight line, hands clenched into fists at his side. I had never seen such an unhinged expression on any man's face before. He looked far from the easy, composed person he had been moments before. "No." "Oh, yes." The woman smiled at me and gave a small wave. "Hi, Archer." "Agnes Schaffer? What the hell are you doing here?"