Chase felt his world crumbling, and his mind throbbed after all the sudden revelations interweaving through the series of memories he saw flashing in his head. He barely made his way towards his car as he fumbled and pulled the key out of his pocket. He then started the engine with transparent liquid constantly flowing down his cheeks down to his body, reaching his beaten crumpled heart.
His vision started to blur as the tears flowed nonstop, his head started to throb in a massive amount. The road began to blur, everything became hazy, confusing, unsure. Chase could barely see the road and in an instant, a screeching and crashing sound resonated the road. It was almost a scene seen in the movie when his car flew and crashed towards a store of antique vases. Chase, now with the thick liquid rolling down from his head covered with glasses on the steering wheel, only stared at the big broken vase shattered beside the driver's door.
"Who among you three broke my vase?!" their grandfather asked as he looked at the three children with a pair of ferocious red eyes.
Their parents went to the main city to visit Patricia, who was having her piano practice, leaving Chase, Isabella, and Anna in their grandparents' house beside the ocean. They had always done it during their summer vacation. The three had been playing hide and seek for a long time and Chase didn't notice the huge vase beside him and accidentally hit it with his elbow.
They were all looking at the ground, hoping the angry old man would let their mistake slip away. Chase was scared. He couldn't tell his grandfather he was the one who did it. His eyes rounded and shook when he heard the other child speak instead.
"It's me, grandpa. I'm sorry," Isabella exclaimed with eyes still fixed on the ground.
Chase felt his chest tighten at the sight. Why was Isabella doing this?!
He heard his grandfather's footsteps then, directly heading towards Isabella's position. One hand went to squeeze Isabella's chin, forcing her head to tilt up and meet his gaze.
"Do you know how much that vase cost? It's probably more expensive than your life, you ungrateful child!!" Chase's eyes widened as he then heard the sudden loud slap from his grandfather's big rough hand.
It landed on Chase.
Little Chase looked at his grandfather. A smirk played on his grandfather’s face that made Chase's hair stand all over his body.
His grandfather gripped his arm and started to drag him inside another room along the hallway.
"G-Grandpa, no!" Chase protested and squirmed under his grandpa's firm grip, tears streaming down his cheeks.
He could hear the loud banging of the door, painfully listening to the loud screams of his siblings left outside. His eyes widened in horror as he watched his grandfather slowly unbuckle his belt and was now looking at Chase with heavy hooded eyes.
"Grandpa please!! Please open the door!" he could hear the horse voices of Isabella, who he had imagined was crying loudly now more than Anna.
"Don't hurt big brother, please, grandpa!!! Please grandpa open the door!!!" Isabella's screams were the only things that filled Chase's ears as his eyes turned blank and terrifyingly felt a cold hand landing on his skin, slowly and mercilessly, creeping into the different parts of his body.
Chase panted hard as he bent his body and put his hands on the knee for support. His little body was almost giving in, his eyes were tired and puffy from all the tears they had spent.
"We're almost there," Chase uttered to his younger siblings, as the two were trying to move their legs on the sand, Isabella giving the weak figure of Anna a ride on her back.
"Chase…I'm tired," Isabella said as she staggered, her steps started to become wobblier as she tried to continue.
Chase, being the oldest among them, moved closer and picked up the youngest one from the other, putting his little sister, Anna, to his back. “Just a bit more.”
They started walking on the sand again while Chase struggled to walk because of the weight on his back. It wasn't like he would complain though. He was determined to do this; he had already planned this for multiple nights already. So, he will be fine. They will be fine.
"Big brother!!” Anna screamed as Chase was hit by a sudden splash of water. Chase coughed hard with the unexpected wave.
"I'm okay. Are you okay?" Chase's eyes scanned over his siblings' bodies, checking for any damage or cuts as he panted, coughing some water out of his lungs. It hurt; Chase’s chest hurt.
I'm going to save you both. I will take you away from that evil man, Chase told himself, hand gripping hard on the edge of the wooden boat.
The younger one smiled at Chase and whispered they were fine, and Chase felt his heart swirl together with the waves dancing wildly under their feet just beneath the wooden floor.
It was too fast. The images became blurry as the rolling tides became rougher and bigger, now filling their small boat, and Chase heard scream after scream, his name being called multiple times. The boat was suddenly turned over caused by the tremendous coming of waves, constantly hitting them in the middle of the massive water.
He caught sight of his siblings on the sea, frantically trying to move up their heads from the water to get the needed air. Their hands were punching, tapping, desperately plunging everywhere against the cold water around them, trying hard to make their bodies up and away from the deep ocean below them.
“Isabella! Anna!” He had called then. But the waves continued to get bigger, and more air had escaped his lungs. He couldn’t breathe anymore.
Before everything went black, Chase tried to call for his sisters once more and there he saw, one of them, being washed far away from him.
Floating, floating, floating…no longer moving.
His heart completely shattered as he saw the boy and the man in his dreams completely becoming clearer as the boy turned around and the man removed his mask only to reveal it was no other than him.
It was Chase.
The loud ringing of an ambulance's siren was the last thing he heard as the last tear rolled down his cheek, taking the walloping guilt and unending apologies with him.
I'm sorry, Anna. I'm sorry, Isabella. I'm sorry, everyone. I’m sorry for everything. I'm sorry.