FSE

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It wasn't long before the end of the week was upon us. The week was full of all kinds of fun things, from free running around obstacles to chess. It was also full of awkward times like when my older brother's fiancé wanted us to try a new sushi dish in the middle of the wedding rehearsal.

"Come on guys," I said, "one bite won't kill us." It took enough convincing to get them to try it, and Joe went first.

"That's good," he said the second he popped it in. Sue tried one next.

"It's delicious," she said, then I was next to try it.

"Compliments to the chef," I said enjoying every second of the taste. One of our other friends was next to try it, and the last.

"It's a party in my mouth," he said. No really, he did say that, and we were quick to laugh at him for that.

"Come on seriously," Joe said in between chuckling, "no one ever says that." I know, it seemed kind of random but it was worth mentioning the memories. I got home Friday night after the rehearsal dead beat tired. And it didn't take me long to get to sleep.

That night was rather restless though. I had a dream where I found myself in the middle of a blazing inferno, standing in front of a church where numerous bodies lay strewn about, unmoving, and consumed by the fire. I shocked myself awake in a cold sweat about early 4 AM. I had no idea what this dream really meant, but I couldn't help but spend the rest of the night thinking about it idly. After a few hours and the Saturday sunrise blared through my window. It was the day of the wedding, and from here on I was prepared to concentrate on it. My brother wasn't at the house at the moment, due to last night was his bachelor party. My parents and I were quick to get all suited up. I was one of the ushers for the wedding, which meant I had to stand up in front of everyone next to the best man, who I was a good friend with.

We got to the church within a couple of hours, and it was rather chaotic getting everyone to where they need to be. It kind of made me think how my wedding would be one day, if there ever was one. Fortunately I didn't have much to do so I spent most of the time talking with the best man. None of my other friends were there so I spent the time talking with him, and playing a couple games of chess in our heads. He could go as far as seven moves in before losing track of his position.

"Say Ryan," he started.

"Yes?" I asked curiously.

"I heard a couple people talking about the see-saw the other day, what's that?" I smiled.

"It's a rare and rather neat trick," I answered, "I'll write a diagram for you during the reception."

"I'm going to hold you to that Ryan," I chuckled. Even though we were at a church, the wedding was planned to be outside, and the weather was perfect and sunny, just right for the wedding. Speaking of the wedding, there's not much to go into that. It went fairly smoothly, both sides said I do, and they kissed happily. I was glad when it was time for the reception as I was hungry for the food. As I grabbed my piece of the cake and other sweets the best man came and yanked me to a free table, and much to my surprise was a full wooden chessboard.

"Alright Ryan show me the see-saw," he said almost in a jokingly demanding form. With a small sigh I set up the position, discussing with him all the points and advantages of the position, which is quite hard to get into.

***

Sterling had a mad grin on his face as the black van padded down the street, still a few miles from their destination.

‘It's finally here,' He thought in his head, ‘the day of death draws near loser.'

"Hey boss," the driver said. He was wearing a black ski mask on. "We're coming up to the church, it looks like an outside wedding."

"All the better," he said pulling on a ski mask and cocking an AK47, "let's make a spectacle."

***

The best man and I continued to talk for a while, this time standing not too far from the wooden alter when I heard a loud screeching sound. We were all in a position where we could see the gates entering the church. And what I saw immediately came a cause for alarm. A large black BMW bus had pulled up and a group of men started to pull out of them. I couldn't tell who they were due to them wearing black ski masks, but the alarm came from the AK47's in their hands. My heart skipped a beat as I turned to run behind a bench.

‘Were one of them wearing a blue bandanna?' I thought as I began hearing gunshots going off. I could literally feel the bullets flying past me, I kept my eyes closed, the last thing I saw was the best man jumping next to me clasping his shoulder. I could only hear from there, and what I heard will haunt me forever. The endless stream of bullets, the altar and tables falling over, and the worst part was the screaming. The familiar voices of my family letting out cries of agony, and blood curling screams. What in the hell was happening? What's happening to my family? When will it end?

‘When will it end?' I cried to myself in my mind repeatedly until eventually, the bullets finally stopped firing. My ears we're ringing and I still held my head. I remained still for as long as possible, even as I heard the screeching tires of the car take off I still stayed still. I was too afraid to move, to get up and see what became of my family. Hot tears were flowing down my face slowly as a whole new wave of emotions pierced through my heart. After another ten minutes I slowly got myself to pull up and look around. Everything including the bench I hid behind was riddled with bullet holes. The church didn't have a single unbroken window or unscarred wall. The altar and the tables we're turned over, all pierced with several bullet holes, and the nearby trees had several destroyed branches and holes, but none of that compared to what was to be seen.

An endless stream of bodies outlined the ground. All of them floating in a flooding pool of blood. The brides dress was stained entirely in the red death, the bride herself was holding the hand of her newlywed husband, my own brother. My mother was next in view, alongside my grandparents. My gaze changed to the rest of the guests, my heart kept skipping beats, I was still in complete shock I barely realized I was conscious. All of them held the same expression of their face, eyes wide open with terror, and their mouths in different forms of frozen fear. Those expressions of theirs have never left my mind, and I collapsed from weak legs.

"Why?" I quietly asked myself as more tears began to stream down my face. "WHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!" I shouted to the heavens as the best man came into view, along with a third cousin of the bride, the only survivors. The best man I noticed had a bandage on his shoulder as he wrapped a comforting arm around me. We remained still until the cops showed up about five minutes later. The bride's cousin spoke to them most of the time. I remained on a bench far away from the gruesome scene, I didn't want to look straight at them anymore, not like this. I didn't know who those guys were that attacked us, but the only thing I could do was hope that they'll burn in hell one day.

***

"Finally," Sterling shouted in the van, "victory is mine, burn in hell Ryan." The rest of the people in the van were silent, not sure of what to make of their actions. They left no bullet of theirs unfired at the church and at everything they saw, everything that moved. The only noise made was Sterling's constant boasting of victory, which was cut short as they made a turn too sharply. The van spun out of control and crashed full speed into an alleyway. With no seatbelts, everyone was thrown violently from their seats. Two people were launched out a window, another went halfway threw another, his neck broken instantly. Sterling looked on holding onto his seat, clinging for dear life. But with one violent crash through a wall he lost his grip and went flying out of the window. He landed hard on his back after slamming the brick wall. He rolled just out of range of an explosion that consumed the vehicle in a bright blaze. Sterling looked up in a lot of pain, he could barely move. The only thing left of the van that Sterling could see was the bodies of his comrades slowly consumed in the fire. He tried to crawl away, spotting a nearby door open and a couple tall men in torn up clothes looking at the flaming wreckage.

"What the hell?" one of them said, "More posers trashing our hood." The man looked down at Sterling than back at the wreckage. Sterling noticed the first guy who spoke had a shotgun in his hands.

"Let's cap this bitch," the second man said down at the cowering Sterling.

"Wait. Please," Sterling begged. The first man cocked his shotgun and aimed at his head.

"Go join your friends," he said and pulled the trigger.

***

"Ryan," Sue shouted into my phone, "what happened? I heard gunshots coming from your church."

"I don't want to talk about it right now," I said and hung up the phone. I was currently lying on my bed, the cops still talking around the living room. I couldn't make out what they were saying, and I didn't care either, I just wanted my family back. I was slowly escorted home by the best man and the police, neither of whom said anything to me, and I wasn't willing to listen anyway, at least not now. The whole time I couldn't help but relay the screams in my mind, over and over again, and I started to get a migraine from it. My head constantly pounded, just wanting those damned screams to go away. I continued to drift with this until I eventually faded to a light sleep.

I woke up in the face of a police officer, who shushed me gently.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You were yelling and crying in your sleep," the officer said, "you've been at it for hours."

"I don't feel well," I said slowly.

"Just relax," he said, "if you want to talk or something just come talk to me. I'm more than willing to listen." He got up and turned out of the room. I just laid there, looking up at the ceiling of the house. I literally felt like shit, I knew that my family would never walk the walls of this house again.

***

"Oh man," Joe began, "what are we supposed to do, he must feel terrible right now."

"How did this happen?" another young boy asked.

"No one knows," Sue said, "but I did find out something else. Sterling's dead as well." The rest of the room froze in silence. "Don't ask me how that happened. All I know is he was found next to the flaming wreckage of a black van, he was shot in the head. Police stated that there were remains of machine guns in there, along with burned remains of possibly his friends."

"What could that mean?" Joe asked aloud, "could this very well make Sterling responsible for the whole thing?"

"I don't know," Sue said, "but we can't tell Ryan about that. He'll go insane."

"Very well," Joe said as he looked out the window, the sunny day turned into a rainy night.

***

It's been four months since that incident. This day had marked two months past my eighteenth birthday, November 21st. This was the scheduled day of the funeral. The time delay was for the sheer amount of people to organize, which wasn't hard on costs with the combined amount of life insurance I kept in savings. It was enough that I could retire and live on interest myself if I wanted to. I haven't smiled once since the day of the incident, and today even though I was wearing black for the funeral, wasn't much different than my usual wear. Other than my friends and a few of the police officers, there was no one but a line of caskets, each holding those family members who didn't wish to be cremated, which wasn't a lot. The ceremony was long and depressing, I didn't ever turn my head from the ground. Occasionally Sue's comforting arm would rub my back gently. I tuned out of everything the priest had to say, and didn't offer a word of speech, for no words I said could offer my family justice. I only heard the last thing that the priest said within the end.

"We remember you, you that have moved on so early in your life, tragically taken away. Give us the strength to carry on in your absence." After one last look of my relatives, they were buried, the tombstones set, and that was it. I was cast into a shell of loneliness, and none of my friends could seem to get me out of it. I walked all the way home that day. The clouds followed me the whole way.