**Leilani’s POV**

“Wake up! Wake up!” I heard someone call out to me but I ignored the sound of the voice recognizing it as that of my obnoxious younger sister Samantha.

“Wake up Anny!” She growled in annoyance and I sat up slowly recognizing that from the harshness of her voice, there had to be something wrong.

In frustration, I begrudgingly pried my sleep filled eyes open, rubbed violently at it as I sat up slowly and asked; “What is it?”

“It’s mom, it’s dad!” She said in a type of voice that had me sitting up in concentration. As soon as I took in her overall expression, I gasped. She looked rough, tattered even.

For someone whom I had seen only hours ago looking so posh, her present appearance made her seem like she had been run over by a moving tricycle.

“I do not understand what you’re trying to say!” I rushed out in fright, “What happened to you and what happened to mom and dad?”

I scrunched up my nose in disgust when she blew her nose into her hands, rubbing it against her now rumpled nightie.

“Speak up!”

I saw her try desperately to rein in the tears that tried to escape her eyes as she said; “News came a few minutes ago…” her voice trailed off when suddenly a loud cry tore up from the back of her throat. It was so sharp and so agonizing that it had me fidgeting even though I really do not know what was wrong yet.

“Sam!”

“Mom and dad are dead!” She suddenly yelled, making me freeze momentarily in shock. It couldn’t be true right?

They cannot possibly be dead, or could they?

“That’s not true…” I mumbled, moving away from my bed to begin to prance around my wide room. Mom and dad couldn’t be dead!

My attention went back to Samantha who was still sitting on my bed when I heard her suddenly mumble something incomprehensible under her breath.

“Huh?”

“I said everyone knows about it. I even overheard Beta Joyner telling some warriors about it.” She said, sniffling.

No this couldn’t be true!

I wasn’t sure what it was that suddenly overcame me but I heard a loud agonized scream tear out from the back of my throat. It was so loud that it pierced my eardrums, numbing me.

“Anny!” I heard Samantha’s frightened scream cut through the fog that had formed in my mind, and when I opened my eyes to look at her, I noticed that I was sprawled on the floor but couldn’t remember when I fell.

I screamed again. No, not Mom and Dad! They promised to come home today. Promised to never go on impromptu trips anymore.

So what the fuck is this?

I quickly rushed to my feet, ran towards my door and pried it open, ignoring Sam’s yellings in a bid to stop me.

As soon as I got to the wide passage just across my door, I froze. There were a lot of people there already, walking to and fro the direction of the throne room. A lot of them had grim expressions on their faces and stared pitifully at me while I walked past them.

I followed them though, walking in the direction of the throne room; and as soon as I walked into the large room filled with mourners, I couldn’t help but perceive the peculiar smell of lighted candles in the air.

As if in a daze, I walked towards it slowly until I arrived at the front of the throne room, just around where my dad usually sat if he was here. There was a large table in the middle of the room, which now replaced the high chair my father used to sit on.

On it was a large portrait of my parents who were smiling brightly at the camera. I could vividly remember the day the picture was taken.

They were both camera shy and tried desperately to shy away from the camera man. In frustration, I had snatched the camera out of the camera man’s hands and stood in front of them with a big grin on my face.

On seeing me, they had both visibly relaxed and I had to distract them by getting into a conversation with them. I waited patiently for when they would smile, and as soon as they did, I clicked away at the camera.

I couldn’t believe it now. I couldn’t believe that the picture I had taken on such a beautiful day was now used for their candle night vigil.

In something akin to rage, I stormed over to the flowers that had been so skillfully arranged in front of their portrait at such a short period of time and began flinging them into several corners of the room.

I couldn’t believe this people! How could they all arrange something like this when they hadn’t even seen their corpses yet? How could they be so sure when they hadn’t touched the coffins of the so-called dead?

“Leilani! Get away from there!” I could hear Beta Joyner yell out to me but I ignored him, refocusing my attention to taking out the annoying garland that had been put around their portrait.

I could hear the hushed mumblings from the crowd, the snide comments, but I said nothing, ignoring it.

“Leilani!” Beta Joyner yelled again.

“Joyner!” I growled back, turning to face him. I could see the look of utter shock flicker across his face due to the way I yelled back at him. but he quickly masked it, and began walking towards me with slow, precise steps.

“Do not take a step closer to me!” I snarled at him, baring my teeth as I quickly picked up a sharp dagger from the table and pointed it at him. “Do not come any closer or I’ll stab you with this!”

“Leilani, calm down. I understand exactly how you feel, I know what it feels like to lose both pare—”

“My parents are not dead!” I growled. “They are not dead, y’all are just so clueless, you’d jump into conclusions even without proper evidence.” I couldn’t say where this sudden courage came from, but I found myself reveling in it, basking in its goodness.

“What evidence are you talking about?” He whispered slowly, talking one at a time as if he was conversing with a kid. “You mean like a proof that your parents truly died in an accident?”

“Yes!” I snapped, “you should at least see their bodies before throwing flowers around their portraits like you’ve been wanting them dead in a long while!”

I knew that my words had gotten to him for immediately, he stopped in his tracks, eyed me with so much ferocity that he had never done before and said;

“I’ve never wanted them dead!” His words seem to not faze me for almost immediately he uttered the statement, I scoffed, looking away from him.

“These are the pictures from their accident scene, their bodies will be arriving in the morning.” He said.

I immediately looked up at him, then at the phone in his hands which was turned towards me, and I suddenly couldn’t breathe.

It felt like I was about to pass out, because in the picture was my parents or what was left of them. They had been severely burnt beyond recognition, but from the clothes on their bodies, I knew they were the ones.

I immediately fell to the floor, wailing. My heart felt like it was being clawed out. My existence felt meaningless without them.

I felt a sharp pain run up from my chest to my back, it numbed me, making me writhe on the floor.

I looked up suddenly to see a smirk on Beta Joyner's face, but as I paid closer attention to him, it suddenly disappeared leaving me feeling like he knew something about my parent’s deaths…