A three headed family
Prologue
How everyone is affected by anything is perceived differently for each individual. It's not a rule nor is it a fact, it simply is.
For Will Kelly, watching the very last member of his family being buried before his very eyes was nothing comparable to a good moment. Of course it's never easy to have to lose someone that you are close to, a friend, a sibling, a parent and everyone deal with this differently.
Some people have the luxury to have someone to comfort them in their loss, others are strong enough to deal with it alone. Will wasn't one of them. His friends were still there but they weren't very close, he didn't see them as much as he would like to and his last relative, his younger sister Emily, was now being covered by dirt silently dropped on her coffin at the familial grave.
Before her he saw both of his parents die in a car crash not even three months ago and now it was his sister fighting against an incurable cancer that was taken from him. His family was very small, no cousins due to his parents both being single children and no more grandparents, making him alone.
And right now that how Will felt. Alone. Completely alone despise the priest, the funeral directors and the few friends of her sister and a rare of his, already leaving the grave in silence as the grave was sealed again. He didn't move or rather he couldn't, he stayed here to watch all his family resting before him as he was stuck in his thin black coat, not noticing the sky getting grey.
"You should be here with me" He said with an emotionless voice.
He didn't even felt capable of emotion, because he knew that if he did he couldn't bare the weight of all that happened in such a short time. At barely twenty-five years old, with a normal life and a few projects in head, nothing should have broken his life but it did, and now he didn't felt capable to keep moving without his family.
So he remained here. For how long? He didn't know but when he finally started to come back to reality he realized that he was soaking wet, his coat shinning with the drops and his hairs now messy with the weight of water.
It was like the tears he couldn't let go right now. He cried so much with his sister at their parents funerals, he didn't got the time to get new tears for losing his sister.
"Why?" He simply asked to no one.
There was no answer. Many tried before to comfort him, saying 'that's life, sometimes shit happens' or 'I know it's hard but you need to keep going' but now he wondered why should continue. He was alone; sure his friends were here but he couldn't talk with them like he did with his family and right now he would have needed the familial love, the one that keeps pushing you forward no matter what and that powers you to accomplish anything.
What was he supposed to do without them? Who could share his childhood memories like his family? What could he do now?
"I miss you... I miss you so much" He said kneeling to be closer to the grave, looking at the fresh new name that had just been added next to his parents, surrounded by a few flowers that were the only source of color in this black and grey cemetery.
"Will? Are you alright?" Asked a voice to his left.
He looked around to meet the sad eyes of Merry, one of Emily's friends covered by a black umbrella. With a heavy weight on his heart, he stood up and starred in her eyes, seing the reflection of his lifeless ones.
"Where else should I go? They are all here. My family is here" He replied.
"And they will always be, you can come anytime to visit them but you should really go back to your house. It's not healthy to stray three hours in the rain. I know it must be incredibly hard but it won't do you any good to stay here all day" She advised by slowly taking him toward the exit of the cemetery.
He turned around to see his family's grave one last time today, completely unsure of what he would do next. Would he come back tomorrow? Later? Or maybe never if the pain grew to be too hard?
With a heavy sight, Will managed to turn his head and look toward the gates. Each step he made was like stretching an elastic, losing the only bond of his family with the distance making it harder and harder until he finally reached the exit, gently pushed by Merry.
"Do you want me to call a taxi for you? I'm gonna be honest I don't think your in condition to walk back home like that" Offered Merry.
"Yes. Yes it wouldn't" He replied not really listening to her, stuck in his blank mind.
"Okay, I'll stay with you until he arrives."
She pulled her phone and called a taxi while he looked straight in front of him, at the small street with a few cars parked around, the old walls of the few houses on the other side and the rain still falling around, washing his face constantly until Merry put her umbrella above his head.
Not a word was exchanged for the whole ten minutes it took for a taxi to arrive, it would have been too awkward and meaningless to talk seeing how unresponsive Will was. Merry told the taxi driver the address of Will's house and gave him enough money for the ride, standing next to the car.
"Try to relax a bit and... take your time. Things like that are never easy to deal with. Emily told me how hard it was for the both of you after the accident, I can't imagine how hard it is for you now but you need to be strong alright? I'll come see you shortly okay? Just to make sure everything's fine" She said with a great sadness in her voice before moving back.
The driver took it as his signal to start and restarted his engine, slowly getting out of the street adjacent to the cemetery. The man looked at Will through his mirrors with a sympathetic look, one that Will didn't noticed as he was too lost to even realize what was going on around him.
"So... I know it's not the best time to say something but I can't help it, how are you holding on?" Asked the driver with a genuinely concerned voice.
"..."
"Yeah I thought as much."
They kept going for a few minutes, driving on the small roads toward Will's home, the sound of the rain falling on the windshield and the roars of the engine filling the silence.
"Lost a member of your family?" Tried again the driver.
"The last one" Will managed to say still emotionless.
"Ah... I know what it's like. I had a daughter, a wife and a brother long ago. They are dead since long now, wasn't easy but I made it through."
"How?"
"Simple: I changed everything. I moved away, took a new identity, created a new family here and changed all of my beliefs. It took some time but I finally accepted that there are things simply meant to happen, that you can't change no matter what you do."
"I'm not sure if that's what I want" Said Will after a short break of silence.
He couldn't simply turn away and forget everything. How this man did it? He couldn't even start to understand and his mind was running too slowly to think about this kind of idea.
"Then what if fate was to help you a little bit? What if fate would give you another chance with a new family? Would you take it?" Suddenly asked the taxi driver.
"I- Maybe. Honestly it might be a bit to simple but... if I could restart, I'd like a family that I would be sure to never leave my side."
The taxi brutally came to a stop, the wheels screeching on the road for a few seconds, shaking Will thankfully attached with his belt. The driver cut off the engine and turned toward him with a very serious face.
"Listen kid, I can offer you that. Believe me or not, trust me or not it's not my problem but I can offer you a new life, far away from here and with that family that you are looking for."
That was crazy. Would Will have been in better condition he would have questioned that man but right now, that surreal offer looked really appealing. He had nothing to lose left, no family waiting for him and there he was offered to have all of that again. But even like this he wasn't sure he could forget about his real family, it was impossible to forget everything that simply and just move on, it wasn't like him.
"Looks nice, but I don't think I can forget my family just like that" He replied.
"Memories huh, so what if I say that I can remove all the memories of your previous family? I know it's not very respectful and all but if it can help you to keep going faster then I can do it" Said the driver taking a few notes on a notepad.
"Then... I think I'd like to accept. No memories of my family, in fact just remove everything it'll be easier like that." He accepted.
"Mmh. So what will be your new name?"
"New name?"
"A new life calls for a new name, what will it be?"
"I- does it matters if it's not really a common name?"
"I'm sending you somewhere where your current name would be the strange one, pick whatever you want."
"Then I'd like to call myself Sage."
"Great! Just to be sure, you're ready to do this right? I'm telling you that cause there's no going back, once it's done you won't be able to come back." The taxi driver wished to confirmed.
"Yeah, I could really use a new start."
"Your the boss, for once fate is truly in your hands. Or rather before your eyes" Said the driver putting down his notepad before looking straight into Will's eyes.
"It means?"
"It means good luck Sage. Know that for once fate was on your side, I'm sorry everything turned out so bad but when I saw you I thought that you deserved a little push from fate. We'll meet again I'm sure of that, enjoy your new life".
Will was about to reply when his vision started to turn black and he felt himself falling on the backseats, losing consciousness and all links with reality.
"Maybe I should do that more often" Said the taxi driver looking at the now empty backseats, restarting his engine before driving away under the rain.
Sage woke up in darkness, he couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not but it was absolute darkness. How long had he been here he had no idea. At least he felt warm, like if he was surrounded by hot water without need to breathe, he tried to move a bit but all his limbs touched what something looked like to be a wall.
Maybe he should be panicking right now but he didn't felt threatened or anything, it was even relaxing so he just stopped moving and let his body experience the warmth he was bathed it.
'Is it me or is it getting cold?' Sage wondered feeling a disturbance around him.