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Realistically, Jack knew the answer as soon as he saw the news that morning.
"Early this morning, authorities found the unidentified bodies of two children buried in Saint juana's forest."
With his youngest kids already having been missing for almost 2 weeks, it wasn't hard to put together the pieces.
"...Officials have yet to state whether or not these bodies are related to the recent disappearances of Edward and Molly Walten..."
Rosemary was seated next to him with her hand over her mouth, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. He quickly wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her to his chest, holding back his own tears while Rosemary's shoulders shook.
Thank god Sophie liked to sleep in.
There was a knock at the front door that made Jack jump and his wife tense. Jack sighed and made his way to the door, steeling himself before opening it. he saw who he expected and dreaded to see when he opened it.
"Hi, Mr. Walten, I'm detective Derek Collins. My partner and I would like to ask you and your wife a few questions."
Jack nodded and gestured towards the living room where Rosemary sat, slumped over with her face in her hands.
"I’m... sure you two have seen the news this morning?" Jack sits next to his wife and nods. Rosemary grips his hand like a lifeline, Jack squeezes back just as tight.
"We have reason to believe the two children found this morning were your children." Rosemary roughly pushed her face into Jack's shoulder, so Jack put his arm around her, rubbing her arm in a way he hoped was soothing. "We need you to come down to the coroner's office, later today preferably, but I do understand if you need some more time."
Rosemary shakes her head and lifts herself from Jack, looking at the officer. "No. We'll-we'll come down today," she pauses and wipes her eyes, taking a shuddering breath. "We need answers, and if this is how we get them, we'll do it."
The officer nods and he and his partner get up to leave, Jack follows them to the door.
"Here’s the address," the officer hands him a business card. "We'll meet you two there later today." Jack thanks him and shuts the door behind them, resting his forehead against the cool wood.
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Sophie hadn't slept in.
In fact, she'd woken up hours ago and hadn't wanted to get out of bed, hoping to maybe fall back asleep. But after hearing that conversation, sleep was impossible.
It’s not like the walls in the house were especially thick. She’d caught bits of the news in the silence of her room, the knock on the front door, something about police and the coroner's office and children and bodies. That was all she needed to understand what was going on.
Sophie could hear her parents walking around quietly, speaking in low, wavering voices.
There was a knock on her door, and she quickly feigned sleep. She felt her mother put a hand on her shoulder and lightly shake her, so she pretended to wake up.
Rosemary wore a resigned expression while she talked. "Me and dad have to go run an," she paused. "Errand. We should be back in just a few hours, ok?" Sophie silently nodded and rested her head on the pillow, pretending to go back to sleep.
Sophie heard her parents leave her room, the front door opened and closed, the car started, and they drove off.
She sat up and tried to get her breathing under control while it'd started to speed up. Her siblings were dead and their bodies were found and now her parents have to go see if the bodies are theirs and they are and they're dead they're DEAD-
Sophie choked on a sob and gasped, tears spilling over her cheeks while she tried to hold in her cries. It didn't matter anyways, how much noise she made. Her parents were out of the house and her siblings are fucking dead so who cares how loud she cries!?
She folded in on herself and sobbed, wailing into her knees at the idea that her siblings, her baby siblings , were dead and found in the woods .
She didn't know how long it took for her to calm down, and when she did her face was a mess of tears and snot and her head pounded . Sophie sniffed and groaned, getting up to wash her face and deal with her headache.
When she finished drying her face she sighed and looked into the mirror.
"There's no way it's them." The way everything fit together was too close to be just a coincidence, but Sophie didn't need to believe that. "Some psycho probably just thought some small town in Michigan was a good dumping ground for his murders. That’s gotta be it. It’s not them, it's not Ed and it's not Molly." she took a deep breath, "And when I find those two I’m gonna kill em for making us worry so much." Sophie smiled softly to herself and made her way to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast.
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It's hours later when her parents get home. Sophie's finishing some homework at her desk while the radio played some local rock station quietly on her desk. She can hear the car pull up and idle in the driveway for a while, and she can feel her heart start to race.
Why aren't they coming inside?
Part of her knows that answer already, so she turns up the music as an attempt to block it out.
The car engine stops but there's still no movement, no front door opening and closing. She doubles down on her homework, turning up the music just a little more.
She feels the door close more than she hears it, and she debates turning up the music again. Sophie pulls her legs up to her chest and rests her chin on her knees, doodling in the margins of her now finished homework.
There’s a knock at her door and she immediately turns the radio off, and that seems to signal her dad to come in.
The look on his face is haunted and Sophie's stomach drops.
He sits on her bed behind her desk, and Sophie can barely get herself to turn towards him.
He doesn't say anything for a while, he starts, stops, shakes his head, rubs his face, sighs to himself, and finally he looks at her and she knows.
"They found Ed and Molly,"
And he knows she knows.
"...they're gone, sweetheart."
But hearing it is so much worse.
She didn't realize there were tears in her eyes until she choked out a sob, trying fruitlessly to wipe the tears that streamed down her face. Jack gets up and hugs her tight, and Sophie's sure the grip she has on his jacket is going to tear it.
She distantly feels tears hit her shoulder while she cries into Jack's own, feels another body join them while they all cry.
They’re gone.
They’re gone.
Ed and Molly are gone .
None of it feels real, it feels like some sick joke, some fucked up prank.
But there's no punchline, there's no "gotcha."
There’s nothing. Just an empty hole where her brother and sister used to be.