Chapter Text
It was raining the day of the funeral. An insulting cliche for a funeral in vain. Josh was sitting in the fourth row of the right section of seats. He wanted to sit in the back, but the sound of raindrops was loud on the cold, steel exit doors.
Only a few members of the Washington family stood on the podium to give a speech. Many didn’t even show up, for half the chairs were empty. Josh didn’t blame them. However, the ones who did speak had too much to say.
There wasn’t anything notable from the preachers. Just the common weeping, wishing, hoping, and missing. Josh had a script ready if he got called to the stand, but his parents couldn't care less. They sat in the front row with their brothers and sisters.
After Josh’s Uncle Jake finished his speech, it was time to close out the ceremony. There were no bodies in the caskets, so the attendees viewed the framed photos instead. One by one, people walked up and looked at the portraits. Josh’s mom started to weep again when she approached the stand. An organized line of brittle, quiet people grew smaller.
Eventually, it was Josh’s turn. He stood up from his seat and wiped his sweaty hands on his slacks. His gait was slow and meandering. Some crowd members stared at him, but he didn’t dare make eye contact with anyone. Even the floor seemed to glare.
The photos in the frames were from the girls’ senior picture day. Beth had curled her hair, and Hannah wore her contacts. Josh remembered Hannah had lost her glasses that night. Well, she didn’t lose them. Josh had hid them because he knew how pissed she would get.
He almost laughed but quickly shut up when he remembered where he was. Josh straightened his posture and wiped his hands again. Some other people had spoken to the photos, as a way to move on, and Josh planned to do the same. Just a few words to himself wouldn’t hurt.
“ I’ll miss having someone to look out for. I was gonna see you go to college and, and get married. You’ll never know what-” Josh’s mumbling halted abruptly. There were a few windows in the building where they held the funeral. One of them was on the wall a few feet behind the podium. Mostly rain and fog clouded the view, but Josh saw something.
A dark, tall figure was standing out there. It didn’t move despite the howling wind. It was a conspicuous black mass, but it wasn’t a tree or something. It was human-shaped, sort of. It was something or someone, but who would be out in a storm like that?
Fuck, ok, ok it’s nothing. It’s probably just your head again. It’s not real. Josh thought to himself. Something shitty like this just had to happen today. When people were there, and so were those eyes. Those beady, ever-present eyes. Josh closed his eyes tight, tight enough to where it hurt, for a few moments. He used to do it all the time as a kid. He opened his eyes and looked at the window again.
He screamed so loud that the wind seemed like a whisper.