The heavy rain fell like daggers upon the earth as thunder roared like maddened beasts. Laments rising from the depths of the soul as inconsolable screams, echoed against one another throughout the cemetery.
Tears mingled with raindrops as some sobbed endlessly, making no attempt to disguise their pain, while others concealed their true expressions beneath the veil of falling water.
"Ryan…"
Ryan stood beside the closed coffin of his own father, his palm resting upon it, his hand gliding gently back and forth in a perpetual motion, a curious expression on his face. His mind drifting far away.
"Ryan!"
His mother called once him again, making him flinch and widen his eyes in her direction. Beside her stood his younger sister, head lowered, completely silent, looking more like a porcelain doll than a living person.
"We're leaving," she said when she realized he had finally returned to reality. "Are you coming with us?"
Ryan looked at her in silence for a few moments. "No. I'm going back home." Then he simply looked away and focused on the coffin once more.
"So that's your choice?" she said, ignoring his remark and staring at him intensely. "Would you rather go back to that dump you call home to finally return to your mother? Is that what you want?"
Ryan listened in silence once again, 'So she calls our home a dump… I wish you could hear that, damn old man.' He thought, remembering his father during his own funeral.
"Ryan, this conversation is important. You're sixteen. You can live alone in that filthy hole, as long as it doesn't fall apart and you're okay, but do you really want that? I know we've been apart for a long time. I know you barely see me as your mother. Even so…"
"I already know you well enough. Please, I beg you. Leave me in peace." Seeing his increasingly aversion to her, Eleanor's expression shifted for a moment, as if only then realizing the weight of her words. Intense pain crossed her chest. Making her expression soften momentarily.
She never wanted to hurt him.
But she had already done it.
Soon her face hardened again, feeling as though everything had already been ruined.
"Well? So that is it?"She asked again.
He did not turn to face her, treating her voice as nothing more than background noise.
"I'm going back to my father's home, my home now. I'll deal with you another time…"
Eleanor simply nodded despite the sharp pain in her chest and turned her back on him without saying goodbye. With firm steps, she and her daughter crossed through the crowd of mourners.
Ryan sighed as he watched her leave, relieved. It was surprising enough that she had come at all. Perhaps because of his younger sister, or in a desperate attempt to see Ryan one more time.
Once again, he began sliding his hand across the coffin as the heavy rain poured over him. His clothes were already drenched, his black hair falling across his face, yet he refused to open an umbrella.
Then, walking along the dirt road, a large group of men in suits, ties, and top hats approached side by side in rhythmic, synchronized steps, moving in complete unity. While hiding their faces behind sunglasses.
Many people glanced briefly at them without recognition before returning to their own grief. After all, many there were strangers to one another. The deceased had traveled widely and known people from all over the world; that was normal.
However, to Ryan, none of this was normal. A barely restrained smile crossed his face for a single instant before he controlled himself again.
The men made their way to the coffin and stopped in front of it, removing their sunglasses and top hats as a sign of respect.
Ryan studied their faces one by one, then focused on the one standing at the front, a young man who appeared to be around twenty-five, with spiked hair and sharp features. His rebellious look contrasted sharply with the elegant clothes he wore.
The young man touched the coffin and murmured softly.
"Rest in peace, boss. We'll carry your legacy forward, the business will continue and your family will be safe. No one will lay a finger on them, and they'll want for nothing, I promise it for you."
Ryan glanced sideways at him, clearly noticing the bulge at each man's waist.
A gun.
The young man then turned to Ryan, as did the others. His expression was one of complete reverence.
"I assume you're his son."
Ryan nodded, turning toward him.
"My condolences for your loss," he said, bowing slightly. "Your father was a great man. His word carried the weight of gold, and his actions were worthy of praise."
"If I could die knowing that I was half the man he was, I would be proud of myself." The young man ran his hand along the coffin with as much sorrow as Ryan himself, his face tense as he visibly struggled to hold back tears that, if they began to fall, would likely pour like an endless waterfall.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you something," he said, and Ryan simply nodded. "I want to offer my condolences to your mother and sister, but I couldn't find them. Could you tell me where to find them?"
Ryan sighed deeply and shook his head.
"I'm afraid she won't want to meet you, much less let you meet her precious daughter, My parents didn't get along, she deeply hated him, to be honest. That's why they separated when we were young," Ryan said, looking at the coffin."Despite all that... he still loved her."
Ryan looked deeply into the young man's eyes.
"She left as quickly as she could. I'm afraid I'm the only one you'll be ever able to find."
The young man nodded, exchanging glances and subtle signals with the men behind him.
"In that case… would you like to have coffee with us?Who knows, maybe tomorrow? We have some matters to discuss, very important matters."
This time Ryan could not restrain his smile. His lips curved into a crescent moon, and even his eyes seemed to smile with a radiant gleam.
"I know. I was waiting for you."
He said it with the feeling that, at last, the truth would be handed to him on a silver platter.
He wondered intensely if there really was someone in that coffin.