Chapter 99: The Adoption (2)
"Does anyone want to speak first?"
No one did, of course. How could they speak when they didn’t even truly know how they felt about being there, or about anything at all?
Bernard had just finished a press conference where he had spent damage control while sounding completely empathetic at the same time.
Bulwark had already seen billions of lives lost, and yet never was a loss so tragic to him as Alice.
The Empress was holding Riley’s hand, and she was afraid that she would completely lose it once she started to speak.
Megawoman, well, she felt like she had no right to talk as she barely knew Alice and was not even part of the Hope Guild. And... she was the one who ended her life. She had no right even talking about rights at all.
The four only stared at the grave in silence, all thinking they didn’t deserve to speak.
A second.
A minute.
Perhaps even an hour, they stayed like that. Letting their sorrows, grief, but most of all, regret, to linger across the tiny expanse of the universe. The colossal dome veiling them provided them with all the oxygen they could ever need in their lifetime, and yet everyone held their breaths, seemingly afraid to break the shield of silence they had already built around themselves.
"Ah, Riley?"
It wasn’t until little Riley freed himself from The Empress’ hold that the silence finally broke, and everyone watched as he approached his mother’s grave. None of them really knew if he understood what was happening, or if he even knew his mother was dead.