Chapter 2

“Now, I’ve spoken to your head teacher here, and he says that there is no other emergency contact listed on your school records. Is there somebody we could call for you? A grandparent, or an aunt or uncle? Someone you could stay with temporarily?”

“It’s just us,” Elijah answers with a shake of his head. “Just the two of us, and-”

He cuts himself off as his voice catches with emotion, and I feel that stab of pain again.

Rachel’s face gives nothing away. She just nods again and makes more notes on her clipboard. When she’s finished, she clips her pen to the metal part at the top, and it clamps down on it with a loud snap that seems to echo in my brain. Silence falls, and it hangs heavily over us all for a moment, before Rachel clears her throat and straightens up, patting her black pencil skirt down and straightening her blush pink blouse as she stands.

“Okay, well, I’ll make some calls and find somewhere for you to stay for a few days, until we have a more permanent solution.” She walks to the door and gestures for us to follow. We don’t immediately; we just stay seated, still clutching each other’s hands, as if we each think the other might disappear if we loosen our grip.

Eventually, Mr. Nichols clears his throat, pushes himself up from his plush leather desk chair, and comes around to stand in front of us. “Take all the time that you need. The school will be here to support you in any way that we can, okay?”

Elijah moves first, saying, “Thank you, Sir,” as he stands and takes Mr. Nichols’ outstretched hand, giving it a curt shake. I stand too, somehow, despite the shakiness in my legs, and Mr. Nichols briefly squeezes my shoulder.

No handshake for me.

Rachel opens the door and steps out, and we follow her numbly. She turns to mumble something under her breath to Mr. Nichols, and he nods gravely at her words, but I don’t catch them. Then she spins and walks down the corridor that leads from Mr. Nichols’ office to the main reception area and, finally, the main exit. To the real world.

A world that will never be the same.

I take a deep breath and force myself to take a step, and then another, and eventually I find myself halfway down the corridor, although it feels like I’ve walked a mile. Then I pause.

Elijah doesn’t realize it at first, and he makes it a few paces ahead of me before he notices I’m no longer at his side. Then he stops too and turns to look at me, but I don’t see his eye. My gaze is downcast, focused intently on the office-grade carpet and the age-old chewing gum that a thousand different pairs of shoes have trodden into over the years.

“Cass?”

I don’t look up at him. I can’t. The sadness I know I’ll see on his face... it will break the fragile control I’m barely clinging to. And I can’t break down. Not here. Not at school. Everyone is still in class for now, but... I just can’t. I’m not that girl.

“What are we going to do?” I whisper before I can stop myself.

I’m not sure if I meant to say it to Elijah, or if I meant it just for me, but I feel his hand touch my arm and I finally force myself to look up at him. My breath catches at the sorrow clear in his eyes. But he blinks it away and clears his throat before he speaks. “Honestly? I don’t know. I guess we just put one foot in front of the other, and we keep going. It’s what Mum and Dad would want.”

“They’re gone, Eli.” I say, my voice quivering, and I lose the battle within myself as the first tear breaks free to roll down my cheek. “Mum and Dad are gone. We’re alone.”

Elijah pulls me into his chest as the bell rings overhead. But we don’t move. We just stand there locked in the embrace while the sound of our classmates’ chatter fills the air as they pile out of classrooms back down the corridor. Their days will carry on as normal like nothing has even happened. Because it hasn’t for them. A freight train hasn’t just torn through their lives and taken everything they knew and loved along with it. Elijah and I are alone on that platform, peering at the destruction. Staring down at the tattered pieces of our lives left on the tracks.

After maybe a minute, I pull away from Elijah and wipe my nose on my sleeve as he wraps his arm around my shoulders.

“We’ll get through this, Cass. What did Dad always say? We’re Millers, and Millers always survive, no matter what.”

I bite back the urge to point out the irony in that since it hadn’t worked out so well for Mum and Dad. What makes him think it will be any different for us? Two teenage orphans, alone in the world?

It would be easy to lash out at his optimism, but it also wouldn’t make me feel any better. So, I say nothing.

Elijah turns and starts walking towards Rachel, who is waiting patiently by the door, I bite back the urge to point out the irony in that, since it hadn’t worked out so well for Mum and Dad. What makes him think it will be any different for us? Two teenage orphans, alone in the world? “And we're not alone as long as we’ve got each other.” He continues as if reading my mind.

I don’t respond. There’s nothing to say. Our parents are dead. Killed in a car accident on their way home from the supermarket.

Even their death was dull, like everything else in my life until this point. But I know, in years to come, this will be the day that I look back on and say that’s when it all changed.

I already ache for the monotony of my old life.