Home is not a house

Chapter 28

Tw for this chapter: Death, vomiting

"You sure you're ready for this?" Wilbur asked softly from the passenger seat.

"No." Phil said shortly, but he still opened up his door. He climbed out of the drivers seat, closed the door and Wilbur turned to look at the other two. Techno was frowning softly and Tommy was staring down at the backpack, making sure Storm was comfortable in it.

"You guys ready for this?" Wilbur asked and Techno nodded, Tommy shrugged. "Well we gotta be there for Phil like he's been there for us."

"Yeah." Techno agreed and he opened up his door, the other two following suit. Phil was already a good twenty feet away from them, Wilbur ran to catch up with him as Tommy stayed by for a moment, putting the backpack on his front so he could keep an eye on Storm. She didn't seem to mind the back pack, but Tommy wanted to make sure.

Techno was standing by, waiting for Tommy. Tommy looked at him and gave him a soft smile. They began to follow Phil and Wilbur, giving them a good distance. Once Wilbur and Phil stopped at a grave however, they sped up a bit to catch up.

Reaching the grave Tommy looked down at it.

Kristen Craft

Beloved daughter, and wife. A beautiful soul gone too soon.

Tommy tried to read the date below it but some overgrowth had over taken it so he couldn't quiet read it. They all continued to stare at the grave. All three of the younger ones did not fail to notice the tears in Phil's eyes.

"The stone wasn't here when they buried her." Phil began to speak. "Her mother was in charge of it. I didn't know what she put on it till now, I just knew where she was buried." He spoke as tears fell down his cheeks.

"Dad." Techno said softly, reaching out a hand to pat his shoulder but stopped himself.

"I didn't know it would say wife. She never got to be my wife" All three of them heard Phil's voice crack as he fully began to sob. Wilbur opened his arms and Phil gladly took the offer for the hug. He held Wilbur tight as he truly began to break down.

"It's okay dad." Wilbur offered softly but Phil shook his head.

"It's not. We never got to plan our wedding together, we never got married, she was never my wife why does it say wife!" He sobbed harder and harder into Wilbur's arms.

They all stood there for a bit, Phil just sobbing in his son's arms. Tommy was petting Storm softly, she was trying to hop out of the bag to get to Phil but Tommy knew it wasn't the time.

Eventually Phil calmed down a bit, and he pulled away from Wilbur to sit down. The other's followed suit, so Phil was at the foot, Wilbur to his left, Techno to his right and Tommy on the right of Techno.

Phil was still staring at the stone for a while as he tried to wipe away his tears, despite the fact they would just come back moments later.

"Do you want to talk about her?" Techno asked softly and Tommy looked at Techno confused. "When I miss people I find talking about them helps."

"Yeah." Phil said softly, not taking his eyes off of the stone. "Yeah sure." Phil took a deep breath before he began to speak again. "She was beautiful, like really beautiful. When we met I asked her if she was some kind of angel."

"Smooth." Wilbur jokes and Phil chuckles a little bit while nodding.

"Oh it was so cheesy when we met. We were teenagers, and I was going to this coding meeting at the library. I was in the elevator when someone stuck their hand in to hold the elevator. It was a really old elevator that took like ten minutes, so I understood why they wanted to catch that one. Well the person tripped and fell into the elevator, spilling out like five notebooks across the thing. I helped them pick it up and then I helped them up. And it was her. She had a blush across her face because she was embarrassed but all I could see what how beautiful she was." Phil smiles fondly at the memory.