Surviving After Dark

ergency contact listed on your school records. Is there somebody we could call for

rs with a shake of his head.

ce catches with emotion, and I

rt 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 mome

manent solution." She walks to the door and gestures for us to follow. We don't immediately; we just stay sea

her desk chair, and comes around to stand in front of us. "Take all the time tha

chols' outstretched hand, giving it a curt shake. I stand too, somehow, des

shake f

Mr. Nichols, and he nods gravely at her words, but I don't catch them. Then she spins and walks down the corrid

will never

n another, and eventually I find myself halfway down the corr

. 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 offi

as

eak the fragile control I'm barely clinging to. And I can't break down. Not here. Not

do?" I whisper befor

lf 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 speak

the battle within myself as the first tear breaks free to

ut 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 an

Elijah and wipe my nose on my sleeve as

d Dad always say? We're Millers, and M

t worked out so well for Mum and Dad. What makes him think it will

ptimism, but it also wouldn't make me

rony 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 t

ur parents are dead. Killed in a car accid

til this point. But I know, in years to come, this will be th

for the monoton