(HP) Snapshots (2/7)
Please see the Snapshots Chapter List for story details including summary, warnings, etc.
Part One: For the Future
Part Two: Three Instead of Four
Prompt: Death
'It isn't your fault,' everyone keeps telling him, but he thinks that maybe they're only saying that because they don't know the whole story.
She wasn't supposed to die like that, he thinks, and he meets Dennis's eyes from across the room and silently begs for forgiveness. If anyone is going to blame him, he's sure it will be Dennis and his father. They know everything. They know what he can do, what he could have done.
A large hand grasps his shoulder, and he glances up to see his father standing over him, tears in his eyes. His heart stops, waiting for the anger, the disdain, the hatred that he's sure he'll receive. Instead, he finds himself being lifted into his father's arms and pulled tightly against his chest, and his father is whispering things to him, things like, 'I'm so glad you're all right,' and, 'I love you,' and, 'We're going to get through this together.' And a moment later, he feels his father bending down only long enough to scoop Dennis up and hold him too, and the three of them cry together, everyone else in the house giving them a wide berth, not wanting to interrupt.
'I'm sorry,' Colin says softly, his voice cracking, and suddenly he's rambling, words mixed with sobs. 'I should have saved her. I wanted to, Daddy, I really did, and I didn't mean to get out of the car, it just happened by itself. I'm so sorry. I wanted to take her with me; I didn't mean to, Daddy. I'm sorry!' And he's telling the truth, even if he can't make himself form the words just the way he hears them in his head.
He and Dennis have always been different. 'Special,' his mother had said once, and she'd barely blinked when Colin had walked into the kitchen with his favorite toy only seconds after she'd taken it away and put it in a cupboard she knew he couldn't reach, or when Dennis had tried to climb a tree but had fallen and literally floated back to the ground. She'd cautioned them to be careful, of course, to be cautious and not to tell anyone-she worried that if anyone knew, they'd want to take her boys away to study them or something equally horrible, and they weren't things to be studied, they were her sons, and she loved them.
But even though he could make things fall out of cabinets all on their own, and even though he could fix the things he occasionally broke before his parents ever found out they'd been broken to begin with (the vase in the hall has been broken six times now, or maybe it's seven), Colin couldn't save his mother. He'd seen the other car coming towards them much too fast, known that they were going to be hit, and instead of trying to get away, he'd just closed his eyes and thrown his hands up in front of his face. He can remember the way his mum had reached one arm out and pressed her hand against his chest, pushing him back against his seat, trying to protect him in that final second in any way she could. He can still hear her gasp of terror-not even a scream because there wasn't time for that. And then he was outside, lying on the grass, knees still bent as if he were sitting and hands still out in front of him, but the pressure from his mother's hand was gone, and before he had a chance to open his eyes and wonder what had happened, he heard metal colliding with metal, a crashing, twisting, haunting noise that seemed to end his whole world.
He'd never meant to leave the car because he'd been so panicked that he hadn't even thought of his special powers in that instant, and he'd certainly never meant to leave his mother behind. He doesn't remember how he did it, but he did it nonetheless, and she'd died while he'd survived with only a bruise on his back where he'd fallen onto the ground.
But his father simply holds him tighter, shushes him when he tries to explain that it's all his fault, that he should have been able to save her but couldn't, and Dennis hugs him tighter, and even though his brother is only four and probably doesn't understand everything that's going on, Colin finds comfort in the tiny arms wrapped around his neck and pulling him close. And their father says again, 'We're going to get through this together,' a phrase that will become something of a mantra in the days that follow as they learn to live as three instead of four, and will eventually become the words that Colin repeats to his brother over the years, whenever something bad happens and they feel completely alone in the world their father can't follow them into.
But in that moment, it's not a often-used phrase or a family motto of sorts; it's only words, the most wonderful words Colin thinks he's ever heard, and he whispers them softly back to his father and feels as if they're the only three people in the world.
Part Three: Two of a Kind
Part One: For the Future
Part Two: Three Instead of Four
Prompt: Death
'It isn't your fault,' everyone keeps telling him, but he thinks that maybe they're only saying that because they don't know the whole story.
She wasn't supposed to die like that, he thinks, and he meets Dennis's eyes from across the room and silently begs for forgiveness. If anyone is going to blame him, he's sure it will be Dennis and his father. They know everything. They know what he can do, what he could have done.
A large hand grasps his shoulder, and he glances up to see his father standing over him, tears in his eyes. His heart stops, waiting for the anger, the disdain, the hatred that he's sure he'll receive. Instead, he finds himself being lifted into his father's arms and pulled tightly against his chest, and his father is whispering things to him, things like, 'I'm so glad you're all right,' and, 'I love you,' and, 'We're going to get through this together.' And a moment later, he feels his father bending down only long enough to scoop Dennis up and hold him too, and the three of them cry together, everyone else in the house giving them a wide berth, not wanting to interrupt.
'I'm sorry,' Colin says softly, his voice cracking, and suddenly he's rambling, words mixed with sobs. 'I should have saved her. I wanted to, Daddy, I really did, and I didn't mean to get out of the car, it just happened by itself. I'm so sorry. I wanted to take her with me; I didn't mean to, Daddy. I'm sorry!' And he's telling the truth, even if he can't make himself form the words just the way he hears them in his head.
He and Dennis have always been different. 'Special,' his mother had said once, and she'd barely blinked when Colin had walked into the kitchen with his favorite toy only seconds after she'd taken it away and put it in a cupboard she knew he couldn't reach, or when Dennis had tried to climb a tree but had fallen and literally floated back to the ground. She'd cautioned them to be careful, of course, to be cautious and not to tell anyone-she worried that if anyone knew, they'd want to take her boys away to study them or something equally horrible, and they weren't things to be studied, they were her sons, and she loved them.
But even though he could make things fall out of cabinets all on their own, and even though he could fix the things he occasionally broke before his parents ever found out they'd been broken to begin with (the vase in the hall has been broken six times now, or maybe it's seven), Colin couldn't save his mother. He'd seen the other car coming towards them much too fast, known that they were going to be hit, and instead of trying to get away, he'd just closed his eyes and thrown his hands up in front of his face. He can remember the way his mum had reached one arm out and pressed her hand against his chest, pushing him back against his seat, trying to protect him in that final second in any way she could. He can still hear her gasp of terror-not even a scream because there wasn't time for that. And then he was outside, lying on the grass, knees still bent as if he were sitting and hands still out in front of him, but the pressure from his mother's hand was gone, and before he had a chance to open his eyes and wonder what had happened, he heard metal colliding with metal, a crashing, twisting, haunting noise that seemed to end his whole world.
He'd never meant to leave the car because he'd been so panicked that he hadn't even thought of his special powers in that instant, and he'd certainly never meant to leave his mother behind. He doesn't remember how he did it, but he did it nonetheless, and she'd died while he'd survived with only a bruise on his back where he'd fallen onto the ground.
But his father simply holds him tighter, shushes him when he tries to explain that it's all his fault, that he should have been able to save her but couldn't, and Dennis hugs him tighter, and even though his brother is only four and probably doesn't understand everything that's going on, Colin finds comfort in the tiny arms wrapped around his neck and pulling him close. And their father says again, 'We're going to get through this together,' a phrase that will become something of a mantra in the days that follow as they learn to live as three instead of four, and will eventually become the words that Colin repeats to his brother over the years, whenever something bad happens and they feel completely alone in the world their father can't follow them into.
But in that moment, it's not a often-used phrase or a family motto of sorts; it's only words, the most wonderful words Colin thinks he's ever heard, and he whispers them softly back to his father and feels as if they're the only three people in the world.
Part Three: Two of a Kind