Chapter Text
3652 days—87,660 hours—5,270,400 minutes. Aaron never lost count, hoping. God, hoping, by some miracle they would come back to him. He was never in touch with his religion, yet here he was on his knees, rosary entangled in his hands causing a burning sensation as he aired out his sins. He tilted his head so he could gaze upon the eyes of the lord.
That night was a blur to him. He still feels how his heart pounded to escape his chest as his feet slowly descended the stair, his hand feeling the wooden rail pricking at him. Something was wrong, the house was too quiet. Aaron had just gotten after Alina and Angelov and grounded them. The two kids ended up trashing and breaking items in his and Aph’s room. They tried to explain that they wanted to throw a surprise for mom before she came home, but his anger got the best of him. The last words he would ever hear from his daughter would be how they would run away and how their dad isn’t being a nice dad right now. With his last words being, “Go then! See if I care!” The children had tears in their eyes before going to their rooms. A few minutes passed before Aaron had realized what he had said. They just wanted to throw a surprise for their mom, he just needed to communicate on how what they intended to do was nice but to ask for help next to. He should’ve explained to them, then helped clean the mess up and the three of them could’ve surprised Aph together. He took a deep breath, he was wrong, and he needed to apologize.
He yelled for his children, calling for them repeatedly. He was greeted with silence. As he made his way through the kitchen—the backdoor was wide open. The echo of that woman’s agony screeching ‘Mi hijos! Mi hijos!’.
Nononononononononononono
Before his mind could keep up with his body, he ran. Ran until his legs could give up. Ran ignoring how the cold wind sniped at him. He went faster and faster, his throat started to burn from the way he was breathing, all of this is miniscule…Pointless. He didn’t know how far out he was, but all he knew was he was deep enough in the woods to see the lake. The lake he would take his children to, the lake with memories of picnics, the lake with memories of family. And now there were his children with a ghostly woman making them go into the water.
He yelled for them as he approached. He yelled their names so harshly filled with so much pain that he didn’t want to believe what he saw with his own eyes.
Not my kids, please god not my kids! Lord, give me strength!
He was right there, he reached his arm out, so close to reeling his children back; he felt the warmness of their body heat.
The world started collapsing on him. The once firm ground was now sinking his feet to the ground, making gravity take Aaron to the hard dirt floor. The night sky was now falling on him, insects started to eat at him, his vocal cords no longer worked . Yet he focuses solely on his children.
He crawled to them.
Fighting nature, fighting the laws, he was there right there. Dizziness started to overtake, a taste of iron stained his mouth, his fingers started to tingle the more he struggled. He felt the water, he was about to grab his children until he felt a hard snap in his brain.
Aaron’s body started to jerk irregularly and become firm. Eyes rolling to the back of his head. Everything went dark…It was cold…It was wet.
When he came to, his children’s bodies were floating in the lake. His heart dropped, he ripped them from the water’s cold grasp and immediately tried CPR. Calling 911 and repeating the procedure to their lifeless bodies. He didn’t want to believe it, he wasn’t going to believe it. Their once warm toned body was now taken over by the pale blue of the water, their once energetic energy was now still. Their once loud voices were now silenced. Aaron couldn’t remember anything but how his voice was hoarse from his yelling about his kids. Delusion clouded his mind, not wanting to accept their fate.
Faint sounds of the sirens and the color of red and blue was all ignored from his mind. The police and the paramedics tried to pry Aarons's hold on his children but he couldn’t—He couldn’t let them go— he couldn't. He was in hysteria.
Aphmau arrived at the scene and her screams of horror will forever be imprinted in Aaron’s memory.