An Orphan

(Regina's POV)

I stalked to where she was, and her hands were shaking as she touched his face. I came closer, and then I took a long look at him. My legs felt weak as I stared at him in shock. His eyes were open like he was in shock, but his face had turned pale and his body cold as I placed my shaking hands on him.

"Un…uncle?" I called but got no response. I was already in tears. Furthermore, I turned to look at my aunty, who was crying her eyes out. "Aun…aunty? What happened to my uncle? Why is he not moving?" I asked, my voice shaking. My aunty could only shake her head as tears fell continuously from her eyes.

She eventually stopped crying and sat there emotionlessly, her gaze was at him, but she wasn't looking at him.

"Mrs. Ava, what happened? Why are you crying-" the woman glanced down and gasped? "Oh my God, Rico!!" She exclaimed.

"What… How…? Ava," she rushed towards my aunty to console her while I cried on my uncle's chest bitterly. I felt someone's hand on my shoulders, squeezing it gently. I glanced up to see a man with white hair.

"Uncle Marshal, uncle isn't breathing… Is he… Is he dead? But… But he can't leave me, right? He always promised to take care of me," I croaked.

"Oh, my dear Regina," he called with a pitiful expression as he wrapped his arms around me from behind while I cried my heart out. After crying for a while, I suddenly felt uneasy like something was wrong, and so I stood up weakly, rushing back home with a pounding heart. I almost collapsed when I saw the view in front of me if not for uncle Marshal who caught me in his arms.

The house was destroyed and everything looked tragic in front of me. I turned to my side to look at uncle Marshal with a tearful gaze.

"Did… Did you… Save dad… Did you carry him outside?"

I sighed and lowered his head before shaking his head. My heart sank as I shook my head in denial. "I'm sorry I couldn't help him at that time. Your uncle was resolute about giving the lands away, so we had to retaliate, and that brought this upon us. I'm sorry, Regina, I'm truly sorry." He said sincerely.

"No! This can't be possible," I pushed away from his hold and rushed to go into the broken house. However, he was fast to hold me back.

"Regina, please. Please don't go inside and wait for the police."

I yanked my arms away from him. "The police? Where were they when we needed them, and where are they now?" I yelled with tears filled eyes.

"Regina, please calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down. Uncle is dead and so is dad!" Why can't they understand that we've lost our hope and everything we claimed to be fighting for?

It was useless, completely useless in the first place. Nothing mattered, nothing whatsoever, and we were all doomed.

"We should calm down, but first we need to take the injured and your uncle's body to the hospital."

I said nothing, but instead stood there unblinkingly. I lost everything, everyone in just one day. How? How could life be this cruel? Why are humans this cruel?

This was intentional, and I was certain that they were probably somewhere happy that they've finally gotten what they wanted, which they did without any remorse. How heartless?

A tear fell on my cheek until my eyes felt like it could no longer bring out water. The police came with 911 to take the bodies and those who were injured. I could finally see my father's face as he laid alongside my uncle. Their faces were both pale, and it took me hours to finally realize that the most important men in my life were dead, and I was now an orphan.

Hate them, I hate whoever did this to us. Whoever took my family.

We got to the hospital and the medics rushed out to help take them inside the hospital while nurses came to assist. We got inside, and they asked me to wait outside and after hours of waiting in silence, the doctor came out and my aunty and I rushed to meet him.

"Doc… Doctor!" We called in chorus, though we already knew the harsh truth, but we both hoped for a miracle.

The doctor shook his head. "I'm so sorry, but they were dead before they came here. I do apologize for your loss, we'll be moving the bodies to the hospital mortuary."

My aunty sank on the ground beside me. She looked shocked, and a disbelief look was imprinted on her face.

I stood there, unable to decipher what to do next. This was clearly the end for us. "Regina, please don't give up yet," I heard uncle marshal's voice from a distance.

"Give up?" I whispered with a weak voice. "What's there to fight for? We are doomed. My father is gone, and my uncle is also gone," I said, my eyes staring at one particular spot on the wall in a daze.

"Put yourselves together, please." He pleaded, and that was when I noticed something.

His son wasn't with him the whole time. "Uncle Marshal, where is Raymond?"

He shook his head vigorously while looking down. "He joined in the flight, and he didn't make it," he said, trying to fight his tears.

"Wait, what?" I was perplexed.

"It's not anyone's fault, Regina, it was the timing."

"No. You're wrong, they took everything from us."

"Yes, but we could have left the place. We had a choice, but he chose violence to sort things out instead."

"That's because they left us with no choice!" My voice was raspy.

"No, we could've left there and gone somewhere far from there. We could've started our life again, but we didn't. Instead, we drew death upon ourselves." He said in frustration.

We stood there in silence until I became curious. "How… How did they die?" My voice was inaudible, and I doubted he heard me.

He raised his gaze up at me and watched me with a calculative gaze. My heartbeat accelerated, and I almost died of anxiety as I couldn't help but imagine their gruesome death.