The funeral was a brief, solemn affair. The lady’s father got to say a few words but not many, and her mother wasn’t able to speak, due to crying too much. All the words Eridan Ampora caught were the typical words one says at a funeral - “Shame,” “tragedy,” “wonderful young woman,” “will be deeply missed”. Eridan was too angry, upset and frightened to listen to anything else. He stood next to his mother in the pews of the church, his head lowered and his fists clenched tight enough to make the boy feel his rings digging into his palms. Eridan could feel angry tears well up at the corner of his eyes, angry tears from the overall air in the church, the way everyone was like. He could feel that everyone in the church wanted to leave as soo as possible, and it made him mad that no one wanted to stay and wish Feferi a pleasant goodbye. But, could he blame them, for wanting to leave the church hall, where the funeral for a sixteen year old girl was being held? He knew only close family friends would stay behind - Eridan would make sure he’d be one of the few who stayed.
When the funeral ended, Eridan quickly left his mother’s side to go towards the open casket. He stopped in his tracks and just stared at her body; she was still lovely as ever, her beautiful body just as healthy looking as ever. It was almost as if Feferi was simply asleep rather than dead. Black curls were laid against cream toned silk, he hair framing her peaceful, gentle face. Eridan felt more tears well up from behind his glasses, and this time he removed his glasses to wipe at his eyes with his sleeve.
To him, she was a fun, silly, attractive girl, but to her, Eridan was simply the European exchange student she befriended. He liked her but she only saw their relationship as a girl and a boy that were friends. Instead of going for Eridan, Feferi opted to date Sollux Captor, which led Eridan to decide that he should make Sollux’s life a living hell for messing up Eridan’s love life. But it backfired, as it would usually do for him, due from the mix of Sollux’s mellow and smart aura, a girl named Vriska Serket who was the worst girl Eridan ever met, and his third period teacher - Mr. Diamonds - who teased him every time he walked into his class with his head held high. Mr. Diamonds had a student co-op teacher named Clubs Deuce who stopped the teacher from teasing him occasionally, but Deuce was just too scared and too meek to really stand up against Mr. Diamonds. And that just made Eridan’s life fantastic.
Eridan admitted that, when Kanaya came over to his house and told him that Feferi had gotten into a car crash and she had passed away in the hospital, he cried. Cried so hard, he forced Kanaya to stay until he was okay. And that took two hours. Two whole hours of crying and sobbing and clinging to his friend, and then the girl kindly spoke to him, and right when it seemed as if Eridan was ready to stop crying, he’d start again, screaming into Kanaya’s shoulders about how Feferi didn’t deserve to die.
Eridan took a deep breath, looking at Feferi’s corpse once again. He’d be okay. Say a few things to her so her soul can safely go over to the other side. When Eridan went back to his homeland, he’d tell his friends all about the lovely girl he met while visiting America, and her unfortunate death. All when he goes back to-
“Eridan.” Eridan was knocked from his thoughts at the sound of a familiar voice, and he gave a tight frown when he saw Gamzee step up beside him, giving him a small smile from his chapped lips.
“Gamzee, why are you here.”
“Saying some goodbyes to a fellow sister, what else?” Gamzee gave a big grin, making Eridan narrow his eyes and frown harder at the spiritualist.
“I’d imagine you’d be with Tavros or Equius,” Eridan stated, “Comforting Tavros or having Equius kissing up to you.”
Gamzee kept that grin. “Kissing up? Brother, Equius doesn’t kiss up. He’s a pretty cool guy.”
“He kisses up to the both of us because our parents are wealthy,” Eridan snapped, “Feferi was too but she was scared of him.”
Gamzee shrugged. “Hey, you know Equius, man. Ever see him in ol’ Spades’ classes? Sits right behind Aradia but beside Nepeta, stares at the back of Aradia’s head every time Spades stops talking and make sure no one tries to chat it up with Nepeta.” Gamzee laughed at his thoughts - whatever those thoughts may be. “Girl is really sweet though, I can see why he doesn’t want her to get hurt in any way. Like a little sister.”
“Just shut up already, I don’t care,” Eridan hissed, folding his arms and looking away from him. Gamzee only kept that stupid smile on; almost a knowing smile.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course I am not okay!” Eridan snapped, wringing his hands and turning to Gamzee. “She’s dead, Gamzee! She’s dead and I don’t have her anymore!”
“Dead?”
“Yes, you imbecile! Feferi Peixes is dead!”
And Gamzee just kept that smile on his face. Which made Eridan even angrier than before. Eridan pulled his arm back to hit Gamzee but the juggalo quickly moved and grabbed the boy by the shoulders, gripping him tightly. Gamzee’s expression had melted into true concern right now, holding the shaking boy still. “Eridan, calm down, my friend. It was her time. This is why she is gone.”
“It is not her time!” Eridan snapped, “She was too young!”
“It was her time, though,” Gamzee said, his voice doing that stupid thing where it was normal, and then suddenly flat and lifeless. “Why do you think she’s gone? Come one, brother, she wouldn’t’ve died if it wasn’t her time. It was her time to go.”
Eridan clenched his fists again, but released them, as well as exhaling. “Do you really think that now?”
“Hey, death is…” Gamzee faded off, glancing down at both of their shoes. The man shrugged his shoulders and sighed, “It’s… a miracle, right? How this kind of stuff happens to everyone. Right now, a little miracle happened. That miracle was someone dying.”
“You’re morbid.”
“Eh, sometimes. Just going with the mood, Eridan.”
Gamzee released his grip on Eridan’s shoulders, snapping his hands shut in to little fists, and then shrugged again, putting on a little smile. “I’ll leave you be. You didn’t want my company, it’s okay, I wouldn’t want mine either.” He looked into Eridan’s eyes, still holding that nervous smile. “I’ll see you at school, man.”
Gamzee left Eridan and the casket, talking down the two steps to the floor. He followed the long red carpet to the outside, leaving Eridan at the altar. Eridan looked back at Feferi’s body - how peaceful she was lying there - and then looked at the doors.
“Gamzee!” He called out, running after the male.