Painful Memories
"What the hell is happening here?" Ella queried as she came closer.
The gloomy but silent faces of everyone, most especially Olivia rattled her. She took cautious steps forward, scanning from one face to the other in search of an answer but couldn't make sense of their grief or the reason her relatives chose to assemble in the house. Her heartbeat was racing and her body was trembling slightly as she imagined the worse.
"Geez! Oly," Ella called Olivia by her pet name when she finally got to her. "Have you been crying for long?"
Ella was greatly alarmed when she saw Olivia's swollen and reddened eyes up close. The dried marks of old tears lined her face and her nose was red and looking overworked. Her legs were shaking with her hands clasped in between them. She looked up at Ella, shook her head from side to side, and started crying all over again.