A "Fourth of July" Short Story

                    The twinkling stars looked down on them as the heavy feeling in their chests never went away. The arguments still replaying in their heads as they tried their hardest not to let the tears fall. 

                    That heavy feeling looming above them, hiding the twinkling stars and shining moon that studied them. It felt as evil as it felt, making them sick in their stomach. How was it possible that the once peaceful and united family seemed to be falling apart?

                    Their minds betraying them as the memory of night appeared in their heads. The last breath and the sobbing all so clear to them as if it all happened yesterday, "What could I have said to raise you from the dead?" father asked quietly as he looked up the sky.

                    The stars twinkled back at him, "Oh I can be the sky ever since that July..."

                     Everyone followed his line of sight, a constricting feeling as they finally saw through the heavy fog of negativity that blinded them of the night sky. It was as if she was talking back to them, "Well you do enough talk, my children, why do you cry?"

                    Their eyes pooled with tears as they watched the moving night sky. They should have learned that night of July, everyone was going to die eventually, but no one said it would be that quickly.

                    "She laid on your bed with a halo at her head. Was she hiding until the last second so we can say our goodbyes?" little sister asked as she gripped my hand. Letting out a breath before looking around, everyone was there, but her.

                    "Where everything was fiction, future and prediction-" "Now where am I?" "-My fading supply." whispering in the air, hoping she would hear in the skies. Wishing we could hear her. If only we could hear her...

                    "Did you get enough love, my little doves? Why do you cry?" The soft and cold wind nipping on their cheeks as they waited for a sign up in the sky. A dying star, a constellation, a falling star, anything.

                    "And I'm sorry I left, but it was for the best..." father and his sisters shook their heads as they looked away. Broken and longing faces as they missed the clouds moving away from the moon. The perfect view. "Though it never felt right, my children."

                    Father let out a breath as he looked at his siblings, "The hospital asked should the be body be cast-" "Before I say good bye, my star in the sky." father was cut of by grandfather. Longingly gazing at the sky as if it was the prettiest thing he'd seen in his life.

                    "Such a thought to wrap you in a cloth. Did you find it alright?" father's sister asked as they stared at the ground, hiding away like a child would to a scolding mother.

                    The wind blew harder as a small appeared, closing my eyes, gripping sister's hand. "Shall we look at the moon, my little loons? Why do you cry?" As if she was talking, silent hiccups and sobs from them erupted as sister squeezed my hand back. "Make the most of your life, while it is rife. While it is light."

                    And as they all looked up the sky, the wind stopped and a single shooting star appeared and disappeared. Like the last breath she took that night in July. "Well you do enough talk, my little hawks, why do you cry?"

                    And just like that, it felt like she was there and then she wasn't. "I'll be the sky ever since July. We're all gonna die."

(Short Story inspired by "Fourth of July" by Sufjan Stevens)