Dax didn’t know if he was allowed to attend the funeral.

Remorse, shame and guilt took turns haunting him, peeling away the layers of his remaining soul in a painfully slow manner. He took up a corner in the funeral hall as he watched the employees of the factory turn up one by one in a queue to pay their respects. A group of them bought a big garland that was already falling apart before they draped it over the luxurious ice box where the corpse remained. Next to the box, the closest family sat. Sisters, cousins and nephews. People who knew him dearly and those who’d miss his boisterous laughter and his generosity. A couple children ran about in the hall, too young to feel the gaping hole that a person’s demise left behind in others’ hearts.