It Brought Me To You

The car jerked hard to the right, sending me towards my siblings. I grabbed onto the seat in front of me to keep from crushing my little sister, sitting in the middle. I looked up to see the car heading into a concrete wall. I screamed and sent out my left arm to grab her but it was too late. We'd hit the wall and she'd gone flying. "KATIE!!!!!!"

I woke screaming, tears pouring down my face. The nurse on duty came running in to see what was wrong. "WHERE ARE THEY?" I screeched at her. I knew they were gone; they had to be. Everyone got hit but me. There's hope...

"Who?"

"My family! Maria, Donny, Brian, Katie!" My voice broke on that last one, more tears came streaming. "Has anyone been here?" I almost pleaded with her.

"No one by those names sweetie but-"

"Don't you sweetie me! They're-" I started gasping for breath, trying to choke out my next word. "-Dead?" I hadn't said it aloud before. It burned my mouth like acid. I hate that word! My heart stopped when I looked at the nurse. Her eyes alone showed the sad truth. I was all alone. The pity in her eyes, the hard truth, and the hollow feeling in my stomach slammed into me like our car did that wall. I shot up and vomited on the floor. The truth is sickening.

She left the room to get someone to clean that up, leaving me alone sobbing, curled in a ball on the bed.

~*~

I hadn't had reason to think how beat up I was until after I had cried myself to sleep. When I woke up, everything hurt. I pulled back the covers and gasped. My right side was purple; one giant bruise. My left leg had a gash on it but it was already stitched. They seemed to go on forever. I gently pushed myself to a sitting position. My head starting pounding and my vision went fuzzy, as I got dizzy. I waited until I could see clearly again and got off the bed. Very slowly I headed to the bathroom, ready to view myself in a mirror.

Who was that girl! Her face was swollen, there was some dried blood left, and it was covered in scratches! I looked at my arms, scratches, mini gashes, red skin, blood. I looked back into the mirror panicked. My heart started racing as I slowly brought my hands to my face. All I could hear was my heart in my ears as I gazed into her panic stricken eyes. As my hands gently touched my face, so did hers. I let out a quick squeak and jumped back from the mirror and dashed to my bed. She was me!

I was halfway back to my bed when I familiar feeling swept through me. "Oh no," I groaned as my legs collapsed. Please no! Why now?

I stayed conscious long enough to keep my head from hitting the floor.

~*~

I woke up wishing I hadn't. Sure the bed was comfy and warm, but so is the unconscious state. However, being awake is full of pain and throbbing: my head to be exact. I could feel it with every heartbeat. Thump each beat thump reminding me thump that I was still thump alive while my family thump wasn't.

Tears began trickling down my face. I wish I could make them stop. Already I was tired of having tracks on my face, tired of being haunted by the past. Yes, the past. Maybe it was only last night, or two nights ago? I have no clue what time it is. The point is I'm 16; yesterday can be the far past, or still prevalent. So why won't it feel like the past, no matter how hard I try? I want it to be over. I want to wake up from this sick twisted nightmare and go into the kitchen and eat pancakes. Like mom used to make.

Mom. My heart froze for a moment. The tears were more than trickling now. Talk about your full-blown waterworks.

As I was crying, I realized I had nothing familiar around me! No childhood blanket, no stuffed animals, and no friends or...family; nothing to comfort me. The only thing familiar was me, barley. Covered in more bruises than I'd ever seen, more scratches than I'd thought possible, here I was. The only thing that looked relatively normal were my hands. I was used to cuts on them.

I hugged my knees and tried to look at those familiar hands, but my vision was getting fuzzier and blurrier. Stupid tears!

~*~

Eventually they stopped, although it was really hard think about nothing. Any thought of- of that would set them off again. I ended up starting at the blank wall. White... how not comforting! Then again, I think I'm in an adult hospital, not a kid's. Still... the kid's section should have some color, we're kids! Wait, I'm 16. I'm not a kid. I'm an adult.

Oh what a funny thing to be thinking.

How so?

You just lost your family and you missing you mommy, and your calling yourself an adult.

Even adults miss their parents!

But they don't go wishing for mmooommyyy

Wait! Am I arguing with myself? I think so.

A knock on the door interrupted my internal debate. "Lucia?" the nurse poked her head in. "Is it ok if you have a visitor?"

Already? I've been in here a day, I think. Who would know I'm here? Unless... "Bring them in. It's ok," I said, eyes shinning with excitement.