The Day I Died

My story starts like any other. In a hospital. This was the day I was going to die. It was known since my birth. I wouldn't call it a tragic life that I lived neither.
I rarely got sick, but if I did this is where I found myself. On the day that I was destined to die something happened. The man came to me. His name was not Death or God or any odd thing like that.

He was just there. Taking off the oxygen mask that was helping me breathe. I gasped trying to draw some air into my lungs only for him to cover it with his hand. His other hand crossed over to my mouth and I only wished I had the strength to yell for help.
I take my earlier statement back; this was how I was going to die. Needed oxygen and being denied that privilege.

That's what it was shaping up to and I couldn't focus on any memory that I may have of my life because in the same instance that the panic set in all pain erased itself. And he appeared to be too when the doors swung up and my doctors and nurse came in to see if I had gone yet.

The frantic, "Where is she?" Echoed and I felt something warm against my cheek. The man was still there with his hand angling my head up so he wouldn't have to dangle his down to speak to me or motion in the way he did next.

He shook his head wishing for me to be quiet and I obeyed only until everyone had run out. There were sirens going off triggering the alarm and flashing red lights that meant the hospital was dealing with a new situation. A bad situation.

"What just happened?" I mumbled, he had moved his hand away and straightened up properly.

"Not the place for this discussion." His voice was rough, his hair slicked back like in the old movies my Nana used to watch with me. It was then that I noticed the way he was dressed. Jeans tailored to his long legs, a button up the color of the night sky tucked in them and a suit jacket in one of his hands. He had taken it off at some point.

He passed it to me without question. "They can't see us but you'll still feel the chill until we get to Tim's place."

Just go with it, I told myself as I slipped into his entirely too long jacket but as he guided through the throngs of people and out the exit that was strictly used for ambulances I had to admit he was right. It was chilly tonight and it was probably more so because I was in a hospital gown.

I was ushered into a black car that had my alarm bells triggered along with everything else that was going on and sat there quietly until he got in. Once we were both buckled in and out of sight of the hotel I turned to him. “What was that?”

“I believe you mean to say ‘thank you’, I just saved your life.”

“Why? How? I don’t understand. Everyone is supposed to go when their time is up. We all have a date.” At a stop light he turned to me. His eyes glinting a yellow in the low lights that the street gave off.
“There’s a brush in the glovebox.” I had little concern about my hair at this point. I had been in the hospital for a good couple days and hadn’t been too worried about it looking good. He didn’t move the car even when it was green. I sensed he really wanted me to look slightly more alive than I probably did now.

I reached inside the glove compartment and grabbed the paddle brush from out of it, and pulled down the mirror and looked at my reflection in the mirror. I could use a little concealer at the least but I didn’t worry too much about it as I racked the bristles through my short lilac hair. A recent lifestyle choice but I was really liking it. If what seemed to be going on continued on I would be needing to keep it up if I lived long enough for another treatment.

“There.” I mumbled. “Now, would you…” He pressed down on the accelerator then causing me to move slightly against the door as I was angled in his direction.

He didn’t answer any of my questions that I continued to hurl at him so after a couple minutes I just stopped talking. My throat still felt raw from not being able to get air in my lungs.

About ten minutes passed of his hectic driving skills before we came to a halt in front of a house that was surrounded by plants of different kinds. I wasn’t a botanist but I could admire the look of them. He got out of the car first and I was about to follow him out when he had already made it around the car to my door and opened it for me. A hand outstretched to mine which I took after unbuckling the seatbelt.

He pulled me out and held me there for a moment. I didn’t know why he kept staring at me like that. It was as if he was trying to figure something out himself. Instead of letting me in on whatever he was thinking of, he reached out and buttoned up his coat. “My name is…” He started only to be caught off by someone flinging their arms around him and effectively pushing me into the car on purpose if the way she was clinging to him was anything by.

I assumed it was his girlfriend by the way she was glaring at me even when she had his arms wrapped around her carefully.

I moved around the two while wincing a little at my side. “Must you push everyone you see my brother with?” Another woman who I can visibly see more than the one who had ‘attacked’ me and clung to my ‘savior’ voiced. She was taller than me about five-four to my five foot stature. Her hair a deep rose color and tied along her neck in a loose braid. Her clothes different than her brother were more military cut but appealing on her curvy frame.

“She’s right you know. You’ve known that Tabitha was coming for a week.” He was accusatory of his girlfriend. It was just about the same as he seemed around me in the car so I shouldn’t have been too surprised.

Before I could ask a question about how they knew me the sister came up and gestured for me to follow her inside. There were a few more people inside but we by passed them even as they all tried to say hello and went up the stairs and down to the third door where she pushed me into. What was with all the pushing today?

“Sit.” She stated as she closed the door. There was a chair near a vanity that I assumed she wanted me to sit down on. So I did all the while she opened a closet and began going through it. “You can call me Dark. Before you ask no it’s not my name but it’s what you’ll hear everyone refer to me as, except my brother. His name since Emi was so kind to interrupt him when he was trying to tell you is Orin.”

I nodded, waiting for her to say something else but when she didn’t I decided I had to find something else out. “Why did Orin save me?”

Dark’s braid swished behind her as she turned with clothes in her hand and lay them on the bed. “Because he was supposed to.”

That greatly confused me. This life was supposed to be set in stone.

What she told me next at least gave me somewhere to put my feet on the ground. “You’re alive, Tabby – I’m going to call you that because Tabitha is just too much right now, that’s what you should focus on. The details will come later. Now, get dressed the others want to meet you after all this time.”

I opened my mouth to say something else but all she did was shake her head. I was starting to get the cues from both siblings.

She turned away from me and grabbed a few undergarments from the dresser that was next to the closet. “These should fit. We’re roughly the same size.” I only nodded as she turned obviously wanting me to change now rather than wait for her to leave the room.

This might not be how my story was supposed to go but it was going to be interesting.