Status: Complete - February 22, 2018
Haunting Grey
Seventeen
I open my eyes, and my dad is sitting beside me. He's crying. He's crying and hugging me and I can feel that.
The wool blanket that covers me scratches my face.
The tubes in my arm itch.
"Oh God," my dad says, and touches my face. "You're awake, Travis."
What he means to say is, You're alive.
I blink, blink, blink, but I don't see her anywhere. She's not behind my dad, or sitting on the window sill.
Natalie's gone.
She's gone, and I'm here.
I'm alive and she's not.
She didn't take me with her, because she understood how much I needed to be here, even without her.
I look at my dad and say, "Natalie's dead."
His face crumbles more and he nods.
"I'm sorry," he says quietly. "I know it's not fair."
I want to tell him everything. but I know he won't believe me. So instead I say, "I had a dream about her. She told me someone killed her." It was only then that something else hit me—and it felt so horrible to even consider, but I had to. "Was it me?"
The wool blanket that covers me scratches my face.
The tubes in my arm itch.
"Oh God," my dad says, and touches my face. "You're awake, Travis."
What he means to say is, You're alive.
I blink, blink, blink, but I don't see her anywhere. She's not behind my dad, or sitting on the window sill.
Natalie's gone.
She's gone, and I'm here.
I'm alive and she's not.
She didn't take me with her, because she understood how much I needed to be here, even without her.
I look at my dad and say, "Natalie's dead."
His face crumbles more and he nods.
"I'm sorry," he says quietly. "I know it's not fair."
I want to tell him everything. but I know he won't believe me. So instead I say, "I had a dream about her. She told me someone killed her." It was only then that something else hit me—and it felt so horrible to even consider, but I had to. "Was it me?"