• The sound of sirens all around me.
    The flashing of lights.
    An excruciating pain in my body.
    I cannot move. It hurts too much. What…happened? The last thing I remember was walking down Main Street. I was going to meet up at Dairy Queen with my friends. I didn’t want to waste my gas. Besides, it was the first cool day we had all summer. I looked both ways before crossing the street, running quickly then.
    I made it to the other side. I saw that there was some of those idiots from my school doing tricks on their skateboards. I watched them for sheer curiosity.
    There was a rev of an engine. I looked to see someone racing on Main! The idiot was focused on the other one in the car. I looked back to the skaters to see one of them had wiped out and fallen into the street.
    He got up, laughing as his friends mocked him. He hadn’t noticed the vehicle.
    Next thing, I know, I’m shoving some guy out of the way and I was hit. The car had stopped and I was rolling down the street.
    That’s what happened. I recalled.
    I was just laying on the ground, not able to move. Everything was blurry. I was laying on the street in my own pool of blood.
    Someone was calling my name as I lain there. Was it the one I’d saved? Had my friends gone to see what the commotion was?
    Everything became dark then. I remembered hearing faint voices.
    “Her blood pressure is dropping!”
    “Heart rate is irregular!”
    “Dammit! We can’t lose this girl!”
    “C’mon, kid. C’mon!”
    "Rina!"
    "Kid you're not allowed in h--"
    "Shut up! Rina, wake up! Please come back. Please come back...come back..."

    Everything was then white. I open my eyes to find that I am in a white hall. I don’t know where I am. I decide to walk down the hall in sheer curiosity.
    “Miss?” Someone asked. I turned around to see a handsome man with white-blonde hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. He was wearing clothes of white. His wore a button up dress shirt, dress pants, and dress shoes. “Are you lost?”
    “Maybe.” I said. “Where am I? Am I dead?”
    He then motioned me to follow. I followed him through a lovely doorframe that I never noticed before. I walk into the room and he pulls a white drawer open.
    “What’s your name?”
    “Rina Jo Cross.” I said. Why am I giving him my name?! He’s a stranger!
    “I heard that.” He said, pulling out a file. “And I’m no stranger.” He said, reading the file as he stepped up to me. He shuffled my hair when he stood before me with a smile on his face. “I’m someone you’ll know very well soon enough.” He read through the file then snapped it closed. “Everything checks out. Go on. Run along now.”
    “But, wait, you didn’t answer any…of…my…” I became sudden dizzy.
    “Don’t worry, Rina.” His voice echoed as my world spun and became dark. “You’ll understand.”

    Darkness was all around me again. I couldn’t open my eyes but I could hear and feel things.
    The sound of some machine.
    Beep…beep…beep…
    It kept a steady beat. It sounded like a heart monitor from what I heard from movies and the episodes of E.R. I used to watch with my mom.
    I am laying on a bed. It’s stiff and propped up so that I would be sitting up. A hospital bed.
    I then began to cough. I opened my eyes to that there was smoke around me as I sat in a living room.
    I looked up to my parents. They were smoking in the house again.
    “Rina!” My mother said shocked. “When’d you get here?”
    “Just now.” A childish voice said, as I coughed and waved the smoke away from me. I realized that this was a memory. “What’s going on?” I asked.
    I realized that there was a large man in the room. Next to him sat a young boy with dark blonde hair and big blue eyes. He was three years elder my age which was five at the time.
    “Just talking business, dear.” My father said. “Why don’t you go play with…erm…?”
    “Alberich, sir.” The boy said.
    “Go on, Alberich.” The man said. “Go and play.”
    “Thank you, father.”
    I then led Alberich outside. We sat on my trampoline talking. I learned that he was adopted by the man named “Simon.” Alberich was from Germany at one point but his parents died in a wreck.
    “Hey, Alberich?”
    “Hm?”
    “What were they talking about?”
    Alberich just smiled. He then crawled up to me and hugged me. He just held me. “I can’t tell you that. It’s a secret.”
    I sighed. “Fine.” I pouted. I then began to hop on the trampoline. “Bet I can make you crack like an egg.” I said, bringing up a game for us to play.
    “Bet you can’t, mein kleiner freund*.”
    Years had passed and I never saw Alberich again. I was thirteen when my parents died. It was a bank robbery and they were two of five victims that were sacrificed. Aaron’s family took me in and I’d lived there since then.

    My life in a nutshell.
    I opened my eyes to see that I was in a hospital room. I was staring straight up at the ceiling. I slowly let the feelings in my body come back. Needles in my left arm, a breathing tube in my nose, and…something or someone holding my hand.
    I looked over. There was someone holding my hand. Whoever it was had white-blonde hair and pale skin. He was wearing a blue Hollister shirt along with some tight jeans. His face is vaguely familiar.
    He was sound asleep as his head rested on my bed. I opened my mouth to speak to him but nothing came out.
    I squeezed his hand, hoping that would work as I couldn’t move my left arm well. I begin to pump it, hoping he’d stir.
    He did. Pale blue irises were revealed, though sleepy. He looked up and met my eyes. His vision must’ve cleared as it took a moment for him to wake up. His eyes widened and he just stared.
    “Rina.” He breathed. I nodded. He smiled. “Welcome back.”
    “How long?”
    “A little over a month.”
    “Who--”
    “It’s been a long time.” He said. “Mein kleiner freund.”
    I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Alberich.” I breathed. At that point, I realized something. The idiot skater I’d saved…was my long time friend from all those years ago.

    *Mein kleiner freund: My little friend*