• Chapter two



    To think that so much could change in a second. When I opened my eyes and saw only that bright light, I thought for sure that I was dead. And for a second, I was happy because of it. That was, of course, until I heard voices all around me. They sounded familiar, sort of, but not really.

    “When will she wake up?” asked a woman's voice.

    “It'll be anytime now,” said another voice. This voice belonged to a man.

    The woman stayed silent for a second or two before saying, “She's been in a coma for almost a month!” she said.

    This grabbed my attention, so I looked over at them. There were other people in the room, but I didn't pay attention to them. I studied the two people carefully, watching them as they continued to talk. Something about snow and... somebody falling asleep in it! Couldn't that be dangerous? I frowned, wondering who that poor girl who fell asleep in the snow was.

    “Excuse me,” I managed to say, my voice soft and barely above a whisper.

    They both looked my way immediately, along with a few other people. The man, I realized, was wearing glasses and scrubs. Was he a doctor? He walked towards me, but the lady stayed frozen in her place. All of the sudden, I felt cold.

    “Elizabeth!” exclaimed somebody behind me. I turned to see a boy around sixteen years old walking towards me. Before I was able to utter a word about not knowing who this Elizabeth girl was, he had me in a tight hug. I blushed when he didn't let go for a minute or two. And when he did let go, a girl with brown eyes and blond hair was glaring at me. Already I didn't like her.

    Honestly, I tried to say something. But no words would come out of my mouth. “Uh,” was all I managed. I scratched the back of my head, confused.

    Who are these people? Why are these people? And most importantly, where is the bathroom? I wondered.

    “Young lady...” The doctor said, and I could only assume that he meant me. “Do you know who I am?” When I shook my head, he frowned. “What about these people?” He asked, referring to the people in the room with him. I shook my head again; that seemed to make the blond happy.

    She smiled, but then, probably noticing everybody else's mood, frowned. The frown was obviously fake. I could see the smile in her eyes. Why would she be smiling?

    I looked around the room, at all of the people. There was a man with brown hair and a beard sitting in the corner with a woman. They were holding hands, and were both obviously good looking. But the older person kind of way. There's no way I could ever get a crush on one of them. Can you say 'gross'?

    Also, there was a few other people in the room. A woman who somewhat resembled the boy who'd hugged me, or maybe he resembled her; a few teenagers all wearing skinny jeans and hoodies, four of which were male; and another doctor-looking person. And I recognized zero of them. None. Nada. Zilch.

    I'm not exactly sure what happened next. There was a scream or two, a flashing light, and the sound of bricks falling on the tile floor. Then everything went black.



    A few hours later I found myself in the Intensive Care Unit, also known at the ICU. My whole body hurt. The boy from earlier was there with me, but nobody else. He was holding my hand, crying. I'm not exactly sure if he noticed me or not. The whole minute after I woke up, he didn't show notification that he knew I was awake.

    “Jeremy,” I found myself mumbling. Why in the world had I said that? And who was Jeremy?

    As I said the name, that boy looked up. His eyes were wide, and filled with wonder. He mumbled something under his breath and smiled slightly.

    “Elizabeth... Do you remember now?” He asked, hopeful. Since there were no other conscious people in the room, I could only assume that he meant me.

    As much as I hated it, I had no idea who he was, or who Jeremy was. So I shook my head sadly. This news seemed to make the boy even more sad, but he didn't cry anymore. Her dried his tears and tried to look happy. But he wasn't happy, I knew that.

    A small, forced smile formed on his lips. “Well then, Liz. My name's Jeremy Falconer. And you, your name is Elizabeth Smith. There is much you must learn, but for now I think you should rest,” he said. As he said my name, I could've sworn his eyes filled with tears. But I couldn't be sure, because he blinked, and there were no signs of tears in his eyes. It seemed like he wanted me to rest, but contrary, it seemed as if he didn't want me to go back to sleep.

    I was about to say something, but he reached over and pressed a button. “She's awake,” he said, and a nurse ran into the room. Her face was alarmed, almost as if I wasn't supposed to be awake so soon. She checked my charts quickly, then ran out into the hall.

    Exactly five minutes later, she walked back into the room, a few other people with her.

    “Her lungs are functioning properly again,” one said, looking over my charts.

    “And her heart's fine,” added another.

    “She should be taken to her own room now, she's in a lot better condition than before,” the nurse said.

    Before I knew what was happening, I was being carried down the hall and into an elevator in a gurney-type bed thing. I couldn't exactly tell. For all I know, it could've been an air mattress. Jeremy followed behind slowly. He got into the elevator with the doctors and me. When they reached the right level of the hospital, they pushed me into a room and with a loud “Three, two, one, lift!” I was on the only bed in that room. They told me to press the blue button if I needed anything, then left without another word.

    “They're all dead,” Jeremy said suddenly, randomly.

    There was a baseball-sized lump in my throat. I swallowed it and spoke. “They?” I asked, trying not to stutter. But nevertheless, I did.

    “You remember the day you woke up, right? When I gave you a hug?” he asked. When he didn't continue, I nodded. “Do you remember the blond with brown eyes? The woman with brown hair and green eyes? The man and the woman holding hands in the corner? And the woman with black hair and blue eyes?” His eyes watered when he mentioned the last one.

    I remembered all of them, and some others. “There were some other people,” I reminded him. “Some teenagers, and that one doctor. Oh, and that little kid looking at me through through the crack in the door. Are you okay?” I asked

    Jeremy nodded. “Yeah, I'm perfectly fine. Don't worry. Anyways, those people that I mentioned... they're all... dead.” I looked at him, as if asking “What happened??”

    I bit my lip, waiting a response. Ear-splitting silence filled the room, and he said nothing for a few minutes. A couple of times, he opened his mouth, trying to explain. Then without a single word coming out of his mouth, it closed and he continued to stay silent. After awhile I couldn't take it anymore. Not knowing was killing me.

    “Well?” I pressed. “What happened?”

    He pursed his lips, like he was contemplating on whether or not he should tell me. I wanted to punch him in the face for taking so long. The jackass needed to hurry up before I exploded. Jeez, was I going to die of old age before he told me.

    “Just spit it out already!” I said, unable to wait another second.

    He sighed, then went on to tell me about what happened. He told me how the pilot of a helicopter had gone into cardiac arrest while flying a few minutes away from the hospital. The helicopter had lowered and gone straight into the side of the building, right into my room. Somehow, Jeremy, the doctor, the teenagers and I had survived, mostly unscathed. I got the worst of it out of the survivors. Jeremy also told me who everyone in the room had been. I couldn't believe it, I was an orphan, and my brother was in ICU for some other reason. He'd been hit by a truck on the way here with his friends mom. Poor little guy.

    After he was finished, we sat in silence for an hour, not saying anything. During the first half an hour, we sat still for the most part, aside from him grabbing my hand gently, kissing it once, and murmuring something. Weird thing was, I didn't cry. I felt horrible, immensely so, even a little guilty for some reason, but I did not cry. Not then. And I wasn't sad, not at first. I don't think it sank in that I had no parents, or that my brother might die.

    When a few doctors came into check up on my. They checked my pulse, and a bunch of other things. Then they stuck an IV into my arm, put these weird circular things to my chest. A few minutes after they left, it started to sink in, and I started to cry. I didn't realize that I was crying at first. I figured something got into my eye or something. And then it was obvious. I started crying uncontrollably, a few sobs escaping my chest.

    Jeremy looked at me for a moment, then wrapped his arms around me in a hug. I could barely move, so I didn't hug back. The hug made me feel so much better. But I continued to cry for awhile, and he continued to hug me. I couldn't understand why he would want to comfort me. He wasn't acting like we were the best of friends, nor had he notified that we'd been in a relationship before.... Or had he? I couldn't be sure.

    My tears dried up, the sadness going away almost immediately. “Jeremy...?” I asked. He pulled away and looked at me. “What were we?... You know, before?”

    There wasn't an answer immediately. “Before you were put into the hospital the first time, we were sort of... together,” he said. “But I'm not sure if that would be good for you right now,” he added.

    There was a frown on his lips, and I knew that he wanted us to be together. But I wasn't sure if I could. Be with him, that is. It was complicated. I nodded, then stayed quiet. Honestly, what would I say? “Sorry, I don't like you so get the bleep away."? No, I couldn't say that. It wasn't true. Not at all...