A Gotham High Girl (Gotham villains next generation)

The Day that Changed my Life

As I am left alone by the doctors and the nurses once again the realisation hits me; now both of my parents are dead. I had learned to accept my dad's 'passing', as he died of a brain tumour when I was only four but my mom... It has been so sudden and now I have no relatives that I know of to look after me. I lie on my back looking up at the ceiling as a constant stream of tears rolled down my cheeks.

The scene keeps replaying in my mind; one moment I am snowboarding alongside my mom and some of our friends we met at the ski lodge, the next, the idiot with his snowmobile speeds past us disbanding our little group so that we are spread out over a large area. My mom started to shout angrily at him because he 'could have killed us'. Well that was ironic...

At first we don't realise that the reason the guy on his snowmobile wasn't slowing down because he'd just set off an avalanche, not until he looks back, shouting and pointing frantically at it.

I still feel the pure terror of the moment we realised we were all probably about to die, as though it really is happening again. There is no chance of outrunning it, no escape from the huge wall of ice and snow crashing down the slope right behind us.

"Stella get to a tree!" my mom screams at me. I try my best to lift myself above the floor using a branch and cling on, but I have barely grasped one fragile twig before the tumbling wall of debris and snow side swipes me and half buried me. One of the last few things I see is my mother trying to lift Jake, the 17 year old son of the nice couple we met here and took this outing with, up high enough to reach a tree branch.

In her last moments she behaved how she always did, she put someone else before herself and then disappeared, buried several feet deep under crushing ice, suffocating. Seven of us go up that slope in the early morning and only five come back down alive. Sadly Alice dies on the way to hospital, she was just 31, so only four of us survived.

Of course having lost consciousness, I am told about my mom and the others when I wake up. Some days later Jake comes to see me, even though we've barely met he is probably the closest to a friend my age I ever had.

The nurse lets him in and tells him not to bother me long, I am just glad of a distraction from my muddled and distressing thoughts.

"Hi." he says awkwardly, swaying slightly on his crutches.

"Hey" I reply, my voice was dry from the wailing i'd done all day and then the silent crying i'd done all night.

"I'm so sorry about your Mom."

I turn to gaze briefly out of the window and watch a few snowflakes drift to the ground before turning back to face him saying;

"You shouldn't say sorry, it's not like it's your fault... But it's nice to know you care I suppose... How are your parents?" I ask cautiously at the end when I suddenly realise I am working on the assumption they are even alive.

"Broken and bruised but, thankfully, still here. You and I got the least injuries out of all of us because we were both hanging on to a tree branch; if it weren't for your mom... I don't know what would've happened."

I sigh, maybe what would have happened is that she would have been able to grab a branch herself and still be alive.

I look at Jake propped up by his crutches. He has a nasty gash down the side of his face; a line runs from his temple all the way down to his jaw line and just underneath his jawbone. He is lucky whatever damaged him hasn't cut his throat or his eye or something, it is still definitely going to leave a life-long scar though.

"What happened to your face?" I ask, genuinely concerned. I beckon for him to sit on the chair by the bed as he looks uncomfortable standing up.

He sits down and simply muttered;

"Ski pole." He runs his hand down his face, tracing the line of stitches and wincing slightly.

"Ouch. How many stitches?."

"Only twelve"

"Only?!"

"Well, I'm still alive aren't I? Besides the scar will be a permanent reminder of what your Mom did, she saved my life... At the cost of her own, I will always be grateful and I know that I owe her."

"If she was... Still here, she wouldn't have wanted you to feel that way. She was always so enthusiastic about helping others; something about her great Aunt and Uncle dying for that cause." a tear rolls down my cheek as I feel another wave of grief hit me.

"Oh, I am sorry about anyone who has... Moved on... in your family... Who will you live with?" he asks sadly.

"I honestly don't know right now. They're trying to find my next closest relative; they have so far traced back my family tree to my great, great Aunt and Uncle. The ones who were shot, apparently their family name was Wayne and they did have a son. Right now he's probably about the same age as my parents would be if they were still alive." I say starting to cry silently again, at least Jake isn't seeing me when I am in one of my hysterical wailing fits.

He just nods in silent reply.

"what about you?" I ask to fill the awkward silence.

"We are allowed to take a flight home now we've been here for a week and appear to be recovering well. Not sure how I'll manage to get up the steps to board the flight though..."

I am about to ask him something else when the nurse comes in.

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid you have to go now, she needs lots rest to recover fully." she tells him with a French accent and ushers Jake towards the door.

"I was unconscious for four days; I think that the last thing I need is more rest" I attempt to joke. The nurse simply either ignores this or doesn't understand... She is French after all.

"Wait a moment!" I call after Jake, "We should stay in touch... Y'know, after we go home."

"When I go back to Sweden and you go to... Wherever, Sure!" He says smiling despite the pain it evidently causes him.

So we exchange email addresses and promise to write.

Then he is gone. The nurse leaves shortly after and I realise how alone I really am... It feels like no one in the world knows about my suffering or cares. I knew this was just the way I saw it and not the truth but I thought it all the same. I had a phone but no one to talk to; I had travelled internationally too frequently for permanent friends. So I went back to watching the snowflakes fall and eventually I drifted in to sleep, embracing the relief from my emotions and busy thoughts.