He Drive's Me Crazy

Chapter Twenty- The After-Math

*I'd love to read everybody's input on the chapter!*

*It's short and sweet*

The minute my eyes flew open the only thing I could focus on was the lack of pain.

The complete lack of pain.

Not an ounce.

I focused on my surroundings and noticed that there were police, ambulances, and fire trucks everywhere. There was so many people, but I couldn't hear anything, I must have lost my hearing in the crash. But as upset as I should have been about that, I remained extremely calm.

I pushed myself off the grass, and examined my body. I was in fairly good condition.

There were two cars. I couldn't tell which was mine, and which was the other drivers. They were both burnt to a crisp, and mangled beyond recognition. Thats when I remembered Braden and Charlie. I leapt up and rushed towards the vehicle, swerving around people, but nobody was paying me any attention.

I couldn't collect any complete thought other than the fact that I couldn't find my brother and sister. I opened my mouth to ask someone for help, but no words came out.

I was frantically turning in circles, looking for something, anything, that I recognized.

Then I saw the stretchers. There were four of them, but whatever was lying on them, I couldn't tell. Upon getting closer, I noticed that they were bodies. Two small, and two big.

And all four of them were charred. The skin was black as coal, and there was so much blood. The bodies were virtually indistinguishable. One of the bodies had metal melted to their ear, it must have been an earring. Was that person in the other truck? Are those their children?

"Um Miss," I ask a nearby paramedic, words finally coming out, "Are those the people in the other car?" But she payed me absolutely no attention. How rude of her.

Silence.

"The one on the rights me," a voice suddenly says, I whirl around and am surprised and elated to see Charlie standing behind me.

"I'm so glad to see you," I happily exclaim, rushing towards the little girl and scooping her up into my arms. "How could it be you?" I continue, "You're right here." I mock, smiling as her green eyes just stare at me.

"You haven't figured it out yet," she finally states, as though we were doing a crossword puzzle or a complicated mathematical equation.

"Figured what out?" I inquire, stepping to the side as a firefighter storms past me.

"Do you hear anything?" she asks me after a couple moments of silence.

"Only you," I confess, puzzled as to why that's so.

"We're in the same place, they aren't," she explains, though what she was trying to tell me didn't make any sense.

"And what makes you think that," I ask her, rolling my eyes as I smile and step back onto the grass.

"Because we're dead,"

She was so blunt, and matter of fact in the way she delivered the sentence, leaving no room for negotiation. I carefully set her down on the grass before flopping onto it, and dropping my head into my hands. It all made sense now. At least Braden was okay, he's probably in the back of a police car telling someone who we are, and where he lives. I hope he remembers the home phone number.

"When did you find that out?" I somberly ask, holding my little sisters hand as she curls up next to me.

"An Angel named Gabriel was talking to me before you woke up. He said this is another dimension. He said to wait for everybody else," she informs me, not seeming nearly as traumatized as I felt. Her hair had nearly fallen out of her ponytail, and one of her shoes was untied.

"Oh," I whisper, trying to hold back the tears. I was a charred body. Charlie was a charred body. We were mutilated, mangled, disgusting, and burnt corpses destined to be returned to our families who would be forced to identify us.

"When's mom gonna get here? Do you think she'll give me a cookie for not crying?" Charlie asks me. And then it all clicked together. She wasn't upset because she didn't understand death- not completely anyway.

This time I couldn't hold back the tears, "Mommy's not coming."

"What do you mean? Gabriel promised me that I'd see her again," she protests.

"Charlie," I start, "it's just me and you now. We're-"

"ELLE!" I hear a voice excitedly holler, I glance up and see Braden running towards me.

"No," I whisper, my mind clouded with grief. I thought he had made it..

*****This is not the end*****