Ruin Me

52. Save me

A gunshot ricocheted down the long white hallway, I heard it before I saw it. Shooting straight through the air against the blank walls, a tiny metal bullet.

I braced myself, waiting for darkness to engulf me. I hoped the pain wouldn't last long, that it would all be over in a split second.

The last thing I expected was for the bullet to whip straight past me brushing delicately on my ear and filling my head with fear. I spun around watching where it was going to go.

"Noooo!" The scream had barely left my lips when the bullet that should've been for me collided with someone else. It hit them square in the chest allowing me to watch the shock spread across their face.

"Cara," a single tear trickled down their face and the loss in their voice made my heart break.

Then in an almost slow motion they tipped backwards and hit the floor with a sickening smack that made my stomach curl.

"Nooo," the scream ripped at my throat again as I sprinted towards the lifeless body on the floor.

I skidded to my knees beside them tearing up my skin, pain echoing through me with the force of impact. I didn't care about myself though as my hands reached for the body on the floor.

It was Grey, his face sunken and ill looking with his beautiful grey eyes wide open but glassy and staring straight through me at something beyond.

"Grey, please don't leave me," I sobbed shaking his shoulders violently as my whole body shook with petrified cries and I choked on my own tears. Then Grey was replaced by Mitch, then Sawyer, then Nico all in quick succession and with each change my body became more exhausted with the power of the gut-wrenching sobs tearing through me. Then came Ben his usually so cheery face hollowed and tired like skin merely stretched around a skull, there was no life in him. As much as I tried to shake him his head only flopped lifelessly.

Then my mom was in his place, her lips still stained a violent red and her hair fanned out around her beautiful face. Instead of shaking her I held her to me this time and breathed in her soft scent of perfume and tequila. I pressed my face into her long curled hair and whispered into her ear.

"I'm so sorry mom, I couldn't save you," I let my tears fall onto her skin and drip down her face as if they were her own tears of heartbreak.

As I pulled away her face switched again; this time I was surprised to see my father staring blankly back at me through empty eyes that rolled back slightly into his head. His body pressed  into my arms and weighed me down. His head flopped back and rolled around lifeless and heavy.

That was when I began to scream.

***

"Cara!"

There were hands on me, shaking me, someone was shouting my name, loudly. Too loudly. My head was pounding and aching and they weren't helping. Their cries were distorted and the feeling of their hands on me was disconnected. I knew they were there but couldn't quite comprehend them.

"Cara, you're okay, we're here, you're going to be alright," I could identify the voice now, Mitch's, it was becoming clearer but still made my head hurt. Couldn't he be quieter?

"Cara, you're okay," another voice repeated, Sawyer.

Why wouldn't I be okay?

Then it hit me, the waves of flashbacks came rolling into my head at once making my already pounding headache worse. One by one they bombarded me, images of Grey with a gun pointing at his head, bolted doors, lifeless bodies, the barrel of a gun, the sound of a gunshot and the feeling of water pouring into my lungs.