The Beauty & The Tragedy

This Is Not Happening

It's amazing how life can go from from one extreme to the next. It gives you no warnings and you won't be able to prepare. It just happens without your permission. I was about to get a harsh lesson on this very subject. No sooner than my head had hit the pillow and I had started to drift to sleep, my phone rang. I reached over and glanced at the screen before answering it. It was Ritchie. He never called unless there was a problem.

"Hello." I said groggily once I had placed the phone against my ear.

Even in my state of half consciousness I could still hear the strained emotion as he spoke to me. I immediately knew that something was wrong.

"Selena." He said with a slight tremble in his voice. "There's been an accident."

The words registered almost immediately. My brain came up with the required response as I suddenly snapped awake.

"What happened?" I asked quickly.

"Just....get to the hospital." He barely whispered before hanging up.

The worst part, at least in that moment, was not knowing. I knew that whatever had happened wasn't good, but that was it. The fact that Ritchie wasn't more forthcoming worried me. I threw on the first clothes I pulled out of the dresser and sped to the hospital. The entire time I drove all the possible scenarios scrolled through my mind, each one more horrifying than the last.

I pulled up to the emergency room and parked in the first open space I could find. I ran through the automatic doors to find Ritchie standing in the corridor pacing back and forth. He looked banged up pretty bad. He had a bandage on his head and he was covered in bumps and bruises. He looked extremely distraught.

"Where's Demi?" I asked slightly out of breath as I approached him.

"She's in surgery." He explained.

I took a moment to collect myself before I started bombarding him with questions. He looked visibly upset and I didn't want to overwhelm him with my frantic feelings of panic. His hands had a slight tremble to them as they hung limply at his side.

"What happened?"

"We came up to the intersection." He swallowed. "We didn't even see it coming. The truck hit on Demi's side..."

"Wait." I interupted. "Where's Matt?" I asked suddenly. "And the other people that were with you guys?"

"Matt is also in surgery and the driver and camera crew guys are dead." He choked.

The severity and reality of the situation suddenly crashed down on me. Whatever happened was so bad that people were dead. I had to find out what had happened to Demi. Ritchie had no idea what her status was. They wouldn't tell him since he wasn't family.

"I need to speak to a doctor!" I said frantically as I ran over to the nurses station.

"Can I help you?" The nurse asked calmly.

"I need to know the status on two of your patients."

"Their names and your relationship?" She asked as she looked at her computer.

"Demi Lovato and Matthew Sanders." My voice trembled. "I'm married to Demi and Matt is a friend."

"I can only release information about Mrs. Lovato. You must be a relative in..."

"Ok." I interrupted. "That's fine."

I watched as she typed and looked at her computer as if everything was fine. There was no sense of urgency whatsoever in her actions. I wanted to scream at her. My entire life was somewhere in this hospital and I had no idea what condition she was in. Deep down I knew it wasn't good but I chose to ignore that dreadful feeling and hope she was ok.