Eyes Behold

20. Small Things

" We had to leave in the morning at 7 but as usual ,we could never follow our plan through . We left at 9 with dad scowling at us while mom sat down calmly enjoying the scenes passing by . She was always able to do that . Handle everything calmly. Dad was the one to always get excited. We both as usual were debating on whose playlist to play for the ride. 40 minutes into the ride and we still hadn't played a single song yet . We were to reach in 20 minutes and we had finally given up settling down for a random playlist. "

All this while Rose had a small smile playing on her lips . She wasn't even here . Her eyes glazed with a far away look . She was reliving the moment again for a millionth time in her life . Claire and Amelia couldn't see where it was going . They had always found it weird when Rose somehow always dodged the topic when it came to parents or siblings . Either she left or she skillfully changed the topic. They didn't pay much attention to it until now when they saw the small smile slip and her posture slouching down , her confident self crippling down as she brought her knees to her stomach and let her head rest in them . Tyler seemed as much broken as her . He had listened to this once before and it was a torture for him to hear what happened that day to his favourite people , to her .

Rose rocked a bit before taking in a deep breath and continuing.

" Dad was in the driver's seat at the right and Mumma was in the passenger seat . Chris sat right behind dad , the place where I should have been , not him . " As she let a painful whimper out. Tyler took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes . He shook his head . He didn't want her to go back to square one. Rose nodded and closed her eyes . Letting her thoughts settle down she continued.

" We were waiting for the light to go green . We were at the crossroad ,a big one at that . We were all singing together to ' Little Things' , my favourite. As the light went green , dad tried to start the car but it came to a stop. So he turned the key again bringing it back to life . We took off to hear a loud horn honking at us ."

She choked covering her ears tight as the horn blared in her ears. Tyler bent down and slowly yet firmly pried her arms off and kept it on his chest right where his heart was . He told Rose to breathe sensing she was near to a panick attack. Feeling the heart rhythm she synchronised and controlled her breathing. Tyler smiled at her , she had improved , a lot over the years . He held a glass of water and she snatched it hungrily finishing it off in a single go .

Amelia and Claire stared bewildered. They were clutching their hands tightly together as if it would drive away the pain they felt in their hearts for their friend . They were hurting bad and could see where this was going . Rose composed herself and somehow persuaded Tyler to let her continue. She had to take it out. Now or never .

" A truck hit hard on the right side of the front of the car . Everything happened so quickly I couldn't comprehend anything. One moment my ears were listening to the sweet melody and the next it was a sharp high pitched tinge. I couldn't open my eyes no matter how hard I tried . Nothing was right , my head was ringing and my body ached with each moment I made. "

She was a full on rambling mess now. She wasn't here , she was there lying on the broken car's seat amongst the shattered glass. She was there lying next to the other three , all surrounded by their own blood . She was there lying in the half blown off car surrounded by strangers many of whom were clicking pictures while a few tried to contact the ambulance. She was no more in the apartment room surrounded by Tyler or Amelia or Claire.

Amelia moved forward to shake her out of it but Tyler stopped her. He knew that even if she was snapped out now, the scene will complete itself in her mind . Atleast now she would be able to take it out of her , he didn't think she would be able to complete it later. Neither did he want her to go through it again.

" I still tried and slowly opened my eyes to see Chris slacked off at my side lying without any movement on me . He wasn't moving , my baby brother wasn't moving." She sobbed letting the tears cascade down as her fingers trembled.

" I cried out loud as someone came forward to take him out of my hands . I looked over to mom dad to tell them that Chris isn't ok. But they were not there . They weren't in the front seats . The person took him out as I had no energy left to fight . Someone dragged me out too . I stumbled over to Chris immediately taking him into my hands but his arms didn't circle me. He didn't move it at all . I glanced over to see mom and dad lying unconscious on the ground . Chris flustered his eyes open for a second to look at me before he closed them again . It was so brief I guess I imagined it. I barely noticed the blaring sound of ambulance and registered them moving mom and dad into the vehicle . Another arrived as they came rushing to us and carried Chris inside as another helped me up . That's when I lost my conscious again ."
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A/N
Phew!! I dropped the bomb  but there is still more left .... You'll see that tomorrow....

So .... How was it ?? Tell me did you feel your eyebrows scrunch ?? Did you feel remorse set in ?? Did you feel like crying??

If yes , then keep it in because there is more left ... Until tomorrow...

Thanks
Lots of love and hugs
Joban ❤️