Crash Down on Me

Chapter One

Kenna

Carry me, breeze, so I feel your embrace. Take me there. Take me in.

Two years later...

May

"Sir, visiting hours are over. I'm sorry, but you can't be in here."

Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump.

Distant voices cradled my mind, but my heart, it beat loudly in my ears, drowning out the hushed conversation. Fog imprisoned me, trapped me inside my body.

"I hear you!" I screamed. Only the sounds remained echoing inside me. They never passed my lips.

"Please, I know visiting hours are over." He sighed loudly, his deflated breath filling the room with his heartache. "I came as soon as I heard, I got here as fast as I could. Just...please, I have to see her." Agony threaded each syllable, desperation bathing each vowel. If only I could reach him, then maybe I could soothe him. Him...

No, no. Not yet. I'm not ready yet.

Heavy, thick, clouds descended on top of me, smothering my chest, the voices fading further and further away from me. I was drifting in ceaseless darkness, a breath away from the surface. I pushed, I stretched, but I couldn't get my head above the dark...

"I'm so sorry, but the hospital's visiting hours are-"

"Please," he said again, his rough timbre interrupting her sweet airy sound. The vibrations of his words wrapped me in a cocoon; his voice was like an anchor, holding me still; preventing the dark from swallowing me completely. I grasped onto it, clung to the deep, pained rasp as if it was the only thing keeping me alive. "I can't leave her."

The need to reach him became suffocating. Thoughts ricocheted around a labyrinth of muted emotions inside my head. I felt his pain as if his heart was placed securely in my chest, beating alongside my own. And it was torture. Miserable, passionate torture.

Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump.

Everything was still. Silent.

The ache in my chest flourished until my throat scalded, until my unshed tears turned to ash. Was he gone? Did he leave?

"Hey," he murmured gently, and it was as if a beacon of light flickered in my soul.

Tender, calloused fingertips brushed over top my knuckles, whispering against my skin as he threaded his fingers through mine.

Come on, squeeze his hand. Move your fingers, move them. Move them!

Only I couldn't. My body was detached from my mind, and my mind was swimming in nothingness.

Him...

The silence stretched, unparalleled to the void that existed within me. And that silence secured me, the easy touch of his fingers protecting me-it was right. He pulled me from my hollowed existence; I belonged with him.

But who was he? My thoughts wouldn't still, yet my memory was failing me.

"Kenna," he whispered, exhausted. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm here." A warm flutter tickled the back of my hand as his lips branded me with a pained. "I'm here. Come ba-"