THE LEGACIES - DC original story

2 | Survivors' Guilt

Surprised they hadn't injected her with anything to restrain her yet, she released the tension in her body and went limp at his words.

He managed a tight-lip small smile at her compliance and gestured with his twitchy hands to his staff to stand down.

"Bianca do you know how you got here?" He asked, scratching his head.

Bianca attempted to swallow and slowly opened her mouth to speak.

She tried to recall anything. All she could think about was her dancing in the morning at the song Sixteen.

Then like a wave crashing over her, the memories flooded back. Thiago's outburst in class, his awkwardness, Kawi skipping class and lunch, Jael! , then the library, the podcast, then....

"A-attack...s-school."

"Correct. The Weather Witch and another attacker struck your school. You were blasted into a glass door. You had, well continue to have multiple life threatening injuries....," he turned to his colleagues as if preparing himself for his words.

Bianca's eyes frantically darted between them. She felt her heart race again. Oh no. Did someone die? Where's Kawi and the other kids? Did they survive?

"Bianca...there's no simple way to say this. But you...died. You were not simply unconscious. But your organs had eventually shut down. There was no brain activity. You were declared dead 95 hours ago. You...came back completely alive 23 hours ago and unconscious until this moment."

She attempted to cry but nothing came out. Burning tears pooled under her eyes. The song Sixteen now in her  head felt like a sick joke. It began to distort in her head as she breathed heavily. It was as if any moment of being happy or ever smiling lost it's value. She died.

I died. Where's my mom and dad?! She wanted to scream. Did they know she died? Did they know she's alive now? How is she alive? What did they do?!

"I'm sure you have so many questions. I'll start by introducing myself, I should have done this earlier. My name is William Branch. I'm a head of health at Star Labs. I'm a scientist, doctor, researcher. I have multiple credentials I could share—anyways. My staff and I arrived here anticipating there would be catastrophic consequences as a result of a meta human's attack on such a vulnerable population. There are things regular doctors can't understand or anticipate. We immediately took over seconds before you were declared dead. But we didn't give up. We at Star Labs had the technology to save you. And we did."

Bianca shut her eyes tightly as she took in his words. His stupid stupid words. Why couldn't she just accept that she was alive why couldn't she be happy as she once was to accept this. Jael's words came rushing back to her and she grimaced at the idea of remembering that thorn at her side in such a critical life or death moment right now. Life sucks the world sucks.

"I've already spoken to your parents. They were completely aware of our intervention and approved it knowing it was what you needed in order to save you. We needed them to wait in a separate room for you as this entire procedure was partially experimental. Though, we have numerous successes before."

Bianca choked on her saliva. "Hmm?!" She managed against her cracked throat.

William's face scrunched in worry. "Calm down, miss. The good thing is that you're finally awake, and you're vitals are well. This will be a very difficult recovery. You're not the only one who's beat death before so we and our partners are completely prepared to assist you."