Riveroak

Chapter 21

"We have a live one!"
 

Everything is fuzzy as I try to open my eyes. My throat feels clogged, and not enough air is making its way into my lungs. I try to take a deep breath, but my body begins to panic. 

Not this way...please...

I slip out of consciousness. 

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Bright red and blue lights shine around me, and people are running around me. I can hear them talking,  but I can't understand what they're saying. Everything sounds like a big roar like from a concert. My lungs still aren't being fed enough as my body fights to stay awake. 

"She needs oxygen!" screams a commanding voice among the uproar. I feel my head getting lifted and something being placed on my face.

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I wake up in a bright white room.  One of those rooms that you see in a movie and know that it's hell to keep clean. I'm standing against a wall and the only thing that I'm able to see is a single white couch sitting in the center of the room. A girl sits on the couch inspecting her nails, and painting them a deep shade of red. Her clothes are all white, which gives a deep contrast with her raven black hair.  She takes the nail polish and dumps it on the couch. "Oops," she says. The spill instantly fades away and a new bottle appears in her hand.

"Guess that is still happening," she sighs as she goes back to painting her nails. "Elena, it's rude to stare." 

The girl looks up at me and my jaw drops. That's not just any girl. That's Victoria Caldwell.

"Am I," my voice trembles as I look at her continuing to paint her nails. "Am I dead?" 

Victoria rolls her eyes and looks at me. "I've always hated white," she says. She takes the nail polish and dumps it out onto the floor again. It once again instantly disappears and a new bottle of red nail polish appears in her hands. "Something about it always gave me the creeps. Red, however, is bold. Red is popping and vibrant. It's the color of the most vital thing our body needs to keep going."

"Victoria, am I dead?"

"Everyone associates white with pure, but even if something appears pure doesn't mean it is, eh? I guess Gala proved that to us good and well. You can always tell someone's bold though when they have a splash of red. I also think it's possible to be both though. You tried to save her life after she pointed a gun at you, Elena. Couldn't have been me. I'd have removed her hand from the rail." 

"Victoria, am I dead?"

"You're asking the wrong questions, Elena," she says once again tossing the bottle and watching it explode on the floor directly in front of her. "But I guess to not be a bitch, I'll answer your question. No, you're not dead. You almost died." 

Relief floods my body and I walk over to the couch where she is sitting and sit down next to her. She continues to point her nails, but upon looking at my hand she gasps and grabs mine and begins to paint them. "Nails are one of the first things people look at, Elena. First impressions are everything. You should know that. You've been at Riveroak long enough." 

"You said I was asking the wrong questions," I say as she aggressively paints my nails. "What should I be asking?" 

"What you want to do next, of course," says Victoria not even bothering to look up from my nails. "You took out Goldstone and Gala for me, and if there's a hell, I can't wait to watch that bitch burn. However, you did start dating my ex-boyfriend and we were friends by disassociated proxy wouldn't you say? You did read my diary after all."