The Unkillable Girl - [ONC 2024]

11. A new beginning

With a sudden gasping breath, Amelia burst back to life. She sat up, abruptly grasping and clawing at nothing as she pulled herself back into consciousness.

As she did, there was a loud shriek, and Darius dropped his phone.

"Omigod!" he cried. "You're alive!"

"I am?" Amelia said, still feeling disorientated. "Errr, I mean, yeah, of course I am."

"Okay, just give me a minute," he said, and took a deep breath.

After pausing for a moment, Darius reached down and picked up his phone from the floor. Then he took another deep breath seemingly to compose himself, before he brought the phone back up to his ear.

"Hey, I'm so sorry, but she just woke up..." he said. "...Yeah, I know, I guess I was mistaken. She was just asleep after all. Sorry."

Amelia scowled at him while she waited for him to end his call.

"Who was that?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"Okay, so I know I promised not to," said Darius. "But babe, you were literally dead for like fifteen minutes. I got scared."

Amelia kept scowling. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at Darius. "You didn't trust me," she said. "That's the worst part."

"I know," he said, and sighed dramatically. "But, like, it was pretty unbelievable."

"We're friends. You're supposed to trust me."

"I do trust you! But, like, be fair," he said. "You were asking me to believe something that was literally impossible. Dead people don't just come back to life. Or at least I thought they didn't before."

Amelia considered what he said for a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, I guess you've got a point there."

"Thank you," said Darius, as he sighed, then sat down on the couch next to her. "Anyway, how are you feeling now?"

Amelia thought about that. She actually felt surprisingly good. She took a couple of deep breaths to test her lungs, and found they seemed to be working fine. She was breathing normally, and didn't feel like she was drowning any more.

The only thing she felt was a little bit weak still, and thirsty. But that was easily solved.

"Babe, I need a drink," she said. "Can you see if there's any coke left in the fridge?"

Darius patted her on the knee, before standing up. "Of course, babe. I'll get you one."

As Darius headed into the kitchen, Amelia looked down at her chest to check where she had been shot. She didn't know much first aid, but she figured that she would need something to cover up the wound.

When she looked down, Amelia saw that Darius had cut up the t-shirt she was wearing. He had cut it apart to get to her chest, and it was now laying open and exposing her bra. Instead it had been replaced by one of her towels from the bathroom, which had been folded up and was sitting just above her breasts.

Amelia gingerly lifted up the blood soaked towel to inspect how badly she had been injured. But when she wiped away some of the blood, she couldn't see any hole. All that was visible was a pale pink mark that looked like scar tissue. It looked just the same as the small scar she had on her elbow from when she fell off her bike as a child.

"Darius. Hurry, come back," she called out.

"Okay, okay. I'm getting it. I'm just looking for some ice."

"No, not that," Amelia said. "Come and look at my chest."

"Eww, no thanks," Darius said, as he walked in carrying a glass of coke.