In Another World

Chapter Six: Lucy's Death

Chapter Six... Lucy's Death

We all climbed into my mom's car. Nick and I sat in the back seat, on either side. I didn't want people to think my mom was crazy and had a look-alike of her daughter perched up in the front, and Nick didn't want to sit there, either.

My mind was buzzing with thoughts. I closed my eyes for a second, and I could feel everything...

Present Time...

Mom's POV

I had always thought that Lucy was a safe driver. But the police said she was speeding. Not like her, I thought. But on a dirt road, anything can go wrong.

A brand new car, and she totalled it! All I wanted was for her to wake up. I sat next to her, holding her hand. I wondered if in her coma, she knew I was holding her hand. I'd like to believe she did.

"Is she improving?" I asked the nurse that entered the room.

"Pretty much the same," the nurse answered. "She's beautiful. It's such a shame when young girls come in here after a terrible accident. A lot of them don't make it to this point."

"Before now, she'd never really been hurt," I said tearfully. "How does this just happen?"

"The police claim she was speeding, but I don't know if that's true," the nurse sighed. "That road is a disaster waiting to happen. Maybe now they'll actually lay asphalt, and save a few lives."

"Lucy's gonna live," I said, trying to be confident and brave, while really I wasn't sure if she'd make it.

"I think she'd got a fighting chance," the nurse smiled. "We're doing absolutely everything we can for her, and she has family and friends around her, supporting her. Because when she wakes up, she's still got a long road to recovery."

Those words hit me hard, too. Long road to recovery... I guess it was better than she might not make it through the night, which they hadn't said yet so I guess that was a good sign. But the day was going on, and I hoped that she would wake before the sun set, so that she could enjoy the last little bit of her eighteenth birthday.

Lucy's POV... Back in the other world

I opened my eyes to see that we'd stopped. My mom was no longer in the car, but Nick was. I looked around, and frowned.

"Where's my mom?" I asked.

"Gone to the bathroom," he sighed. "Think she needed a few minutes alone, to cry, you know. You were asleep, by the looks of things."

"I can close my eyes and feel tubes, and hear people, and feel people touching me," I smiled sadly. "It's hard on me being here too, you know. I was a spoiled little brat, and I took advantage of it. It was the only thing that I ever regretted my parents doing, giving me whatever I needed. It turned me into someone I hate."

"Don't tell too many people that," he said, smiling a little. "They might think it was a suicide attempt."

"No, but some days I considered burning our house down, so that my parents couldn't afford to give me everything money could buy," I frowned. "But I didn't want to hurt them like that, so I just... took whatever they gave me."

"When you go back, you can tell them that you don't want to be handed everything on a silver platter, then," he grinned.

"Sure will be," I smiled back, taking his hand.

He flinched a bit, but then he held my hand, too.

"I need to know," I began. "I need you to tell me exactly what happened the day I died, and how I died. It's killing me."

"I don't like talking about it, Luce," he said, a tear welling in his eye.

"Please," I whispered.

"Okay," he took in a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. "It was the day after your fifteenth birthday. You'd come over early in the morning, and you came into my room, like you always did. You'd left your necklace behind a few days before, and you couldn't find it in my room. You ranted, thinking my sister had it. You even fought with her over it."

"Sounds like I was picking arguments that day," I chuckled softly.

"Yeah, I learnt later that you'd argued with your mom, of course," he continued. "We were hanging out, running through the field when you got a crazy idea. You asked if you could ride my motorcycle. I'd never let you before, afraid that you'd get hurt. And you'd pleaded a few times, but I'd never caved. But something that day made me let you ride it.

"Of course, I'll always regret letting you ride it," he said, turning away. "You were cruising through the field, laughing with joy. I had the biggest smile on my face, because your smile and happiness always made me happy. I hated seeing you down, but you were on the biggest high and I let you be there, so I was ecstatic.

"But then you lost control," he was crying now, and so was I. Now I understood the guilt he felt, and why my mom blamed him. But she shouldn't blame him. It was an accident, after all.

"Then what happened?" I breathed.

"You hit a tree," he sighed. "I saw you heading for it, and I screamed for you to stop, but you couldn't. I could see that you were scared, and you hit that tree hard. You fell to the ground, and I waited a second to see if you'd get up. But you didn't. I called out to you and raced over, my heart pounding more than it ever had before. I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, and my worst fears coming to life when I saw your limp body laying on the ground, unmoving. I bent down and saw that you'd hit your head on a rock when you fell. You had a couple of broken bones, but you could have lived with them.

"But your head. You'd hit it really hard, and the rock was sharp. Your head was bleeding and I'd taken my shirt off to try and stop it. You came to for a bit, and said you were seeing the light. I had no idea what that meant, but as I held you, you died in my arms. I knew the moment you were gone, because it was like someone had ripped my heart out. Your body was warm, still, so it didn't make sense. But your heart didn't beat any more. And you weren't breathing.

"I tried CPR, but you were gone," he sobbed. "I sat there for ages, just holding you, until my mom came down. She must've seen me, holding you. Tears were in my mom's eyes, too. And she knew you were dead. She called my dad, and then he called an ambulance. And my mom called your mom, but she didn't tell her she was dead. No, she told your mom to go to the hospital, which she did. I was numb, and didn't want them to take you away. You were cold when they took you, saying they had to take you to the hospital before you could be pronounced dead."

My eyes were flooded with tears. No wonder Nick was so heartbroken. He'd held me after I died, watched me crash his motorcycle. He'd been blamed for my death by my parents, causing a rift between him and my mom. And he blamed himself, too. Because it was his motorcycle. But I was the rebel who snuck out of the house.

I'd set my own fate on that day.

"It must be hard for you, still living there," I said after a minute. "And knowing that you couldn't have stopped what happened."

"It is," he sighed. "But... you're the reason I don't ride motorcycles anymore, or do a lot of dangerous things that I used to."

"Lucy... she'd give anything to be here with you," I breathed. "You know that."

After a minute or so mom returned, and we continued driving off towards my dad's place.

I couldn't get the image out of my mind of me crashing a motorcycle into a tree, and dying. Poor Nick! Poor Mom! I wished that I could make their lives easier, but they lost a loved one, and it's not that easy.

All I wanted was to be back as me, and to change my own life.