I Will Prevail

Prologue

I held his hand, he was barely breathing. I tried to get him out but I couldn't. I was too scrawny to even lift five pounds and there I was trying to lift this 70 pound piece of scrap metal off of him.

When I was younger I remember watching my brother lift weights in the garage with my father. They would bicker about who was the toughest and have contest to see who really was the strongest. My father would always win. I would laugh in Percy's face about how dumb it was to challenge dad. I told him being strong was useless and smarts would always be superior.

At that moment I wished I was as strong as him. I wished I had lifted weights with them instead of reading in my room. I wished I wasn't alone. I wished it was all a dream, but it wasn't.

There was no time to think about that though. No amount of wishing was going to help. I had to find a way to save them. I knew from reading all those maintenance books that sooner or later the fuel would catch fire and explode.

Mom was laying on the ground not too far from where dad was pinned. She had a piece of the windshield in her stomach and she no longer had a left hand. It looked like a hose just filling the pool of blood growing beneath her. I ran to her ready to pull the piece in her abdomen out so that it didn't hurt anymore but her right hand stopped me. I looked her in the eye and notice that they were filmed over as if someone had drained all the color out of them. She simply shook her head. She was giving up.

All I did was nod and walk over to where I thought I heard Percy calling my name. I must have imagine the talking bit because when I reached him he wasn't in the position to be speaking. From the swollenness of his jaw I could tell it was broken. The large gash on his forehead made me cringe, but he was tough. If anyone could handle a broken jaw it was Percy.

I got him on his feet and lead him to where dad was. I needed his strength to lift the metal off dad but he didn't help. When I set him down he was simply too exhausted from the pain to even stand. Dad yelled at me and ordered me to take Percy as far away from the car as I could.

Percy was triple my size but I mustered all my strength into dragging him to safety. I didn't get far enough though. We were maybe twenty or thirty feet away when the blast hit us. It had thrown us to the ground. The light was blinding, the ringing in my ears made my vision blur. It wasn't ringing though, it was the shrill screams my mom was making. In the distance I saw an arm and what looked like to be the remains of a gooey roasted brown marshmallow. It was his skin, his face. That was when I gave up.

All that ever goes through my mind is that day. The day everything changed. The day my life was stolen from me and I was forced to make a new one. One without the people I loved, without the people who loved me.

I tried to be happy because I knew that was what they would want. It was hard for the first few years since all anyone would talk about was the accident. Everywhere I went I was "Poor Little EJ Nicanor, the boy who lost his family". I hated when they called me brave and told me I was heroic for how I rescued Percy but that's just bullshit. I didn't save anyone. I killed my parents, I watched them die while my brother laid unconscious next to me. I was the reason Percy hadn't woken up. I was the reason my parents died. I was the reason we crashed. It was all me. I was no hero, I was a monster.

No one wanted to hear that though. After seeing a shit load of therapist and psychiatrist I knew all they'd ever do was prescribe me pills or tell me, "It's OK. It wasn't your fault."
I was over all of it. I was done. I talked to lawyers and social workers about being emancipated. Then packed up my things and got on the nearest bus that could take me away from that hellhole.

I learned to get by. I told everyone that my parents worked as researchers which required them to travel constantly. The only people who knew the truth were the teachers, no one else.

I knew I was running away from my problems but I didn't care. A temporary fix was better than waiting in agony for it to solve itself out inside.

A picture of my family was what made me push myself the most. That night followed me everywhere, never left my side. It was my stalker. The constant smell of burnt flesh, the muffled sound of a scream and the bitter taste of chalk and blood was all I remembered.

When I looked at the picture everything else would disappear for a second. The memory of all their talents and characteristics would flood into my head. My dad's incredible knowledge of useless things motivated me to learn about almost everything because you never know when it might become useful. My mom's natural comprehension of wrong and right kept my mortals straight. Percy's strength kept me fighting.

I stayed alive for them. So many times did the thought of ending it all flash through my mind but I'd always come to the conclusion that it wouldn't be right. I wasn't living for myself, I was living for them. There was nothing I could do to bring my parents back but Percy could still need me. I didn't want him to wake up to only find out that his whole family was gone. That he was alone in the world.

Time went by and I made friends. None I could really trust but they were a good step into normalcy. I joined the soccer team because I needed a way into university. I even got a job to help pay for Percy's medical bill. My apartment was already being paid by the government which was fine by me.

A few months after I arrived at my new school I asked her out. She was beautiful, the most gorgeous person I had ever seen, aside from my mother.

She was a light, she was my light. She wasn't like the sun, no, she was more like the small flicker of a candle. She brought me out of my darkness. She didn't make the suffering and pain go away but she made it tolerable. She was no life line, she was more of a comfort blanket a blanket that I had planned on keeping for a while. My plans were quickly destroyed after my 18th birthday.

I had friends, I had a future, and I had hope. I thought I was healing, I really did. Little did I know that everything was about to take a turn for the worse, again.

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This is a new story that I want to test out. I have the plot all planned out and ready but I just want to get everyone's honest opinion on it. Be rude if you have to, I want criticism that can help me improve my writing.

Please comment your thoughts, thank you!