Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"So," Stella glanced at her sister and the grocery list in her hands for a few seconds before putting her green eyes on the black road, her hands loose around the steering wheel and her right foot adjusting the pressure on the car brake as they approached a red light, the car soon coming to a stop at the yellow perimeter line. The faint glow of the red light outlined Stella's face.
The brunette turned her gaze back on Bella, "What does Mom want?" She asks, picking at the fabric of her pre-ripped skinny jeans.
The Swan sisters were going to the Market to buy new groceries to fill the fridge and pantry. Ever since Phil started working more with his minor league baseball team, he'd been holed up in his office, only coming out when he had to pick up his step-daughters from West Phoenix High School or when they went out on friday nights so they could have family time, at least, that's what Renée insisted.
Bella shook her head, twirling a pen between her fingers absentmindedly and biting down on her bottom lip in thought. "You know, the usual, bacon, bread, and," she trailed off and grinned at Stella, both of the girls letting out a small laugh before saying in synchronization, "grapes, the green ones not the red."
Stella laughed before looking up at the light, seeing it was green, and pressing down on the pedal. "Is that really all-" but she didn't get to finish her sentence.
A truck, much bigger than their Honda, slammed into Bella's side of the car and she was dead in an instant but Stella didn't know that as the car flipped upside down and continued to tumble down into a narrow ditch. Shattered pieces of glass from the windows were everywhere. A ghastly wound on her side made itself known to Stella as she tried to unbuckle her seatbelt but it was jammed.
Stella's green eyes fluttered as she saw black dots covering her vision but she looked over towards Bella. Her neck was bent weirdly and her eyes were shut.
Stella didn't register the fact that she couldn't hear her older sister breathing.
She heard a screech of a vehicles' wheels and a frantic scream before everything was covered in a suffocating darkness.
|||
Nothing. Wherever Stella was there was nothing there, just the overpowering sound of silence and the blinding sight of shadows that she couldn't see anything.
"Give it up, John, she's already flatlined. It's a lost cause."
"Shut up, nobody is a lost cause." Something warm touched her forehead, a hand. "Come on, come on, come on."
Stella's green eyes opened wide, the sound of a heart monitor besides her sputtering back up as her heart tried to find its right beating pattern.
John, the only other paramedic in the ambulance besides the pessimistic man in the drivers seat, kissed the cross around his neck before putting his calm eyes on Stella, "Welcome back."
"Where was I?" She sounded terrified and she mumbled incoherent things as her eyes scanned her surroundings before they rested on the stretcher directly besides her. There was obviously a body on it but it was covered with a sheet. Confusion filled Stella.
The heart monitor sped up when Stella remembered Bella was in the car with her, Bella was in the car when they were hit.
She choked out Bella's name and managed to pull the sheet down to the floor before John caught her wrists. He moved to block the dead body from Stella's eyes but she already saw it.
The image of her abnormally pale twenty year old sister even paler stuck behind Stella's eyelids. The image of her chest not moving up and down glued itself into her brain and it took a while for her to actually believe it, to believe that the one person she considered her best friend was gone from her grasp.
"No," Stella whimpered and fat tears spilled down her cheeks as she started to struggle in Johns hold. "Oh my God, Bella, please God no," she looked around John at Bella again and more cries clawed their way out of her throat.
"I'm so sorry Bella," she sobbed, as if she would hear her. Flashes of the car accident came back to her and she screamed at the mental pain, screamed at the realization that it was all her fault. Maybe if Stella had just kept her foot off the pedal for a few more seconds, just a few more God damned seconds. "I'm sorry!"
John grit his teeth, "You're going to hurt yourself, calm down."
Stella glared up at the man, tears still building in her eyes before falling, "She's my sister!"
"Bella, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry."
Something sharp pricked Stella's neck, a needle filled with anesthesia, and just like earlier, she was sent into an overpowering place of darkness.
