ROSES

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 –– Alone

There's a soft knock on the door.

Karlie groans quietly, and rolls over to her right side. She doesn't want to get up this early, nor she wants to open the door and see who was at the other side of the door.
She knows she has to wake up in two hours for her math test, but, the truth is that she isn't feeling very well; for so many reasons. Last night, she woke up in the middle of the night, feeling how empty her bedroom really was, and she just started crying. She let go of all her emotions. And all the crying led to a sickening feeling in her stomach, and after two fully hours, she was throwing up in the bathroom. And the worst part was that nobody was there by her side; nobody was there to lift up her hair, who fell in her face. Nobody was there to tell her that everything is okay, everything was going to be okay. Just the thought of being alone made her cry even harder.

So now, she was just going to lie in bed all morning, and apologies to the math teacher in the next morning.

"Karlie," a soft voice spoke in the other side of the door. She knows that voice; that soft, comforting voice. It belongs to Miranda, and she sounds really worried. "Karlie, please, open the door," she pleads, knocking again. Karlie lets out a frustrated sigh, and gets up roughly.

She opens the door quickly, and now she is face to face with Miranda. "I heard you crying tonight," she says quietly. Karlie shows no sign of emotions in her features, and doesn't say anything. "Are you okay?" Miranda asks worriedly.

"Does it seem like I'm okay?" she asks ironically. Miranda shrugs, and looks anywhere but Karlie. "I'm trying, Miranda. I'm trying so hard," she adds, shaking her head.

There's a little pause in their conversation, before Miranda dares to ask,"Are you coming to class?"

Karlie sighs internally, and shakes her head. "No, I'm not going today," she answers.

"Why?"

"I'm not feeling well," she replies.

Miranda nods understanding, and says her goodbye, telling her that after her classes she would give her a call.

Karlie closes the door, and rests her forehead against it, sensing that a headache is on its way. She sighs again, and just like that, a tear rolls down her cheek, as she asks if she will have an opportunity to tell Taylor how sorry she really is.

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Rushed voices are what wakes her. She opens her eyes slowly, feeling pain in every part of her body, mostly her left arm and her face. When she has her eyes fully open, she takes in her surroundings, and sees a lot of people running, speaking quickly and worried faces. The only thing she knows is that she is lying flat in a stretcher, and she has a little mask in her face that helps her breathing. She looks up and sees how dark the sky is, and how bright the stars are. Maybe, when she exited the tent on fire, she passed out, and now she is conscious. She smell the smell of blood, and it's making her dizzy and nauseating. She feels tired. She just want to sleep and be left alone.

Then, finally, she looks at her side, and she immediately regrets it. She sees the same stretcher that she is lying on right now, only to be faced with a too white sheet covering a dead body, and that's when it hits her.

Cristina is dead.

She doesn't know if she's the one under that sheet, but her doubts are confirmed when someone says,"Why is Cristina's dead body next to Taylor's?"

Her eyes now are wide open, and she starts wiggling, trying to reach Cristina with her right arm. She starts sobbing, and when the people around her notice, they starts saying something to her. "Taylor, you're okay," someone says.

She shakes her head and cries harder, murmuring,"No, I'm not,"

Tha man that was talking to her looks at her with a worried look, and shakes his head. "Take her away," he says through gritted teeth, and then, Taylor sees that Cristina's body is taken away from her.

"No! No, please, no!" she exclaims crying.
She feels someone blocking her hands, and when she feels a sting in her right arm, she tries keeping her eyes open, but her eyelids fall shut, blocking the world out once again.

(A/N: double update because I love you! Thank you all so much!)