Reddit: r/nosleep

PART XI: I'm Having a Picnic

The x-ray shows two broken ribs. To me, tt feels like my whole insides were run through a blender. They put some sticky bandages on me and tell me to just rest and don’t do any acrobatics. Also, avoid any more car crashes. That last part seems sadly harder to avoid than the first part. I’ve been in two serious ones in just three months after all.

On the other hand-- you see, Paschar? You were telling me that things were going to end badly. I mean, I guess they did for Officer Flowers. I feel bad for her. I wish I knew what she was about. Dumah said she wasn’t there for me. I wonder who she was there for, because I don’t think she went there for herself. Of course, with all us people and our totems and our angels together in the same place, it seemed to be scrambling the wires or something. Officer Flowers came for one of us and ended up being the one who died. I sensed my death and yet here I am, still kicking. Well, okay, I better not kick anything right now. I breathe a sigh of relief and wait for my parents to come pick me up.

I’m sorry, Lily, Paschar says.

It’s okay, even you, my best best friend, can make a mistake from time to time.

My mom eventually comes into the room, red-faced. She’s been crying and at the sight of me lying there waiting, all bandaged up, she breaks into crying again. She doesn’t normally cry all that much, but maybe the whole thing with losing Roger in a car crash and then having to go to the hospital because I was in another one, it’s probably all been too much for her. We hug and I pet her head.

“It’s okay, I’m okay. I saved Meredith.”

“I know you did, sweety.” she says, kissing me on the forehead.

I suddenly remember that I don’t know what happened to my dad.

“Is Daddy okay?”

Mom looks at me and holds my hands. She squeezes them just a bit too hard, but I don’t cry or pull away, because I need to let her do it. She shakes her head so slowly. So very very slowly. She blinks away tears.

“That man that attacked you... he apparently tied up your father and put him in the trunk of the car.”

Oh God. He was in the trunk the whole time. The car that I made crash. If I hadn’t made Felix crash the car, maybe--

I start to cry with her, and hug her, even though it hurts to be hugged.

“He’s in intensive care. He suffered a lot of internal injuries, but he should be okay.”

“Can we go see him?”

“Sure. We can go back there and wait together, okay?”

She takes my hand and we head down to the ICU. I get this churning feeling in my gut as we walk past nurses stations and doctors offices. Maybe it’s the pain medication they gave me earlier for my ribs. As we walk, I look down at the shiny tiles. I wonder how much mopping has to get done to make this place always look so clean? Except there, where there’s a spot of blood. And there. In fact, actually there’s a lot of blood splatters. It’s becoming hard not to step in them. I’m surprised that Mom is just walking through it all carefree in her expensive shoes. Normally if she gets even a scuff mark on them, she goes ballistic. I guess there’s more important things than shoes at the moment. I mean, I know there is, but Mom doesn’t always think so.

The blood on the ground starts flowing under our feet, like it’s fresh. I look up and the hallway seems to be slowly flooding with bloody water. It’s going up over the toes of my shoes, but Mom doesn’t see it. She looks down at me with her sad eyes and tries to fake a smile. I want to tell her, I want to warn her about the blood that’s running over our feet. Down the hall ahead of us, I see my cousin Susie swim past. God, I’m hallucinating again. What is happening to me?

I close my eyes, and when I open them again, the blood is gone. The floor is clean and clear again. Moments later, we stop in front of a dimly lit room with a shaded window looking in. My dad is lying in a hospital bed with dozens of machines hooked up to him and I can just make out someone standing next to him, leaning over, probably checking one of the many tubes or wires connected to him. My dad’s face reminds me of Felix’s... not in the weasel sense, but when I last saw Felix and his face was all bruised and there was blood running down from his hair. I’m seeing so much blood today. I hope Felix is off somewhere bleeding right now.

“Can we ask the doctor how he’s doing?” I ask Mom.

“What doctor?”

I feel suddenly cold as the figure straightens up and turns around to look at me through the window. At least, I assume she’s looking at me.

Her face and most of her body has been burned black by the fire.