A Bullet is the Key.

Final Chapter

A light appeared but I was to weak to lift myself up from the ground as I just continued to gaze into the night. Slowly a figure emerged surrounded by pure white light, illuminating the complete form of my mother. I was speechless as I gazed up on her form.

My head had ceased hurting and the pain that I had felt in my collarbone had vanished as well the bone no longer feeling broken. When you die does all your pain just… vanish? Her steps were graceful and soft; she shimmered in the light like the angel you had become twelve years ago. I knew she was my guardian angel. Dressed in shimmering white, the dress flowed freely down her tall lean figure. The curls of her brown hair shinned with wisps of gold and red gleaming in the bright light twinkling like the late night stars. Her green eyes twinkled like the northern lights creating a soft calm peaceful feel to fall over you. Her presence always did this even before she died and now she stood before me breath taking beautiful, seeming as healthy as could be that was until the illness took her from us. This just added to her beauty making her seem translucent, shinning and bright like the moon herself. She looked magnificent.

“Mom?” I questioned as I sat there flabbergasted by the scene before me. Taking slow gliding steps she made her way toward me before kneeling on the floor and helping me into a sitting position. Taking in her eyes up close I noticed they no longer shinned but had begun to fill with pain and sadness as they starred down at me. Slowly I sat up before her. Could I really be dead? I thought. I mean my heart had stopped once or twice I knew this from the small electric currents I been going through me, now it seemed peaceful.

“My beautiful butterfly” she cooed softly as she ran her fingers in a soothing manner through my hair bringing my head to rest on her shoulder as we sat there after she moved to be beside me. Her dress flowed outwards across the floor as she sat there, the glow of the light as bright as the shinning sun shown from behind her.

“You have grown up so much since I have been gone my dear, I am sorry I was not there butterfly when you needed me most though I never left you completely. I have been watching over young one.” I closed my eyes as she placed her lips briefly to my forehead in a motherly sweet manner, familiar kisses I have missed.

“Mom… why am I here?” I whispered as I continued to stare into the endless blinding white light, was I supposed to go through there?

“Darling butterfly I am sorry for the hardships you have had to endure these past few years without me there to help you. But look at you and all that you have come to accomplish in the years I have been gone,” Blinking my eyes I turned to face her taking my head from her shoulder. She did not answer my question so this time as I looked fully into her eyes I asked her once again.

“Am I dead?” Her eyes flashed with hundreds of emotions before they stayed on sadness and a dreadful chill chilled me to the bone leaving me breathless.

“Darling… butterfly it is hard to say for sure if you are or are not dead. Its your fight right now and only time will tell what is to come because it is up to your heart and body. The bullet had missed your heart by Meer inches but pierced your lung causing it collapse and begin to fill with fluid, your collarbone was snapped in half and you had minor cuts in your head.” Wide eyed I starred at her as she continued to tell me my injuries.

“A broken nose, bruises cover every inch of your body, several broken ribs, internal bleeding from your ruptured spleen and a busted lip.” Looking down at myself I noticed that I was still dressed in the same clothes I had worn that day to the carnival though they were not covered in blood and tears. The pink of my cardigan had lost its drenched red bright crusty tinge that had happened with my nose was broken as well as the wounds I had received to the back of my head. My mother watched me as I reached a shaky hand to the back of my head to feel my hair knot free, the dried blood no longer clotting in it. Heaving a sigh of relief I came to realize that once you died just like your wounds that you went back to the way you looked before your death. She grabbed my hand in hers the one I had just ran through my hair bringing my attention back to her just as she closed her eyes. The light changed and began to reflect millions of colors as they flashed before me as I turned to look a startled weak gasp left my lips. The scene before me unfolded like one out of a horror movie. A pale figure lay there strapped to different machines; a heart monitor beeped steadily to her weak heart beat, a breathing machine was working to keep air in her lungs and an IV stuck to her forearm giving her the required nutrients and liquid. She looked so frail and pale as she lay there half dead looking; we helped each other to our feet and moved closer to the scene before us.