Under the New York Sky | ✔️

•P r o l o g u e•

"Mom watch out!" I managed to scream at the top of my lungs.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

Within seconds, a sharp screeching sound pierced my ears, followed by an earth shattering crash of metal scraping against metal. And then everything was completely silent besides the sound of my sneakers tapping against the pavement as I ran towards the wreckage. Thick grey smoke drifted up into the sky from the hood of the large truck, reeking of the sickening sweet scent of antifreeze and burning metal.

"M-mom!" I chocked out. My knees wobbled as I forced my feet to move forward.

The truck had crashed into the back of my mom's car with so much force that the front of it was completely crushed and indented.

My knees finally buckled when I took in the scene in front of me. My mom's mangled body was trapped between her car and the truck. Her once blonde hair, sprawled across the hood of the truck was dyed shades of pink and red from blood, shielding her face from my view. I gagged from the putrid metallic scent.

"Help! Somebody get her out!" I shouted to no one in particular. My throat began to close in on me, and my ribcage felt as though it would collapse on my lungs at any moment. My vision blurred as I felt something wet trickle down my cheek. Tears. "Someone call 911," I sobbed.

A girl shrieked as the neighbours ran out from their own houses to see what the ruckus was all about, only to regret it when they saw it. It wasn't until my neighbour, a woman who was the grandmother of five little boys placed a hand on my shoulder when I realized that I was the girl screaming.

She guided me back to my porch and sat me down, a look of horror and sympathy laced in her eyes. Her mouth was moving and she was speaking to me, but I couldn't comprehend a word she said. She had her arms wrapped around me in attempt to comfort me, but I knew that nothing could fill the gaping whole in my stomach. It was as if I were in some out-of-body experience; I could see everything going on, but I couldn't move and there was nothing I could do.

I watched as a man stumbled out of the truck, bloodied and in a confused daze. His eyes only widened when he saw my mom at the front of his car. Like me, he fell to his knees at the sight, his eyes glued to the scene that he caused, his face etched with horror.

"Someone call 911," I said weakly as my throat tightened again, "my mom needs help," My vision began to grow disfigured, looking like I was a fish in a bowl. My chest threatened to collapse into my lungs as everything around me began to spin. I could feel my blood rushing through my ears as my vision grew dimmer and dimmer, until it was black. The sound of the rapid beating of my heart was the last thing I heard.

____________________

When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted with a pounding headache. My eyebrows scrunched up in confusion when I saw the night sky directly above me, littered with a few stars here and there, instead of seeing my bedroom ceiling. Instead of feeling my warm, soft bed underneath me, I felt the rough fabric of a cot. And instead of my cozy purple comforter, there was a scratchy, red blanket placed on top of me.

Everything came crashing down on me again.

I sat straight up on the cot and glanced around. Everyone must have been shooed back into their homes as it was just me and a couple firemen and paramedics. The truck that had carelessly slammed into my mom's car was nowhere to be seen, but my mom's car still sat perched on the driveway, a large dent in the back. I felt a familiar emptiness when I saw a figure laying on the ground a few meters away from where I was, with a plain white cloth draped over top.