Chapter 1 ● Seeing
I was an average high school student. A typical nerd, the type that would always bring back high scores, and enjoy reading school texts over summer break; I was only sixteen, young, ignorant, and suppressed by my parents, as I should be, when something happened. Something miraculous, and completely improbable, I started seeing spirits.
It was at the start of the month, fall, near the beginning of school. My mother and I ... we were driving to a college lecture run by my father. It took only an instant, driving on one lone road, a shortcut, my mother said. It took an instant, for an opposing truck, one that appeared to be well managed when it was a distance away, but once it came to those last few feet from our own vehicle. It suddenly swerved into us, and then.. There was only excruciating pain.
My head... My head, it was gone. Torn out of its socket in my neck; my legs.. Felt like they had severed from my waist. My legs ... battered, broken into miniscule shards by the impact. It was extremely difficult to open my eyes. They were glued. My eyelids were glued shut by a rim of scarlet blood. When I forced them open, I found myself under the car. Darkness, a glowing shaft of light shined from outside, Daylight.
I raised a torn and stinging hand to cover my view. It was painful. The light was painful. I didn't want it. My mind was clouded. Obscured by dense, gray, fog, I was listening, but everything.. it was mute. The world had flipped the off button. Somehow, nothing seemed to exist anymore. I closed my eyes again wearily. Let my hand slump over them. A low groan escaped my lips, when I awkwardly attempted to turn myself on the ground, to lie on my back, in a less painful position. When I rearranged myself, I noticed. it was gravel, small stones, scraping against my arm as i twisted off my stomach. I was on a road.
Road. I was driving on a dirt road. .. The fog filling my mind cleared slightly. No, not me. There was someone else, someone with long, winding, brunette hair. Similar to mine, they were beside me... The wooded scenery flashing past the window at my side, driving past the greenery that encompassed our state; The tape in my mind, unreliable, static-ridden, cut off, and I was so close.
My head shifted, I grimaced when my tender skin was picked by the gritty roadway. I stopped. my eyes flinching tightly shut. A pressure, building, further and further in my mind, my nerves overheating, a migraine, aching, and shaking my head; when I opened my eyes, dots would flash in my gaze. I was going under, darkness taking over me, my body.. Visibly heating; I cringed. Raising my knees, to brace against my stomach, I turned myself to the side, and wrapped both arms around my legs. Hot.. Too hot, my body, felt like it was going to explode. Like a ticking bomb, I would only grow warmer, and warmer, until eventually...
I was gasping, dying; every hoarse breath burned the raw skin in my throat. An inky, haunting, dusk surrounding me, my senses clogged, little by little, I was fading. The last thing my mind registered before I fainted, my heart, pounding painfully battering, against the inside of my chest, and the question in my mind, how long? How long would it take to dully beat to a complete stop? How long would I have.
When I came to, there were white figures, swiping against my side, noise, incredible noise, my name.
"Rose."
That was my name, someone was calling me, and I had to answer. The tone, sounded oddly familiar.
Rose, honey can you hear me? Yes. Dad, I can hear you. "Rose, move your finger if you hear us, your finger."
I didn't like it. There was more than dad's voice, strangers, calling my name, as if they knew me. I didn't know them, I only wanted to hear dad. I had something to say to him, everyone else had to stop bothering me.
My eyes were shut, glued. extremely heavy. The heaviest weight i probably ever bore. It was so much easier... to remain this way; even if the white figures on the outside of my closed lids, even if they were distracting. I swallowed. Saliva, clearing my caked throat... dry, and barren, my lips parted, I wanted to speak. My humble movement seemed to cause an uproar; a flurry of movement in the outside world.
"Rose? Can you hear me?"
Dad, his voice, this time... less subtle, he had noticed. I was fighting. trying to reach him, my senses, slowly coming back to me, someone, squeezing my hand, like mad. It hurt.
"Rose, Rosie .. Please, stay with me, don't go."
The affliction in his voice, it caused a sear of pain to cut across my heart. Dad. no, I won't go. I won't leave you. The grip in my hand, it tightened, I imagined that I no longer had circulation in that hand anymore.
Something pricked my other arm. Ouch.
"It hurts." my lips moved. but no sound came out.
I swallowed again. my tongue, weaved out from inside my mouth, touching my lower lip, hovering across it.
"Dad." I whispered.
"Rose. Yes, it's me. Talk to me baby."
His voice was fading; it couldn't have been this light only a few seconds previously. It troubled me for only a moment, and then i remembered, I had something to tell him. Something important, what was it? The person, that was beside me while driving on that dirt road. They were very important to me, just... Why, couldn't I remember them?
A girl, she was a woman.
"Is she-" i cut off.
I was tired, so tired. Talking took effort. I hoped.. he would understand my slight. He would go on from there, and give me the missing piece I needed. The grip on my now numb hand, lessened considerably. I felt chilled abruptly. Something had happened. Everything became mute again, he took too long... He wouldn't answer. That was what I believed, until... finally.
"She's fine. Don’t worry. After you wake up, she'll be here. She just... Had to go to the bathroom."
Something rough, but comforting, warm, laid against my bare forehead. Liar, he was lying. My dad was lying to me. He was a horrible liar, his voice got high whenever he was fibbing, both me and Mom knew that-
My chest heaved upwards, my breath caught in a sensitive place in my throat, I choked. gasping, My eyes shot open. I finally had found it, the person I forgot, Mom.
It was too bright. The light painfully bright, I yelled out. My arms swung out, covering my face. I caught my father's face, scrunched worriedly above my own. At least.. I thought it was my father; my eyes were only open for a second. I struggled, People's slimy hands suddenly holding me down.
"No! Let go!" I screamed.
They ignored me, Dad was somewhere in the background. I think he was telling me everything was going to be alright. No it wouldn't, Mom, didn't he understand? Mom!
I hated them; I hated everyone, for holding me back; sticking me on this slab of mattress, for, sticking needles in my skin, for lying to me. I continued to resist, it was pointless. Someone's hand slapped against my mouth, pressing me down into the bed. My retorts came out muffled. indisguishable. My legs were rising up, slapping up and down. Before long, they were also held down. I felt helpless, pathetically weak
Someone, anyone, help, Please. Don’t let them do this to me. I just needed to know. Where my mom was, what happened to her. What they were doing to her.
There was a chilling rush of air; it swooped over me, powerful. I heard scream's resound around me. I opened my eyes, swung up, no longer being held down. My restraint's magically removed. The sight I took in that hospital room, so shocking. I didn't mind the damn lights burning my pupils. Every nurse, flung onto the ground, as if they were thrown. Even a doctor, bent on his knee's on the other side of the room, holding tenderly onto one of his arms. It appeared as if he had twisted it. His gaze was locked onto me, his expression strange, as if .. he was daunted by me, a girl barely the size of half of him.
I twisted my head, looking at the other forms in the room, Nurses. All, staying a distance away from my thin form, my gaze shot down, next to my body. Bare, Except for the feeble, badly arranged hospital gown. I noticed the thin tube tied to my arms, one on each of them. I ripped it off, and then moved my legs to the side; I slipped off the padded gurney. Wincing, from the chill the tiled floor provided my bare feet. I froze for a moment, finally on my feet. Silence ensued, no one moved, as I took the first steps toward the door, the nurses near it shuffled away, scrambling up, to keep a reasonable distance between us; I could swear, I even heard one whimper.
It was strange, as my hands locked onto the door's handle, pulling it toward my body, opening it. I was filled with an alien energy, rushing through me, filling me with unsuppressed strength. I didn't exactly take the time to stop and think on it too much, I only knew.. i needed to find dad, I guessed, he might have slipped out of the room, most likely ushered out by a nurse once I started acting like a maniac.
I was lost, every hallway, appearing the same. I began to run, my bare feet creating an intonation whenever it hit the cool ground. My hands gripped nimbly onto the strands at the end of my hospital gown. When i passed people, staring at me, their mouth gaped. I was careful not to show my back. Embarrassed by my state, my face was probably flushed.
I finally caught Dad at the end of one endless hallway, by one of those machines’s that let you consume a cup of sterile water. I slid into him, grasping onto him from behind. He turned immediately, face alarmed. When he took in my form, his face grew considerably more shocked.
"Rose! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be asleep now."
I frantically shook my head, no, i didn't want to, I didn't want to sleep, I wanted Mom, it was all my fault.
"No, dad. i want .. i need-"
I was about to cry, my words, choked down. His hand, large, familiar, patted against my head, brushing my curly, brown, strands to the side, soothing me.
"It's all my fault!" I blubbered out. Throwing my arms around his neck tightly.
"No, it wasn't your fault. No one is at fault"
I shook my head, he was wrong. It was, he didn't know... the whole story.
I could hear footsteps, loud, insistent, and approaching. I raised my head, but he was holding me tightly against him. I could barely look behind me, there wasn't time. Security, long straps of wood tied to their waist, wearing uniforms, Scary. They grasped onto my thin arms, they were taking me away.
"Dad!" I desperately called out to him.
He was quickly hidden from my view by a rather plump officer; I was easily lifted onto another gurney, back where I started. They began to carry me down the hallway. This time.. I didn't resist. Letting my limbs limply settle on the mattress, even without two hulking security guard's holding them down. All that energy.. Was suddenly absent, I could no longer fight the inevitable.
Dear diary,
My name is Rose Evans. And I can see most level spirits.