JORDAN'S P.O.V.
We sat in the waiting lobby, anxiously awaiting the results of the transfusion. Ruby was still asleep in a chair while Mark was talking on the phone with Nick. Nick was worried why I hadn't returned any of his calls. I sighed, remembering I had shut off my phone out of anger and annoyance.
I begged and prayed that my blood would be enough to save Carrie. She couldn't die, and this was her last chance.
One question was still rattling my brain. Something about the park shooting wasn't adding up.
Out of probably over a hundred people, Carrie was the ONLY one who was shot. Why? Why is it she would be the only one that could possibly die? Why would anyone want to hurt Carrie? Who would go to such lengths to do something as awful as this?
Could it have something to do with what she told me before the shooting happened?
"You don't understand. I'm not...I'm not normal. I come from a bad background. My sister has already dealt with this and I don't...I don't want anyone else I care about getting hurt."
I glanced over at Ruby. She was stirring and beginning to stretch, blinking her eyes against the ceiling lights.
"Wha...what's going on?" she whispered anxiously. "Carrie? Is Carrie okay?"
"Easy, Ruby, easy," I said, quickly getting up from my chair and kneeling beside her. "It's alright. My blood is a match for Carrie. They're doing the transfusion now."
"Oh my God!" she gasped happily, throwing her arms around my neck in a hug. "Jordan, thank you so much! You're saving my baby sister!"
"Hey, you should know I'd do anything for your sister," I said, patting her on the back awkwardly.
"I know," she said as she let me go, "and she'd do anything for you. When she wakes up, she'll be forever grateful."
"Ruby, can I ask you something?" I said somewhat nervously.
Ruby looked at me oddly for a second and then nodded. "Sure, yeah. Ask away."
"Okay," I breathed, "I know you're Carrie's sister and I'll respect you if you don't wanna answer my question but I really have to ask." I took a deep breath. I could feel the sweat building up in a tiny river on the back of my neck. "Does Carrie...does Carrie like me?"
Ruby smiled slyly. "Hmm...define 'like'. Do you mean 'like' as in she likes you or do you mean 'like' as in she LIKES you?"
She put more emphasis on the second 'like', so I told her the second one sounded about right.
Ruby laughed and I wondered if she had noticed my reddening cheeks.
"Alright, I see where you're getting at," she said with a smile. "Jordan, as much as I would love to tell you these things, Carrie is my sister and I respect her privacy."
I sighed and bowed my head. Damn.
"It's okay," I said glumly. "I figured you'd want to stay quiet for Carrie's sake."
"But," she added, "I will tell you this; I saw you two during the lantern launch and I gotta say...I definitely saw a sparkle in Carrie's eyes."
I chuckled to myself, thinking she meant that both metaphorically and ironically.
"Something tells me that when Carrie wakes up," she continued, "everything is going to change."
She was right.
Everything did change.
Everything changed...just not in the way I had hoped.
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CARRIE'S P.O.V.
Darkness. All I could see was darkness.
Numbness. All I could feel was numbness.
Cries. All I could hear were cries.
Cries of my older sister as she wept by my bedside. Cries of a man that had been so close to kissing me in the park.
Jordan...
The images of the floating lanterns danced around in the dark corners of my vision. I saw the lantern with the bright purple flowers and the lantern with the large and long-bodied red dragon. I felt a hand curling its fingers around mine, and I let it. I did not reject it.
I knew why. I knew why it was just me, only me, and no one else.
It follows me.
No matter where I run, it will follow. Once I feel I have outrun it for good, it always finds its way.
The bad always follows.
I was in trouble. Mark and Ruby were in trouble. Jordan was in trouble.
Everyone I loved was in trouble.
The speeding bullets that zipped over our heads were now leaving streaks of red along the black background behind the floating lanterns. They looked like bloody cuts, messily coating the black with its deep crimson shade. Through the darkness, through the crimson slashes, I saw Jordan running through the crowd of people. Mark and Ruby were following behind. Jordan was holding a wounded woman in his arms. She tried to wrap her arms around his neck, leaving behind bright bloody handprints.
My handprints.
My body.
Jordan had saved me. And now I had to save him and everyone else.
And then an enormous ball of white and gold penetrated through the darkness and the crimson cuts. It seemed to vaporize the darkness, bathing my entire vision in pure sunlight. The light cast the shadow of a tall slender form along the ground. I stared at the beautiful shadow, watching its hair blow in an invisible, unfelt wind.
I looked away from the shadow and to the figure that was casting it. Her strawberry blonde hair looked golden against the light. Her green eyes were strikingly gorgeous and her arms were outstretched. The unfelt wind gave the illusion of water ripples in her dress.
"Am I...am I dying?" I whispered timidly to Her.
"No, my Carrie," She said, smiling a dazzling white smile. "You are teetering in between."
I slowly approached Her, my legs automatically guiding me in the direction of Her open arms.
"It has come back for me," I whispered when I reached Her, feeling the tears swell up in my eyes. "I should've known it would. It always does."
"That is because you don't fight it, darling," She said softly, toying with one of my curls. "You lose focus of the light when faced with the dark."
"I'm not a fighter," I said sadly. "I'm a coward. I was too afraid to even admit the truth about my feelings for Jordan. I couldn't even tell him about my past. What does that make me?"
"Afraid," She said bluntly. "You are still holding on to the dark, Carietta. That is why you are losing any bit of bravery you have left. And without it, then you may never reveal the truth."
She was right; I couldn't reveal the truth. Not now, not ever. If my past was back with a vengeance, I had to make sure Ruby, Mark, and Jordan stayed out of it.
"No one can know," I said sternly, locking eyes with Her. "Jordan can never know. He can't know how I truly feel about him. It'll only get him killed."
"Carrie, you can't run and hide forever," She said. "It already knows you're here, it already knows the truth. It will get to them before coming back to you."
I bowed my head, the dripping of my tears echoing in my mind. "They'll be pulled into my nightmare if I don't go, and they will die. I can't do that to them. All I can do is run."
I broke away from her hold. "Run fast, run far, and never look back."
"Carrie, no!" She cried desperately. "Don't go back into the darkness! You are strong! You CAN save them! Everything will be okay!"
I turned around to stare at her. "Don't tell me everything will be okay. You don't know that. You never knew that. You don't get to say that to me."
"Carrie!" She sobbed. "No, don't do this to yourself! They love you, he loves you, I love you!"
I turned away and stared ahead. There was a dark tunnel with nothing at the end. No shimmer of light, no ball of happiness.
No sparkle of hope left.
That end of the tunnel was the life I was meant to live.
"I know you love me," I said to the dark tunnel, "and I know they love me. They always will...even when I'm gone."
"CARRIE!" She cried out, sobbing furiously.
"I'm sorry," I whispered chokingly. "I'm so sorry...Mom."
And then...
Light. I could see light behind my closed eyelids.
Warmth. I was wrapped in blankets.
Slight pain. There was something sharp poking at my arm.
I heard faint beeps and the tiny sound of fluid dripping inside a bag. There was a tube running up my arm.
I opened my eyes just a sliver. There was an empty blood bag on a table full of needles, rags, and gloves. At the foot of my bed, one male and one female doctor were cleaning up and making small notes on their clipboards. I shut my eyes, thinking it was all a dream.
What happened to me?
"We were lucky Mr. Maron had the right blood type," said the female doctor. "We have little to no supplies of AB negative blood, let alone enough for a transfusion of this nature."
Transfusion? Blood type? Jordan was my blood type?
Had he...had he saved me again?
"Ms. Diamond was heavily sedated during the procedure," said the male doctor, "so it's likely she won't wake until later this evening."
"I'll go notify them outside," said the female doctor. I heard her footsteps fade off down the hall. Not long after, the male doctor took the table of medical things and wheeled it out of the room in the opposite hallway.
Them.
Mark, Ruby, and Jordan were waiting for me. They wanted to see me, to hug me, to cry with me.
I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it.
I promised myself right then that I would wait until later in the night to make my move. I felt more tears forming in my eyes just thinking about it, but I knew it had to be done.
I shut my eyes and let the darkness pull me in to a less than pleasant slumber.