A whole new life.
That's what Mila wants to start with. Even though her childhood and her time as a young adult was graced with a normality that not everyone knew. She had been loved by every person around her and maybe she was even a bit spoilt. Not that her family cared. They always had done everything in their power to give her everything the world had to offer.
But now she was all on her own. Alone in the world. So far she hadn't found out if she would grow accustomed to being alone. The sad thing is, that Mila didn't have a choice in that matter. For her whole life she was surrounded by people she loved. It's shocking how fast that could change.
Mila had been the only adoptive child by a married couple that couldn't have children on their own. They adored Mila from the second they laid eyes on her when she was a baby. From that day on they had been the perfect little family, living in a small town, living a small town life. Their neighbors were the families' friends, feasting with barbecue parties whenever possible. Her father worked as a constructor and sometimes went on business trips, while his wife, who worked as an assistant to the local vet and his daughter stayed in town and enjoyed the girls-only-time.
When Mila decided to visit Med School after college, her parents were equally shocked and utterly proud. They had the horror prejudice of doctors over working and falling into depression and alcoholism, but on the other hand loved the thought of their daughter saving lives and having an incredible career. But what Mila always knew was that they would've supported her whatever she would do.
Med School went perfectly fine for Mila, she always had been a good student and eager to learn. She also had always been good with people while still knowing how to keep a professional distance. And, of course, she had that kind of ill curiosity about everything medical. Being a doctor was her dream and she was living it.
Mila had been in her fourth year of residency when everything changed. After Med School she had moved out of her parents' home and went to live with her boyfriend Dan. He was a nurse in the hospital she had taken internships in whenever possible. They had fallen in love there and Mila started working in the small hospital after she graduated and got her Doctor's degree. The couple moved into a small, but cozy flat near their workplace. Another part of the perfect life.
The day seemed to be as usual. Mila worked a long, stressful night shift with lots of drunk people getting hurt and coming to the emergency ward. Together with children with broken bones and very old people having their complaints and aches, these were the usual patients for the young doctor. For most eager resident doctors that would be boring, most of the patients didn't need to get near the OR, but it was what made Mila happy. Nearly every doctor forgot about the 'easy' cases. She had saved quite a share of lives because she took everyone coming for help seriously. Because of her friendly nature towards every person crossing her, she had earned the nick name 'smiley'.
As every Saturday morning, Mila went to see her parents after she finished her shift. They would have a huge breakfast and talk about everything that happened during the week. Afterwards Mila and her mother would prepare lunch and wait until Dan arrived from his morning shift. Mila loved this ritual. They got along so perfectly and seeing her parents happy made the young woman's heart swell.
Mila walked down the quiet, clean street that she had seen so often since her childhood. She had learned to drive a bike here, had played with her childhood friends and got her first driving lessons here. So many memories. The young doctor smiled when she saw the house. It wasn't huge, but not too small and mostly made off wood. She remembered how long her father had worked on the porch until it looked good enough for the ambitious constructor. Her little playground in the garden had disappeared as Mila grew up, but she knew that her parents were impatiently waiting for future grandchildren to lit the garden with cheerful playing noises again.
Just as Mila was about to open the creaky front gate, she heard a noise she never had heard before. At first it sounded like a rocket going off on New Year's Eve, but it suddenly grew into a loud boom, the sound of an heavy explosion. The immense repulsion hit Mila and threw her hard on the asphalt of the street. Her clothing ripped and the ground teared through her flesh, leaving multiple scratches and bleeding wounds. A burning piece of wood landed on Mila's stomach and left trace of burnt flesh which made her scream in pain.
Besides from a throbbing headache, which she didn't feel at first due to adrenaline in her veins, her head wasn't hurt, so she could quickly stand up and ran towards the destroyed house. Mila couldn't hear her own yelling and the screams of other people storming out of their houses to see what had happened. Everything seemed dull. Later one she would know that it was due to the damage of her hearing organs due to the noise of the explosion, but at that moment Mila only cared for one thing: saving her parents, even though it was obvious that they couldn't survive such a catastrophe.
Someone grabbed the young woman before she could enter the burning ground. She yelled and fought to be let go, but fortunately for her own safety, the man holding her was strong enough to keep the struggling little person away. Mila's angry screams turned into sobbing and crying when realization hit her. They were dead. Gone. Forever.
The end of the perfect life of Mila Labonair.
...
Today Mila thinks that a part of herself died with her parents in that explosion. Somehow she had to learn to life without that. It made her a completely different person. What she wanted changed. She didn't want to be a small town girl anymore. She wanted more, so she broke the strings to her old life.
Mila didn't even had to do that much. Right after the event, declared as an accident due to a gas leak, everyone treated her with kid's gloves. The chief of the hospital offered her as much off-days she would need, but Mila needed to work. She drowned herself in it, she urged to help people. Her friends and neighbors brought her food and a shoulder to cry on, but she didn't need any of that. It wouldn't bring her parents back to life. Of course Mila knew that she wasn't being fair, they all just wanted to help, but at that time she didn't want any help.
That was until the lovely funeral had taken place. The visits and notes of condolence faded and it left Mila in a deep hole of depression. She hadn't had anything to be angry on. Her anger was the only thing that kept her going, it took her mind off the brutal reality. People started to life their lives again and so should Mila. But she couldn't. Her former friends started to keep distance from her, because they thought that she was going mad. Even Dan drifted away because she pushed him away too often.
It took her some weeks until she knew what to do. A mental and physical breakdown made her change things. She nearly slept 3 hours a day, because nightmares of her burnt and torn apart parents started to play off behind her eyelids whenever she closed her eyes. When she didn't try to sleep, she worked, nearly living in the hospital, never taking a break, never lacking of concentration.
One day, her body started suddenly revolted. Mila had felt sick for the whole day. She puked everything she ate out and looked pale like a ghost. Just in between caring for patients, she fell down and hit the floor hard, falling unconscious.
The young doctor woke up hours later, hanging on countless IV's, heart rate monitors and oxygen. Dan had been by her side for the whole time, watching her with deep worry. Poor guy, he had to watch his girlfriend go off the deep end without being able to do anything.
She signed her discharge papers quickly after, a new plan in her head. When she had reached her flat, she had broken off with Dan, quit her job and started to pack her belongings. It wasn't much, just some clothing and some paperwork so she was ready to take off quickly. Of course Dan stood by her side and tried to talk her out of it, but she just ignored him.
Mila just knew that she wanted to go to New York. It could've been every larger city in the States, but it seemed just far away enough and she remembered that as a child, she had held a resent against the city. When she was 12 years old she had visited the city on a vacation with her parents and she simply hated it. Quite too much people and too much noise. That's exactly the reason why she chose it. She wanted to be a new person, the complete opposite of her old self.
As she was halfway through the country, she had already rented a flat, ordered furniture and had gotten herself a job in a large hospital. Money never had been an issue for her, as her parents handed her quite the amount of money and the salary of a resident surgeon wasn't too bad. A job was also quite easy to get, because she had had excellent grades in Med School and was praised by her former instructing doctors as an excellent young surgeon. Her first shift would start the next day in the evening. Therefore she didn't have that much time to think, which was fortunate.
Her first evening alone consisted of Chinese takeout and Netflix on an old mattress, as her furniture wouldn't arrive until tomorrow. The next day, Mila noticed that it was getting better. She wasn't reminded of what she had lost all the time. It was the best choice she could've made.
Mila had finished arranging things in her flat when it was time to get ready for work. For some seconds she admired her work and was proud of herself. She had proved of her good taste. A bystander would've said that it looked cozy and yet stylish. Someone looking behind the facade would've seen that it was impersonal. No pictures or trinkets made the flat look like someone really lived here. But personality wasn't Mila's number one problem right now.
She put her long her in a high ponytail and left her face nearly untouched of any make up. It wouldn't make sense, she was there to work, not to look pleasing. Grabbing her bag, she strutted to the door, but coming to the stop before she opened it.
Closing her eyes for a second, she took a deep breath, before taking all of her courage to walk into her new life.