Young Writers Society

"We ought to be there soon," thought Ashley.

The skies had become dark all of a sudden, and night was well on its way. The curvy roads were difficult to see. And as Chace drove, the corner of her eye caught sight of a deer. It was about to cross the road just in front of them. She took hold of Chace's arm and shouted: STOP! He hadn't seen it, and her shouting scared him, but he pushed on the brakes. As the car came to a sudden stop, they heard a loud crash behind them. Ashley had no time to realize what was happening.

***

She could see angels and clouds, and yes, she knew she was going to that place from where she would never come back. Her body hurt all over. And then her head hit something with a hard thump, and she could see nothing but darkness. Everything seemed to be gone, including her.

She opened her eyes again and this time she could see. The place seemed to be familiar but strange at the same time. She then realized she was in a hospital bed. Her head was throbbing, it felt like a thousand needles were making their way through her skull. When the nurse came in, she was anxious and happy to see that Ashley had awakened. The nurse asked how she felt, and the only response Ashley could utter was that it hurt. Only after she had said that did she remember what had happened. In that moment she recalled how the car had flipped over and the last thing she had heard were the words, "I love you, Ashley!"

"Chase, Chase," she could barely shout the name. She sat up and looked at the nurse for an answer, the pain becoming worse each second.

"Calm down, sweetie. You need to rest."

"Where is he?" She looked into the nurse's eyes, pleading for a response.

The nurse took Ashley's hand and Ashley let her head fall back on the pillow. "He's gone." The nurse paused and after a long while added, "he was very strong."

No, no. The words she had just heard could not have been true. It was probably the headache. It was the throbbing pain in her chest. She had definitely heard wrong, it could not be right.

"Where is he?" She asked again.

The nurse sinply looked at her with pity in her eyes.

Ashley turned her head and saw her father. Tears rolled down her cheeks and the pain went from bad to worse. It hurt so much she could not feel anything else. She remembered how she had told Chase to go faster.

It felt terribly wrong. It had to be a mistake. She passed out thinking of those last words he had said to her in the car, thinking of how she hadn't had the time to say them back to him. And once again she saw clouds and angels, but this time Chase was one of them. He was an angel and he was watching over her. He smiled the same smile she knew since forever. The smile she fell in love with, the dimples she grew to adore. He was beside her. Ashley reached out to him, and for that one moment everything was okay again. For a second the world had paused and they were together.

Was this a dream or was reality a dream? She woke up abruptly, only to see that the happiness had indeed been a dream. Reality sunk in, wounding her like a spear. Her head began to spin and she could barely make out the imagine of her father sitting next to her, holding her hand. When she was a little girl, her father would always sit on the edge of her bed and softly stroke her hand. And no matter how sad or upset she was, it always helped. But now it didn't stop the pain; it didn't stop the aching. She had grown up. She had to learn that life was full of dissapointments, heartache, pain, and death.

She fell asleep once more, and this time she could see the ocean, they were at the beach. It was Chase and her, they were little kids again. Time had gone back, back to those days when they had bruises on their knees and elbows. Back to the carefree days when all they cared about was how long their kite tails were, how fast they could ride their bikes, and how much time they could spend playing each day. They were running on the shore, squishing the sand between their toes, collecting seashells. As the sun began to set, they climbed the rocks and watched the horizon as it changed its colors from yellow to orange and then to crimson red. They tried to touch the sky, but it was just beyond their reach. "Someday, someday, when we get bigger," he said, "we will reach the stars."