I decided to change the ending of the first chapter so I added another paragraph or two ! This is that part as well as the first part of chapter 2.
Light. Blinding light met my eyes as I came to consciousness.
I picked my head up slowly, trying to fight through the blinding light that I
was looking into. I quickly realized that I was lying on the street, under the
street light. Ari, I thought
urgently, coming back to my senses.
Somehow, I had ended up on the street, without a
scratch on my body. I prayed that the same had happened for my older brother.
“Ari?” I called blearily, focusing my eyes in on the
mangled sight of my car. I glanced around and my calls for my brother became
more frantic. I started to run as fast as I could, my tears threatening me. My
feet pounded the gravel as I screamed my brother’s name, running as fast as I could.
I skidded to halt by what once was Ari’s car. I searched the ruins, but I
couldn’t find him. That is when I saw his sunglasses lying on the road. I
walked slowly towards them, hearing sirens quietly in the background. My fear
blocked out any other sounds.
I saw him. So suddenly that my breath caught in the
back of my throat.
“Ari?” I whispered kneeling next to my brother’s still
form. I cradled his head in my lap, feeling for his pulse frantically. There
was nothing. Not a fragment of movement. The next thing I knew, I was
screaming. Yelling at the top of my lungs for the person that I had loved more
than anything, and inevitably lost. I screamed until my lungs felt like they
would explode through the labor of it. My tears blurred my eyes as I screamed.
I hugged his head to me as if I could keep him from everything that the world
had served him with. I screamed when the woman knelt down beside me and took my
hands from him. I screamed when they tried to pull him away from me, grasping
at the last bit of humanity that I had. I screamed when they took him, carrying
me away as well. I screamed until everything I had in me was gone. Until I was
a ghost of a person.
Chapter 2
“What is your name?” They asked me.
“I’ve already told you that,” I gritted my teeth,
barely holding onto my sanity. My brother was gone, and all they could ask me was
what is your name. I knew that they needed to call my parents, and get them
there, but why couldn’t they just let me be? My heart felt like it was gone. I
could barely see, or breath, at that.
“Sweetheart, we have no birth, social security, or
school records of you,” The woman said.
“My name is Everlie Elysia Dunland,” I repeated,
staring straight in front of me.
“Yes, dear, but we can’t find your information in the
database. Do you know your parents’ phone numbers?” She sat down in the
ambulance beside me.
I didn’t answer. Of course I knew their information,
but I couldn’t think straight enough to put the ten numbers together that would
form their phone number. All I could picture was his hand over mine, telling me
that he was sorry for causing me pain. My hand suddenly flew to the spot on my
chest wear his final gift to me laid. My beautiful ruby necklace. The necklace
that caused the fight, and perhaps even the accident. But it wasn’t the ruby
the caused the accident. It was me. I fought with him, I made him turn away
from the wheel. This was all my fault. I put my arms around my legs and held
them tight, trying to block out every memory. The woman sighed in frustration
and turned away from me, letting the doctors take a look at my head. The
examination turned out to be useless, I hadn’t been harmed even slightly. An
EMT carried me into the hospital and set up a bed for me. They tried not to let
me hear, but I heard them saying that I was in a state of shock. I laid on my
bed, my hand still wrapped around the last bit of my brother that I could hold.
He couldn’t be gone. No, not him. He was always there. Even when I was angry
with him, or when I wished that I wasn’t adopted. When I wished that I could
just have a normal life. He was my rock, my best friend, my brother. And I
already missed him more than anything.
“Everlie,” My mom’s soft voice appeared through the
mist in my mind, but I couldn’t focus on it long enough to speak back to her, “My
sweet girl.”
She knelt down in front of my bed, stroking my hair
with her hand. Tears pricked her eyes as she searched my face for any
indication of injuries.
“Dad and your sisters are here too. The doctors thought
that it would be better for me to come see you for now,” She spoke slowly, as
if she thought that my brain might be impaired.
“Where is Ari?” I didn’t realize I had spoken my words
out loud until I saw my mom’s face change from loving to grim in an instant.
Maybe there was a chance I was wrong. Even if she looked so grim, maybe he was
in surgery or recovering in a different room.
“Oh, my sweet evergreen,” Mom whispered, “I am so
sorry, but your brother didn’t make it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, just wishing that I could
sleep. My dreams were all that could save me from the hell that had seemingly
taken my life over. But the moment I tried to drift off, images of our crippled
car and my brother’s still form filled my mind.
“I want to see Braelie,” I croaked out suddenly. She
was the only one that understood what it was like to be adopted. And now I had
lost the only person that knew what it was like to come from our birth family.
But Braelie, she would know what it was like for me. I needed my sister.
“Of course,” My mom kissed my forehead gently and
walked into the hallway, softly calling for Braelie. I saw my sister walk
towards my room, reaching out to mom, worry lines etched across her face. They
evened out only slightly when mom nodded her head slightly. She nodded in
understanding and turned to enter my hospital room.
“Ever,” She gasped in relief, rushing to my bedside.
“Brae,” I croaked, tears washing down my face slowly
as she wrapped her arms around me, “He’s really gone, isn’t he?”
I felt her sigh and lean her cheek on the top of my
head, “Yes, love, I think he is.”
That was the first moment that I officially understood
the weight of my situation. I would never see him, or hug him again. I would
always be known and treated as the girl who so tragically lost someone she
loved in her life. Why did it have to be
me?, I thought. Things like this weren’t supposed to happen to me. My life
was supposed to be perfect.
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