Young Writers Society

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.