A Rose Among Ashes

Kiera's POV

The world holds still while I hit the ground. One second, I am racing down to meet Jason, a painting of him clutched in my hands, desperate for my best friend to take a look at it, and the next, everything halts suddenly.

My pulse skips at the sound of a bell clanging in the hallway, causing me to freeze, for the last three steps to become one to me. My vision blurs the minute my body lands on the ground. The world begins to spin from where I lie, helpless.

I can't make out what is happening. All the sounds around me fade into the background, and all I can focus on is the intense pain coursing through me.

It shoots up my body like wildfire, pulling me in and out of consciousness. Someone screams in the distance, just as people gather around me.

"Call 911!"

It is too loud, piercing through the hollowness in my mind. My eyes sting, and I sink my teeth into my lips, stopping the tears from falling down my face. My parents have always said to be strong even in the hardest moments.

I am going to be strong.

Silence fills the car on the way to the hospital. Miss Clara, the housekeeper, holds onto my hands for the whole fifteen minutes. I feel her there, squeezing lightly. Her warmth envelopes me, and in that split second, I think everything is going to be fine.

Just because it reminds me of my mum.

But my Mom isn't around, and all of this is just in my head.

***

I have always hated the smell of the hospital, that sickening smell of antiseptic clinging to every corner. The bright lights and white walls usher me in, yet they leave such a scar in my memory, as if dredging something that I have forgotten.

Someone is wheeled into the ER. I take in the blood pooling at the spot where there should be a foot, and I resist the urge to gag.

A young doctor saunters into the room I am wheeled into, his eyes scanning my body before moving closer to my eyes.

"They are glossy," he murmurs to himself, as if I were not in the same room as him. But that is the thing. I try to raise my hands, to force my lips to move, but nothing works.

Nothing at all.

"Who brought her in?" He yells, turning around. Someone falls out of the hallway. Someone I can barely recognize. I search for the housekeeper from the visible part of the hallway, but the door gets slammed immediately, and I feel dread seeping in.

But suddenly, everything fades.

Or changes, depending on the way you look at it.

The doctor pulls out into the hallway, and in his place, Clara walks in. My eyes narrow when I take a look at my homeschool teacher. She has a huge smile on her face as she sits on the side of the bed.

"The doctor said you will be discharged later today," she murmurs, then lifts the covers off my legs. "They look better, don't you think?"

There is nothing wrong with my legs, and I want to tell her that. But I nod instead, allowing myself to feel the ease of the moment.

"Your parents and older brother are on their way here," she speaks excitedly, pushing even closer. "Do you want to speak with them?"

I nod again, like a child, desperate for the arms of her parents. Clara retrieves a phone from her pocket and dials a number before handing it over to me. It is summer, yet outside, the rain hits heavier on the pavement, like a sharp crack of glass.

It traveled in through the windows, the smell of iron and wet soil. I feel it tease my brain. A migraine comes along, but because I do not want to lose the moment, I desperately hold on to it.

Their faces fill up the screen at the first ring, and fresh tears sting the corners of my eyes. My older brother pushes his head in from the back seat, his eyes dropping at the sight of me.

"Are you alright, baby?" My mom asks. She tries to keep her expression steady, but the worry in her tone betrays her. I shake my head, promising her that I am fine.

Still, I can't talk. I can't feel my lips.

"We will be there soon." My mother's voice echoes through the phone, sounding like something far away, in time and location.

But suddenly, it all changes, and my whole life is shattered from the very beginning.

The screen flickers as thunder strikes in the distance. I hear the sound of crashing, of glass breaking against each other, of metal crushing. I hear my brother screaming my name, that heart-wrenching sound washing through me.

This is the point at which the screaming ends, at least from what my memory serves me. But right now, it is different.

It continues, but through my own lips.

"Mom!" I thrash hard on the bed, kicking the sheets, needing to be out of here. "Mom! Dad! Christian! No! No! No! Please! I killed them!"

The whole room shifts as the doctor rushes in, closely followed by his team. Clara strangely disappears from my side, along with the phone, which was still pressed against my ear. My fists move next, thrown into the air. They push me back into the bed, their murmurings following.

"Hallucination," I hear one of them say as my wrists are tied to the posts of the bed. "Something brutal from her past."

"I killed them!" I wail, allowing the tears to flow down my face. "If I hadn't called, they would still be fine."

"She needs to be sedated."

"Careful," the doctor murmurs. "She is pregnant and we can't let anything happen to the baby. Her husband's explicit instructions."

Lara appears in the doorway, along with Alex, the man I have been married to for the last year.

And I realize in that moment that I was transported to that day, seventeen years ago.

.