Seeing the Light

Chapter 9

Iris' POV:

The world spun, but it wasn't just me. The world was actually spinning. I felt my body lift up in the chair and the harsh force of it crashing back down. Reality hit me.

My mom had rammed into a huge truck.

My blurry vision could make out a red truck that had stopped moving and other cars honking. Our car kept rolling and finally stopped sideways. It was flipped to the left where the bottle just happened to be.

The bottle was being pushed in my arm further and I screamed in pain. I thought I saw my mom slowly touch my face, but I couldn't be sure. My vision blurred even more, but the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was the family picture that slipped out of my right pocket. I saw the smiling face of my family. My mom and dad weren't high. I was smiling. The picture... perfect.. family...

Rose's POV:
The movie theater was awesome. We watched some stupid soap opera, which reminded me of when I first met Iris, 4 months ago. We ate popcorn and candy, and laughed at the stupid drama, while occasionally sipping from our soda cups.
Far too soon, the movie ended, and Iris had to go home. I hated leaving her everyday to go back to that toxic place, but what else could I do?
So we went back to our homes.
I made dinner for my family, since my mom said she was exhausted and I woke up Clover from his nap. I yelled at Matthew to set the table, and by the time my dad came home at 8pm, dinner was ready, and the kitchen was clean.
I went to be at 11, thinking of Iris and wondering how I could possibly help her situation. Almost immediately I scolded myself, remembering how that always ends up. Everytime I try to help a friend's situation at home, I always make it worse. Just like Eliza...
When I woke up the next morning, which was a Sunday, I saw that my phone had at least 30 notifications. Rolling my eyes, I picked it up, and saw that just about every one of them was from Iris's phone. They were all phone calls, which wasn't like Iris. She usually just called.
Because it was already past noon, I called her back and was answered within a couple seconds.
"Heyy," I greeted, "You called like a bajillion times last night, what's up?" I laughed, but I was honestly nervous. I heard a deep man's voice and I had started panicking. Did Iris get kidnapped? Where was she? Who was this man? Questions ran through my head and I barely made out what the man was saying. "Your friend... car accident... she's in... Red Hope..." I listened carefully, but my ears couldn't make out anything he was saying besides, "Dead."

I screamed as I heard the word and tried to make sense out of everything I heard. Friend was Iris. Iris and car crash. She was in Red Hope? Red Hope? I searched on google to find a few books called Red Hope and.. and OUR LOCAL HOSPITAL! I then could fit everything together. Iris was in a car crash and was at Red Hope Hospital. But... dead. Was she dead?

I rushed downstairs and explained to my mom. She grabbed the keys while I got in the car, and we sped off to the hospital. By the time we got there, both of us were crying. Iris had come over quite a bit, and my mom loved her like a daughter.
We ran to the front desk, and asked if we could see her, and the nurse at the computer told us it was family only. My mom looked defeated, but I rushed and blurted out, "I'm her stepsister, and she's her stepmom - we need to see her, please," A lie, but it was effective. The woman looked hesitant, but after my mom begged, she nodded, and told us what room.
We rushed there to find Iris quiet and blood being transferred into her. I watched her beautiful closed eyes and felt my eyes water again. My mom patted me on the back as I stared at the person that was changing my life. My best friend. My family...

Iris' POV:
"Mommy?" I stared at her eyes. She wasn't normal.. What had happened to her? "Mommy? Why are your eyes like that?" She had come home, sweating and breathing hard. Her pupils were dilated and she awkwardly moved towards me. She looked like a monster. "My babyy-y-y-y.." Her words dragged.