Guardian Angel

Saving a life

Chloe:

Months later I was spending the day with Ben and Lucy. We had spent the morning at the zoo and were now on our way to the mall in Ben's car. Lucy was sleeping in the backseat and I was texting Beca. After sending her a little update on what we wanted to do next, I was looking out the window, people in the streets rushing by. A little while later Ben parked the car on one of the parking lots of the mall. We got out and I gently woke up Lucy to get her out of her car seat. Lucy took one of my hands and one of Ben's and we entered the mall when I noticed I had left my bag, with my wallet in it, in the car.

"Hey, uhm, I forgot my bag in the car. Can you give me the keys so I can go get it?" I asked my brother.

"Yeah, sure. Here." He handed me the keys to his car. "We'll be waiting here for you."

I let go of Lucy's hand and jogged towards the parking lot. After I had gotten my bag from the car, I found myself on my way back inside. Right when I wanted to enter, the door handle already in my hand, I was thrown back through the air with thousands of little pieces of glass. I landed a few feet away from the door, pieces of glass raining down on my body. My vision was blurry and all I could hear for several minutes was a loud beeping in my ear. Once my vision had cleared a little bit and my mind started working properly again, I thought about my brother and my niece. I got up and walked towards where the door had been, now just a big hole in the wall. People came running out, some of them screaming and injured. I ran inside to find Ben and Lucy, but I was met with a maze of debris. The windows of every shop I could see were either cracked or completely destroyed. As I tried to make my way through to the spot where Ben and Lucy wanted to wait for me, I heard glass crunching under my feet with every step I took. I barely reached the spot where they had been waiting. The bench they had been sitting on, was buried under a huge piece of concrete that had been the ceiling a few minutes earlier. I covered my open mouth with one of my hands in shock.

"Ben, Lucy! Where are you?" I screamed from the top of my lungs. I could hear someone crying and crouched down to see where it was coming from. My heart stopped for moment when I saw Lucy, Ben was covering her body with his. They were lying under the bench they had been waiting on. Ben was unconscious, his legs trapped under the piece of concrete that had fallen. It had been stopped by a wall of one of the raised flower beds and was lying at an angle. Lucy was crying bitterly, her whole body shaking.

"Chloeee." She cried my name when she saw me. She wiggled herself out of my brother's grip and crawled towards me, squeezing through the little hole I had been looking through before. Once she was out, I tightly wrapped my arms around her. She was still crying, shouting after her dad. I couldn't stay here with her, but I also didn't want to leave my brother behind. Desperation washed over me. I didn't know what to do. I took a few deep breaths and decided to head outside with Lucy. Tears were rolling down my face as I carried Lucy towards the exit, pressing her against my body firmly. Outside I sank to the floor. I was kneeling in front of the mall, Lucy in my lap, still crying. I tried to calm her down and I could hear sirens in the distance. When I looked up from trying to calm her down the next time, I saw Beca and Luke running towards me. Beca fell down to her knees, hugging me tightly, kissing my forehead.

"Oh my God, Chloe! You're okay."

"We are, but Ben..." I cried. "He's still in there... I couldn't help him; he's trapped under a huge piece of concrete!" A loud cry of desperation left my body.

I could see Luke running into the mall, Beca got up and tried to stop him, but he had already entered. A few minutes later the firefighters were just preparing themselves to go inside, there were several loud crashing sounds and cloud of dust rolled through the hole in the wall, where the door of the mall had been.

"Beeeeeeen!" A heart wrenching cry left my body. I was sure, he couldn't have survived that. Beca engulfed me in her arms, pressing me to her body tightly.

The firefighters entered the mall and one of them came out a few minutes later, carrying a lifeless body. As he came closer, walking towards the ambulance, the paramedics rushing in his direction, I could tell it was my brother. I put Lucy down beside Beca and got up, quickly rushing towards him.

"Ben! That's my brother!" I told the paramedics, who were pushing my brother into the ambulance on the stretcher.

"Is he...?" I didn't dare to ask the whole question. They told me he was alive, but severely injured.

Another firefighter came outside, carrying a body. It was a man, wearing a police uniform. The firefighter put him down and paramedics rushed to help the lifeless body. After a few moments one of them left and came back with a body bag. The firefighter that had brought him out, was talking to Beca and a few seconds later, I saw her breaking down, sinking to her knees. Loudly sobbing. Since I couldn't help my brother at the moment anyway, I decided to rush over to Beca, to see what was going on.

"Beca, what happened?!" I put an arm around her, stroking her back.

"Luke, he.. he's dead." She said with a lump in her throat. "One of the firefighters told me he found him crushed under some piece of concrete, close to where they found your brother. He saved Ben's life and now he's dead." She started crying and my heart broke.

I didn't know what to say so I just hugged her and Lucy, who was still crying next to Beca, for what felt like ages. Eventually Beca's sobs subsided and she pulled away.

"You two have to be checked out by paramedics too." She said sniffling. Beca got up and walked towards a team of paramedics, who were just packing up their stuff.

"These two need to be checked out as well." She motioned to me and Lucy.

The paramedics came over with their emergency backpack and started examining Lucy first. A few minutes later they told me that she wasn't injured, just in shock and gave her some candy for being 'so brave'. They examined me, but apart from some scratches and a small cut on my cheek, I was uninjured. Since I didn't need stitches for the cut, they just cleaned it and put a band-aid over it. They also cleaned the scratches on my arms and legs and then left.

I was left with Beca and Lucy.

"Come on. I'll get you two home." Beca put an arm around my shoulders and guided me to the police car, while I was carrying Lucy. She drove us home and Lucy and I got out. Beca noticed my concerned look.

"I have to go back to the station. Tell my boss that Luke is... And finish my shift." She stated.

"Becs, please..." I pleaded.

"Chloe, I can't just stay here with you. I have to go back and at least tell my boss what happened!" She sounded angry. I knew she had to do it.

Beca drove away and I went inside with Lucy. I bathed her and got changed myself. She asked where her dad was about a thousand times before it was time for her to go to bed. I put her to sleep in our bed and got in beside her. I stroked her hair until she was fast asleep and stayed by her side, so she wasn't alone in case she would wake up. I fell asleep a few minutes later.

When I woke up the next morning and Beca wasn't lying next to me, I was worried. Lucy was still sleeping next to me, so I decided to go downstairs to see if Beca had even come home. I saw her while walking down the stairs. She was lying on the couch, still fast asleep, an empty bottle of whiskey next to her.

"Oh, Beca..." I sighed heavily. I walked over to her and carefully took the empty bottle from her hand. She had red cheeks and puffy eyes. I could tell she had been crying. I poured her a glass of water and placed it on the coffee table, together with two pain killers. I went back upstairs, to see if Lucy was up yet. Just when I entered the bedroom I saw Lucy slowly waking up.

"Auntie Chloe?" She turned around, her eyes searching the room.

"I'm right here, sweetie." I walked over to her and hugged her tightly.

"Can we visit dad in the hospital?" She asked, sadness present in her voice.

"Of course we can visit him, sweetie."

I helped Lucy to get ready and then got ready myself. Beca was still passed out on the couch, so I left her a note telling her where we were.