Save Us

Prologue : Hope

What happened to me? The old me. Happy me. What happened? My name is Hope. I'm 22 years old and I'm sad. I live in an apartment which isn't big.

There are many hanging photographs on the walls. One of them is my family photo and the rest ... The rest are just photographs. It was supposed to be photographs with all the happy memories but now ... when I look at it, there is only sadness and pain.

Those photographs they hold the memories of my deceased friends. I have four close friends. Ena, Maya, Ember and Mallory. We were all of the same age. We went to the same high school and graduated together. We made so many happy memories.

However, all these memories are no longer happy. All of them are gone. Three of them are dead and one more is missing. I am all alone now. How did they die?

Maya died when all of us were on vacation. We were on a ferry. We planned the trip for a while and were extremely excited for it. What was supposed to be a great day ended up becoming the opposite. The ferry was sinking.

It had tilted on its side and everyone was panicking. The room we were in started to fill up with water fast. My friends and I were racing to the exit to get to the deck. We made it but the door was stuck.

None of us understand how Maya somehow got herself tangled with a few fallen luggage. I tried to help her but the luggage was really tangled up. I was able to help her keep afloat when the water was rising.

The room was soon filled with water. We were lucky there was still some space near the ceiling. I helped Maya to stay afloat but I was getting tired and felt like being weighted down. My other friends helped out but were pushed away. Maya pushed me away. Her body soon started to sink down. My friends tried to stop her but she only said "Don't. I will just be a burden. The rescue team is not going to save us anyway."

We watched as her body drowned. Not long after that we heard the rescue team. The rest of us were saved. We cried until there were no tears. If only Maya had waited longer, she could be saved. The pain of loosing her still hurts until now.

Ember on the other hand died in a fire. Her house went up in flames when she was asleep. By the time she knew about the fire, it was too late. The smoke was too thick and she started having trouble breathing. By the time firefighters arrived, she was found dead. The source of the fire is still unknown to this day.

Some theorized it was because of a gas leak but I think it was murder. Someone must have want her dead. Why? I don't know. All I know was Ember used to have many enemies back in high school.

What about Mallory? She died in a car accident. Mallory was crossing the road when a speeding car just crashed straight into her. Her body was knocked down hard. When the ambulance arrived, they pronounced her death. As for the speeding car, no one knows. The speeding car just sped away from the scene and was never seen again.

One by one my friends left me. The only other friend I had was Ena but she ... went missing. Not long after Mallory's death, she went missing. I couldn't contact her. She was no longer leaving in her small house. There was no trace of her.

Now, I'm all alone. All of my friends are gone. Their deaths occur close to each other. After Maya's death, few months later Ember died. Few months after Ember's funeral, Mallory died. Few weeks after that, Ena went missing.

It's been a year since their deaths but ... I still haven't move on. One year went by like a snap of a finger. Now, I'm just standing in front of their graves holding a bunch of flowers.

"I miss all of you," I said to their graves. It is a pain to see their graves. It was the same kind of pain when I was at their funeral.

"I wish I can go back in time and be with all of you. Or even save all of you.

"I wish I can go back in time."