Quiet Enlightenment

Finale, Chapter 3 - Shattered

The doors flew open to the local hospital's intensive-care unit as two people frantically ran in. They arrived at the nurse's station.

"Yes, how can I help you?"

"My name's Graham. Graham Kleve. This is my wife, Jane. Our daughter was brought in here earlier."

"Yes, there are doctors working on her right now. The waiting room is right around the corner. Please have a seat in there and they will be with you shortly."

Graham and his wife slowly walked around the corner, almost in a daze. They entered the room where Cameron was sitting by himself. When he saw them, he got up and immediately hugged Mrs. Kleve as the two tried to fight back tears.

"Mr. and Mrs. Kleve?" the doctor said as he walked into the room. The two parents immediately walked over to him.

"First of all, I have to say that you two should be thanking whatever deity you believe in. For someone being hit with a car going at that speed, Mia's condition, while very serious, is nowhere near as bad as it could be."

Mr. Kleve reached under his glasses and wiped away a few tears as the doctor continued.

"From the impact, several ribs were fractured and punctured her right lung. That is our major concern right now."

Cameron, overhearing this, felt his stomach turn as the doctor continued.

"On top of that, both of her legs and her collar-bone have sustained multiple fractures. We've got her sedated now, but she's going to have a long and painful recovery, I'm afraid."

"Will she be able to walk again?" Mrs. Kleve quietly asked.

"It's far too early to tell."

Mrs. Kleve knew what that meant as she buried her face into his husband's chest and started crying. Kenton walked into the room and past them.

"How are you doing?" Kenton asked as Cameron looked down at the floor.

"Broken ribs. Punctured lung. And she might be in a wheelchair... for... life." Cameron explained as he felt himself starting to cry. Kenton wrapped his arm around him and the two sat there in silence until the mid-evening.

The clock was barely past five-thirty when Charmaine walked into the waiting room with dinner for her son, his friend, and the Kleves.

"Thank you so much, Charmaine." Mrs. Kleve said as she hugged her daughter's former school secretary. Before any more thanks could be given, an officer walked into the waiting room.

"Sorry to interrupt. Are you Mia Kleve's parents?"

"Yeah, we are." Graham said, ready to argue if the officer had the audacity to accuse his suffering daughter of any wrong-doing. When Cameron saw the policeman, his thoughts went briefly to the girl who they were pursuing and had gotten away.

"The driver has turned himself into custody and admitted to us that he was distracted by the eclipse when your daughter entered the roadway."

"But what in the world was she doing in the road? Was it... was it a suicide attempt?" Mrs. Kleve asked.

"No. Actually, your daughter heroically pushed a girl out of the way of the car. The girl was actually a missing person from Hollywood. We have her in custody."

"Oh, there better be a good story behind this..." Mr. Kleve said as he turned around towards the spot where Kenton and Cameron were sitting. To his surprise, the seats were empty.

Back at Cameron's house, Sylvester sat in the living room by himself when the door opened with a slam.

"Hey... how's Mia doing? They took Maya aw-" Sylvester tried to ask before a fist in his eye derailed the line of questioning.

"YOU IDIOT. MIA WILL BE IN A WHEELCHAIR BECAUSE OF YOU AND YOUR STUPID GIRLFRIEND." Cameron screamed as he grabbed his cousin and pinned him against the wall in anger.

Sylvester tried to cower down as the area around his eye started to swell.

"BROKEN RIBS AND A PUNCTURED LUNG. AND A COLLAR BONE. SHE'S SUFFERING AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. NOW YOU'RE GOING TO FEEL WHAT IT'S LIKE."

Cameron raised his fist with the intent of starting with Sylvester's collar-bone. Before anything could happen, another set of hands restrained him.

"Cameron, stop!" Kenton yelled as Sylvester scurried away.

"LET ME GO! SOMEONE HAS TO PAY FOR THIS!"

"Cameron. Please listen to me. What happened wasn't Sylvester, or Maya, or even Mia's fault."

Cameron, frustrated with no outlet, let out a scream before falling down on his knees and sobbing harder than he ever had in his life. Without hesitation, Kenton wrapped his arms around him.

Back at the hospital, the Kleves walked into the small section of the intensive-care unit designated for Mia. Mr. Kleve saw his daughter hooked up to the machines and had to look away for a moment. Mrs. Kleve, being the braver of the two, walked over and stroked her daughter's hair gently.

"I wonder if she's at least having a peaceful dream..."

?

"KER-THUMP!"

"What... what is going on?" Mia mumbled as she woke up from her slumber. She yawned as she fumbled around on her nightstand until she found her phone. As she turned the screen on, she felt like something was odd. Almost like she was holding her phone, but at the same time it wasn't her phone.

As the familarity of her phone's wallpaper came to her, she dropped the phone in shock when she saw the date: June 18, 2014.