My Witch of an Aunt (Emily's Original)

Chapter 9

I'm sitting in the hospital waiting room. I was able to get a ride in the ambulance, my mom has driven up here and I was able to convince her to let me stay. Lexi is sitting next to me a hand on my shoulder (I claimed she was another friend that heard about the news). Lexi's dirty blond hair is covered in dust from the debris of Bre's house and the white letters on her sweatshirt are now a light tan. My hands are covered in blood. Bre's blood. My jeans are covered in blood and mud and my black t-shirt is the same. I open up the group chat:

A: Guys, what's going on?

M: I don't know.

S: Hey, guys, you need to get to the hospital now.

A: Oh no what happened?!

M: Sally are you ok?!

S: I'm fine, Bre's not

Her house was destroyed in the fire. She was injured and her mom is dead.

A: On my way now!

M: I'll be right there Sally.

"So they're coming?" Lexi asks as I put my phone down. "Yeah," I wipe the remaining tears from my eyes. I can't lose this nagging feeling that Bre might die. What if she does? What would I do? What would everyone who knew her do? "Would you two like a cookie?" A nurse walks up to us holding two cookies. "Yes please." Lexi and I take the cookies, "Thanks." The nurse has red hair and bright green eyes. She turns to my mom, "I will need to take these two for a moment. Just for a quick check-up to make sure they're ok." My mom shrugs, "Ok, you girls come straight back ok?" I nod as the nurse takes us into a room that looks like one you'll find in your doctor's office. "Why are we here?" Lexi asks as she sits down in a chair in the corner, "Breanna's the one who got hurt." "We just need to double-check. You're probably high on adrenalin right now so you could be hurt and not even know it." The nurse checks our heartbeat, temperature, and reflexes separately and we're done in about ten minutes.

Lexi and I enter the waiting room to find Max and Addie there. I run up and Addie pulls me into a hug, "Oh my god, Sally are you ok? Is Bre ok? What happened?" "I'm fine. We haven't gotten an update on Bre yet." Damn it. I'm tearing up again. I turn to Max and he says nothing as he pulls me into a hug. He kisses my head and runs his hand through my hair. After a minute we break apart and I feel all my blood rush to my face. Lexi and Addie are talking together. "Sally," aw crap, I haven't told my mom about Max. I sit two seats away from her, "Yeah?" Her eyes are full of rage and scare me half to death, "Who is that?" She nods towards Max. "We- Um, he-" I avert my eyes and gulp, "His name's Max. I-I talked about him before, remember? We- uh, we just recently got together." My mom's face darkens like she's about to snap, "I hope he breaks your heart." I'm taken aback by her words. My mom looks away from me, "Go talk to your friends." The way she says that makes my skin crawl. I quickly leave my mom's side and practically run into Max. "Sorry," I mumble. "It's ok," Max squeezes my hand and I realize he was close enough to hear my mom. We walk back to Lexi and Addie.

Finally after thirty minutes of waiting a nurse finally walks up to us, "Breanna is awake, she's in room 495. You may see her but, please, don't overwhelm her." "Thank you," I say as I practically run through the doors and down the halls. I see a sign labeled "Rooms 450-500" and slow to a walk. The others catch up with me. "Jesus Sally," Addie pants as she reaches me, "I know you're worried but slow down!" Finally, I reach Bre's room. I calm myself down and walk through the doors. Bre is laying on the hospital bed with a hospital gown on. She has multiple stitches and a cast on her left leg. There are visible tear stains on her face. "Bre?" I reach the side of her bed and sit down. Bre turns her head to look at me, "Hey guys." Her voice sounds so weak and it makes my heart ache. My eyes start tearing up again, but I blink them away. "How are you holding up?" I hear Addie ask from behind me. Bre looks away, "My mom's dead, isn't she. I saw her. No one could've survived that." I hesitate but Bre's smart. She already knows. Tears run down her face, "Why couldn't I just die in the storm?" "Bre, don't say that!" I raise my voice without realizing it. "I told my mom about the storm, she didn't listen," Bre is now staring off into space as more tears roll down her cheeks, her voice starts to break, "She said she was getting ingredients together to make my favorite meal. She wanted to make it for me, just to be nice. If I didn't exist that wouldn't have happened and she would still be living." Addie pulls Max and me to the side, "Let me handle this, please. I-I'll come to get you once she calms down." I hesitate but Max grabs my hand and leads me out of the room.

We sit down in the chairs across from the door. Max puts his arm around me and I lay my head against his shoulder. Against my wishes, I start crying again. Max lays his head against mine and whispers, "It's going to be ok." "B-but," I say through tears, "W-What if something happens? 250,000 people a year die from medical error. And if she does make it, what if she never returns to her pre-accident self? I know she will never forget this and she will be different but, what if she- W-w-what if she-?" Max kisses the top of my head again, "You're right, she's going to be different. But she won't be so different she's unrecognizable. After you lose a loved one you never fully recover but you move on. And if she becomes depressed to the point at which she might harm herself, we will make sure she gets the help she needs, ok?" I nod my head and attempt to stop the tears which are currently pretty much drowning me. Addie walks out of the room with a half-smile on her face. I dry the rest of my tears and look up at her. "She's sleeping right now. We can come back tomorrow. It's already ten so we should probably be getting home and going to bed."

The car ride home is silent. I sit in the back of the car, farthest from my mom. When we finally get home I run into my room before my mom can say anything. I sit down on my bed and think about how crazy the last 24 hours have been. How much my mom has changed, how fast my life has turned upside down. I went from loving my mom to being scared of her in like what? Two days? Wait, my mom has changed so quickly, about the same time that Skylee possessed me. Did- did you change my mom? I hear laughter echoing through my head. What did you do?! You shouldn't think too hard. I wouldn't want you to get hurt. More laughter. This doesn't sound good.

I'm standing outside at recess. I look around, Skylee is in front of me, I can't move. I start puking up what looks like blue blood. My mom appears out of nowhere and hugs Skylee. She looks at me, eyes full of anger, "Kill her." I hear Max scream, "SALLY!!!" Black.