Love, Cecelia

Prologue

~February 2022~

I scream.

But I don't know why i scream. Everything is happening so fast.

Now it's still.

Completely still.

I am head over i think. I am slowly opening my eyes.

Our car flipped over.

No, no, no.

I force my head to the driver's seat but the pain on my shoulder pulls me back.

Glasses surrounding me.

I wince at the pain shooting through me.

A sharp piece of glass on my shoulder.

"Mom, dad" i say breathlessly

"I didn't see it coming. Im sorry" my dad says, his voice full of pain and his face full of blood.

"It's okay" my mom says, tears down her cheeks, her body trapped, chest to legs.

I force my free hand, to take hers.

We are the three of us trapped, none of us able to reach a phone, or get out of the car.

I think i smell smoke.

And it's getting hot, really hot.

The car is on fire.

Mom is bleeding a lot.

I think i am going to faint.

Suddenly sirens, red, and blue lights are what i hear and see.

"Help is here, please hold on" i try to make her stay.

"It's okay" she smiles.

I wake up gasping.

Gasping for a breath, for air.

I sit up and run my hands in my sweaty hair, my forehead also sweaty, trying to catch my breath.

I check the clock on my night stand.

5am. March 13th.

I decide to get up, walk to the bathroom, and wash my face with cold water.

These nightmares always come at this day.

I get ready, putting on my workout leggings, a matching black workout bra and run out of the house.

I run up and down the block and to the beach. After a solid hour, i come back, more sweaty and breathless than i woke up to.

The nightmare almost forgotten again.

I turn the TV on in my bedroom for a background noise and my attention is caught when the news narrator talks about a war.

A new war.

In Ukraine.

I stop from what I'm doing and I look at the TV for a while when soldiers are kissing their wives goodbye, to join the army.

Then a little girl brings a flower to her dad and I tear up.

I can't even imagine what is like losing family, friends or even your home.

No, I actually do.

I decide to get in the shower, washing away the remaining of the dream and i frown when i brush the sponge over my scar on my left shoulder.