DAZED AND CONFUSED | VANCE HOPPER

.Chapter 08.

I WAS BARRELING DOWN THE HILL TO THE MAIN ROAD, barely keeping myself up as the effects of my poor choices hit my muslces like a relaxed truck.

"Emma!" I called, hair flying.

Vance raced after me, just as clumsy as I, fumbling through the unmowed grass, skipping over gravestones.

"Do you know her?" A man asked, voice shaky and paralyzed, pointing at the bent bike on the blacktop, my little sister lying limp beside it.

I screamed. "Emma, Emmaline! Wake up Emma!"

The man had long, scraggly brown hair, with glasses. His vehicle was a black van, pulled over to the side of the road, the front of it dented in slightly.

"Oh ma'am I-I'm so sorry-" he stuttered, following me straight to my sister.

I fell to my knees and began shaking her. "Emma, Emma, Emma. Wake up Emma! I know you can't hear me but for once-"

She didn't move. Blood matted the back of her blonde hair, spilling dark into the blacktop. Her body was twisted and broken, lifeless eyes staring up at me.

I choked on my sobs, and turned to look at Vance. He wasn't there. Instead, he was running towards the gas station about a hundred yards away, screaming for help.

"Oh God," the man said, chewing his nails. "I'm so sorry."

I glared at him and stood. "That's all you have to say?"

He blinked at me, then looked at Emmaline on the ground. "I don't know what you want me to say... she came out of nowhere I couldn't see her- I honked my horn but my breaks didn't stop in time."

"She's deaf, fucker!" I lunged at him, trying to throw him to the curb, instead I lurched him back into the hood of his van.

"Oh," he grabbed my shoulders and tried to push me off of him.

She should have felt the vibration of the horn, she knows better. She wouldn't have let this happen. He did this on purpose.

"Yeah 'oh'. You did this! You fucking killed her!" I shot, banging my fists into his chest.

Tears were falling faster than I could think. My cheeks and chin were soaked and I sucked in hard breaths.

The man took this as a chance to get me off, leaning me against the other side of the car.

"Look kid, whatever this is, I didn't mean to do it." He said, voice steady, talking to me as if I were a child.

"But you did." I punched the hood of his van. "You did, you killed her, you sick bastard!"

The cop cars rolled in, one by one, until there were four. I didn't even realize the sirens had sounded. Then an ambulance.

The first cop got out of his car, and ran towards my sister, waiting for the paramedics.

Another cop came over to me, holding my shaking shoulders as I sobbed.

"What happened?" He asked, looking at me, talking slowly.

"He- he hit my sister, with the van... isn't that obvious? Save her! Save her!" I cried.

The cop shook his head. "We're trying. Did you see it happen?"

"No, I only heard it. T-the boy who called, uh- Vance, Vance Hopper, he heard it too." I stuttered, blinking tears back.

He nodded. "Okay, what's your name? And what's the girl's name?"

"I'm Vivian Wylie, and- and she's Emmaline Wylie." Breathing in, I steadied my breath better.

"Ma'am, are you high?" the cop asked, staring at my eyes.

I nodded slowly. "That's not important, my sister is dead!"

A paramedic came behind the officer and whispered something in his ear, to which the man frowned. I looked past them, though, to the stretcher holding my sister. My sister in a body bag.

I fell to my knees, the tears coming in a flood once again. The officer knelt down to my level.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Who are you parents?"

Everything faded into nothing.