Living on a Time Limit

Chapter 9 ~ Our Old Friend, Death

The musical ended around 15 minutes later, adding onto all of the performers taking a bow and us taking what seemed like forever to get out of the building.

It was dark as we walked back to Ayelet's car, with her still eating her Sour Patch Kids. (Let's be honest, it sounds like a cannibal would come up with that name.)

"That was fun, wasn't it?" she asked as she climbed into the driver's seat of her car.

"Besides me being scared for my life because of the chandelier, yes. Thanks for taking me," I replied, getting into the passenger's seat.

"Of course!"

Before we officially left and went on the road again, Ayelet connected her phone to the car and started to play Phantom of the Opera songs using Spotify, and we both sang along as she drove; me practically screaming and having a voice crack trying to hit the high notes in the theme song, us duetting and putting just the right amount of emotion in both Think of Me and All I Ask of You, and me having flashbacks during The Point of No Return.

"I don't know how I landed such an amazing cousin," I said as the album ended.

"You'll always have me," she replied with a smile.

Around half an hour later, we were on the highway near where we lived as I was looking out the window, admiring the view and all of the lights joining the moon in lighting up the darkness, as Ayelet was paying attention to the road ahead.

My eyes felt heavy as I was starting to get drowsy, struggling to stay awake. I looked over at the infotainment screen for the time; it was nearing 11pm.

I yawned, and my cousin glanced over at me.

"Tired?" she asked.

"Yeah, a bit."

"You can sleep, I'll wake you up when we get there."

"Okay, thanks."

"Mhm."

I leaned my head against the window and fell asleep.

But around 10 minutes later, I was abruptly awoken by screaming.

I couldn't even process what was happening before I felt the car tumble over and glass shatter.

"Oh my God, this is it. My life's gonna be over."

I hit my head against the window frame and passed out.

But, the thing is, my life wasn't over. Yet.

Like the day after I had a panic attack in the park, I woke up an hour and a half later with a pounding headache.

Except I wasn't in my apartment.

I was getting examined by paramedics on a hospital bed outside the back of an ambulance.

I came to my senses, and I scrambled to sit up while the paramedics tried to keep me down.

It was chaos. Multiple police cars and firetrucks were surrounding us, police officers were talking to a man who I didn't know whatsoever, and Ayelet's car was in flaming ruins with firefighters trying to put out the fire.

Wait...Ayelet!

"What happened to my cousin!?" I yelled at the paramedics, and a few of the police officers talking to the man looked at me, then back at him.

"Please, ma'am, calm down..." one of them said, but I wasn't having it.

"I need to know. Please."

The paramedic looked at me with sympathy.

"...No. No, no, no, no, no. There's no way."

I tried escaping, but they still kept me down.

"Ma'am, we need to see if you're okay, so please cooperate."

"I feel fine, please..." I started sobbing, tears rolling down my cheeks.

"You just survived a major car crash, we're making sure of what we need to go over when we get you to the hospital."

"I told you, I feel fine!" I started yelling again.

"Ma'am, we are going to have to give you a sedation if you do not cooperate," the paramedic said, more firmly.

I sighed and reluctantly laid back down, with tears still streaming down my cheeks.

A bit later, I got rolled into the back of the ambulance with bandages wrapped around my wrists and my neck.

Looking up once the doors got closed and I started getting driven to the hospital, I saw a black body bag across from me, leaning against the wall.

I laid back down and covered my mouth with my hand to muffle out my sobs.

"Why couldn't it have been me...?"

I closed my eyes the entire ride, but couldn't seem to fall asleep.

I got rolled into the hospital while the girl in the body bag got taken to the morgue.

After getting checked in and taken to a room, once nobody was there, I took out my phone and started a GPS towards my apartment.

I left everything behind and ran towards the horizon.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

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