White as a Sheet

Prologue

PROLOGUE

"Coming!" Lily called back to her mother. 

She hastily tied up her ballet shoes, knotting the thin pink laces. Sprinting down the hallway, as fast as her chubby five-year-old legs could go, she grabbed her hairbrush. 

"Lily Elizabeth Johnston! Get here this instant!" she heard her mum bellow. 

"Yes mummy!" 

She squealed, remembering her good luck charm. She had nearly forgot it! She whipped around to the bench and stood on her tip-toes. Her green eyes peered over the bench-top and her short arms reached as far as possible with fingers outstretched. They closed around something small, round and smooth. She grinned and pulled it down, looking at her palm to check if it was what she wanted. 

It was a piece of rose quartz that her father had smoothened in his rock tumbler. "Hold this in your hand, close your eyes, make a wish and turn it over and over. Then your wish will come true! This little rock also gives you good luck and shows how much hard work can do - this used to be sharp and rough, but now look at it!" she vaguely remembered him explaining and handing it to her with a brilliant smile on his face. 

Lily gripped it in her right hand and ran out the door, slamming it behind her. Her shoulder-length blonde hair whirled around her as she turned to the car, to see her disgruntled mum glaring at her. 

She bit her lip. 

"What are you waiting for?! Get in!" 

Lily nodded obediently and hopped in the seat, which her mother had opened the door for. She buckled her daughter up in the 'baby-seat' and quickly ran around to the passenger seat in the front of the car, next to Lily's father. 

"Pete, go!" she shrieked at him.  

Startled, he pulled the hand-brake and stepped on the accelerator. The car drove out of the driveway and set off down the suburban street. 

Lily sat politely in the back with her hands in her lap and lips pursed, chest still heaving up and down from the rush. She was always a 'good little girl' but when her mother was stressed, let's face it, it was impossible to not get in trouble. 

"Pete, if we're late to this dancing concert, I don't know what I'll do! Can you imagine what the other mums would think of me?! How embarrassing... Can't you go any faster?" her mother's eyebrows knitted themselves into a worried expression, while her hands stayed pressed up against the sides of her face as if they were some sort of shield. 

"I'm sorry Rachel, look! The speed limit's '90' and I'm already going '95'!" he gripped the steering-wheel tightly. "If I go any faster, I'll get booked!" 

She let out a frustrated groan. "Do I look like I care?! I need to get there Pete! Not 'want'. Need!!!" 

"I can't speed up! I've already told you - I'll get booked!" 

"Don't you dare answer me back in front of Lily! I said, go faster!" she enunciated angrily. 

Lily's father slowly increased pressure on the accelerator pedal. The speedometer's hand flickered up to '97 kilometers per hour'. 

Lily watched places blur past her; she watched them leave suburbia and break onto the highway. The scenery changed from gumtrees, cracked sidewalks and fresh grass, to bustling cars, grey roads and the flat line where the sky met the ground. When they got on the highway, she noticed a big yellow triangular sign with a '1' on it and two '0's. She presumed it meant how fast her daddy could go. 

She wondered what it would be like up on stage and if she would be any good. Excited butterflies flew around her stomach and she clutched it, giggling to herself. 

The speed of the car went up to '100'. 

"-Olivia will look all smug and point at her watch and say 'Look at the time. Oh Rachel, is that, er, 40 minutes late again?'" and then she'll laugh her petty laugh!" her mother fretted. "Just get me there, Pete! I don't care how you do it, or what speed limits you break! I need to get there on time!" 

"I can't!" 

"Excuse me? You're telling me you can't?! Weren't the words on our wedding day, '...And care for her...'?! Don't break a vow, Pete!" 

He gritted his teeth and narrowing his eyes, he put more pressure on the accelerator. It now hovered over '101'. 

"Pete, that's not fast enough!" she said, looking at her watch. "We have to get there in five minutes!" 

"Well we're just going to be late then!" 

"That's not going to happen! Faster!" 

Up to '102'. 

"Go!" she screeched. 

To '103'. 

"I'm telling you - faster!" 

'104'. 

"Faster!!" 

'105'.

Things seemed to happen in slow motion from then on - things that would forever be imprinted in Lily's mind: 

Her mother's mouth stretched open into a scream and her eyes were wide and bloodshot.  

Her father took in a breathe in horror and slammed his foot on the brake. 

Lily cried for her mum. 

They jolted forward dangerously as a car came in contact with theirs. Her neck cracked painfully and tears fell down her face.  

She heard glass smash and the fragments splash over them. 

She smelt fresh blood and her vision blurred, she felt the glass pierce her skin. 

She wailed and all she could see was the sparkling red of traffic lights, blood and that terrible, terrible glass. 

Distant sirens signaled that someone was coming.  

She, felt distant... 

Black swallowed her.

Unconscious, she was.

Alive, she hoped.