Falling Through The Surface *Completed*

Bradley- Handled

The phone dropped from my ear, and clattered on the floor. Out of my peripherals I could see the back fall of and the battery crack onto the tiled floor but I couldn't even make myself try to worry about it. I couldn't process, I couldn't think, I couldn't move.

The breath wheezed out of me with a strangled whisper," Layla."

And suddenly everything became crystal clear, my view so surreal I felt as if I was in a dream. A nightmare. My feet moved, I sprinted to my car. But it felt like I was moving through neck high water. I couldn't go fast enough.

The car purred steadily beneath me, but I was anything but stable as I revved it, I squealed out of the drive way and raced down the road to the highway. I weaved around cars who went at the speed limit.

When I screeched into the parking lot and slammed to a stop in one of the empty spaces. I didn't even bother locking the doors or pulling the keys out of the slot. I dashed through the sliding door and stopped in front of the secretary. She gave my disheveled appearance a once over before pursing her pink lips and flipping her hair over her shoulder," How can I help you?" She asked in an overly high pitched voice.

"Layla Clancy. I need to see her."

She clacked away at her computer and I tapped my shoe in impatience, I couldn't stay still. My eyes flicked around, examining every corner of the sterile room.

She looked back up at me suddenly, and her gaze was sympathetic," Come with me, Hun." She came out from behind the counter and gently grabbed my arm in her soft hand. I shakily let her led me down a few white hallways. They all blurred together. I felt something pricking at my heart.

We got to one room and she stopped, leveling her pitying brown eyes on me.

"Hun, be careful. Please don't do anything rash, or you will be removed. I hope she gets better for the sake of all the people in there."

The door opened and I shoved my way in.

First I saw Hunter, my uncle. He was crouched beside the white bed. His eyes were bloodshot but he wasn't currently crying. Julie glanced up but locked eyes with me when she realized I was here. I absently went over to her. She grabbed my arm and buried her face into it. Unconsciously my hand smoothed over her black hair.

Karsen sat in a plush chair in the corner. He though, didn't move from his position when the door opened. He had his elbows on his thighs and his face in his hands. He was in hospital garb and with a bandage around his head.

My sight moved back to Hunter and followed the arm up to his pale hand which was enfolded around another feminine darker hand with multiple cords stuck  in the frail wrist. My eyes flew up the cords to a small elbow with blue veins. Finally going up to her face.

Layla looked like a little angel. Her caramel hair framing her face and full pink lips parted. Her eyes were closed, the eyelids a perfect light peach and her long back lashes making crescents on her cheeks.

That's when my brain connected the real image. She also had gauze wrapped securely around her head, and she had a collar around her throat. A dark blue cast encased her left leg all the way up to her mid thigh. Her toes peaked through, painted pink, the gloss shining in the bright lights that marred my eyes.

I cried.