What Lies Beyond the Earth

Chapter 1 ~ Stella

"Miss Attkinson, how are you feeling?"

I didn't want Detective Sullivan's empathy. I wanted answers.

"Where are my friends?" I replied. This time I didn't want to sound as hostile. "They were in the car with me, where are they!?" The hostility rose.

A look of frightenedness, sympathy, and shame appeared across his face all at the same time. He had performed this talk before, I knew that, but this, this was different.

"Oh, Stel", he said with a distinct sadness in his voice. "Do you remember anything about Tuesday night?"

Tuesday night? I thought. How long was I out?

"I remember being at the diner with Miri, Jude, Danny and Jackson, then leaving shortly after Xander tried to fight Jackson after threatening Danny. I remember getting in the car with them, and then I started listening to music." Guns N' Roses had somehow calmed me down. "After that, it's extremely hazy. Please answer me Detective, are they ok!!?"

He didn't want to tell me, but you can't avoid the inevitable.

***

There was this one day, a few months before. I was waiting for Dad to pick me up from school - I didn't have my license quite yet. Miri had driven off in a hurry, and so had Jude, so I was alone. I had other friends, but lately there was so much gossip and hatred and overall drama happening everywhere I looked, I was sticking with Jude and Miri. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kelly Fernandez try to prove to a tour group passing by that her boobs weren't fake (a wad of toilet paper, maybe socks, and half a Nerf football - I had seen Megan Nicholson do it in the bathroom).

Finally, he drove up. He proceeds to tell me that he's proud of me and thinks that I've been doing well in school, which was weird considering he hadn't really been talking all that much lately. Then we reach our house, he opens the door, and...

"SURPRISE!!!"

Turns out my birthday had been a few days away.
I see Miri at the center of the surprisers (the usual suspects).

"Mirabella Rosa Santiago!"

"What, you didn't think I could forget your birthday, now did you?"

Miri can shoot daggers at you with her dark hazel eyes, and can also shame you by flipping her dark, luscious curls. She was badass, and I loved her for it.

I see my mom in the back, trying to hide the fact that she's about to go cut the cake. "Do you like it sweatheart?"

"I love it, mom. And I love everyone here!"

"And we love you." Jude replies. We did love each other, just not like the others.

Then, the dreaded, but also loved, Attkinson family group hug.

Suddenly, Danny pushes through the hug, stabbing people on the way with his red worn out Yankees cap.
"Can we eat cake now!?"
Dad, whose trying not to laugh, unlike the rest of us, picks him up like an airplane shouting "To the cake, we fly!"

We then proceeded to the backyard to eat the cake, and they sang for me. It did not sound very good, but I loved it from the bottom of my heart. It wasn't until later that I would understand just how much.

We continued to eat, and talk, and laugh until the sun was no longer watching us from the sky.

***

He sighed a deep sigh, then spoke.

"Stella, you were in the car with all of them, with Jackson driving, but he didn't drive for very long."

"Wh-what?" I stuttered, the tears were already coming.

"As he was driving, a motorcycle was recklessly driving the other way. He made a giant swerve, and right after Jackson was able to see it coming through the fog, it was too late."

"No. No!" I tasted the tears.

"I was part of the team that found you. We found you, Miri, and Danny in the backseat. You were found unconscious and immediately rushed to the ER. Miri was conscious when we found her, but she was loosing too much blood. Her head had banged against the windshield. They were thinking of declaring her brain dead, but I told them no. There is a microscopic possibility that she might wake up, though it is very unlikely.

"Danny was unconscious. He also had suffered tremendous head damage. After being transported to the ER, many procedures were done. They tried to save him, but they just couldn't do it."

"The motorcycle hit the drivers side of the car, towards Miri and Danny, and Jackson. He died right when it hit him."

I guess he figured giving it to me straight would be easier. It wasn't.

I couldn't move.
I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, of punch the wall, or run to the corner and cry loudly, but I just couldn't move.

"I'm so sorry Stella."

I could no longer hold it in. I was balling.

"EVERYONE'S DEAD!" I screamed. "IF I HAD ONLY DONE SOMETHING DIFFERENT, MAYBE - "

"Wait! Wait. Jude is in critical condition, but he's not dead."

"Can I talk to him!!? PLEASE LET ME
TALK TO HIM!!"

"He's still alive, but he's currently in a coma. I'm so sorry, Stel." I was no longer the only one crying.

My body grew limp, and I feel into Detective Sullivan's arms, who held me as I continued to cry, and cry, and cry. At this point, I wished I was dead too.

And then I remembered, Xander drove a motorcycle.