Surviving

Chapter One

Surprise! you're alive...

My name is Clara, Clara Home.

I took a bullet for someone who couldn't take a slap for me.

I died because of it, ten minuets ago.

I'm in this bright room now, I can't see anything or hear anything, I can feel myself on a floor, like I'm lying out in the sun with a hand lifted over my face.

I'm confused. I thought I was supposed to meet someone, that there was an afterlife, but I guess not.

My fingers seem to wrap around something both smooth and rough, cool and light. I focus on the object, its fuzzy at first but then it becomes clearer.

It's a leather book.

It's the one from my bedroom, back at home.

How did this get here?

I ask myself.

I try looking around and notice that the light is becoming less painful, and I focus on the brightest portion of it.

Its a window!

I smile, or at least I think I do.

The book in my hands is on some type of sheets, I look down in my slow-motion vision and see what I guessed where sheets.

Could I really have survived the shot?

No, I couldn't have, they watched me die!

We didn't have time to call the cops, I bled to death!

My vision seems to be getting better, and I can make out a chair at the end of the bed I'm on, and the faint sound of a heart monitor "beep! beep!"

But how could I have made it...?

My feet tingle and I wiggle my fingers to open the book cover and skim through the first twenty pages of my life since fourth grade.

Maybe I'm just dreaming...in heaven? Or ...hell...

The thought seems so unlikely, I discard it and focus on getting up and exploring.

I manage to swing my legs over the edge of the bed and the sheets fall off.

A large red and black bandage is exposed and covers up most of my chest.

"Max!! Janice!!!! Get the first aid kit!" Siren screamed after I'd fallen to the ground, she tore through my cloths and wrapped gauze over my chest, over the hole in my chest where part of my lung should have been.

I remember seeing the blood all over everything, and Mathew crying.

"You're going to be just fine Clara." Siren sobbed and wiped my sweating bangs from my forehead.