Journey Toward Me (Not Yet Edited)

Chapter 25: Hospital Truths

Hazel's POV

My eyes were clenched shut. Was I dead? Was I alive? I touched my body feeling for any bullet wounds. Surprisingly there were none. Maybe I was in shock. I was afraid to open my eyes for they are the window to the soul. The window to my truth.

Slowly my lids let go of the vice grip they had on my eyes. Rodney stood before me, bleeding perfusely from his arm with a smoking gun in his hand. I looked down and there Blu lie with several shots to the head and back. His cold dead eyes stared up at me. Taunting me. Saying look at what you did to me. 

I looked away from those intense eyes. Even death couldn't take the intensity away from them.

Without a backward glance, I reached for Rodney and we climbed the stairs hand in hand finally leaving  the past behind us. It was finally over.

As we made it to the front door, police vehicles and ambulances followed our trail to the house and to our rescue. The red and blue lights clashing before the bright pink sunrise willed us all to wake up from this 17 year daze. I was alive for the first time. Given my first breath of freedom. No longer consumed with the chains of the past. I was free.

Even when the ambulance carried me away with broken bones.

Even when it took away Rodney with a bullet in his arm.

Camille with a baby born in terrible circumstances.

Essence confused and wanting to know where it all began.

Blu forever gone in a black body bag sealing his fate.

I still saw the light at the end of the tunnel. We were still living. We had our lives ahead of us. This journey may have been long and treacherous, but in my heart I believed it was all for a reason.

******

The sound of the beeping heart monitor was deafening. I couldn't believe I was back in this place again. Too soon was an understatement.

I looked down at my best friend as she rested. It had been two days since the whole incident with that man. Camille had confessed to the police about what she did to her father before passing out in my arms at the mansion. I couldn't believe Bubba went t jail for her. Even if it was just for a little while, that act showed how much he cared for her.

In my mind and my heart I held so many questions. So many questions about Camille and her situation.  About that man  and my mother's relationship. About my mother in general. What had she been involved in? Who was she really? Where did this all begin? 

I was broken from my thoughts by a knock on the door. It was Amani bearing flowers. For a moment my heart stopped beating in my chest. I couldn't lie and say the love I had for him had diminished. Because it hadn't. I still loved his corny ass accent. Those dimples. That laugh. The way he'd hold me when I felt down. Even that strange ass nickname he got for me. I loved him and everything he came with. Fuck India and her bullshit. This experience has made me realize that life is short. Why spend it crying because of a little bump in the road. He was my man. And I was his girl. No doubt about it.

We gazed into each other's eyes from across the room willing the other to make the first move. I stood and he walked slowly toward me. We were magnetic. The attraction we had for each other was a simmering skillet. And I was hot. 

When we finally reached one another in the middle of the room, Amani reached out and caressed my cheek. I closed my eyes savoring the feel of his hands on my body. "Essence I'm so sorr-" He began but I shut him up with a mouth watering kiss. I had already forgiven him. No need to dwell in the past.