Black Mountain

Chapter One

Sophia

I was in the back seat of my mom's car as we sped down the highway. My dad was driving and signing show toons with my mom in the passenger seat as loudly as possible while my sister and I laughed uncontrollably in the back. My newest first place medal hung around my neck. Life was good. Suddenly my sister, sitting next to me in the back seat, turns to me. She's no longer laughing. 

"Why?" she asks, her beautiful blue doe eyes gazing at me. Pleading. 

"Why what?"

"Why did you survive?" 

Before I can ask her what she means the car jerks to the right. I look up just in time to see a figure in the middle of the highway and then the car is flying off the road, rolling several times.

I'm flitter in and out of a sea of blackness. We're upside down. Pain is blooming in my chest. I can't feel my right leg. 

"Mom!" My voice is weak even to my ears and I choke on a cough. "D-dad."

Neither of them answer. 

"Why?" 

I turn to my sister who has blood staining her pretty blonde hair and glass in her forehead. 

"Why did you survive?" she asks again.

I'm was jerked awake by the sounds of my own screams as I jackknifed up in bed. It was just a dream, I told myself. Clutching my head in my hands I tried to center myself in the moment, like the therapist back home taught me. Blue comforter. Wooden floor. White walls. Pink underwear. Green shirt. Sweat had gathered on my forehead and I swept a hand through my hair.

I clicked the light on my bed side table on and checked my watch for the time. 2 am. As my breathing began to slow again I gazed on my table. It was the picture of my mom, dad, sister and I at my last meet. Mom and my sister had a sign for me and my I was on my dad's back. Just two hours before accident. 

I closed my eyes and tried to breath deeply. Every night since the accident. The same dream. Why had I been the one to survive. Why not them? 

If the exercises from the therapist didn't work to center me, the dull ache in my leg from thrashing about never failed to. 

When I had come to in the hospital I several cuts up and down my leg, most superficial but on had hit a tendon. 

After three months I was finally starting to feel the pain subside and was able to walk without a cast. That didn't mean though, that it didn't still have its moments. What hurt worse than the pain though, was not being able to run fully. Not that it stopped me from trying.

From my closet I grabbed a pair of sneakers and some leggings and tossed them on. 

After the accident my Aunt Elaine had come to take custody of me. We had never met before, my mom was always secretive about that side of our family, but she had come to stay with me in our home while I recovered and we packed up the house. Three months before I had to say goodbye to everything. And then I was in Maine. Much different from California that was for sure. Elaine had a house right on the water though, in a small charming town.As far as circumstances went I wouldn't complain. 

Elaine's room was at the end of the hall and I stepped quietly so as not to wake her. Downstairs her cat Jasmine and little Maltese Romeo, both looked up as I walked by. 

"Shhh," I said placing my finger to my lips. They both gave me a bored look before returning to sleep on Romero's dog bed.

Elaine had a small two floor house. It was more of a cottage really. A modest small kitchen, simple space for a table that sat quite a few people, living room facing the water with a big window and a small tv in the corner, and several bedrooms upstairs. It was a homy feeling place and I liked it a lot. It reminded me of home in California.