The Songs I Stole

One

 ONE

KIERAN

“You coming to my room tonight?” I remember Kylie running a red-painted finger down my cheek, grazing the light evening stubble.

“Course, baby.” I had smirked as I drove in the night. The moon hadn’t been out yet and the clouds didn’t let any starlight reach us then. Our headlights had been much help until it was too late.

Loud noises of Ryan and Natalie making out in the back passenger seat and of Limp Bizkit blasting on the radio had filled my Range Rover, mixing with the ringing in my head.  My vision had been continuously going out of focus but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I had been more worried about spilling the remaining of my beer onto the car’s floor instead of my mouth.

Kylie, by then, had her arms wrapped around my neck, kissing me at the nape and making her way upto my chin and cheek and nipped at the edge of my mouth. As Fighter by Manafest started playing on the radio, I had grabbed her by an arm and turned my head to kiss her fully. At that moment, in my peripheral vision, my eyes had focused on the shadow on the road. My eyes widening, I had whipped my head and tried to steer my car out of the way. But it was too late. I still remember the headlights shining on her paled face.

                ~

“Kieran Gallagher?” I hear a women say. I look up from my hands to see a young nurse giving me a hard look. It’s because she knows what I have done.

“Is she alright? Is she alive?” I fear that the most. I may not know the person I hit with my SUV but that doesn’t mean I do not care if she lived or died. My hazy mind still remembers the accident with a shocking clarity. But that stunned face of the girl just moments before I hit her still evades me, I remember the fear but not the features of her face, I know she had a creamy complexion with dark hair but not really who she was. I had carried her into my car and yet all the blood that covered her face had made her unrecognizable.

“She is not alright.” She simply says.

“Would she live?” As long as she lives, I know she’d be alright.

“Yes.”

I breathe out a sigh of relief. I hadn’t killed her. I try to share my relief with my friends but right now Ryan is being interrogated by a police officer, my turn already over. Natalie is crying, her father scolding her loudly. Her parents are the only one who had already reached the hospital, others still on their way. Kylie is apparently puking her guts out, a junior officer had followed her to the ladies room. Right now, I sit in the waiting room outside the ER, where my victim is being operated.

“She is not alright.” The nurse says in a hardened voice as she suddenly grabs the cuff of my jacket. She brings me close, nose to nose. I can almost feel the hatred roiling off her. Red hair, creamy skin, familiar face. I know this woman.

“Lana?” I whisper, my voice faltering. There is something so wrong about this. I wasn’t close to Lana or something and it has been a while since I’ve seen her, but the way her expressions and reaction to me are, it is like this thing is personal to her, intimate. I gulp, things I had rather not think of going through my head. Could the girl I hit be…

“My baby girl, she is not alright!” She yells at my face. From the corner of my eye, I see the policeman notice us. “Her throat…” Her voice falters. “It’s not right! You took it away, her voice. You took away my little sis’s voice. She would never speak, never sing!” She shakes me and pushes me hard against the wall but I feel too weak and shocked to react. The policeman tells Lana to calm down but instead she bursts out crying. Everything feels disconnected, faraway.