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HILL HOUSE, THEN
It was stormy and dark, but Camille was comfortable. A Johnny Cash song played quietly from the radio and her dad hummed along. Her mom sat up straight in her seat, her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly and she was constantly looking in the side and rearview mirrors. It made Millie nervous to look at her.
The rain pelted hard against the windshield and Camille didn't know how her mom could even see — she probably couldn't. She wanted to ask her to pullover, to wait until the rain let up a bit. But Millie knew her parents wouldn't listen. They continued on and were about fifteen minutes away from home – Camille could tell by the lack of buildings and the abundance of forrest.
Her mom stopped at a red light with a sigh and leaned back against the seat. She turned back to look at Camille, who was tiredly trying to keep her eyes open.
"We're almost home, Millie," she laughed a bit. "Think you can hold out until then?"
Millie nodded tiredly, her eyes closing. Her parents chuckled and gazed lovingly at each other and wondered how everything seemed to fall so perfectly into place.
With her eyes closed, Millie didn't see the light turn green and her mom's foot let off the break. She didn't see the 18-wheeler that ran the red light and drove full-speed into their car. But when she opened her eyes, when she finally opened her eyes, all she saw was darkness. Her little arms scrambled for the light above her, she almost regretted turning the on.
Her mother was dead, Camille could tell. The truck had drove right into her mom's side of the car. Her neck was bent and twisted at an odd angle, as was her arm — Camille couldn't see anything else.
Her dad had taken a pretty hefty blow as well, as he didn't have his seatbelt on. He was still breathing but had a massive gash in his head and pieces of glass littered along his body.
"Millie," he breathed out, barely alive. "Millie, are you alright?"
She didn't move or open her mouth. She was scared. Her dad was shaking her mother's arm, trying to wake her up as if she were only sleeping. His body shook with sobs because his wife was dead and he was dying too. He cried because her daughter would be orphaned. "Millie, honey, are you okay?" he managed to ask through sobs, his breathing slowly going lax.
Camille opened her mouth to say "Yes, daddy, I'm fine. My leg hurts and my arms are scraped but I'm fine." but those words didn't make it out. Because when her lips parted, all the followed was a scream; a ear-piercing scream. And as her dad took his final breath, Millie was left alone in the car that was tilted sideways in a ditch.
The next thing she knew, she was in the back of an ambulance with a blanket around her. The nurses checked for cuts or any other injuries, and found a large gash on her leg from where a glass shard from the widow had cut her. That, along with just a few minor cuts, was all the damage done to her body. She came out of the crash almost completely fine, while her parents were covered up and put in the back of separate ambulances.
