At first it was nothing - there was no sound. Just the ominous whistle tone you'd hear after an explosion. Katya immediately knew there was going to be hearing damage but she also knew that that was the least of her concerns.
She tried to lean back but only felt waves of pain with even the tiniest of movements, she knew there was blood - somewhere... everywhere. She tried to focus on breathing which didn't feel so horrible but only because of the adrenaline her body was producing.
Eventually she could hear the faint sound of sirens approaching the scene. Everything was blurry now though... fading in and out... then the lights became blurry, too - just blobs of red and blue that made her feel dizzy.
Someone was knocking on the drivers side window but Katya could barely asses what was going on. A moment later she was being cut out of her seat belt, her belongings were being wrapped in separate plastic bags - her insurance, an old cup of coffee, her phone -
she felt panic; was it Trixie who had texted her? She couldn't find the voice to beg for her phone though. As they picked her up and bandaged her to tie her over till they reached the ER - her eyes closed. They placed her on the gurney and lifted her into the back of the ambulance, her mother sitting in one of the empty seats, silently crying and praying.
Hours passed. Katya didn't wake. They did what they could to repair her fractured elbow, they stitched up a gash on her forehead, but there was more to be accounted for - the bruising and potential internal bleeding - if she knew who she was.
A doctor stepped out of the room Katya had been assigned to for surgery.
"Ms. Zamolodchikova?"
Katya's mother looked up from her chair.
No one else sat beside her, not another family member - not her ex husband and katya's father, not even any of Katya's friends... just her very own mother.
The person she'd always had, just like her mother had always had her... until now.
"yes?"
"I'm afraid your daughter has fallen into a coma. We don't have all the statistics back yet, but we've done all we can to help her physically and currently have her on life support."
Her heart dropped.
She couldn't lose the only thing she had left - as pathetic as she felt for considering her daughter her only handle on life, it was her daughter and any mother would feel a gut wrenching pain and sadness at the statement.
"May I see her...?"
She spoke brokenly
"of course."
The doctor linked arms with her and assisted her into the room where Katya was set up, laying in a hospital bed in one of those blue gowns, heart rate stickers on her chest beneath the sheets and an IV stuck into her wrist and the top of her hand.
"I'll give you some space and come back in a bit"
the doctor assured Katya's mother and left.
She stood beside the bed for awhile and brushed her hand over Katya's forehead and fixed her hair, speaking softly in russian. Telling Katya how much she loved her and that it would be okay.
A shadow over came the room; she could sense the presence behind her.
Katya's mother turned to look back only to find Trixie standing in a hospital gown and sweat pants, an IV unit beside her with her hand wrapped around its pole.
Trixie spoke and her voice broke:
"Katya?"
