Lights Out

Chapter V : For The Better

"I think my nurse is trying to kill me," Kalia groaned, sitting up. The room was bland, quiet, and as in all hospitals, desolate and sterile. The air was soft and quiet.

Jenna faked her best impression of a smile. "It can't be that bad. I mean... you are in the hospital, but at least you're alive." It was hard to smile, watching her friend sit in the hospital, waiting for her other friends' funeral. It was too much all at once.

Kalia sighed, and rolled her sunken eyes. "I feel like I'm dying. My lungs burn," she muttered, "how many other people got hurt?"

"4 dead, 16 injured or burned, 3 missing," she whispered, horrified at the thought. She had lost 4 friends to the greedy hellfire of death. Jenna looked to the ceiling, fighting back tears. She refused to let them fall. Her ears were red, her cheeks and nose the color of a rose. Her gray eyes shined silver in the light.

"Oh my god. I shouldn't... it's all my fault... I killed those kids, Jenna..." Kalia muttered, hardly making a sound. The words themselves tasted bad in her mouth. As if she had just ate cocoa bean flavored kale covered in refried beans and topped with pear juice. Something like that. Something purely awful. "I... I killed them... I killed 4 kids. That... that makes me a spree killer, Jenna. 4 kids. I've committed reckless manslaughter. What... what've I done?" She was also on the verge of tears. Her throat burned with guilt.

Jenna sat in silence, not moving, deep in thought. She gave a deep sigh, brushed her cherry hair out of her face, and whispered, "It's going to be fine. It has to be. For the better."

Kalia's eyes were wide, red, and puffy from crying. "Can anything be better?" She sobbed, pulling her knees to her chest, which caused more pain to fill her lungs. She let out a fit of coughs, followed by shallow, ragged breaths. After her breathing had calmed down a bit, she pulled a cigarette out of her purse, and began to light it.

Jenna stood up, walked over to the bed, and snatched the cigarette out of her hand. "You've got enough damn smoke in your lungs," she murmured as she put it out and threw the cigarette away in a nearby trashcan.

Kalia sighed in defeat. Her blonde hair was stained with the ash of her crime. She tossed a strand out of her face, laying back down on the bed. "Yeah, whatever. You suck. That was my last cigarette."

Jenna smirked and looked at her, sitting in the chair, again. She shrugged. "For the better."