An Angel in the Dark

Chapter 3

Darcy

As I entered the room, my heartbeat sped up, and I quickly forgot my boldness.

“Whenever you’re ready, sweetheart,” Lydia squeezed my hand. My palm, lubricated with sweat, would have slipped out of her grasp if it weren’t for her tight grip.

“I- I think so,” I lied through my teeth. I closed my eyes for a few moments and then opened them again, as if to see I was really doing this. You see, it was totally out of character for me to step even one millimeter out of my comfort zone, much less face one of my greatest fears. It was natural for me to doubt myself, to wonder whether or not this was a nightmare.

            I made no noise as she led me through the doorway, but inside of my head I was screaming like I was under attack. And in a way I was. My whole life had been dominated by one phobia or another. I’d been afraid of the dark, the ocean, heights… I had arachnophobia, claustrophobia, and any other type of phobia you could imagine. When I think back on it, it wasn’t these specific things I was afraid of but fear itself. Now that I was even attempting to conquer my fears after so many years of their rule, their was a war inside my head, between my fear and my happiness. My heart and soul wanted my happiness to secede, but it didn’t know how to take over. My phobias had gotten used to being dominant.

            I held my breath and squeezed my eyes shut as I entered the little room at the end of the hallway. The blast of the air conditioner hit me like a gust of wind in a hurricane. This sudden movement was unexpected, and I jumped, my eyes shooting open.

What lay before me was not what I had anticipated, not what I had prepared for during the walk down the hall. I was expecting a child covered in so many bandages she wasn’t recognizable, wrapped in tubes and wires and hooked up to machines. Yes, this girl was hooked up to machines, but if you ignored the IV in her arm, she looked like a mirror image of Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. She had beautiful golden hair strewn around her head like a halo, and I could tell it was natural by her lack of brown roots. She had soft features, and full pink lips. Her eyes were closed, but I could only imagine they were a deep blue. Maybe it was because she was lying there helpless on a hospital bed, but there was an aura of innocence about her that made me want to help her. Whereas Lydia had only temporarily assuaged my fears, this girl, Melanie, had silently made me dare to defeat them for good, if only to help this beautiful child. Tears welled in my eyes as the obvious dawned on me, that this girl’s life had been ripped at the seams, barely hanging by a thread. She was there, but was she really there? Was she just a breathing body, doomed to lie there forever? Tears welled up in my eyes.

Finally, Lydia spoke, her voice a whisper. “She was at gymnastics practice, and she decided to compete with her friend to see who could do the highest backflip. Something must have gone wrong, because Melanie fell and hit her head, and she passed out. She never woke up.”

The pool of tears welling up in my eyes got too deep, and a single tear slid down my cheek. “Poor girl,” I reached a shaky hand out and ran my fingers over her head.

“I know,” Lydia stood behind me, her hand resting on my back, and it felt like I had known her all my life. “I know.”