Misguided Ghosts

Chapter Four

PIC OF HAYLEY ON THE SIDE --->

Four - Emilie

 When I woke up, I was in a chair. Should someone who’d just been hit by a car be in a chair? Shouldn’t they be in a bed? But I didn’t feel like I’d been hit by a car. I should be in pain right now. Maybe I had died. Had I died? I certainly felt normal. I looked around, and saw there was a bed in front of me, with a person in it. Maybe if I got up, then the pain would come. I heaved myself up from the chair and began to walk over to the bed.

As I walked over, nothing hurt. Nothing was bleeding, nothing was aching. So what was wrong with me?

Was the accident just a dream? I had been told that if you died in a dream, you died in reality. So why was I perfectly fine now? And if I hadn’t been hit by a car, then what was I doing sat in a hospital?

I paused, looked behind me, and saw myself in a mirror. Light brown hair cascaded past my shoulders, and my blue eyes looked as normal as ever. I had been hit by a car. Why the hell was I not looking more messed up? I would have at least thought my hair would be messy.

I was starting to think that this was some kind of sick prank, until I saw the door to the room fly open. Hayley, Evie and my brother, Danny, all rushed through. Hayley’s mascara and eyeliner was streaked all down her face, Evie’s hair hung wildly around her face and Danny looked angry.   I blinked as Danny took one look at the bed and let out a large sob.

“Hayley?” I said, but she just ran past me, as if I wasn’t even there. She wasn’t the type to ignore people, which was just strange.  “Danny, why are you –“

Then I saw what they were all running to. I saw myself lying in the bed, bloodied and bruised. There was a large gash on the right hand side of my neck, stitched up with black thread. It was such a horrible sight, I wanted to throw up. My knees felt like jelly and I almost fell over. This had to be a dream. It just had to be. I was imagining myself like this. I couldn’t see myself in this condition… Could I?

Seeing as I was pretty much dead, I guessed I would never be going to my Sixth Form prom with Liam, like we’d always planned.

The door opened again, and my several doctors rushed in. My second-oldest friend, Liam, hurried in behind them. Liam went to a different Sixth Form to the rest of us, but he’d been my best friend since I was seven. Hayley gave him evils, and Liam returned them. His face was flushed pink, and his eyes were red, which shocked me even more than seeing myself in the bed. Liam never cried. Not even when his mother died. Unless he did all his crying in private, which would have surprised me if he did. Liam was the second-toughest guy I had ever met.

Everyone in the room looked over at the doctor, including me. He was a middle-aged man with snowy hair and steel-grey eyes. I recognised him as the doctor that had treated both Liam and Ed when they had broken fallen out of a tree and broken various bones when we were nine, and as the doctor who’d treated Ed before he had died.

“Where are your parents?” The doctor said sternly.

“They’re on their way,” Danny said quickly, shooting Liam a sideways glance. “Aren’t they?”

“So’s my Dad and Lisa,” Liam added, nodding. At Hayley’s confused glance, he added, “My stepmother.”  

The doctor nodded, turning towards my body. “There’s very little chance that she’ll survive. She was hit pretty badly and it doesn’t look so good. Our best idea is to take her off life support before her heart gives up. “

“No way!” Evie, Hayley and Liam all yelled.  My eyes widened when I realised that they were all agreeing on something. Hayley and Evie weren’t exactly the best of friends with Liam. Normally, if they ever said something in unison, they would start bickering.