Her Light - His Darkness✔

Chapter 4

Four years ago,

*** FLASHBACK ***

11th June 2015.

I slowly begin to stir awake from a dreamless sleep, my eyes flutter open, but shut straight after due to the brightness of the room. The room is silent except for a constant beeping noise, there's a faint odor in the air, almost like bleach.

My head hurts, it feels almost as if there are people, thousands, and thousands of people stomping around in my head, I slowly begin to open my eyes, trying to get them to adjust to the brightness of the room.

My right arm is prickling with pins and needles, I try moving it, but I'm unable to, something is keeping it in place. My vision is slightly blurry, but I try to see why I can't seem to move it, the movement of my head causes a sharp pain to shoot through it, I groan in pain and lift my left hand, pressing it lightly to my forehead. There's a rough material on my forehead.

I open my eyes again and the blurriness in my vision begins to fade.

I look at my right hand again to see a head laying on my arm. "G-Gabs?" I croak out barely above a whisper, my throat is on fire, it feels like someone took the roughest sandpaper they could find and rubbed it along my throat for hours.

I look over at the metal bedside table next to me on my right, there's a plastic, transparent jug, filled halfway with water with a few cubes of ice in it, with a blue plastic cup next to it, I slowly move my arm from under Gabby's head, the movement causes her head to bang softly against my arm. She begins to stir awake; she blinks a few times, rubs her eyes and only then looks at me.

Her eyes widen in shock, she jumps up, sprints to the door, pulling it open furiously. A few minutes later she enters the room followed by Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Landon's parents.

"Oh, thank heavens! I'll get the doctor." Mrs. Smith breathes a sigh of relief and hurriedly exits the room.

"How are you feeling, dear?" Mr. Smith asks me, I take in his appearance, His blue shirt is half tucked in on one side and hanging messily on the other, his light blue jeans have a brown stain on the left leg, his hair is sticking up in all directions, and he has horrible purplish, bags under his crystal blue eyes.

"W-what h-happened?" I croak out, placing my hand on my throat, hoping it will ease the pain if only slightly.

"Here let me. Sorry." He walks over to the table with the jug of water and pours some in the plastic cup, he pulls a bendy white straw out the draw and places it in the cup. "Can you manage?" He holds out the cup to me and I gratefully take it with a shaky, unsteady hand.

I drink the water voraciously, letting the cold liquid soothe my burning throat, he pours me a second cup.

"What happened?" I manage to finally say softly.

"You were all in a car accident." A pained expression on his face, before I can ask any more questions Mrs. Smith comes back in the room along with an almost grey-haired man in a white coat.

"Good morning, Ms. Swan, I am Doctor 'O' Kelly, I have been seeing to you since you have been admitted, you have been out for four days, I would just like to run a few tests." The doctor smiles kindly at me.

"Where are my parents, and my sisters? Where's Lan? How are they all doing? When can I see them?" I look around at everybody in the room, Lan's parents cast their gazes to the floor.

"Ms. Swan, I need to run a few tests, then all your questions will be answered." They all leave the room, leaving me and the doctor alone, along with a nurse.

***

True to his word, he ran a few tests, shone a light in my eyes, took some blood, checked my memory, wrote it all down, a solemn look took over his features.

"I am so sorry I have bad news. Your mom and your two little sisters were pronounced dead at the scene, they suffered severe injuries, they died on impact, your father and your friend was brought in, we did everything we could for your dad, but there was too much damage caused, your father is dead."

"No, that can't be." I begin laughing hysterically. "There must be a mistake, Melissa and Melanie are only five-years-old, what cruel world would allow them such a brutal death?" An image of a limp body covered in blood and shards of glass fills my mind "And, and my parents, they are the strongest people I know, you must be wrong! MRS. SMITH!" I yell as loud as I can, my voice hoarse.

Mrs. Smith opens the door fast, worry causing her sleek eyebrows to furrow, sympathy showing in her electrifying blue eyes, almost identical to the ones I've been daydreaming about for the last three years, her lips turn down into a frown as she walks to the side of my hospital bed.

"Please tell me this is some sick joke?" I grab desperately onto her hand, my eyes frantically searching hers for the truth.

"I... I can't do that honey, they are gone, they died, it's the truth." Mrs. Smith says softly, almost too afraid to say it out loud.

"What about Landon?" The sound of metal on metal fills my memory. "Did Landon make it?" I'm trying desperately to hold onto my sanity as best I can, he will know how to help me, he's been there for me through good times and bad, he's my rock. She looks nervously at the doctor, her mouth opens and closes, there's a far away look in her eyes.

"No." I whisper, my voice thick with emotions. I vaguely remember the sound of screeching tires.

"They did everything they could to save him, Logan, he bled out before he even made it to the hospital."

"Does G-Gabby know? D-Did anybody tell her?" I choke up as my eyes begin to sting from the unshed tears wanting to pour from my eyes as the muscles in my throat begin to constrict and burn from trying to keep my tears in.

"No, we thought you should be the one to tell her." Mrs. Smith says while digging through her handbag, she pulls out a white booklet and hands it over to me. The first thing I notice is the picture, it's one of many that I took of him, he is smiling cheekily at the camera as the wind blows his blond hair forward, his electrifying blue eyes sparkle mischievously in the late afternoon sun as the sun casts a golden hue on his beautiful sun-kissed skin.

The next thing I notice is the date, 10th June 2015. "I-I missed his funeral!?" I yell out, the tears begin falling freely down my face as I hug the funeral plan to my chest.

Ahem, Mrs. Smith clears her throat.

I look up at her, "We didn't have a burial, we had a memorial, for friends and family to say goodbye before, b-before we had him c-cremated." She avoids my eyes at all costs, turns her back and walks hastily out the room without another word.

"This is all my fault." I whisper as I bury my face in my hands, "No, no, no, this can't be, no," I continue to sob into my hands.

A few minutes later Gabby walks into the room with a hopeful and happy expression on her face, I wiped my tears, took one more look at her and decided from that moment on I will do everything in my power to protect her from the dangers of this world. I will put a smile on my face even though I'm dying inside, even if it kills me, I will smile for her, to make her happy, my hurt, my pain, my grief can wait, Gabby is now my priority, her pain, her hurt and her grief will be my focus.

I don't know how I'm going to tell her yet, I don't know how she will react, I just hope her heart doesn't feel dead, like mine does right now, I'm determined to make sure that those hazel eyes of hers that show so much innocence, so much light doesn't fade or burn out.

*** END OF FLASHBACK ***