𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞

PTTF - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Please tell me that she's going to be fine." a voice echoed in my ear. Opening my eyes with much difficulty I find my sister crouching over me, her hands clutched in mine.

I blink before giving her a slight smile as I shuffle in the bedsheets which sent an excruciating pain down my spine.

I winced as the tears pooled up in my eyes.

"Bryce, she's awake!" she said into a microphone fixed on her blouse, helping me sit up straight on the little hospital bed.

Staring at the cannulas stuck all over my wrists, and the thin lining of bandage around my forehead, I suddenly remembered what had happened.

The moon exploding; the meteorite shower; mother and father.

Panic rising in my chest, I immediately stand up on my feet, but Chan kept a firm hand on me and I sat on the bed again.

"I'm not letting you go this time." she alerted.

"Mom and dad!" I cried, "Where are they, I have to go and se—"

"Mom and dad are dead. They didn't survive the explosion," she said, as tears slowly strolled down her face, dampening the sheets I was tucked in to, "it's been approximately over seven months since the—since the moon," and she sat there and blubbered, her breaths getting shorter and shorter until she grabbed an inhaler from her pocket and ran to the farthest corner of the room.

I sat there dumbfounded, grief washing over me as I stared at the heart monitor beeping loudly in front.

"No, that's not possible; Chan, please tell me you're just kidding." I pleaded.

She didn't say anything, but her hard sobs answered instead.

They're dead. Gone. And I couldn't do anything about it.

I have to live with the grief, the penitence.

How steady my heart beat was; and how I'll never hear the hearts of my mother and father's pounding in their chests ever again.

I'll never see them. To feel the warmth of their hugs, the loving smiles on their faces.

I didn't even deserve to see them for one last time.

"Chantelle," I said and her blotchy face turned around to face me, "is this the first time I've woken up in the past seven... months?" I asked slowly, terrified of what her answer would be.

She simply nodded her head and sat on the spare bed next to mine.

"The forces came in instantly after... after our house blew up, you had a severe concussion." she elucidated, fidgeting with the inhaler in her hand.

"You—we've been in the hospital since then?"

"Pretty much," she stated, biting her lower lip, "I didn't know what do to till you woke up. Bryce said you could be patched up in a week or so."

"Where do we go?"

"Do you really think I haven't thought about that?" she asked loudly, but immediately regretted raising her voice, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I can't blame you for your frustration."

"Well, I'm not working in Rodinia anymore. Still looking at some places." she said, stuffing her inhaler back into her pockets. She paced around the room for a few minutes, only stopping abruptly to give me anxious glances as she muttered under her breath.

Just then a man in his early thirties-- Bryce walked into the room, in his white hospital coat as he held a tablet in his hands.

"Abigail!" he said, walking up to me with a cheeky smile on his face, "How are you feeling?"