Go Away (#TheWattys2015)

Chapter 8: Slowly losing it

A soft breeze whistled past my ears and soothed my nerves. The weather was calm and beautiful but I felt as if I was on the verge of losing my mind. Bella's screams replayed over and over in my head as I imagined her body writhing in pain as it had the day she was scratched, having to watch not knowing if she'd be okay, not knowing how to help her. These thoughts raced through my mind blurring out anything else that was going on around me. I was unaware of Tasha walking next to me trying to stir up a conversation until she stopped walking and shook me furiously. I blinked multiple times. "Daija! Snap out of it." I turned to her just to see concern written all over her face and a spark of annoyance in her eyes. "What?" Tasha looked stunned.
"W-what? You've been walking with me for 10 minutes straight and haven't said or done anything but look straight ahead of us." I looked away from her unsure of what to say. "Daija look at me." I kept my head bowed down and studied the patterns in the side walk. "Daija look at me!" I looked up and what I saw shocked me. Tasha's eyes were brimming with tears and Tasha rarely cries. She took my hand. "Look Daija I'm worried about you. You're my best friend and I don't like it when I have no idea what's wrong with you. Is this about the body you found? Your sister?" I shook my head and mumbled "That's not all. " I felt Tasha squeeze my hand. "Then tell me. I want to help you."
I thought about it. I didn't like keeping all this information to myself or from people. Especially Tasha. Taking a deep breath I looked up."I'll tell you everything but you might wanna sit down for this. And please stop crying. I know you just want to help but I wasn't sure if telling you would be a good idea." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Ok." We found a bench close by and sat down. "Okay are you ready?" She nodded her head and I took her hand and squeezed it tight. Then I spilled everything that had happened in the past two days. Meeting Zack, seeing the monster, attempting to fight it, having a dream about it, Bella getting poisoned afterwards, my promise to her, and lastly the substitute and dead body. By the time I was done I was crying my eyes out. She probably didn't even believe me. Tasha held my hand and gently in one hand and patted it with the other. "I'll help you figure this out." I looked up. "Wait, really? You actually believe me?" "Yeah I believe you. I'm here for you that's what friends are for." I wrapped her into a tight hug. "But first we should stop by and check on Bella. Come on my mom can drop us off."

We sat in the waiting room for a while. I played with my thumbs nervously and looked up every 10 seconds waiting for a nurse to pop out and invite us inside Bella's room. Tasha patted my back and tried to calm me down, but my body was full of nervous energy. After what felt like hours a nurse popped out of Bella's room and invited us inside. I practically pounced into the room. Once in the room, the sight I saw killed me inside. Bella's face was a pale feverish white color with a barely noticeable green tint, far from its naturally smooth tan color. Her lips were cracked and dry, and her hair laid in a curly messy afro spreading onto her pillow. Her forehead was beaded with sweat and dark blue veins were becoming visible at the side of her head trailing down her neck. Her eyes had a distant look as if her mind was wandering to a place very far away from reality. They had a dull color to them. What were once bright, beautiful and cheerful chocolaty light brown eyes looked dead and full of pain. Her head turned to me then lolled to the side of the bed as if her neck could barely support it. "Daija?" The words came out pained in a small whisper. Pulling up a chair next to her bed I took her hand in mine nearly jumping at the unusual cold feeling."Yeah, Bella I'm here it's alright." The sides of her lips curved slightly upward and weakly fell back down as though she was attempting to smile. She tried again and for a second the life returned to her eyes and she looked hopeful. But the moment only lasted for a few seconds until she dropped the smile and gritted her teeth in pain as a single tear rolled down her pale cheek onto her pillow. Tears began pouring down my eyes and dripped onto the floor. I didn't bother to wipe them. I let my head drop and watched my tears splash onto the floor. Something rustled and I looked up to find Bella's little hand shaking as it stretched out to my face. I rested her hand on my face and slowly she moved her thumb around my cheek until she had managed to wipe away one of the tears. I stood up and embraced her in a hug. Her body felt so weak and light it made me sick to my stomach. She placed a hand on my back trying to hug me back, but I could feel it slowly slipping down. "Daija," she croaked. "Could you hold me pwease? I c-can't sleep." Her little body shivered in my arms. "Sure." I sat onto her bed and hoisted her weak body onto my lap and cradled her in my arms. Before she closed her eyes she pointed in front of her. "Twasha?" I had forgotten she had been here with me. She sat down on the chair next to me and took Bella's hand. "Yeah I'm here too sweetheart." We stayed there with her like that until she fell asleep. I shook with sobs as the nurse came in and kindly asked for us to leave since visiting hours were over and we'd been there for awhile. I didn't move. I couldn't. I couldn't let go of her. Tasha rubbed my back and gently pried Bella from my arms and laid her back down on her bed. She took my hand and led me out of the room. On the way back her mom didn't care that we didn't have seat belts on, she let us have our moment and hold each other while crying silently into each others arms only speaking up when she pulled up into my driveway. I stumbled out the car walking in a trance towards the front door and pushed it open, just to find my mom sitting on the chair looking pissed with a belt lying on her lap. "Where have you been?! I've been here worried about you all night. I almost had a search party go out and look for you. Have you checked your phone?" I looked down and opened it to find 20 missed calls from my mom and a dozen text messages telling me to come home. I looked up at her unsure of what to say. "Well?," I shook my head. Never mind the fact that my face was soaked in tears and my legs shaking about to collapse. What was more important to her was where I've been. The fact that she cared so little about what happened to me irritated me a lot but I didn't have the energy for a fight so I simply said: "I saw Bella," and walked upstairs, ignoring my moms shouts, ignoring my empty stomach(which is very unlike me). I slammed the door and crashed onto my bed, asleep before I hit the matress, only hearing the faint, faraway sound of my mom screaming: "I know you did not just slam my door!"