Note: If these Character bare any resemblance to real-life people then it was purely coincidence. I made Cora and Mitchel up in my head.
1
The acrid smell of smoke burns my nose and throat as I cough, trying to find my way through the burning house. "Mitch?" I call, but it's useless, my voice is too raspy to be heard. The sound of the roof collapsing drowns out everything, except for the crackling of the fire. Something lands on my left arm, forcing me to cry out at the sudden white-hot pain that flares up my arm. I try to push it off by my muscles are shaking violently, fear, shock, and pain making my body react against me.
A whimper makes me look over at the huddled mass of my Golden Retriever puppy, Lucy. She's forced herself into a little crevice between the couch and the wall. Ash covers her, her ice-blue eyes watching me from where I lay, one arm stuck underneath the piece of ceiling. "Lucy" I manage holding out my good hand to her. "Come girl, come on I won't-" A strangled cry tore itself from my throat, interrupting my sentence, as another piece of the ceiling lands on the first, effectively crushing my arm.
Lucy whimpers again before crawling over to me, tucking herself into my side, howling when another piece of the ceiling falls.
"Cory!" The strangled cry from above makes me look up trying to find Mitch but it's no use, I can barely see a foot in front of my face now. "Iz where are you?!"
"Here!" I yell back.
"That isn-" A cry of pain interrupts his sentence just as another piece of the ceiling falls. That seems to start an avalanche, the cracking and groaning of the ceiling ending as it all started to fall. The end of one piece catches my head and sends me sprialling into darkness. Before I go under I manage to murmur. "Mitchel…"
I wake up with a start, breath coming in short pants and sweat dripping down my face.
Bits of the nightmare come back in flashes, forcing me to dig the palms of my hands into my eyes to try to stop seeing it.
My arm itches so I reach down, jumping when my fingers hit hard plaster instead of skin. I blink down at the stark white bandage that covers my left arm, part of it has a bright blue cast covering it, another has blotches of red staining it. I run my fingers over the edge of the cast as I look around. Hospital…why am I in a hospital?
"Hello?" I call before I'm overwhelmed by a bout of coughing. My throat feels like it's on fire. "Mitchel? Mom? Dad?"
My Aunt Celia suddenly bursts in, engulfing me in a bone-crushing hug. Shes crying, her whole body racked with sobs. I pat her back, why is she crying? I don't know how I got here but surely everything is fine. Besides Mitch and I always get ourselves into something that lands us here, this can't be any worse than any of the others. I look around, expecting to see Mitch. This isn't the first time we've both been in the hospital and we always share the same room. "Aunt Celia?" I ask, my voice hoarse. "Where is Mitch?"
This just makes her sob harder and her grip tighten impossibly further. Mom comes in a minute later, tear stains run down her face and she's dressed in all black. I look at Aunt Celia's clothes, she's wearing all black too… they almost look like they had went to a funeral…
Mom hugs me, sniffling.
Dread pools in my stomach, and I start to panic. "What happened? Why am I in the hospital? Where is Mitch?"
"I'm so, so, so, sorry Cor. So sorry." Aunt Celia says and the panic increases tenfold.
"Mom?" I ask looking over at her.
"There was a fire Cor…" She says, drawing in a shaky breath. "He… he didn't… He didn't make it."
"No." I say pulling away from Aunt Celia and moving backwards as fast as I can, shaking my head and crying out in pain when I use too much force on my arm.
"That… That was just a dream… A nightmare. You're lying." I say trying to make sense of the whirlwind that my brain had become.
"He is gone Cor. It wasn't a dream." Mom says.
"But it has to be." I say "He can't be gone." I reach up when I feet tears streaking down my face. "He can't…"
"I'm so sorry." Aunt Celia says again and I'm starting to wonder if she's talking to me or Mitch.
"Whats todays date." I ask suddenly, the calender on the wall must be wrong, its May not June. "May twenty-seventh was the last date I can remember."
"June Eigth." Mom says "You've been in a coma for a week and a half."
"No." I manage feeling my stomach drop into the vicinity of my toes. "You're lying, please… please tell me you're lying or that this is some sort of cruel joke." Tears flow freely down my cheeks and I pull my legs up to my chest.
"I'm sorry." Mom says, she's crying harder now too. Dad comes in, and seeing my rumpled state, he's immediately by my side, trying to calm me down as sobs tear through my body.
After a while Cooper, my older brother, comes in holding Lucy. Cooper handed me Lucy and then sat down beside me. "Hey kid." He said gently wiping the tears that just wouldn't stop off of my cheeks.
Percy comes in a minute later with Aunt Lora, Micah following them slowly. He holds out his hand and dropped Mitch's sharktooth necklace into my hand, it has a new string not the ratty old one I used to beg Mitch to get rid of. I pull the necklace over my head and bury my face in Coop's shoulder.
Coop gently wraps his arms around me and soothingly stroak my unruly hair. "How you doing?"
I sniff as Lucy licks my cheek, wagging her tail so hard that her whole body's shaking. "Th-That's a s-stupid q-question." I stutter.
Coop lets out a strangled half choking/half laughing noise before ruffling my hair. "It's good to know that you haven't lost your sense of humor."
I shrug as the crying starts anew and I idly wonder how long I'll be until I run out of tears to cry.