You hear about the track fires and the train derailments. Then there are the horror stories. The crazy guy holding hostages in the cart, terror attempts to blow the entire station apart.
You think it's rare, that it'll never happen to you. But it happened to her.
This is the story of how I lost my sunshine. A little ball of light named Riley Matthews.
…
Maya told me the entire story. She was there. She watched the light leave Riley's eyes, in the rubble, in the subway cart.
It was May ninth. I remember it was cloudy. Even the sky knew that she was in danger; that the Sun was going to fall from the sky. It wasn't supposed to rain, but it did anyways, as I made my way to school.
My ride was nothing short of normal. Theirs was one of those that you never expect to happen to you. It wasn't a terror scare, or the hostages.
It was a train derailment. Trust me, it was much more horrific than it sounds.
She suffered on that train…
While I was at school Maya told me that she was with Riley, both of them readying themselves to leave. They'd already eaten breakfast.
When they left Riley's place, they'd boarded the train at the Bleecker Street station. They usually take the F to school.
It was on the F train that I met Riley that first day that she fell into my lap. It was the greatest day of my life, the day I met her.
The first few stops went by as they usually do. But they never did exit the train at Lexington Avenue.
Instead, Maya told me, that was when the crash occurred.
They were standing at one of the poles when the train began to speed up abnormally. They were both shaken, but the girls took it as a normal event.
We found out later on the news that the train conductor had fallen ill, passing out onto the controls, and dangerously speeding the train forward.
Before they'd even come out of the tunnel into the station they knew something was wrong, because the train had still not slowed, and they could hear the steel tracks hissing beneath them.
Other passengers in the train were beginning to notice it too.
Just as they were coming out of the tunnel, the train swerved, with no one at the controls.
It hit the concrete side ledge to the platform and slammed forward.
The train shook, and that's when the girls hit the ground.
The train kept going, pushed by its speed, and tilted, windows smashing over the girls and the other passengers as they hit the ledge. Loose pipes from above came smashing down around them, one of them effectively pinning both Riley and Maya to the ground where they were.
She heard people on the platform and in the cart screaming, but she was too dizzy to call for help herself.
She told me that Riley was on the ground beside her, unconscious.
But she wasn't gone. Not yet.
Finally, the cart slid to an uneven stop halfway onto the platform.
Maya had finally turned her attention to Riley.
It was only then she had realized that Riley must've hit her head on the way down, because she was bleeding from a gash on her forehead.
"Riles?" She muttered, her mind muddled. She couldn't reach out with her arm, she was just too far.
Riley's head twitched.
"Peaches?"
Maya had made the mistake of believing she was ok.
"I'm right here. We're ok."
She recalled people yelling to call 911, but she had passed out herself before help came.
She woke up again, just as paramedics arrived at the scene, and started piling through the rubble to find survivors. Riley was awake then, she'd told me.
"Honey, help is on the way…" Maya coughed up a little blood, forcing a smile to comfort Riley.
Riley only stared over at her silent.
"Riles?" She tried again, her voice raw.
No response. Maya began to panic.
"Riley? Riley can you hear me!" Her voice rose. Her entire body was numb, and she recognized that she'd probably crushed her legs under the poles, and had her own gash from the glass. But her priority would always be ensuring her best friend, her sister was ok.
Maya was determined to get an answer.
"Riley! It's me, Peaches, sweetie please talk to me!" She begged.
She remembered Riley finally turning her head slowly to face her. Her eyes were wide.
She twitched.
"Riley…" Maya was forced to watch as her best friend's life was drained from her.
For a few seconds, Riley was alive, but then…
She told me how her stare became blank, and how her eyes glossed over.
I know she'll never be able to erase the picture from her mind.
I know I'll never be able to erase my imagination of the event from mine.
Maya told me how the paramedics had finally gotten to them after she watched Riley fall under. She'd said by the time they got there Riley's eyes had rolled back into her head.
She was in tears.
I was too. And I'll never forget the moment Farkle, Zay, and I were told. Second hand from a peer who'd heard about the crash from the news before coming to school.
We left with Mr. Matthews straight for the subway station.
Maya told me that by the time we'd gotten there, the doctors had already declared her in a coma.
…
Today is the day.
The doctors had told Mr. and Mrs. Matthews that they needed to make a decision.
They'd finally decided to take Riley off of life support. Four months, five days, six hours, and forty-one seconds after her accident.
Farkle and I had been keeping track.
She never woke up.
We lost our Sunshine.
"Mommy why does Riley have to go!" Auggie cries at the foot of her cot, holding onto his lifeless sister.
I look away.
"Riley…" Mrs. Matthews can barely even finish the sentence before bursting into tears. Mr. Matthews squeezes Riley's hand, tears escaping his eyes too.
"My baby girl," He whispers.
I close my eyes.
Mrs. Matthews holds her son, as he holds Riley.
"You were my Sunshine, my only Sunshine. You made me happy when skies were grey. You'll never know dear, how much I loved you…" I sing to myself.
"Please don't take my Sunshine away."
Mr. Matthews reaches for the plug.
Farkle grabs my arm.
Her hand twitches.
"Honey?" Maya looks up from her seat, right next to the cot, her eyes red and puffy.
"…Peaches…"
Please don't take my Sunshine away.