My 6 friends went to a party I was too sick to go to. The house was really old and the pipes were too. The pipes exploded when some drunk idiot tried to shut them off in the basement. Only 5 people survived, and all of them my friends. But the weirdest thing happened during their recovery. At some point, all of them had a flat line.

Chapter 1

My visit

"Hey, Leah, I bet you're glad you were sick, huh?" I rolled my eyes at my best friend and said "well, if I wasn't, would I be talking to you now, Jonas?" That was like the 17th time Jonas had said that. My friends Kaede and Caitlyn had paired off as roommates, along with Sam and Demetri, leaving Jonas to share a room with an old dude who slept most of the time. Jonas was a native Californian, and a surfer. He had shaggy light brown hair, tanned shin, and teal eyes. He was exactly six feet tall, and was the guy who, instead of seeing the cup half full or half empty, peed in the cup. Along with a broken right leg, a concussion, and a raked up torso, Jonas had to be shocked after four days at the hospital.

He grinned. "I guess not. But you do usually hold a grudge for at least a week. With the extreme silent treatment before the party considered, I thought it would be a month." I had been known to hold a grudge before, but never as long as a month. Two and a half weeks, yes. But a month was jus t unreasonable. I glared at Jonas and retorted, "yeah, well, then your party house blew up, didn't it?" I was also known for my temper.

Jonas fiddled with his cast for a minute, and then said quietly, "I wish my roommate was here." My anger disappeared as fast as it had come, replaced by pain. "Jonas-" he cut over me, saying quickly "I know you don't want to talk about Will, but you need to, at some point." I snorted, and said, "who are you, Dr. Phil? I don't want or need to talk about my deceased twin, so leave it, Jonas." Jonas and Will had been friends since, literally, birth. Jonas lived next door, and was born, like, a week before Will and me.

I glanced at the clock. "Shit! I was supposed to leave ten minutes ago. Bye!" The late excuse was total shit, and we both knew it.

I flew out of the room and all the way down the hall to Kaede's and Caitlyn's room, holding back tears. My best friends since grade school, Kaede and Caitlyn were the only girl friends I had. We almost never fought, and when we did, it was my fault. We were the three girls in our former group of seven, now six. They were also a good excuse to get away from the Jonas I had talked to. The girls would never push me like that.

"Hey, Leah!" Kaede greeted me with her slight English accent, not looking up from the solitaire game she was playing on her bedside table. "Hi, Leah," Caitlyn said in a slightly depressed tone, keeping her eyes closed. Kaede looked up at me when I sat on her bed and saw my face. "Oh, Leah, what happened?" I felt the tears start to run down my face as Kaede straightened and rushed to hug me. Kaede was extremely pretty at three inches shorter than my five feet six inches, with golden waist length hair, slightly tanned skin, and chocolate brown eyes. She had dislocated her right hip and sprained her left shoulder and wrist.

Caitlyn was my height, with red shoulder length hair, a million freckles, and gray eyes she had just opened. She had a shattered pelvis, three broken ribs, and a grieving heart, like me. Except for Demetri, she was hurt the worst.

"Jonas turned all Dr. Phil. Kaede, I miss Will soooooooo much! I can barely stay at home, and I heard my mom talking about therapy. Therapy! How can she think that talking to a complete stranger will help?" I was sitting right next to Kaede, aware that Caitlyn hadn't moved. She had been dating William, my twin brother, on all throughout high school. "Shh, shh, its okay. Do I need to whip his butt for you?" Kaede comforted. "No," I sighed, calming down. Slightly. "But you could tell me how you're doing," 2 days ago, Kaede had had her ten-second date with death, but she seemed fine now. She was the last of my friends who needed to be brought back to life. The hospital was keeping her, Jonas, and Sam an extra 2 days. And Demetri, of course.

Sam "died" a week after the explosion. Kaede rolled her eyes and said "The doctors think there was some sort of chemical in the water when the pipes exploded, and that's what's making us all die.

"As if," she snorted. "There's no way that their 'chemical' could still be on or in me, after almost a month. Sterilization and bland hospital food would have made sure-" Caitlyn interrupted Kaede before she could get her full geek on. "What Kaede is trying to say is that she feels fine, and that the fully-trained, professional doctors here are idiots." I laughed, my tears forgotten. "Well, Kaede, Caitlyn needs more company than me, so I don't think she'll help you break out. Will you stay?" "Pretty please, with ranch on top?" Caitlyn and I chorused, smiling at the rehearsed line. When we met, Kaede had had an obsession with ranch dressing. Caitlyn was trying. That was better than the last 2 weeks, when basically all she did was give me and almost everyone else the silent treatment.

"Oh, all right," Kaede grumped. "Ill stay, but get them to bring us fucking better food, please," I smiled and said "sure thing. But I've got to go visit Sam and Demetri…" I got quiet after that. Demetri wasn't doing good, being in a coma, after all. It had come out of the blue, too. A week ago, he just fell asleep and didn't wake up. I gave Kaede a sad glance. She had had a crush on Demetri since the seventh grade, and had totally tried-and failed-to hide her hating me during 9th grade.

Kaede's eyes were drawn back to her solitaire game. I smiled. "Recover soon, kay?" when they had both grunted in agreement, I slipped out and walked the hall again. I nodded the orderlies. I walked the short distance to sam and Demetri's room. This room always made me sad. Demetri had been my first boyfriend, in freshman year, and I had almost had a thing going with Sam, too.

Though I was worried about Demetri, too, my eyes went directly to Sam face. He was 6 feet tall and thin but muscular with pale skin, dark brown hair, though it was shaved off at the moment, gray eyes the exact same shade as Caitlyn's, and a strong chin. It was obvious that he was related to her, except for the red hair. His skull had cracked, three of his ribs had snapped in half, and his left leg had been broken in three different places. He barely smiled when I came in, so I called in a nurse to give him more morphine. I knew he was in pain and in no mood to talk, so I just sat there and watched them.

Demetri looked the same as ever. You would never guess he was anything other than asleep. He was black with black hair, almost black eyes, and dark chocolate skin. Both arms and both legs were broken at least twice, one lung was punctured, and the surgeons had to dig out some shrapnel. But he looked okay. You know, for a guy in a coma. Neither of them did anything other than breathe, so I laid my head down on the corner of Sam's bed and fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was to a nurse telling me visiting hours were over. I didn't really want to leave, but I groaned and stiffly stood up. I kissed each guy on the head before getting in my truck and going home.

It was almost midnight when I got home, and I knew I was in for it. This was at least the 15th time I had stayed at the hospital past my curfew. I slowly walked to the door while trying to think up an excuse. I was SOL.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"What's the excuse tonight?"

"Uh…"

Now that wasn't fair. She acted like I had been out robbing minimarts or something.

"I fell asleep at the hospital."

My mother raised an eyebrow. "Wow. Out of excuses?" Ug. She knew me too well. "Uh…yeah," I grimaced, hoping for a sigh and an eye roll, which would mean I was in the clear.

No such luck. Apparently, Mom wasn't tired tonight. "All right, I'll make you a deal. You get your butt home before eleven thirty, and I won't give you any more crap about the summer being wasted."

"Oh my gods! Are you serious? 'Cuz if you're serious, then yes totally deal!" Mom cracked a smile at that. "Yes, I'm serious, and yes I just adjusted your curfew, something I swore I would never do after last time." She sighed and rolled her eyes. I snickered, thinking about how many times my mother broke her sworn promises.

"Well, am I mostly free?" I asked, because I really wanted to get to bed. She sighed and rolled her eyes again. Yes, but I suggest going to sleep right away. You look like the walking dead." I pursed my lips but otherwise didn't respond. Once I was safely upstairs, I collapsed into bed, still fully clothed.

Chapter 2

My enlightenment

Okay, I admit it. I sucked at watching time, but even I knew the summer was halfway over, and that all I had done was worry and familiarize myself with the stupid hospital so much it was starting to get creepy. So that day I decided to go swimming in an actual pool and bring my friends the sweet smell of chlorine. But once I got up and went down stairs to get a banana or a toaster strudel, my hopes were dashed by a call from the hospital. I was like number 4 on all of my friends emergency papers, so I was only slightly surprised. They had called me when Demetri went into a coma, after his parents and two older brothers. But this call was much worse, because I had been telling myself and every one else for days that everything was going to be okay, that everyone would heal and that no more medical anomalies would appear out of the blue. So this was much worse. Caitlyn hadn't woken up. The first thing I thought was 'crap'. I completely skipped breakfast, got into my truck, and tried to turn it on. So such luck. "mother of fuck!" I yelled, which was pretty uncommon for me, because I got cussed out of the locker room once for reasons I wont disclose here, and I haven't sworn with anything serious since. My mom came out and stared at me. When I glared back, she said, "want to take my car?" I was so surprised I forgot to be angry at my truck and just stared at her. "wow. Did the nurses make it sound that bad?" she pursed her lips and her eyes took on that worried look she had been wearing a lot lately. I didn't say anything else. I got out, grabbed her keys, and drove as fast as I could.