Death Count
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Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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A/N: I originally had nothing planned for 9.11 but after watching a documentary I thought of this one shot. Remember. This was the first time since Pearl Harbor we had been attacked on our own soil. Thats why, although this story is late, I felt it had to be posted.
Enjoy.
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The phone rings through out the apartment. The beeps bounce off of walls gradually becoming louder as I walk into the living room. My bare feet softly thud against the carpet. The ring blares at me until my hand wraps around the phone taking it off the hook.
"Hello?" I hear words being spewed at me. I cant understand any of it. "Caitlyn? Slow down." I hear her take a breath and slowly recite it again.
"Mitchie. Turn on the news." I cradle the phone between my shoulder and ear as I pick the remote out of the crevices of the couch.
"Any specific news station Caitlyn?"
"No! Now hurry up and do it!" I flip to channel 12. Words sit on the screen and I freeze in my tracks.
PLANE HITS WORLD TRADE CENTER
My heart skips a beat as I watch clouds of smoke swirl in the air. Screams come through the TV as I see people run through the streets. Some people stare in shock. The camera zooms in on a person jumping from a window. And I pray to god it isnt Shane jumping. I hear nothing as Caitlyn whispers to someone. I hear a mans voice on the other line. It has to be Rubin. I can tell from his thick accent. Im not paying attention to them or the television.
Until it happens. The one thing that shouldnt happen.
The south tower falls. It crumples to the ground and all that can be heard is large slams as ash begins to fly in the air.
More screams are heard and more people run. Most of them covered in a thick layer of dry, gray snow. I cant breathe. My heart is frozen in place. I dont hear my own heartbeat. And I stare at the screen. And I coldly ask Caitlyn, "What tower are they in." "Mitchie? Mitchie breathe." "Caitlyn tell me what tower they are in." She sighs and mutters cuss words as she sifts through papers. "The north."
And I can breathe again. Shane is safe.
For now.
It was bound to happen in the north tower. The big unknown question hanging in the air was, when.
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It fell. The north tower came down. And my heart broke into pieces. I was devastated. He was gone.
The odds were against him. There was no way he would be found in all the rubble. He never let me know if he got out or not.
My world was over. Shane was gone.
For good.
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I didnt want to answer the phone. But that small part of hope in me. The part hoping he was somewhere. Even if he was buried under piles of steel and concrete. I just needed to know he was alive.
And thats why, I still answered the phone. And I heard the one thing I needed to hear.
"Mitchie?"
"Shane?" I was almost in tears hearing his voice. He coughed and told me what hospital he was at. And I pushed through crowds of people to get to him.
But I completely stopped when I walked into his room.
"Oh my god. Shane."
Ive never seen a burn victim before. But on the one person I truly loved?
It felt like someone ignited my heart with gasoline.
Just so I could feel the same pain of the burns.
I pushed the image in the back of my mind. He was alive. That was the important thing.
It was all that mattered.
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It took only a few hours for them to set in. Like voltures swooping in for the pray. It seemed that the paparazzi had nothing better to do. Even on a day as devastating as this. They werent stopped. No one even noticed probably. But they did piss Shane off.
They came in. They started making it seem like he was the only important thing. And he snapped.
"Damn it get out of here you assholes! In case you havent noticed theres something a little more important going on in the world! Something I was affected by! But the world doesnt revolve around me! So you want fucking news? Go out there!"
And they were gone.
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Life is never the same after something as devastating as the terrorist attack that day.
Death count? 2973. Four planes. Three buildings. One world changed forever.
So many things ended because of that day. Because of the paparazzi storming in, Shane quit the music industry.
If it werent for that he would have found a way to continue.
His red bubbly skin and all.
Nate had to use ventilator for months. To much ash and debri floating around for just a pair of human lungs.
Jason managed to get out with a broken leg.
And they considered themselves lucky. Just because they got to survive.