Chapter 1: The Crash
I woke up to a hard slap in the face. "Ouch!" I shouted, as the red mark on my face stung like a bee. I looked up and saw the concerned police officer looking at me with a deep look of relief in her eyes. As my hazy vision improved, she spoke to me,
"Now your name's Natasha, isn't it? Natasha Montgomery?"
"Tasha," I corrected, "what exactly happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us that." She replied.
"Oh and who slapped me?" I snapped. The woman who I later learned was called Officer Williams, pointed at a short skinny ghost of a boy, who could only be my little brother, Nick.
"Now Tasha," Officer Williams said, "tell us what you can remember."
I could remember every detail. It was Friday night, I was at a club called Club 99 and was hating it, so I texted Dad to come get me. He called and said he'd be there in 10 minutes which he was. My dad had great timing skills. He had Nick in the car and his usual grin which was a cheesy as my Halloween costume. I got in the car and he immediately spoke, "Hey Kid, want to go for a take-out?" As I nodded, I thought how cool it was that Dad didn't nag, he never said things like get to bed, or you wouldn't like it or even put your seatbelt on. Dad was cool. As we were driving, I heard Nick whimper. "Nicky," I asked, "what's wrong?"
"It's dark," he said, "the trees keep talking and you and Daddy aren't wearing your seatbelts." For a six year old, Nick was afraid of a lot of things.
"Well," Dad answered, "I don't think trees can talk Nicky, it won't be dark forever, and I'm a careful driver. After we get food, I'll put on my seatbelt, so will Tasha." He looked at me and winked. I smiled and turned to face the road before screaming,
"Dad, look out!" The car hit a deer, sending us spinning into a ditch. I looked over weakly to see Dad's head sending out a steady river of blood. Just before I blacked out, I heard Nick crying,
"Call Mummy, call Mummy, call Mummy…"
I told Officer Williams the whole story, and as I finished, I felt tears streaming down my face. "Well," she said with a sad look in her eyes, "if your brother hadn't known the emergency number, you wouldn't be here right now." I pulled Nick up into my arms as he cried softly into my chest. "As for your father," she continued, "I'm afraid he didn't make it. Now if we could just track down your mother…" she babbled on. It didn't matter because my world was frozen. My father was dead and there was nothing I could do about it. I had to go live with my maniac mother who I'd never even met. It couldn't get much worse…
…or so I thought.