Three Seconds
Hospitals, in any part of the world, are scary. The emergency rooms smelled the same, blood and disinfectants. Even the scene is the same, crying and fussing people all around.
'Are you related to her?' The nurse asked her, scratching her head in the process.
'No,' Shizuru said, 'No I'm not. I was walking when I saw her…'
Yes. She thought. Yes? What? The girl, the one lying in front of her, had green eyes.
'You sure? Someone has to call her parents and tell them...'
The medical terms didn't register of course. But like hospitals death also, like in any part of the world, is scary – and easily understood.
The nurse muttered something about over speeding teenagers. Shizuru looked at the girl, pale and lost.
'So much speed,' she muttered. 'Nobody ever told you to slow down?'
It's like trying to find something you've misplaced, and you've searched your entire room only to find out that it wasn't there. Shizuru took five steps closer to the girl and looked. For anything. For something. Before they take her away and put her in an expensive wooden box.
'Miss please step away from the body.'
Three seconds. Enough to etch the girl's face in her memories. Two seconds. Take one more look. One second. And it's gone. She feels nothing again. Empty.
Shizuru left the hospital twenty minutes later. It was raining hard. She no longer had an umbrella.
Almost had one.