Chapter 19: Life and Death

Nessie's POV

Both Carlisle and the other doctor looked at me in pure astonishment. I coughed as I tried to inhale the much needed air. Carlisle was the first to get over his shock and he got me connected to a breathing machine. With the machine it was much easier to breathe in the air my lungs so desperately needed.

"I'll take her to the intensive care unit," Carlisle said quickly as he took over and wheeled me away

"This is impossible," I heard the doctor mumble. "She was dead for 15 minutes,"

My brain struggled to remember what happened. I remembered being loaded into an ambulance and then losing consciousness. Then I remembered a dream. A very strange dream where a witch told me that I had died. Thought I could go back to life if I wanted to. Such a strange dream.

Carlisle wheeled me to my own room in the intensive care unit. He didn't say a single word to me the whole time. It was me who finally broke the silence. "Carlisle what happened to me?"

He looked at me for the first time in several minutes. He wasn't sure how to answer. "Renesmee you were dead,"

What? That didn't make any sense. How could I be dead and then alive again? Unless it was only a minute or two that passed. Then they could have easily resuscitated me I guess. "How long? It couldn't have been that long,"

"Nessie I do not know how to tell you this but you were dead for 15 minutes. You were dead. You died in route to the hospital. You didn't have a heartbeat. You weren't breathing. All of your brain activity had stopped completely. You were dead. By all clinical definitions you should still be dead. It is impossible to regain unconsciousness after so long in that state. Yet you came back. I have seen a lot in all of my years as a doctor but this...I just can't explain this. Nobody can explain it. This uncharted territory we're in,"

"Can I go home?"

He shook his head. "I'm afraid not Nessie. You need to stay here for observation and Lord only knows what kind of testing they are going to want to do to you now,"

I shuddered. I was dead for 15 minutes. How was that even possible? Unless the dream wasn't a dream. Unless the dream was real. I shook my own head. No. That couldn't have been real. There was no such things as witches, vampires, or shapeshifters. My being alive was nothing short of a miracle. That's all that it was. There was no magic. It was an absurd notion to even think the dream was real.

"Ness I'm going to leave you alone for a few minutes. You need to get some rest. I will be checking in on you very often though,"

"Where are you going?"

"I need to inform your aunt and uncle about what has happened. I also need to make a phone call to the rest of my family,"

I sank back into my bed and rested my head against the pillow. I closed my eyes but I couldn't fall asleep. Ironically I now felt more alive than I ever had before. A few minutes later my aunt and uncle came running into the room. My aunt squeezed me so hard that I thought I was going to pass out and die a second time.

"Can't. Breathe,"

"I'm sorry baby. I'm just so happy that you're okay. Why didn't you tell us you had lung cancer young lady!" she scolded. She was now in what I called 'mom mode'.

"I just found out while you two were away. I didn't want to tell you until you came home,"

"It's our fault really," my uncle added. "It's our fault for giving you cigarettes. We should have never done that. I'm so sorry Ness," it sounded like my uncle was about to cry.

"It doesn't matter anymore. We just have to move forward," I said.

"It doesn't matter? It doesn't matter? Of course it matters. I'm sure you never would have gotten sick if we hadn't given you cigarettes in the first place. No amount of apologies can make up for that Ness," my aunt added.

"Look I don't want to talk about this right now, okay? I just want to rest,"

I did want to rest but my mind was so wired up that it was impossible. I asked Carlisle if he could give me some medicine to help me relax and go to sleep but he was worried about how my body would react to medication after recently coming back from the dead after 15 minutes. Eventually I did fall asleep on my own.

When I woke up I was completely alone. My aunt and uncle were gone. There were no doctors around. Since I had to use the bathroom and there was nobody around to ask for help I decided to get up and go on my own. I didn't need anyone to help me anyway. I found a bathroom pretty quickly. I cleaned myself up as best as I could when I saw myself in the mirror.

The first of the three who love you dearly is about to pass into the next world. The voice that was not my own echoed throughout my head. It was the voice that belonged to the witch in my dream. My heart stopped beating for several seconds.

I heard a loud siren outside of the hospital. I rushed out of the bathroom into the busy E.R and saw several paramedics rushing in with someone on a stretcher. I couldn't see who it was.

Carlisle was there but he didn't seem to notice me at all as he rushed to the victim.

"Car accident," I heard someone say.

"Teenage male with multiple lacerations throughout the body. Blunt face trauma to the head," I heard someone else say. "Condition is rapidly deteriorating,"

"What happened?" Carlisle asked as he began to work on him.

"Bad car accident. That's all we know right now,"

"We're losing him," Carlisle was trying to remain calm.

When I caught a glimpse I screamed.

"Justin! No! Justin!"

Realization hit me at full force. It wasn't a dream. I really did meet a witch when I died. I agreed to come back to life with my babies that I was pregnant with in exchange for three lives in return. What the hell have I done?!

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