Chapter 6: Panic
Bella bolted awake scared out of her mind and half expecting to see the bodies of her dead comrades. She could swear she could still smell the stench of blood, piss and burnt hair. She could feel a phantom of the heat of the flames that burned bright that night and the pain in her leg where her wound had hindered her so from saving her friend as best that she could. If she looked at her hands she would swear they were stained red with the blood of her brother in all but blood. As the haze began to lift and her mind started to piece together where she is she began to calm. I am home! I am safe! I am not there anymore! I. AM. SAFE!
Once she repeated that mantra enough in her head she began to believe it and relaxed her tense and guarded stance, which she had not known she had unconsciously shifted into. Letting out a deep albeit shaky breath, Bella was about to lay back down for a bit when suddenly her cell phone rang. Startled, Bella just about jumped out of her skin and as quick as a serpent she had her gun, which she had kept under her pillow unbeknownst to her lover out and pointed at the offending object.
As she realized what had caused her to almost shoot, Bella couldn't help but let out a slight hysterical laugh. Leah would not be happy with me if I had shot my phone, let alone the expensive bedside table that it rests on. Shaking her head at herself, Bella sighed and grabbed the phone to answer it before the caller hung up on her.
"Hello?" Bella answered suspiciously as she had checked the caller ID and did not recognize the number.
"Bells?" a gruff voice answered on the other end of the line. It took Bella a moment to think of the person who was calling her until it hit her.
"Phil?" Bella asked as the man sounded a lot like her stepfather but she couldn't be too sure, after all it had been years since she had last seen him let alone heard from him since she had graduated High School.
"Yeah kiddo it's me," Phil responded though he sounded as if he had either hit the bottle all night or he had been crying. Which now that she thought about it, Bella can't ever remember seeing him cry even when he married her mother. A pit of dread started forming in the pit of her stomach as she thought of the possible reasons that he would sound like that. Is my mother ok? Is she hurt? Is she sick? Is she…dead? Feeling sick with worry at the many possibilities Bella tried to calm herself down enough to ask him.
"Phil what happened what's wrong? Is mom okay?" Bella panicked as she waited rather impatiently for his answer. There was silence on the phone for a moment, a silence that did nothing to calm her fraying nerves. Until finally…
"Bella there's been an accident."
Oh god no! Bella thought as she stared blankly into space trying to come to terms with what Phil had just told her. She was so numb she could barely hear through the fog in her ears as Phil kept talking about something which she did not hear. All she kept thinking about is that her mom was in an accident. She didn't even know if she was alive or dead as she couldn't hear Phil as she was in too much shock to hear her breathing let alone her stepfather's voice. Bella realized she was having a panic attack as she could barely breathe and her vision was blurry.
Bella knew having a panic attack was not helping her condition but she could not worry about that now as she knew she needed to calm down. As she her breaths became harsher and her heart constricted she realized her vision was going dark, in some distant part of her mind she realized that this was not good. Finally her body could not take it anymore and she dropped back onto the bed shivering, the phone slipping from her hands. Before the darkness claimed her she had one final thought.
I need Leah…NOW!