Nicolas didn't know why he was running, he just knew he needed to run. His chest burned, his legs screamed, and his arms begged him to stop, but Nicolas pushed on. He absolutely refused to stop. A blinding light passed through a partially opened door, and he was determined to reach to door. s he drew closer to the door, it opened and Nicolas ran through into the light.

"Blood pressure one hundred-ten over 75," a voice yelled over his head. "He's waking!"

Nicolas opened his eyes slowly to a light shining brightly into one eye, then the next.

"Male shows signs of concussion," the voice yelled again.

Nicolas looked for the origin of the voice and found it belonged to a woman about six years older than himself. He tried to ask about Sam, but found it nearly impossible to speak.

"Don't worry," the woman said. "You're going to be alright."

"That's it," a male voice yelled a few yards from Nicolas. "I'm calling it. Time of death; 2252."

Nicolas struggled, trying to move but found he couldn't. When he looked down, he found straps across his chest. He tried to call out for Sam, but stopped as a warm liquid flooded his mouth, followed quickly by a copper taste. When he opened his mouth, the liquid trailed down his cheek.

"This one has internal bleeding," the female medic yelled, rushing to the helicopter. "What's your name, sweetie," she asked him calmly.

"Ni... co... las," was the best he could do, as he tried to keep the blood from choking him.

"Alright, Nicolas. Do you have family?"

He shook his head slightly, cringing from the pain, before being slid into the helicopter and the doors closing.

"One crit inbound," the pilot said into his headset. "ETA: 20 minutes."

Another female medic looked down and checked his vitals and IV every three minutes throughout the entire flight. She spoke to Nicolas, trying to reassure him he would be all right. But Nicolas couldn't hear her. Still, she continued, as if she had to say it so she would be reassured.

Nicolas never felt the helicopter land. His vision darkened and his body began to feel light. The last image he saw was Samantha leaning over him and looking down.

Samantha was pronounced dead at 2252 and her body covered before being placed on a gurney and into an awaiting ambulance. On the trip to the hospital, a male EMT went through her belongings.

"Samantha Green," the EMT read from her driver's licence. "What a waste. She's been legal for only three months."

The other EMT, a female, swiped the card from him indignantly. "Have some respect," she scolded her partner before looking at the address. "Awfully far from home, aren't you darling?"

The ambulance arrived at the nearest hospital forty-five minutes later. When the ambulance opened the back doors, the time read 2341. Two nurses waited outside the ambulance, ready to take the body down to the morgue. When they reached the doors to the morgue, they found the place empty, the coroner having left for the night. The two left a note for the coroner in the morning.

A black shadow had been following the teenages since Montreal, waiting for an opprotunity to arise. It had been watching the boy for years, making sure nothing happened to him. Every time the boy's father beat him, the mass took note of it and promised to rectify the situation. But no matter how long it waited, no opprotunity had ever arisen.

It wasn't until that night that an opprotunity had made itself available. The driver of the tractor trailer at a bar a few miles down the highway, making him an easy target for the mass. Slipping easily into the man, the mass had merely shifted the large vehicle into the other lane and waited.

The mass could hear the two teens tease each other, and could tell neither of them were paying any attention to the road. It had a moment of regret, a small inkling of doubt, before the collision, but the moment had passed in an instant. Right before the collision, the mass slid out of the trucker's body to watch the collision. The two vehicles slammed into each other at speeds of sixty miles an hour. Metal twisted around metal, glass flew in all direction and sliced through flesh, and the female's body, cut loose from her seat belt by the flying glass, flew forward before being shot back and out of the smaller vehicle. The mass's sole regret was that Nicolas was injured by the impact, because though it tried to minimize his injuries, it knew he would still be horribly injured. The most it could do was make it so he wouldn't die out right.

When the EMTs arrived almost an hour and a bit later, a passing vehicle had driven by almost twenty minutes after the accident, both drivers were dead and Nicolas unconscious. The mass watched as a female EMT had shimmied Nicolas carefully out of the mangled mass of steel, lay him on a gurney, and escort him to the waiting helicopter. It wanted to take the girl's body as it was placed on a gurney, but she was pronounced dead almost immediately. It had to wait.

The mass followed the body all the way to the morgue and waited for the RNs to leave.

Nicolas awoke to a constant beeping and a sterilizer smell in the air. Groaning, he opened his eyes and found himself in an unfamilliar white room. A cold tingle in his left hand caught his attention. When he looked down, he found an IV in his left arm and an oximeter on his middle finger of his right hand.

A door opened and a female nurse entered, holding a clipboard and pen in her right hand. When she looked at him, her green eyes meeting his, she smile.

"you're awake," she said happily, walking to his bed. "You had us worried last night."

"What time is it," Nicolas managed weakly.

"About seven in the morning,"

"And Sam?"

"The driver?" The nurse looked at him sad as he nodded. "I'm sorry. She was gone by the time the medics showed up."

Nicolas couldn't believe it. How could Sam be dead? Shewas laughing and so full of life just a minute before he had passed out. So alive. So full of energy. He could only stare at the white wall, unable to accept reality.

"Could I be alone," he finally asked a minute later.

"Of course," the nurse said tenderly. "If you need anything, press the button on the railing. I'll be two minutes away."

Nicolas gave a fake smile as she left. He wasn't planning on using the button. A tear fell from his face as he closed his eyes, wishing he would just die.

The coroner arrived at nine the next morning, ready for the body that had arrived the night before. The message on his answering machine had said the body was on the gurney in the middle of the room. But when he entered the morgue, the only thing awaiting his arrival was an empty body bag on the gurney and the note. Quizically, the man read the note:

'18 yo female trauma victim

Name: Samantha Green

Car accident'

There's the note, the man thought. So where the hell is the body?

Sam stood over Nicolas, staring lovingly at him. But every time he reached out for her she was just out of reach. She smiled and leaned closer, "Just a bit longer, my darling Nikki."

Nicolas sat up quickly, eyes wide open. He was breathing in gasps and his sweat was ice cold. He looked around and found the sun in the window and his right arm in a cast.. Throwing off the sheets, he found his torso wrapped in bandages and his left leg in a second cast. He cursed, only to remember he still had Frank's medical insurance card. He finally helped me, he thought ruefully.