Her, Saving Grace

32

Catherine

Life's a party pooper most of the time. Either that, or it gives you sour lemons.

I straightened from my car seat when I saw blue and red lights blinking on the road just as the car turned the corner to our building.

I felt Damon taking my hand and squeezing it gently as we got closer to where what seems like an ambulance parked on the side of the street.

I stiffened when I took a closer look and confirmed that it was, in fact, an ambulance.

Before we even left, I knew that something was wrong. That something was going to happen.

I was out of the car before Damon could even kill the car's engine. I was on panic mode and nothing really mattered to me more than to run up these stairs just to see her. My mind could barely register the medic's voice when I beat him to Ellie's floor.

The couple next door just got out of her apartment, the man holding a phone on his hand, the other wrapped around his wife. They gave me a look and his wife shook her head slowly, a tear rolling down her cheek.

No.

I made my way inside to see her on her chair, sitting near the window, her eyes closed. From where I was standing, it looked like she was just resting, remembering her good old years. Mr. Fluffy laid at her feet, asleep, just like her.

"Ellie?" I slowly made my way towards her, kneeling at her side. My fingers twisting the fabric on the bottom of my dress.

Nothing.

"Ellie?" my voice barely a whisper now. I raised a hand to take hers. She was so pale and she reminded me so much of Snow White when I first inquired for an apartment of my own.

"Please talk to me. I... I'm still waiting for the cookies you prom-" I felt a hand touching my shoulder. Damon had a hand in his pocket and nodded at the medics. They made their way to the door, closing it behind us.

"She...she was fine this morning." I knew that the veins on my forehead were showing from my effort not to cry.

"It was her time, bonbon."

I was still clutching on Ellie's hand, not caring on how ridiculous it must have looked like to have a grown woman kneeling on the floor.

"You knew...and you didn't tell me." Ellie's hands felt cold. I rubbed my thumb on her hand. She was a grandmother to me. She still is.

"I couldn't tell you. There's nothing we could've-"

"No." I got up and faced him. "You couldn't do anything. I could have stayed with her and called 911 when something went wrong. I could have gotten her appointments to go to a doctor. I could have stopped her from eating things she shouldn't have. I could have... I could have done something." I pinched the bridge of my nose. Crying won't change anything.

"Bonbon...you...you just can't cheat death." He made no move to approach me. He was staring at the same window Ellie's head was turned to.

"So you go along with it? Death's unfair. Your father's unfair. You hear me! What made you think it was cool to take sweet old ladies with you huh?!" I was more mad now. And Damon never said anything.

I turned to Ellie and took her hand once more.

Ellie was my friend. More than anything, she would take the time to listen about my day as I did to her. She was the first person who I opened up to, little by little. And now she's...