Beyond The Pale

38. Is This Where We End? (Part two)

I shut my eyes as soon as the cars collided, the airbags immediately came out but our car began to tumble onto the side of the road into the trees.

As soon as the car stopped, as soon as the terrifying sounds of the car and glass being crushed stopped. I tried to breathe but I couldn't, we were dangling upside down, my father wasn't responding. I screamed out in pain, the air felt like shards of glass in my lunges and my leg was snapped to the side. All blood was rushing to my head until I could feel myself drifting away from the hell I was living until I heard the sirens.

    * * *

"Mommy!" A gorgeous little girl with tumbling dark locks in a white leotard and matching tutu ran into my arms. I lifted her up with ease, squeezing her in my embrace.

I placed a kiss on both her cheeks.

"Pumpkin! Did you enjoy Ballet?" I placed her on my hip as I put my bag of groceries on the kitchen bench my car keys beside them.

"Yes! Daddy said you can't cook tonight because he's taking us out."  She gave me a wide smile and wriggled herself out of my hold and onto the floor.

She ran off into the living room until her voice is what I heard again. "Mommy, why is there blood on the floor?"

My body froze.

She screamed. "Mommy there's a dead body!"

I ran into the room where she stood.

Leo's body? I screamed.

   * * *

I gasped a breath of air, only seeking freshwater for my extremely dry throat.

A relieved, emotional shriek broke. "Christina! My sweet sweet Christina."

My mother's voice felt like a blanket around me. I opened my eyes to be welcome with my mother pressing a cup of water to my lips.

I welcomingly let the water run down my throat. I took a moment to be aware of my surroundings, my leg in a cast, small cuts down my arms. Fresh flowers sitting on a small shelf in the hospital room and my mother so happy to see me awake.

"Where's dad?"

A single tear fell from my mother's eyes and her lip began to quiver.

"They're operating on him. He got most of the impact from the crash.. the doctors won't tell me anything else as of the moment." Her voice cracked as she gently caressed my hand, her eyes not able to meet with mine.

The crash. My ears rang a piercing sound as I remembered the impact of the crash, the moments just before we had a head-on collision. I looked at my broken leg in a cast.

I was struggling to understand and process everything. I was so high on pain killers, I'm surprised I could even speak. 

How many times was I going to end up in the hospital? I still had the scar on my leg from where Stefan stabbed me all that time ago. 

The more I woke up the more my thoughts became clearer.

"What exactly happened? who found us?" I struggled to get the words out, I looked over at my mother who was currently sitting fiddling with her fingers.  Black Maserati. I remember it.