Broken Until Him

Chapter 19 ~ Fear

'Everybody has fears, even the people who say they don't. Nobody can claim to be afraid of nothing, because the human nature has been created with at least one common fear : death.

Some people might not be afraid of their own death, but who can affirm to not be afraid of losing someone? No one.

We've all become attached to at least one person in our life. And sometimes, we love them enough to wish one thing : to die before them, because if they die first, we wouldn't be able to survive. That's our biggest fear, the one that sticks to us until we actually die.

But what we don't think about is that once we're dead, we made this fear become real for somebody.'

Loud poundings tear me out of my sleep and I groan. I put the pillow over my head but the pounding gets louder as I hear somebody screaming my name. Usually, my mother gives up after two minutes when she sees I don't want to wake up.

I glance at the alarm clock.

2:04 am.

Wait, I don't have an alarm clock.

I throw the pillow away from my face and sit up brutally in my bed as the pieces slot together.

I'm not in my bed, in my bedroom or in my house. I'm at Nathan's.

He yells my name again, and I immediately stand up and run towards the door to open it.

As soon as it swings open, Nathan enters my room and grabs my dress and my shoes.

"Get dressed, and meet me in the car in five minutes. I-" Nathan says in a rush as he throws my clothes at me.

"Wait, what's wrong? It's two in the morning for god's sake !" I interrupt him.

"It's... It's Hannah," he says and puts his hands on my shoulders. "She had a car accident."

"Oh God," I whisper, my hand covering my mouth as my eyes begin to tear up.

Nathan rubs my shoulders before kissing me on the top of my head.

"I'll wait in the car," he says, exiting the bedroom.

When he closes the door, I snap out of my frozen state and take off the large sweater and pants Nathan had lent me before we both went to bed. I quickly put on my dress and my shoes, and I run downstairs, where Mrs. Perkins is waiting.

"Call me once you've seen her," she says and I nod before hurtling down the stairs of the porch.

I jump in the car and Nathan presses the accelerator as soon as I close the door.

"How is it possible? I texted her tonight, I mean yesterday now. And she told me that she was okay, that she was back home," I say with a shaky voice.

"I don't know Jade," Nathan whispers in the quiet passenger cell. "She probably ran out for an errand after she talked to you."

"At 11 PM?" I say, my mind trying to figure out what happened to her.

But Nathan doesn't respond, I can see that he's focused on the snowy road. A few minutes pass and I feel like my heart is pounding out of my chest. All the imaginable scenarios are playing in my head and I can't bear the silence anymore. I need to talk or I'll go crazy.

"Do you know what happened?" I ask Nathan.

"No, I just know that she had a car accident. Her mother was crying on the phone, I couldn't understand half of what she was saying. So I told her we would call her back once we would have seen her daughter," Nathan explains, still staring straight ahead.