Journey to Psitharis

Epilogue

Epilogue

I got to the gymnasium just in time to see people streaming out screaming, "That crazy girl just killed herself!" Terrified, I ran through the crowd into the gym, where my sister was lying on the ground, surrounded by a pool of blood. The scream I heard had to come from me, because no one else seemed to be that concerned that my sister was dying on the gymnasium floor. Several teachers and the resource officer were on their knees, putting towels around a knife-type weapon that was sticking out of her stomach. I could hear sirens in the distance, but knowing help was coming didn't make me feel any less sick with fear. Medora was bleeding to death right before my eyes.

Suddenly everything I had done, all the times I had denied her, all the times I took Mom's side even though I knew she was being unreasonable, they all came rushing back to me in a moment that can only be described like my life flashing before my eyes, and my life was complete crap. I never should have turned my back on my older sister, especially when she had always tried to be there for me. I rushed past the other faculty trying to hold me back, and I knelt beside my suffering sister. I held her hand and tears flowed down my face. The paramedics came and pushed me out of the way. Most of the other kids had cleared out the moment Medora stabbed herself. One girl was still there, and she wrapped her arms around me. It was a girl I didn't know but who knew Medora. She was crying too. She kept saying, "I tried to stop her, I swear. She wouldn't listen to me." The paramedics took her away from me, loaded her into an ambulance. And all I could do was watch as the ambulance disappeared from sight.

For the next few days my sister dwelled somewhere between life and death. She managed to miss her major organs, but the amount of blood she lost caused her to come so close to dying, even caused her to flat-line on the operating table. When she was stabilized, my grandmother and I visited her every chance we could in the ICU. My mother tried to play the innocent victim in my sister's accident, but as she spoke to a reporter with a local television station about how she had struggled to handle "such a mentally troubled daughter, I lost it.

"Would you shut up?" I screamed at her. "You're a big reason she's in this hospital in the first place! Tell them how you really treated her! Go on! TELL THEM! She just marched right out of the hospital, the camera following her every move. They tried to talk to me, but my grandmother wouldn't allow it. It was the last day I ever spoke to my mom. Medora's friend Peri asked her mother if we could stay in their guest house for a few days until we knew what was happening with my sister, and eventually Aunt Charlotte was able to join us and rent a small place for us to live in until Medora recovered and was able to come home.

We went with a police officer to retrieve mine and Medora's things from my mother's house. She had already boxed most of it and put it out on the curb with the trash, which just made the task easier for us. Aunt Charlotte wasn't happy though, seeing our things tossed out like garbage, seeing her nieces tossed out like garbage. The officer stood and listened with Grandma and me as my aunt screamed every curse word she could at my mom's locked door. "And let me tell you something, bitch!" Her last words were a warning. "If I ever see you again, I'll beat the ever-loving crap out of you! Got it?" She grabbed my sister's beloved headboard and shoved it in the back seat. "Sorry about that, officer." She apologized.

"Sorry about what?" He smirked. "I didn't hear a thing." Apparently he agreed with her. News traveled fast in our little town, and my once-psychotic sister was now known as the girl whose mother and a bunch of bullies had driven her to try to commit suicide. My mom moved away a couple of weeks later, as the reports of how abusive she had been toward my sister actually made national news. If she found a place where she was welcome I couldn't say. My thoughts didn't dwell on her, and I sure as hell didn't miss her.