The Flames that Engulfed Us

Chapter 58: To Hell And Back

Caleb and his mother came back in, and his mother carefully took the I.V.s out. She took the oxygen out, and it felt hard to breath. I could do it, but it felt hard.

"Skylar, do you want to try to stand up?"

"Yeah," I grunted, taking the woman's arms to stand up. The whole world spun around me, and went black.

I woke up back on the bed with the tubes back in my nose.

"You fainted," Caleb informed me.

"I got that," I snapped, my head pounding.

"Stand up slower," Mrs. Foster advised.

This time it was Lincoln that pulled me up, slow, stopping every time I froze because I felt dizzy. I stood, my legs trembling underneath me, Lincoln's arms holding me up. I felt steadier on me feet after a few moments and he slowly started to let go.

Mrs. Foster left the room, and only came back intermittently. Lincoln argued when visiting hours where over, only leaving when I told him to. My parents and my sister came on Monday, and Lincoln had to go to school. My phone had been destroyed in the fire, but Mrs. Foster let me have her phone to text with him in between class periods.

He promised he'd be over as soon as school was out. In the meantime, I had my parents there. They claimed that they'd been there every day in the beginning, but then they'd went to visit Gran to help Dad cope.

My sister didn't say anything to me other than a few words of courtesy. Eventually, she mumbled something about how she had to get back to school and left about noon.

My parents stayed all day, my dad saying he'd taken a day off work. They were there when Lincoln came in, breathing harder than he should've. My dad looked mad and Lincoln stiffened when he saw them.

"Lincoln," I asked, knowing he'd tell me more reliably than my dad, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing," my dad answered for him. Then, seeing my look of disbelief he added, "just some harsh words that neither of us meant. Both of us were upset."

"Both?" Lincoln replied. "Both? I didn't say anything to you."

"And I only said the truth."

Lincoln looked like he was ready to punch my dad in the face. "Sky, I'll be in the hall if you need me."

I starred after him. "Lincoln," I yelled as best as I could, making him turn back around, "you don't need to. My parents wanted to be getting home anyway."

They looked at me startled, but my mother caught on and ushered my dad out the door.

"What happened?" I repeated.

"Your dad, when he first heard what happened, drove down here. They had me in this same room, next to you. I guess I never actually passed out, but it's all blurred from, from you know. That. So, I was awake when you came in. Your dad's never liked me. He still doesn't."

"Finish telling the story."

"He said that if anything happened to you, that it would be my fault. And the worst part is, when he said it, he believed it. There was a lot more too, but that was the gist of it."

"Lincoln, if anything, everything that's happened to you has been my fault."

"No. No. Don't say things like that, Sky."

I paused for a moment. "Did we really die?"

He looked up uncomfortably. "We can't tell anyone else. They'll think we're crazy."

"But you remember?"

"As though I could forget."

"Well, then we're not crazy."

Lincoln ate hospital food with me, promising to come as soon as he could as Mrs. Foster pushed him out the door. She came in and told me I would go home tomorrow afternoon. She said she would explain other things in the morning.

It was a different nurse who did. I didn't know her, and she didn't know me, but she did know everything medical. She explained a bottle of prescription pills to me. The dosage and all that. She also gave me a bag with the actual pills, a printout of the dosage, in case I really was stupid, a pamphlet of who I should report to if I felt ill, and a business card for the hospital.

My parents had brought in a fresh change of clothes at some point, so I changed out of the flimsy hospital gown and met Lincoln in the lobby.

"Let's go home," I told him, and he smiled, pulling me to his car.

"I missed her," I chuckled, patting the dull metal.

"I missed all of it," Lincoln smiled.

"We're back."

"We're back," he repeated, hopping into the car.

We drove for a while, just eating up at Lincoln's gas tank. I threw my stuffed animals in the backseat, all except for Lincoln's hedgehog. That I cuddled to myself.

We drove for a good way more, eventually stopping at a little street in a little town. We'd been driving for thirty minutes. Lincoln pulled me into a dress store.

"Pick out a dress, Sky. I'll pay for it and everything. Just pick one."

I marveled at the vast selection, picking the least fancy one I could find. Lincoln made me try it on, and I looked in the mirror at the back of the shop. I looked pretty, at least.

Lincoln agreed when I came back out, buying the dress, barely seeming worried about the money.

"And what are you? Suddenly rich?"

"Nope. But you're worth it."

"Where did you get the money from?"

"I'm eighteen. My mom left an inheritance, and I can do whatever I want with it now."

"You spent that money on a stupid Prom dress!" I exclaimed, scolding, "Lincoln."

"The dress isn't stupid. It's gorgeous, just like you. And you picked a cheap one too."

"You spent your college money on a Prom dress."

"Life isn't everything, Sky. Living is, and if I want to spend a little money here and there, I don't see why I can't."

"Because... You could've done a lot better things with that money."

"Not really."

"You think seeing death would've made you more careful to avoid it."

"Meaning?"

"If I didn't love you so much, I would be murdering you right now."

"I love you too."

"I love you to the moon and back," I answered.

"To Pluto and back," he upstaged.

"To infinity and beyond," I trilled.

"To hell and back," he smiled.

"To hell and back," I agreed.

Where would I go for him? Anywhere. Where have I gone for him? Through the flames that engulfed us; to hell and back.

THE END