chapterONE



ONE:

It all happened so fast. The last thing I remember was we were all together. My mother singing in the front seat, my father driving us home from dinner, my baby sister crying. I was staring out the backseat window, lost in my thoughts. It was just like any other night.

“Haylie, will you take care of your sister?” Dad asked me.

I looked over at the screaming child. “What’s wrong Hannah?” Hannah looked at me, her face red and tear-stained. She pointed to the ground, she had dropped her doll. The crying continued.

“Haylie, didn’t I tell you to stop her from crying!”

I sighed. “I’m trying Dad.” I reached down to grab the doll as the car turned, causing it to roll under the seat. Seeing the doll disappear made Hannah cry more. “Mom,” I complained, “Her doll is under the seat, I can’t reach it.”

My mom turned around to look at me. “Try giving her something else.”

I looked around trying to find something, anything to entertain the two-year old. A ball was within reach so I handed it to her. Hannah looked at it and threw it to the ground, unsatisfied.

“Haylie…” Dad said.

“Dad, I’m trying!” I answered, bending back down to find another toy.

The next thing I knew my mother screamed causing me to look up. Bright lights followed by loud crunching. Crunching, like someone stomping on an aluminum can. Only this was louder, about three hundred times louder. I felt everything closing in on me.

Impact. Something hard collapsed on my leg, crushed it. Pain shot through my entire body as I let out a scream. Snap. It was broken. My head was thrown back against the seat and shattered glass from the window pierced my skin. A warm, sticky liquid oozed down my forehead. Blood? My little sister screamed and cried in pain. I was pinned back, unable to move, unable to look at Hannah. Everything slowly faded to black.

I woke up staring up at florescent lights that hurt my eyes. My eyes searched out the new surroundings. Obviously I was in a hospital. My leg was in a cast and elevated. My head was bandaged and throbbing. Pain.

That was a month ago. Now I live with complete strangers posing to be my parents. I’m an only child now. I still have nightmares about it. I wake up screaming, in a cold sweat. Jill my new “mom” says that its normal for someone who was in a traumatizing situation to relive the event over and over again in their memory.  She said it was especially hard because I was so young. Funny, I had never really thought of myself as young. Sixteen was not a young age to me. I was almost an adult in my mind.

Jill is a therapist. She’s nice, just not my mom. Her husband’s name is Ben. He’s a poor excuse for a man. I won’t even call that drunk my new father. He works for the local DMV and acts as though he is king of the world. He comes home and does nothing but drink. I feel so bad for Jill, she puts up with too much.

continue to: chapterTWO