Page 22 of From the Ashes
I couldn’t help rolling my eyes again. “Do you want me to do well for me or so you can get a free house?”
“Can’t it be both?”
I just shook my head. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine and I won’t let Nix get in the way. I’m already way ahead thanks to that coding camp anyway. I might even be able to get a job during the summers so I can help out at home.”
“Don’t you worry about that. I can take care of myself just fine.”
“Even after buying all this furniture today?”
“Especiallyafter buying all this furniture today,” she grinned.
I returned her smile, slumping back into my seat. “Thanks for always being there, Mom.”
“I always will be, honey,” she replied. “I promise.”
I wasn’t sure if I fell asleep or just spaced out, but suddenly my eyes flashed open as a thunderous explosion rocked the vehicle. Tires squealed as my mother cried out, her arms flailing as she tried to straighten the car. But it was no good. Sparks flew up over the windshield as the SUV turned sideways. At the last moment, she threw her right arm out over my chest in an attempt to protect me.
The tires dug in and with a sickening lurch, I felt the SUV go airborne. All of time seemed to stop as the world spun around us in the most unnatural way. I looked over at my mother, her eyes full of fear as she stared wide-eyed at me. Anything that wasn’t secured whirled around us in slow motion, bouncing off the ceiling and windows.
And then, just when I thought it might go on forever, time suddenly sped up once more as the SUV’s roof hit the pavement. Airbags deployed, the roof crushed in, and it felt like the car was punching me from all sides. Bruises exploded across my body followed by white hot pain. My mother’s arm, however, stayed securely over my chest.
The SUV rolled a few more times, sparks flying in all directions. Broken glass filled the air and I clamped my eyes and mouth shut. The seatbelt tore at my flesh, but it didn’t let me go. However, as the car landed on its side and sparks flew up around me, I realized we were heading toward the edge of the road. And beyond that was nothing but rocks and open air all the way to the bottom of the mountain.
For one brief instant, I thought we would stop in time. I looked at my mother, noticing the blood running down the side of her face and making her dark hair slick with moisture. She was still staring at me with fear in her eyes. I tried to smile or think of something to say tolet her know that everything was going to be alright. That the vehicle was going tostopbefore we went over the edge.
But I didn’t have time.
Instead, the last thing I saw was the look of terror on her face as the SUV slid to the edge, rocked, and toppled down the mountainside.
CHAPTER 8
Phoenix
“Charlie!” I cried, sprinting past the nurse into the emergency ward of the hospital. “CHARLIE!”
One of the nurses grabbed my arm, trying to stop me. I yanked my arm out of her grasp and ran through the ward, calling out to him.
“Charlie!”
He had to be alive. He justhadto. I hadn’t stayed around long enough to find out the details when my mom delivered the news about the crash. I’d sprinted out of the house and squealed out of the driveway in my junker of a car. I got to the hospital in record time, my heart pounding so hard I thought I might die.
He had to be alive. I would’ve known if he wasn’t. Right? I would’ve felt it. He was the person I loved more than anyone else in the world. We wereconnectedin that way.
He had to be alive.
“Charlie!”
Hot tears streamed down my face as I reached the end of the hall. Several of the nurses were staring at me, surprised by my sudden rampage through their hospital. The one that had tried to hold me back finally caught up, a doctor on her heels.
“You can’t be back here,” she said in that same gruff tone nurses on television used. “This is for emergency patients only.”
“I need to see Charlie Miller,” I replied, trying to hold back my sobs. “He was brought in with his mother. It was a car crash.”
The nurse opened her mouth to argue, but the doctor held out her hand to silence her. “Are you friend or family?”
“Family,” I said without hesitation.
“I’ll show him to the room, Nurse Atchinson,” the doctor said.