We’ve all had bad days before, days where things just didn’t go right. I’ve had a bad day, week, month, year, life. Nothing has ever gone my way until Annabel came into my life. She was sweet, and wonderful, and beautiful. She was my everything, and I never wanted to live without her, but she taught me suicide was selfish. She saved me and I didn’t save her.
Right then the phone rang. “What’s that damn noise? Cals, get out of the way!” He pushed me, my head slamming against the wall. Pain shot through my body as the answering machine picked up, then a man’s voice.
“Calista! Calista, are you there? If you are, pick up!” I didn’t move. “This is Annabel’s father…” At Annabel’s name I jumped up, grabbing the phone.
“Mr. Reeves, is something wrong?”
“Calista? Yeah, I need you to get to the hospital right away! Hurry!”
“Mr. Reeves? Mr. Reeves are you there?” I shouted into the phone but the only answer was a click. He had hung up.
“Cal, get off the phone and bring me a beer,” my dad shouted from the couch. I ran over to the fridge and yanked it open. I grabbed a bottle of beer off the top shelf and ran over so I was only a few feet from my father and threw the beer over to him. With Annabel on my mind I ran over to the steps. I heard the beer crashing against the wall and my father getting up. “Ahh! Calista you come clean up this mess now!” I paused where I was on the second step as he came over by me. I turned around and dashed up the stairs, but he grabbed my leg. Smashing my face on the step, he said, “You go pick up that glass now, Callie, or I’ll kill you!” Managing to get my leg out of his grasp; I got to my feet and ran upstairs.
“Little Fire, come here. Hurry!” I whispered as I got upstairs. He came crawling out.
“Callie!” He shouted.
“Shh Aiden. You’ve got to be quiet,” I said scooping him up in my arms. Dashing to the door I heard my father’s footsteps shuffling on the stairs. I pulled open the glass door and ran out onto the deck. As I turned around, there was my dad in his ripped white tee. I screamed as he grabbed at my neck. I gently dropped Aiden to the ground. “Go! Run! You’ve got to get up and run, Aiden! Now! Go over there!” I pointed to the end of the deck. Aiden just glanced where I was pointing then looked back at me. “Aiden, you’ve got to get out of here! Now! Get up on your damn feet and run!” Tears welled up in his eyes as he crawled slowly to the end of the deck. My father tightened his grip on my neck.
“You’re go… going to pa… pay!” He slurred.
“D…d…d…dad, d…d…d…don’t!” I managed to say through tangled breaths. He just tightened his grip again. My vision blurred and a loud screeching noise filled my ears. Everything went black…
“Ouch!” My dad screamed and let go. I fell to the hard deck boards. When I managed to open my eyes I saw Aiden standing there laughing. My dad was holding his ankle where I saw bite marks. Did Aiden really bite him, for me?
“I save Callie! I save Callie!” He was singing. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even know what I was feeling. Shock. That’s all I knew. It was a big shock.
“You ******** little piece of s**t a** boy!” My father screamed going straight toward Aiden.
“Dad,” I said softly. He continued toward my brother. “Dad!” I screamed. “If you lay on finger on him then I’ll…”
“You’ll what? Hit me? You can’t damage me!” He screamed. Before I could move he kicked Aiden, and Aiden went flying backwards.
“Aiden!” I gasped. I got to my feet and ran over to him. He was still alive and his eyes were still open. I gently picked him up, just in case anything was broken. Out of nowhere my dad put his hand firmly on my shoulder and pulled me toward him, making me almost drop my little brother. “Let go of me, you a*****e!” I screamed pulling myself away from him. I ran down the deck stairs, grasping Aiden tighter and tighter the farther I got away from my father. I headed straight toward the hospital. As I ran, random people on the sidewalk kept glancing at me, a few gasping. Some even shouted things like what happened to you guys? Is everything alright? But most were too afraid to say anything. I just ignored them all as I ran through the hospital doors. I ran up to the receptionist screaming, “I need a doctor for my baby brother, now!”
“Calm down miss, now explain exactly what happened.”
“There’s no time to explain! He may be dying!” I yelled. All of a sudden a doctor came out. I turned to face him.
“What’s all the commotion out here? Some of the patients…” He began to say. “Oh. My. God. We need doctors, and fast!” His eyes widened as he saw us standing there. “Sweetie, what happened?” I couldn’t answer. I wanted to tell him, I really did, but was I really supposed to tell him that my father beat me and my brother? He could get sent to jail, and did I really want that? A part of me did, I knew, but the other part didn’t. I decided to lie. “We got hit… hit by a car. It wasn’t going really fast, but it did some bad damage to my brother, you see. I just really want him to get checked on.” I stayed calm and cool on the outside but totally freaked out on the inside. Some doctors ran from around the corner.
“What’s the big…” one asked but then paused. “Oh God, I got the boy. He doesn’t look too bad, but the girl… she’s going to need stitches for her head and her lip and her…” I didn’t listen to the rest. One of them already snatched Aiden from my hands.
“Calista, there you are!” A voice exclaimed from behind me. I turned around. It was Annabel’s father. “Come, hurry up.”
“What’s happening?”
“No time to explain, hurry!” He screamed grabbing my scratched arm and pulling me along beside him. I glanced back at the doctor that had my brother; he was in good hands. Mr. Reeves pulled me down a long hallway till we got to the end door. “You better close your eyes. This is going to be hard to take in.” He opened the door and pulled me inside. “Give us some privacy!” He said sternly to the nurses, and they obeyed. I heard the door click shut a moment later. “Ok, Callie I want you to sit right here, ok? Don’t open your eyes; I don’t want you to freak out.” He pushed on my shoulders so I sat.
“I demand you to tell me what the hell is happening!” I shouted.
“Keep your voice down. I’m going to place something in your hand, ok? Take it gently and don’t yank it.” I heard him shuffling around until I felt a hand go into mine. I cradled it with both hands, feeling around the fingers… it felt almost as if I knew this hand by heart, every curve and line, but it couldn’t be the same hand, it just couldn’t.
“No, no, no, no, no, no!” I cried. My eyes flung open only to see Annabel laying there in the bed, not moving. “What… what… no!” I screamed getting up. I faced her father. “What did you do to her?” I blamed.
“She has cancer, quit responding to the treatment months ago. They gave her a week to live and when she found out she went ballistic! Then after a horrible accident, she woke up and lived every moment to the fullest. You helped keep her alive, Callie. You helped.” I just stared at Annabel, crying. We just stood there a while in silence. I finally managed to choke, “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She didn’t want you to worry about her…”
“But then I wouldn’t take it as such a surprise now!” I screamed at him. I still had Annabel’s hand cradled in mine and right then it went lifeless. She had died, right there in my presence. My expression must have changed because Mr. Reeves asked four simple words that meant everything to me, “She’s dead, isn’t she?” I just nodded, letting go of her hand, and also letting the tears spill across my face. Annabel’s father grabbed me and pulled me close to him, and I let him. My tears soaked his shirt as I choked, “She can’t leave me! She just can’t! I love her, I love her a lot.” He just stroked my hair and said, “I know, I know.”
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