A Series of Unfortunate Events Part: 34

[He looks up at Monica’s fear stricken face and into her tear filled eyes almost as if silently begging for help moments before he collapses onto the bathroom floor unconscious. ]

2008

His knees hitting the ground sends a jarring sensation up his spine that springs Nic back to his feet and sends him sailing towards the crushed wreckage that contained all he ever could consider family, screaming a “No” that could barely be detected under all the rage filled noise that carried in the air that escaped his mouth as he plunged forward.

Nic grabs the driver side rear passenger door handle and tugs with all his might. The strain and intensity of his pulling is met with bulging veins on his arms and neck, the sound of his straining sifting through his grit teeth and the slow moan of sheet metal beginning to yaw under the seemingly unyielding force behind his rage-driven pulling. Within moments the door springs open and throws Nic to the ground. Before making much contact with the ground he’s back on his feet and lunging into the now open cavity of the wrecked car’s backseat to find Keisha pinned forward against the back of the front passenger seat gasping for air as blood trickles from her left ear and mouth. She stares bleakly at him as her gasps get slower and slower. She appears as though she can no longer see him but knows he’s there. She chokes as though attempting to emit words and her eyes blindly pan back and forth.

“No… Baby. Don’t”
Nic chokes on his words and his voice cracks as tears are welling into his eyes. He knows he can’t save her. He can’t want her to live past this moment to endure the short remainder of life with her mangled body fighting for survival only to give up on an operating table. Even if she lived, she would never recover from such an injury. He would never recover from the death of his family and thus he could never hope for her to live to see that of him. He can only hope that she is comforted by his presence as she slowly slips from this world. He returns the bleak stare devoid of tears in his eyes. They are meeting eye to eye but seeing past her broken body and his already broken heart. Loving each other for the last time in this world. He stares so hard into her eyes he cannot see her mouth silently and slowly utter the words “I love you” before under the chocking blood and the last breaths she takes, her pupils contract and her eyes close in departure. Nic dares not look at the fate of his mother and sister and stares down at the debris littered floor of the car allowing the rage to return to him and drive him out of the car away from the possible sight of the rest of his dead loved ones.

Nic slowly backs out of the car falling to the ground with his limbs shaking. He clenches his arms around himself in an attempt to bottle the pain causing himself to roll side to side in the sharp debris on the road. He feels no pain and shuts his eyes so tight he almost cant breathe thus forcing them back open to look at the pandemonium on the roadway. His scream is so loud, the world is silent to him. His ears ring with pressure, and the only thing telling him he’s still alive are the vibrations the sound of his breaking voice creates in his chest. Finally, the tears for his father, for his lost friends, the daily struggles, for every time he felt like he wasn’t going to make it, for every time he had to see his mother struggle, for his family, for Keisha – fell from his eyes and run red with blood. He will never recover from this and for this thought he no longer considered himself among the living.