“I know, I heard about it this morning from one of the clerks at the grocery store,” one of the radio announcers was saying in between songs. Apparently, the Echora Garrow’s case was reopened a couple of days ago or something; they said something about new evidence. It’s been what, about fifteen or sixteen years, hasn’t it? I remembered when that happened. Anyway, the reopening put our little town on the map again. The news went viral late last night. Now it's being talked about on every major news station across the country.”
Drew and I looked at each other at the same time.
“Holy shit, your dad wasted no time!”
I was the first to look up and see that a semi had stopped at the stop sign a little way in front of us.
“Drew,” I squealed, pointing.
He stepped on the brake to slow down…nothing. He stomped on it the second time, but we continued to sail toward a completely stopped semi at forty miles an hour. Drew was repetitively pumping the brakes, but they wouldn’t respond, and by then, I was in a full-blown panic. I could feel Echo’s emotions bouncing around like a caged bird in my chest. Then in a display of quick thinking, Drew yanked up the emergency brake, and it jerked my head so hard, it sent a shooting pain down my neck and sent my head bouncing off the windshield. It didn’t keep us from hitting the semi, but it made enough of a difference that we didn’t die on impact. The front of my car was steaming, smoking, and making a hissing sound. I was a little punch drunk, and my head was pounding. I heard Drew somewhere in the distance, calling my name and then felt his hands under my arms dragging me from the car. The pavement was hot, where he laid me down, but I couldn’t seem to voice that complaint. My vision was a blurred mess of movement. Hues of orange, mixed in with bright yellow, set against a green and grey backdrop danced in my peripheral right before the ringing started, and the world went black.
I don’t know how long it had been, but when I came back around, the sound of sirens blaring sliced like a knife through my pounding head. I could feel Drew’s tears on my face and the hammering of his heart as I regained consciousness. My head was resting on his chest, and I was grateful for not having to support the weight of it. We were sitting on the hot asphalt and not too far from us, I could hear the hiss and crackle of a fire. The smoke was thick and pungent. I moved my head slightly, and Drew’s eyes darted to mine. They were bloodshot and a bright, almost luminous green against the glossy white
He squeezed me, clearly relieved, and I grunted my discomfort to him.
“Eden, are you okay,” he asked, wiping at his tears. “You hit your head pretty hard on the windshield when we hit that truck. Why weren’t you wearing your seatbelt—you always wear your seatbelt.”
I reached a hand to my forehead, and my fingers came away sticky, wet, and red. I was bleeding—a lot. I started to shake my head to indicate that I wasn’t and quickly learned that doing so made it hurt even worse, but speaking wasn’t something I felt I could do at that moment. Not only was I in pain and feeling weak, but I was also tired, more tired than I’d ever been in my life. All I wanted to do is drift off into the blanket of darkness so I wouldn’t feel the torturous pain anymore.
Eden, don’t you dare fall asleep! You have to stay awake. You have to fight. If you fall asleep, if you give in to the urge, you will probably never wake up again. A concussion will kill you if it’s bad enough.
I could hear Echo, and I wasn’t even trying. Something about being hurt as badly as I was must have canceled out the dampening effects of my medication because her voice was strong, loud, and cleaved through my head like an ax.
Echo, please don’t shout, I can hear you.
The weariness came in waves, and every time I started to let it take me under Echo pulled me back up. She kept me afloat, refusing to let me give in to the release the darkness promised me. The sun bathed me in its warm, bright rays, and under any other circumstance, it would have been a welcome companion, but at that moment, the only purpose it served was to intensify the timpani that was reverberating a rhythmic beat in my skull. The ringing in my ears was loud and unrelenting. All I wanted to do was sink deep into myself to escape all the pain. The sirens were a piercing shrill by then, and I knew help was close.
Just a little longer, Eden, you have to hold on. You have to fight this. You will pull through.
I could feel Echo’s fear. I’d never felt a level of fear so high from her before. Not even when Drew and I were getting close to figuring out her secret, and finding out on our own who my father was. No this was primal, this was deep and genuine and didn’t have the same selfish undertone like every other fear I’d felt from her. That’s when I knew—I was hurt bad. I might die.
If death is so bad, then why did you let
