I stretch out a hand, but nothing in my body moves.
I can’t reach my mum.
I can’t save her.
“P-please… Please… no… please…”
Dark shadows loom over me. They’re talking, but it’s hushed and I can’t make anything of it.
Warm fingers touch my side. I crack my eyes open and see a small star tattoo on the inside of his arm like mine.
“Leave her,” The voice says.
My world goes black.
5
Astrid
They didn’t think I’d come back alive.
* * *
Two months later,
Back to school.
Back to life, basically.
The past two months were pieces cut from hell. I half-expected Lucifer — the real one, not the TV show — to jump out and inflict some sort of torture.
While all the kids at school holidayed and posted pictures from all over exotic places, I spent my time split between the hospital and rehab.
All of it crashed down on me in such a short period of time, it’s like I’m re-living the tragedy from three years ago.
Unlike then, I didn’t come out unscathed.
I broke my leg, bruised my ribs and dislocated my shoulder. According to the doctor and the nursing staff, I was lucky.
Lucky.
Such a weird word.
I even heard my stepmother say that to her countless snobbish friends. I was lucky to have escaped death twice.
Obviously this luck thing isn’t hereditary because Mum died in her first car accident.
Why couldn’t I share that luck with her?
Dan flings an arm around my shoulder, bringing me to the present.
The September sky has a beautiful, pale hue and the sun actually shines down on us peasants in the UK.
&n
bsp; The air smells of Autumn's humidity and that tame forest scent — coming from the huge pine trees surrounding Royal Elite School.
Dan and I make our way through the huge double doors. Both of us are dressed in our uniforms. Mine has a dark blue skirt and a matching jacket with RES’s golden Lion-Shield-Crown on the pocket. A red ribbon surrounds my neck over the white button-down shirt. Dan’s identical except he has trousers and a red tie.