1 Prologue

It was a rainy night, the soundtrack of the thunder kept us awake. The fog made the slippery road unclear to see. Wipers flailed against the windshield. The evening went dark and silent. I heeded no other cars behind or in front of us. The spooky woods caused me to flinch. But my mom didn't make me feel alone. She made me feel safe.

Her eyes were as weary as she was. Her arms hung before the wheels trying to keep her focus on the road. The radio was static due to the rainstorm. But she still kept singing along with it. But instead of being annoyed, I loved it that way.

She had an exquisite, deep, warming voice. It was my favorite sound of all things. I kept glancing at her to check if she was still awake. Her eyes caught mine for a couple of times. And I'd considered them as moments. The moments that had become a memory.

We felt tired from our vacation. It was fun. I could recall our first time in a hot spa and massage. We shared a lot of stories while we were there. We laughed and cried like it was going to be our last. We did everything together. We woke up at dawn, did our makeup for an hour, took a Jacuzzi bath and ate delicious meals.

Then we went out for a walk to the park, where beautiful lights flickered, changed colors. We took pictures of ourselves and of the place until our cameras' storages went full.

At nine in the morning, we'd went to the mall, bought everything we wanted, then went out of the place at seven in the evening. Then we'd took a break and end the hauling with dinner in a famous Italian restaurant.

It only took our vacation three days as something came up from my mom's work while we're out — she was the chief executive and owner of our family business — and she had to go back to deal with anything to keep our company running. She was a busy woman.

We were going home, taking us five miles until we'd get back to the city, we took the long road, for she'd said it's where it didn't have any traffic. We stayed quiet for a while until she turned the radio on and began singing along. She must have had realized the eerie silence inside the car. I tapped my laps repeatedly with rhythm to make the beats, and we started jamming along. "Didn't know you like this song, eh?" She said as she looked at me.

"I do." I looked at her as I answered, and I had to make my voice louder as the thunder synced with me. Then she looked back to the road and started singing again. I gazed at the dark side of the trail and found the spooky trees waving back and forth. They seemed to be showing faces to me. I trembled.

I locked my eyes back to Mom.

Did she know where we were going? I asked myself. What if we're out of nowhere?

I shook my head to get the thought out of my mind. We're fine, I assured myself. I didn't realize I was staring at her for two long seconds until she noticed it.

She peeked at me, "What?" She asked in a cheerful voice, with a smile on her face.

"Nothing. I just couldn't find a beautiful view other than your face." I answered in the most honest way possible.

"Aww... Don't flatter me. Now, you've reminded me of your father." She said, peeking once again. "He would say the same thing, you know."

"Well, I wonder who I take after." We laughed for a short second, and then silence took place again. I hated it when the conversation would cut off, but I didn't know what to say next. So I went gazing out the window again to think of a topic.

"Don't force yourself in looking at those creepy trees, babe." She said, as she checked out the woods through her window. "I know this might be the scariest travel we've ever been to...," she tried to stop a laugh, "...but I know where we're going. Trust me...," I had nothing to say but to smile and nod, "...you can go to sleep, Liz. I know you're tired."

I knew I didn't want to. She worried me too much. She was tired, as well, and I couldn't get that out of my mind. If I knew how to drive a car, we could have switched seats every hour. But I was just fifteen. My age wasn't allowed. Not until I turned another year and earned my driving license.

The static radio had gotten worse a few seconds Mom soon had to adjust it. "Just turn it off, mom," I suggested. But I knew she wouldn't listen. She was a woman who would fix things whenever they needed fixing. She wasn't a technician, but she could fix almost everything.

While she was adjusting the radio, something fell out of it. I sat straight in my seat and began looking for it. "No, honey. Just go to sleep. I'll find it." I didn't have a choice so I stopped and looked at her as she started reaching down, striving she would grab anything like that one that fell out — it was the round rotating thing for the tuner — so she could get her focus back to the road.

"Mom." I got more worried when she put her sight down her and she wasn't even having quick glances at the way. "Mom, I'll take care of it. Just put your eyes back on the road."

"Nope. You don't need to." She said, smirking and sat back up straight, showing the thing in front of me. "I got it." She announced in a singing voice. I sighed in relief.

But as soon as she put her eyes back on the road, a sharp light in front of us exuded as the whole car and the trail brightened like we've already been caught by sunrise. As I didn't take my eyes off my mom, I could see her eyes bulged, mouth formed an O. Then there was a huge, loud bang.

###

The next thing I felt was numbing. I couldn't move my legs and there was a ringing in my ears. I struggled to open my eyes, and I saw the windscreen broken. I tried to move my arms, but I couldn't and I couldn't feel them. I couldn't see anything. My vision was reddish.

Then when I could finally see, I noticed the same bright white light emitting the car, and I could smell gas. Then I felt pain in my head. And it worsen as soon as I touched it. I retrieved my hand after I felt something liquid and it was blood, dyeing my fingers. I began panicking, looking around, didn't know what to do.

And I saw her unconscious. "Mom?" I lost my voice. As I retrieved my strength, I tapped her on the shoulder, but she wasn't waking up. "Mom?" I said again. I unbuckled my seatbelt and tried shaking her to wake her.

But I felt too weak. I couldn't lift my own head up. Blood coated her body. The airbag didn't help at all. "Mom," I said again, voiceless.

But then I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer so I stopped trying and let them shut. I felt so useless and hopeless, blaming myself for not doing anything. Or trying harder even.

I woke up again as I'd felt something touched me on the shoulder. Rain dripping on my arm and my head, and a chilly wind brushing upon my skin. "This one is conscious!" An unfamiliar female voice startled me. I looked up and saw a face, hair tucked in place behind her head, rain drops dripped down on my face.

She looked like an angel. White light was behind her, making me unable to see her face but only her outline. She was wearing an orange vest. Latex gloves covered her hands. As soon as I realized what she was, I started crying. Not of fright but of relief.

"You'll be alright, kid." She assured in a soft, warming voice. Then, I noticed more people in orange vests in the scenario, some of them approached us with a stretcher on hand. They began carrying me up into the hard bed, carefully and smoothly. They buckled me to secure me from falling.

As I laid down, I noticed flickering lights from cameras, ambulances and cruisers surrounding the site. Newscasters speaking inaudibly in sync on a rainy night, impossible to understand what they were saying. Paparazzi snapping photos with their phones and cameras, gossiping to each other making them speak like gibberish.

And there were two men in black coats with shades covering their eyes in the dark area of the scene. And I couldn't see them but their dark outline. They looked like shadow figures standing by and watching the entire scenario. I assumed them to be grim reapers at first. But then again as professional detectives. Or cops undercover.

But as when I thought about grim reapers again, I began to panic. I tried to turn my head to see behind me.

What if they're here 'cause one of us have died? What about my mom? Where is she?

I started breathing heavily as I thought of that one thing I feared most. My pulse rapidly racing.

"You'll be fine, sweetie. Everything is alright now. You're safe." The girl from before said as she noticed my panting.

I held her arm, "My mom. Where's my mom? Where is she?"

"She's on another stretcher, honey. She's... she's fine."

"I need to see her. I need to see my mom. She was unconscious." I begged, tears ran down my face. After a few minutes of being hysterical, I finally saw her, lying on another stretcher, a white clothing covered her body including her face.

"Mom! Mom!" I tried to get up from my back to get to her, but the belts kept me from doing it.

They placed her inside an ambulance. They put me in another. As I still kept crying, I felt an intense pain down my legs. I tried to look at them, but my neck began to hurt.

"Shh... Your legs are fine, but one is bleeding so much. Just try to rest until we get to the nearest hospital, okay?" She said when she entered the vehicle, grabbed a syringe, and injected it into my bad leg. The sting only lasted a few seconds, and the pain of my leg was fading. I calmed.

"Will she be alright?" I looked at her as I asked.

"Yes." She briefly answered, but I could see she was hesitating.

"You lost a lot of blood, Miss Hunt. We should transfuse some into your veins. It won't hurt, I promise." She announced, patting me on my head gently. I nodded.

After injecting the IV into me, I closed my teary eyes and thought of something nice instead of worrying so much about my mom. "She will be alright," I whispered to myself and fell into a deep sleep.