Chapter II

May 11, 2016

Dear Diary,

It's been quite a while since I wrote my thoughts down. Time goes by so fast that I couldn't keep up with my sophomore year. It made me weary for the days to come. Was it always going to be this boring? This quick? Certainly, that wasn't what human lives are about. I often marvelled about what it would be like outside of Caine. Junior year crept up on me faster than I could blink and before I knew it, I would be a graduating senior next year.

My older brother, Gray, was leaving the junior year behind to be a senior once this day was finally over with. What would I do without him here? Even with the friends I surrounded myself with weren't enough to satisfy how lonely I would feel. I want an adventure. I want something to jolt me awake from this slow moving life cycle. Was there such a thing as a too normal life? Because that's what I felt.

With a sigh, Grace twisted the pen between her teeth as she glanced her hazel eyes at the street from which her bedroom faced the front of the house. She laid comfortably on her daybed with her back eased against the cushioned pillow. She could see the rooftops of the buildings in town that lined up on the side of a single street.

Caine is a small town, population about 6000 people; all of which represented what a small-town living was like. Everyone knew each other and there were some that felt higher in class than others. Kind of like high school where cliques would deviate. As the daughter of the two local doctors, it was hard for Grace not to be well-known by all the students. Her mother worked feverishly in the emergency room at the hospital while her dad owned his own physician office next door to the bookshop. Her mom saved lives and her dad made them better by giving little kids a sucker for being good. Don't get her wrong, she really appreciated the fact that her parents were so important and so loved by the community but she longed for their attention.

She pushed her ginger blonde locks behind her ear before writing further in her diary. It was just before 7:30 a.m. on Friday when her brother hollered from downstairs;

"Hey G! You ready?"

Grace closed her diary and placed it within her shoulder bag before hollering back,

"Yeah, be right down!"

She gripped the strap, headed for the door before stopping to look at herself through the full body mirror in her bedroom.

Grace is an average looking girl, at least in her eyes, with a 5'4 height, hazel eyes and somewhat natural blonde hair. She was wearing a fitted pair of jeans, sneakers, and a flannel button down that hung loosely over her torso. With a shrug on her appearance, she left the room to hurry down the stairs.

"You're going to make me late on the last day of school," Gray stated with a blank expression.

He studied her outfit for the day, which is a normal tee and blue jeans, the way she wears it every day.

"Nice shirt." He teased.

She didn't wear fancy clothes even though she knew she could. She seemed content with her typical look of blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a fitted crew neck t-shirt that were usually safe, solid colors--except today was a flannel kind of day.

"Bite me." She retorted and mimicked a biting motion with her mouth.

Standing at a 6' height with dirty blonde hair and ocean blue eyes, he was not amused by Grace's persistent tardiness. He was a senior now, what did he cared? She thought.

She whipped around the kitchen to grab a few pieces of toast to butter, eyeing her brother with a devilish grin before devouring the bread. Smacking her lips while she chewed, her mouth half full, she said, "I don't get why you're so obsessed with getting to school. It's the last day anyways."

He rolled his eyes. "I have a school council meeting this morning. You know, important stuff that you wouldn't care about."

Dear Gray was top of his class competing for the valedictorian status against one of his good friends and football teammate, Tanner. He was the perfect son a pair of conventional parents could ask for. Football star, Academic scholar. A saint. It was hard for Grace to uphold such a genuine stature like her brother. She envied his willingness to do so many things instead of enjoy life.

He tapped his fingers on his wrist watch in front of her face which only made her eyebrows furrow at him.

"You're right," She scoffed, "I don't care." She chewed up the last piece of toast before following Gray out of the house and into his Jeep Wrangler.

"Seatbelt." He promptly reminded her in a parental tone. Like clockwork.

Grace switched through radio stations until she flipped to the one she wanted to listen to and increase the volume, ignoring the fact that her brother hated that way because it was 'unnecessary'.

"You don't have to act like you don't care, Gracie." He turned down the volume to speak to her as he drove through the foggy morning.

"Jesus, why is it so foggy this morning? It's practically summer." He complained.

He's so annoying. Always meddling in her feelings and expecting more of her. What a true big brother. But she was right. Gray was always there for her, even to catch her when she fell. Always defending her, teaching her, guiding her to have a better attitude and outlook on life.Grace loved it but she was never going to show that appreciation to Gray, that would be too much satisfaction to him and what would a little sister do if she no longer was able to annoy her big brother?

Clicking her tongue in her mouth, she decided to respond. "But it's so much easier." She raised her brows, teasing him but he wasn't buying it.

He turned on the blinker to turn away from the street they resided on and towards the school, picking up the speed now. They lived at least twenty minutes from the main town because their devoted parents enjoyed the 'open air'. Right now, their parents were at a healthcare conference in Summerwood which was to—yet again—reward them for their dedication and hard work to such an underserved community like Caine.

"You're such a brat, you know that?" Grace ignored him to turn up the volume on the song she enjoyed. It was loud and he only stared at her sternly to try and tame the attention of hers.

He only wanted what was best for her and because he would be graduating and moving to college somewhere else next year, he knew she wouldn't stand a chance in Caine by herself unless she bucked up. He knew her potential and how intelligent she was and she knew it too. He sighed. If only she actually tried, he thought.

One more glance at her before he said, "Grac—" Gray's words were suddenly cut off by Grace's sudden gasp.

Gray turned towards her and his eyes met hers. If there is one word to describe her expression, it was fear. Horrified, she yelled, "Gray, look out!" His head snapped back to the road.

The fog revealed that there was someone standing right in the middle of the road. Without any hesitation, he swerved so hard that Grace slung her head against the side of the window, smashing it to pieces.

"Grace!" Gray reached out his arm to protect the torso region of his sister while she was sweeping in and out of consciousness.

"Fuck!" He gripped one hand on the steering wheel as the Jeep had turned 180 degrees before tilting over the ditch. The steep hill forced the vehicle to flip four times, first to sling the front end against a small tree that only forced it to whip back around in a complete circle and end engulfed into a large tree trunk upside down.

Several minutes passed before Grace slowly regained consciousness. Her eyes were groggy and something thick and wet dampened her hair and shirt. She couldn't remember where she was or what was happening at the moment.

"Ugh..." She groaned as she pulled her hand to her head to feel the injury that stung to the touch. Her body was heavily trying to weigh itself down when she realized that she was upside down.

Smoke engulfed the Jeep and the surrounding area as she tried to reach her hands out but couldn't grasp anything but the airbags that deployed in front of her. Blood was rushing to her head as she was still hooked in the seatbelt.

"Gr-Gray..." her lips pursed, dry from the smoke as she coughed out her brother's name.

With her vision still blurred, she turned her head as much as she could to see a silhouette of a man laying in the driver side and a large, long object was also in her sights. She attempted to reach for him but the seatbelt kept her from doing so. The sizzling sound of the vehicle and the smell of gasoline singed the hairs in her nostrils, making her cough even more.

"Gray..." She coughed more, waving her hands back and forth and blinked her eyes to see through the burning smoke.

And God, was she shocked when she saw him.

There lies Gray, ripped from his seatbelt the minute the Jeep impacted the first tree. He had been protecting his sister's front torso so the constant reaching only made it worse for him. Upon release from the seatbelt, he had been impaled by a branch from the first tree which only inflicted little pain until the vehicle finally rested on the large tree trunk at the bottom of the hill.

The force and movement of Gray's body then impaled the branch deeper, ripping vital organs in a result of him to bleed to death.

Gray was deceased before she even woke from unconsciousness.

"Gray, wake up." Her voice was shaky and frantic as she began to realize what just happened. A person. A man? In the middle of the road? She shook her head, unable to think clearly.

Her mind panicked as she fumbled her fingers over the seatbelt, "Dammit!" She whined with a hoarse voice when she finally broke free from the seat, landing head first. Gray, she thought as she groaned from pain.

Grace scrambled to get up and get him out of there. "Gray, we have to get out of here."

She continued to smell the stench of gasoline but she tried to pull his body up only to realize that he wasn't moving nor was he going to wake up. The branch protruding from the backside of him horrified her so much that her face turned a very pale white and sick to her stomach.

Unable to speak or comprehend the complexity of the scene, she can only stare at the lifeless body of her brother. The echoing sound of sirens rang in her ears but it was the only sound she heard. She no longer smelled gasoline and she no longer felt pain from her injuries.

The passenger side door suddenly flung open hard enough to pull it off the hinges. Grace was immediately pulled from the Jeep as it was about to catch on fire, but she didn't care. His eyes were still open and piercing deep within her soul as she was lifted away from the vehicle before it was engulfed in flames.

Her brother, the only person that cared about her more than the world, was dead, right in front of her eyes.

And it was her fault.