Page 79 of Ghost Of You

I look up just as a blinding light engulfs us, and everything shatters. Time seems to stretch into a slow-motion nightmare. Glass flies like deadly confetti, and the car spins wildly, my world spinning in a dizzying blur. Pain lances through my body, making me feel as though I'm being torn apart from the inside out. Then, with a sickening thud, everything goes black.

I drift in and out of consciousness, my senses a jumbled mess. My ears ring, my head throbs, and my body feels like it's been shattered.

"Killian," a voice calls, distant and distorted.

"Killian," it comes again, clearer but still muffled.

I want to drift back into sleep, to escape this torment, but a deep, instinctive dread pulls me back to consciousness. Something is terribly wrong, and I need to know what's happening. The light overhead is blinding as I struggle to open my eyes, and there, hovering above me, is a woman with a halo of fluorescent light around her, looking like an angel from another world.

I inhale sharply, pain exploding in my chest like fire. I turn my head to see Laelia slumped, lifeless in her seat. Blood tricklesfrom her temple, her face marred with cuts from the shattered windows. I reach out desperately touching her.

"Laelia! Please, wake up!" My voice cracks, fear and love mingling in a frantic plea. "I love you."

She groans, but her eyes remain closed. Her chest rises and falls, a small comfort in the otherwise unbearable agony.

"Killian," the woman says urgently, pulling my hand away from Laelia. "Someone's coming to help her. Let me help you."

"Laelia first," I demand, my voice breaking with desperation. "She's pregnant."

"Two paramedics are here," she says, and I turn to see them working on Laelia, putting a neck brace around her and carefully preparing to move her.

I ignore the woman's attempts to help me and watch as they lift Laelia onto a stretcher. My heart breaks as I see her being carried away, leaving me behind in a haze of pain and fear.

The woman's voice fades as the intensity of the buzzing in my ears overwhelms me. I try to move but am met with excruciating pain and everything turns black again.

I regain some awareness to the sound of wheels screeching and frantic voices. My body feels like it's being pulled through a nightmare of bright, burning lights. The pain is almost unbearable, particularly in my chest. I struggle to open my eyes, but the light is blinding.

As hands probe my body, a sharp pain in my ribs makes me hiss. Despite the agony, a gnawing dread tells me something far worse might be coming. The sound of a heartbeat fills my ears, a stark contrast to the chaotic shouts around me. I hear a "CodeBlue" and the piercing screech of a defibrillator—someone's life is slipping away.

Panicked, I force myself upright, ignoring the pain. I need to see Laelia.

Doctors swarm around me, but I push past them, my focus solely on finding Laelia.

"Sir! Sir!" a nurse calls, trying to stop me.

"Where is she?" I demand, my voice breaking with raw desperation.

The nurse's face pales, and she looks at me with sorrowful eyes. "Everything's going to be okay," she says weakly. "Let's get you checked first, and I'll find her."

"No!" I shout, my fear a frustration overwhelming. "I need to find her now!"

The nurse's face crumples and she reluctantly points towards a nearby room. I stumble towards it, my heart racing.

As I enter, my life flashes before my eyes because I know what I'm looking at, even before my brain, let alone my heart realises.

Laelia lies on a hospital bed, her dress torn, lifeless with medical pads stuck to her chest. The sight is a cruel mockery of the future we dreamed of.

I sink to my knees, my heart tearing apart as the vibrant future I envisioned with Laelia disintegrates in an instant. The pain is all-consuming, and I can't stop the flood of tears. The love that once filled my life is gone, leaving a void so deep I can't see the light anymore.

"No! No! No! Laelia!" I scream, my voice raw, a broken echo of my soul's despair.

My mother's arms envelop me, a fragile comfort amidst the wreckage of my world. I clutch her desperately, my heart shattered by the loss of Laelia and our unborn child.

The storm outside has become a ghostly echo, a cruel reminder of the night's tragedy. My breaths come in ragged gasps as I clutch my mother, the agony of our loss nearly overwhelming. The hospital room feels cold and sterile, and indifferent background to my personal hell.

The beeping of monitors, the murmur of distant conversations, and the rhythmic clatter of medical equipment are all but background noise. My entire world has collapsed into this one agonising moment, where nothing exist but the emptiness left by Laelia's absence.

In my mind, I replay the night's events, over and over. The blinding light, the screeching of metal, Laelia's desperate scream—each fragment a shard of glass cutting through my soul. The future we had planned, with its dreams of cradling our baby girl, has been stolen from us in a heartbeat.

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