Looking out the car window, Festus watched the trees run by in green blurs. Everything took molten shapes, which made watching them hard. She became frustrated, and turned her focus back to her sketch pad in her lap. On the light gray paper she continued to add details to her dragon. It had dark purple and blue scales, and bright green eyes, a contrast that Festus liked the most. The dragon had spikes on its wings, back, and head. A cloaked figure was riding the dragon, with green eyes, not only peering from the darkness of the hood, but matching the exact color of the dragon’s.
Festus finished adding the last few bits of shading, and set the sketchbook aside again. Searching through her small backpack, she found her hair tie. She tied her dark black hair back, letting it fall onto the back of her black leather jacket. She’d had it for longer than she could remember, a gift from her brother.
Festus pulled out a hand mirror from the pocket of her jacket and checked her reflection. Her purple lipstick made it easy for most people to identify her. She also had black tear-like lines that went from her eyes to her cheek bones. Whenever she puts on her makeup, she remembers that peculiar kid back at her old school who asked her if she was a monster. It always made her smile and take off a little of the makeup to make it less bold.
Festus put the mirror back and looked back down at her sketch book, which she had absentmindedly put back on her lap while thinking. She fished through her box of colored pencils, looking for the perfect shade of gray to outline the hood of the rider’s cloak. Moving the pencils around, Festus made a lot of noise, which upset her older brother. He glared over at her from the driver’s seat, his dark brown eyes showing his annoyance. Festus stopped rummaging for pencils and instead focused herself on the front window. She wanted to keep drawing, but knew that her brother had a really bad temper, especially at that moment.
Festus’ mom had just gotten into a car accident that nearly killed her. In fact, the doctors are afraid that her mom wouldn’t live very much longer. Of course, the doctors didn’t really care if Festus’ mom was going to live, they just wanted another patient to study and do surgery on. Because her brother was eighteen, and wasn’t graduating high school any time soon, Festus didn’t need a babysitter. But it was more like Festus was babysitting him. Yara , Festus’ brother, had already tried to throw a party, jump off the roof, and pick-pocket the elderly neighbors. Festus definitely had her hands full.
Yara almost missed their exit to get to the hospital. They were going to visit mom for the billionth time this month. Festus just hoped that she was okay. In the car-crash, Festus’ mom was flipped upside-down, and her head was nearly detached from her spinal cord. She was alone driving back home from work when a huge semi-truck came out of nowhere and slammed into her car. The car was in shambles and would definitely never work again. So now Festus and Yara were living alone, going to school alone, and doing everything - alone. But at least Festus and Yara had each other, right? Nope. Yara was the kind of teenager who doesn’t like kids…. He had bad experiences that he had made Festus vow to never speak of.
Besides, Festus and Yara do have a few friends. Festus has one friend, a boy named Echitabil. He was one of those kids who knows everything, helps people with homework, and never really does anything wrong, which is basically the opposite of Festus, but all is good, because people with differences get along a lot better than people that are exactly the same. Yara has his little gang of boys that go around stealing and breaking things. There is one boy in particular, Jake, that tends to like to break into Festus and Yara’s house and pretend that he lives there. He is one of the nicer ones, which is hard a little to believe, but it seems like he has joined the family. Jake has never really mentioned his family in front of Festus, but she was almost sure that he had one, and Yara tends to make fun of Festus for particularly liking Jake.
They had just arrived at the hospital as three ambulances flashed by. “Yara! You are going through the EMERGENCY ENTRANCE way! We need to go through the regular entrance! They are going to think that one of us are hurt and then-”
“Yeah, Yeah, I get it.” Yara interrupted irritably.
Yara started to turn the car around; in the middle of the street. Festus clung into her seat belt, panic flushing through her.
“NO! Do NOT make a U-turn! Those are illegal! Keep going and take a right. Next time be more careful.”
“You are bossy,” Yara snapped.
Festus ignored the comment, and watched the window again, hoping that Yara wouldn’t run anyone over. They pulled up to a parking space around the middle of the parking lot and Festus slipped out of the car, hoisting her draw string bag onto her shoulder. They started toward the hospital doors, anxiety building up inside of them both. Once they reached the doors, both of them were dreading what might have happened. Yara got a call from the hospital saying that they needed to come to the hospital, and in the next three days. They decided that there was nothing holding them back, so they went the next day, all the while hoping that there was good news.
Festus knew that something was wrong. She felt it. She was feeling a little strange the day before they got the call, and she became very anxious, hoping that it was because of her mother. If anything worse had happened to her mom, Festus wouldn’t know what to do anymore, not that she knew what to do at the moment anyway. It was like each step Festus took was another memory she would never get to have with her mother.
Festus approached the main lobby with caution. She hated being in places where tons of people are. Even though there was plenty of space in the room, Festus started getting claustrophobic. They hurried down the long hall and to the front desk. Yara exchanged a few words with the lady sitting there and then led Festus to the elevator. Once they got inside, Yara pressed the “3” button. The elevator then closed its doors and began ascending.
The whole ride up was terrifying, and not just because there was a glass wall showing how high you were. As they climbed higher, Festus became a little fainter. She felt the blood slowly drain from her cheeks. The silence was killing her. Was this what was in her mom's hospital room - complete silence? Finally they heard a small ‘ding’ and they were able to step off of the elevator.
Since Yara knew the way, he led again to the hospital room. They had been here so many times in the past month and a half, it almost seemed like a second, haunted home. They entered a small room, with a heart monitor set up in the corner. The first thing Festus did was look at the woman in the bed. Almost unrecognizable, her mom lay motionless in the bed. Dread flooded through Festus’ mind. She could have collapsed right there, but she hadn’t lost hope quite yet. She looked over at the heart monitor. It was beeping repeatedly which meant that Festus’ mom’s heart was working. She was alive. She watched the lines on the machine rise up and down with the beeps.
Festus was so relieved she didn’t see a doctor step in behind her and Yara. He cleared his throat, making Festus jumping to attention. She looked over at the doctor, short and stout. The guy looked at them gravely. He walked over to the bed, next to Festus’ mom. He pointed at her, and said in a weak voice,
“She is brain-dead. She will most likely not be able to wake up unless there is a miracle... and it would have to be a big one. I am very sorry for your loss…”
Festus zoned out. She couldn’t hear anything but a small buzz inside her head. Festus felt her chest collapsing. She couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be happening. She wanted to stay, but she couldn’t. Her mom was gone. There was no way to bring her back. It was impossible. Festus hadn’t believed in miracles for a long time. Nothing could have possibly been worse. Festus no longer had a parent, and she wouldn’t ever again. She now only had her brother. She ran, ran as far as possible. Away from the docter, away from Yara, and away from her brain-dead mother.
Author Notes: I know it sounds really crummy. This was from a long time ago - there was a part at the end with this goat man - I cut it out. From about a year ago....
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United Kingdom • 25 years old