Where the Ivy Hides by Kimber S. Dawn

seat, digging for a treat from Delilah's chest to fall beneath my hand. When I feel a teardrop shaped baggie, I kiss my middle and pointer fingers then tap the roof of the Mini cooper with both as I fly under the yellow traffic light. Using my front teeth, I bite a hole in the corner of the bag and snort the coke that spills onto my fingers before looking back over my shoulder, making sure one last time Ryker isn't following me.
    Once the speed of traffic levels out, I set the cruise control and snort another quick line before focusing back on the surrounding traffic.
    I never saw the red GTO swerve into my lane, I never saw it because I was going eighty miles an hour and snorting cocaine when it hit.
    I barely recall anything. It's just snippets of time. There's a before and an after, just no in between.
    I remember hearing Imagine Dragon’s Shots on the radio, then glass smashing and metal creaking.
    And screams.
    Those earsplitting screams that pierce the hot summer night are still faintly heard even in the darkness, until they abruptly cease just before the bright light…simply…goes…out.
    Had I known I would die today, I would’ve made sure Ryker Killian knew I loved him. That I always have, and I always would, and in this form and the next I'd never be something he'd have to catch.
    I'd always be his.

 
     
    Part 2
    After Death

Chapter 10
     

     
    I remember each time they resuscitated me. I remember the feeling of back and forth in purgatory. It's like the tide. It pulls you close only to push you away. And every time it pulled me close, I was ready.
    But in the end, it wasn't ready for me. The last time the paddles struck my chest, bringing me back to life, was the last time purgatory pushed me away and when I came to, I did not get the option to beg for another chance.
    The blonde woman from the picture is standing over me, as she has from the moment I watched them roll my body into the hospital from the helicopter. The doctors and nurses were like ants around my lifeless form, one continuously squeezing the bag attached to the tube inserted in my lungs, breathing for me, while another continuously pumped my chest as he counts to thirty.
    As soon as I see the blonde woman through my matted eyelashes, I close them again. I'm not ready for a fucking family reunion. What exactly am I supposed to say right now to these people?  Sorry for being born and then for snorting coke while driving...and totaling my car?
    "She's coming to." I hear a deep, resounding voice echo off the sterile white walls.
    A cracked voice breaks the silence when my mother speaks, "Roman, no she isn't. You heard the doctors, you've seen the nurses’ faces, I..." Her sobs resemble the sounds of a tortured soul and my heart breaks for this woman. For my mother.
    I remain still. Not even an eyelash twitches.
    Minutes turn into hours and at some point I drift away, exhaustion and confusion takes its toll on my weak mind and body.
    When I wake up the sun is in my eyes and it causes me to squint and turn my face away.
    "Why didn't you tell your mother you were awake yesterday morning, young lady? You and I both know you were, but instead of speaking, you just lay there and caused her even more undue stress and worry."
    I freeze the second his voice splits the air between us and it leaves me at quite the awkward position with my head turned a sharp ninety degrees to the left.
    I couldn't care less. There's no way I'm letting him gain any of the power exchange up for grabs in the initial reunion. No. Fucking. Way.
    It's apparent this man is intelligent, and I'm not threatened by it, not in the least.
    No, I'm threatened by the size of this man's balls and his audacity.
    His breath stirs the hair by my ear when he speaks in a growl, "Winter Ivy Payne, I have had to rock your poor mother to sleep, every single night from the moment Delores Chiasson walked out of the front door with you, I will not be rocking her to sleep tonight, though. Don't