Chapter Twenty Four: Heart Attack
Sophia Crawford

There was a harsh bite to the wind when everyone stepped outside to get a better look at the snow falling outside. It was falling down much harder and faster than it did last week, making the wind even colder than it was before.

The wind was so strong that it actually bent the trees sideways, but it didn't stop us from enjoying the snow as it fell down on top of us fast. There was a thick coating of snow covering the ground now, enough snow to cover our shoes.

The coldness of the snow pricked my bare skin like tiny needles pressing into it, but not once, it was continuous, like I was getting a tattoo, that's how cold it was outside, but it was beautiful and definitely worth the risk of getting sick.

"Wow, it is so beautiful." My grandmother says, staring at the tiny snowflakes falling down onto us in complete awe. She genuinely looked like a child in front of a Christmas tree, ready to open her gifts.

She had the biggest grin on her face when she caught a flake in her hands and watched how it dissolved in her hand.

"It really is beautiful, Jenna." River's aunt says. "And look, there's a rainbow!"

There was a rainbow sure enough, but it disappeared so fast, we could have just imagined it.

Their neighbours' children came running out of their houses too, staring at the thick snow that decided to bless us on such a cold but lovely evening. It was a miracle, the rain was pouring onto us just a few weeks ago, and now it was snowing hard, endlessly.

Children pulled on their gloves and started to make snowmen from the snow on the ground while their parents stood on the porches, smiling at their children laughing and shrieking when they started to have a snowball fight after making one half of a snowman, without the carrot of a nose and buttons for eyes.

I feel something being draped over my shoulders. I turn my head just slightly, seeing River standing beside me after he pulled a thin jacket over my shoulders.

I open my mouth to say something, anything, but no words managed to form.

"You'll get sick." He says.

"Thank you." I manage to say.

The gesture completely threw me off guard because it came from River-the guy who hates my guts, the guy who called me a stalker not long ago and the guy who doesn't even want to do an assignment with me anymore because he hates me. But I still accepted the nice gesture nonetheless and smiled at him.

"It's perfect, isn't it?" Daniel asks. "It looks like a white blanket covering the grass and everything else." He crouches down just slightly to gather some of the snow into his hands before he started to roll the snow in a tiny snowball.

The snow was beautiful that day, even more so because Daniel said it was.

Daniel made me see things through a different perspective-a much better perspective. Snow, to me, was always just plain and cold and kind of boring, but with Daniel, he made me enjoy those things in life, like snow and snowflakes.

I saw snow differently, thanks to Daniel.

"Is everything okay?" River asks, snapping me out of my thoughts. "You zoned out for a second there."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." I tell him, nodding.

I see a small smile spread across his lips before he goes back to staring at the snow falling from the sky.

The sun now disappeared behind a darkened cloud, making everything look much darker, but no one seemed to mind it, though, because they enjoyed it too much to even care about it getting darker and very colder by the second, too.

River's jacket helped a great deal seeing that the snow came down harder and faster the longer we stood watching it. The snow didn't hit my skin as badly as it did before he draped it over my shoulders, but my legs still felt the cold, the dress only covered most of my upper thighs, but not my lower legs and knees.

My grandmother squeezes my hand and I turn to look at her. "I think it's time to go. We don't want to get stuck in this thick snow."

"Thank you for everything." I tell both River and his aunt. "I had so much fun."

For the first time in a long time, I didn't lie about having fun, because I did.

"I appreciate that you came tonight." Penelope says, smiling at me. "It means the entire world to me that you two came." She smiles at my grandmother, too. "I hope you have an amazing birthday further. Please, drive safe, too."

I wanted to pull River's jacket from my shoulders, but he stops me before I get very far. "Take it." He dismisses it with the wave of his hand. "I'll get it some other time. The drive home is going to be cold."

"Oh," I breathe out, completely stunned yet again, "thank you, River."

He nods once and curls his lip upward in a small but evident smile.

I start to walk arm-in-arm with my grandmother-like Ana and I walk at school, back to her car-and when I turned back to look over my shoulder, I see River raking his hands through his blond hair before he goes into the house directly after Penelope waved goodbye at us.

I don't exactly know what happened today, but what I do know for sure is that I can't get over the fact that River wasn't rude to me once, except for when I entered the bathroom when he was busy examining his bruise against his side, but he was in so much pain, refraining him from being able to be rude to me. I can guarantee that he would return to being an ass when we go back to school.

My grandmother stops in her tracks and I see her face scrunching up like she was in pain.

I frown, letting go of her arm so I can step in front of her. "Is everything okay, Grandma?"

"I am just fine. I think it was because I stood in the cold for so long." She says, trying to straighten herself up, but she hunched over yet again. "But I don't think my legs would allow me to drive... Do you think you-"

"No," I quickly say, cutting her off, "you know I can't drive." I shake my head repeatedly.

"Please, Sophia... I am not feeling well."

I wanted to shake my head, but her legs buckle and she falls to the ground faster than I could catch her.

"Grandma!" I yell, feeling my heart start to thump inside my chest.

Everything happened too fast.

It happened too fast.

I turn around, looking at the Jenkins' front door.

"River!" I yell, hoping he wasn't in the shower already. "River! Help me!"

The front door flies open and River comes out of the house looking panicked. He sees me crouched onto the floor beside my grandmother, trying to lift her up from the cold snow, but she was completely unconscious inside my arms.

"What happened?" He asks, helping me to lift my grandmother up from the floor.

"I-I don't know." I stutter, feeling my heart thumping against my ribcage. "She just passed out." I yell, feeling warm tears run down my cheeks. "She-she-"

"It's okay," he says calmly, "let's just get her into the car." River says, trying to stay calm on my behalf.

I nod, feeling tears running down my cheeks, and open the door for him before we carefully placed my grandmother inside.

He leans into the car, throws the seatbelt over my grandmother's body and asks me for the car keys. I hand it to him without hesitation and run to the passenger side while he runs to the driver side.

"I-I don't know what happened." I tell him a few seconds into the drive, tilting my head to I could look at my grandmother's unconscious body in the back seat. I feel more tears run down my cheeks just looking at her being so quiet.

River focused on the road in front of him as he drove. "It's going to be okay." He assures me. "Just take a deep breath. You can't help her if you're not calm."

"My grandmother just passed out on me. I can't be calm!" I immediately feel bad for shouting at him, especially when he could've easily just left me back there without helping me, but he's here now, driving us to the hospital, trying to tell me that everything was going to be fine. I apologize almost immediately. "I-I'm sorry." I inhale deeply, trying to focus on breathing normally, "I just... I just can't lose her. She's the only person I have left in this world."

I should have just driven the car.

If I did, we could've been at the hospital already.

I bite my lower lip to keep them from trembling, but failed miserably.

"You won't lose her." River says, sounding confident.

"You don't know that." I sniffle, wiping my nose with my sleeve.

Where will I possible go if I lose her?

My parents won't welcome me back with open arms. They'd send me away like they did before and they'd most likely blame me for her death too.

I place my forehead against the cold window, feeling a headache coming along.

It felt like the drive to the hospital was excruciatingly slow, but I knew River was doing the best he can into getting us to the hospital soon, and as we drove, my hands kept fiddling in my lap and my fingers kept tapping each other.

River takes my hand into his and gives it a gentle squeeze. "Your grandmother will be okay. Just have some faith." He says, briefly looking at me before his eyes go back to the road in front of him.

When we finally drive through the hospital's parking lot gates, I feel relief washing over me. We were finally someplace where they can help my grandmother. That is if they can help her.

I hope they can help her.

River parks the car and helps me take my grandmother out of the backseat.

Once inside the hospital, a nurse immediately wheeled a wheelchair towards us and lets us sit my grandmother down onto it.

"What happened?" The nurse asks me.

I open and close my mouth.

No words wanted to leave my mouth. I couldn't speak. It felt as if there was something lodged inside my throat, preventing me from explaining to the nurse what happened. "I-I-"

"She just passed out." River says for me and the nurse nods.

She takes out a phone of some kind from her jacket and speaks into it. "We have a possible heart attack patient."

She wheels my grandmother away and her words play like a record inside my mind. We have a possible heart attack patient.

I gasp.

Heart attack. More tears run down my cheeks. Possible heart attack.

My knees buckle out from beneath me and the next thing I know, I'm on the ground just staring in front of me, into nothingness, with the nurse's words ringing inside my ears.

My grandmother had a possible heart attack.

She might die because I was too stubborn to drive the car.

I could've been here earlier if I wasn't so stubborn to drive. But now her death would be the second on my hands.

First Daniel, now my grandmother's.

"I-I killed two people." I remember saying to no one in particular. "T-two people. It's my fault."

I see River crouching down in front of me.

He had his hands on my shoulders, trying to pull me out of whatever state I was in, but all I could do was stare at him.

His lips were moving but I couldn't focus on what he was saying.

The stench of the antiseptic fills my nostrils, bringing back memories to when the accident happened. Daniel died in the ambulance. He was so close to the hospital but he died before they could even help him. And now I'm going to go through it again because I could've helped my grandmother by driving but I was stubborn, because I was too scared to drive again.

Death was on my mind while I stared straight into River's blue eyes.

Death has never left me alone.

Everyone around me dies.

I was stuck in a place where I couldn't really get out of.

My mind was the type of prison I couldn't escape from, it doesn't matter how hard I tried. I'm just... stuck.

I'm being held prisoner by my own mind and there's no way out.