Still Alive Read online

  Copyright, Jessi Newborn, January 2014

  Forward

  The novel you are about to read was wholly inspired by a chance encounter with a musician named Kate Covington. After watching Hocus Pocus (hilarious show), I wanted to find a full version of one of the songs on the soundtrack called ‘Come Little Children’. That’s how I discovered Erutan, which is the artist name Kate Covington publishes her music under. I was so impressed with her remake of Come Little Children that I looked up some of the other music she composed. I discovered that not only did she sing like an angel, she also played all of the instruments in her songs as well!

  After downloading all of her music from iTunes, I went on a road trip for four hours, serenaded by her amazing music the entire time. Unlike many artists, Kate sings about a wide variety of topics instead of limiting herself to personal relationships. She’s a gamer and a lot of her music is inspired by specific scenes from the games she plays. The mix of her unique lyrics, amazing music, and an extremely over-active imagination on my part, inspired the story that you are about to read. I tend to go into trances when I drive long distances (who doesn’t, right?). When I go into these hypnotic trances I tend to get really caught up in my fantasies, to the point where they are more real to me than any kind of movie could hope to be. During this road trip, I was immersed in a world of seraphic music that fed my imagination a steady diet of new concepts that continued long after I arrived at my destination. I began writing this story about two days later and finished it in just over a week.

  I was so impressed with Kate’s lyrics that I wanted to use them in this novel. I emailed her requesting permission to use her lyrics and wow! Talk about a cool person! She was more than happy to allow me to use her lyrics in this novel.

  In order to get the most out of this novel, I would highly suggest that you visit Erutan on Amazon or iTunes and listen along when you reach one of the portions of the story that have lyrics. Listening to her music is a transcendental experience that I hope everyone who reads this can enjoy.

  You can visit her website at https://www.erutanmusic.com/ or visit her YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/katethegreat19 to see her in action. Whatever you do, don’t be a tightwad and pirate her music! This artist deserves everything she can get for the work she put into this music!

  Chapter 1 – Beyond the Shards

  “Aria, get out of the bathroom already!” Melody growled impatiently. She banged the door for emphasis.

  Melody stepped back in surprise as the door opened immediately. Aria hurried past quickly, but not before Melody saw the remnants of her twin sister’s latest bout of weeping. Taking a deep breath, she ignored the twinge of guilt that assaulted her conscience and walked into the bathroom.

  It had almost been a month since the nightmares had begun awakening Aria in the middle of the night. She had been seeing a shrink for two weeks now, but the nightmares appeared to be getting worse, if the screams that awoke the household every night were any indication.

  She stared into the mirror at tilted dark-brown eyes that held no trace of puffiness and sighed again. She needed to stop treating her sister like a vermicious knid. It wasn’t really Aria’s fault that she had an overdeveloped sense of ethics. It had almost been six months since Aria had refused to help her cheat on her eighth grade math test. Melody had remained committed to her course of cold indifference toward her sister ever since. Aria had always been her best and only friend, so it had been difficult to hold onto her grudge.

  During the past six months, Melody had made new friends. Her mother called them frenemies, but what would her mother know about being a teenager? They didn’t even have internet when her mother was fourteen. Melody shuddered at the thought. Barbarians.

  “Are you okay, sweetie?” Melody heard her mother ask Aria from down the hall.

  “Fine,” Aria replied in a subdued voice.

  “Still can’t remember anything from your dreams?” her mother asked in concern.

  “No,” Aria sighed resignedly, “nothing.”

  “I’ve booked an appointment with a sleep specialist in Seattle,” her mother said gently. “She’s one of the best in her field. We’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise.”

  “I’m not sure we’ll have to worry about it for much longer,” Aria replied quietly.

  “Why do you say that?” her mother asked, the note of concern in her voice ratcheting up several notches.

  “Just a premonition,” Aria mumbled in a barely audible voice.

  Melody paused in the act of brushing her silky midnight hair as a sudden chill ran down her spine. She knew her sister’s premonitions had a nasty habit of coming true. Aria had saved her life twice as a result of those fateful premonitions.

  Swallowing her sudden nervousness, she finished brushing her hair and moved on to brushing her teeth. It would have been easier to freeze Aria out of her life if her solemn twin wasn’t so sweet. Aria was always the first person to offer comfort to a person in distress. Melody had lost count of how many times Aria had held her in comforting arms as she cried her heart out.

  It had been less than a year ago that their mother had revealed they were the product of rape at the age of fifteen. Rather than falling to pieces, Aria had held both Melody and their mother tightly in her arms as Melody sobbed bitterly. Until that moment, their mother had told them their father had left before their birth. Melody had always held out a secret hope that her father had some extraordinary excuse for leaving them and they would be reunited someday.

  Discovering how many times her mother had come to the brink of committing suicide after the rape had forever changed her opinion of men. She knew there were good men in the world, but for months after her discovery, she could barely look at men without feeling intense revulsion. The thought of her loving mother being subjected to such brutality had turned her world upside down. She had developed a snide sarcasm that had her spending more time in the principal’s office than she spent in class.

  Aria had begun spending her nights in Melody’s bed, holding her in comforting arms until she fell asleep. The thought of anything happening to her overly tender-hearted twin brought a lump to her throat and a sting to her dark eyes.

  Feeling her sense of resolve crumble, she hurriedly finished getting ready and went down to her sister’s bedroom. She came to an abrupt halt as she saw her mother sitting at the computer desk crying silently.

  “What’s the matter, mom?” Melody asked worriedly.

  Her mother started slightly and then turned to look at her. “Aria wrote a new song. I’m so worried; I don’t know what to do.”

  “Let me see,” Melody said, a cold hand grasping her heart.

  Her mother stood up and quickly left the room, sniffling quietly.

  Melody sat down and began reading. Icicles began running down her spine as she read the haunting lyrics of a song titled: Suteki Da Ne

  Angel white of labyrinth blue

  Do you see me as I see you?

  Soft darkened eyes

  haunted by dreamless sleep

  Is it your ghost I see in the mirror?

  Reach out to touch me

  dearest dream of mine

  Open your eyes, say you're alright

  The glass shatters at the softest touch

  Is there a soul beyond the shards?

  Warm tears sting my eyes

  As all of these sweet memories

  flood back to me

  Reminiscing now

  The sun will set beyond

  the cruel mountain range

  I'll still be here

  (it's dark now without your light)

  Begging your heart to beat

  (sweet defiled angel, open your eyes)

  My existence is not the sa
me

  (believe in me)

  Without you here...

  (believe that I love you)

  You shut your eyes

  and gave in to that light

  A beauty frozen in eternal night

  just when I realized the

  error of my ways

  you slipped between my fingertips

  I was a fool, I was stuck in such bliss

  Wish I could grant, you your first kiss

  Sorrow only grows if I try to forget

  you're an eternal part of me

  A sweet lullaby

  Clasping my fragile heart

  and whispering your name

  Soft embrace in my sleep

  Is this a dream or is it

  Yet another nightmare of thee

  Don't let this end

  (it's cold now without your touch)

  Wait on the other side

  (my beautiful angel, rest in peace)

  And I will slumber deep

  (just please don't let this die)

  I'll see you soon...

  Melody felt tears streaming down her cheeks as she stood up. She had let her own selfishness go on for far too long. Feeling a sense of mounting urgency, she hurried down to the kitchen. Her mother was pacing the floor as she held her cell phone up to her ear.

  “Where’s Aria?” she asked her mother uncertainly.

  “She said she wanted to walk to school,” her mother replied. “She said she needed to clear her head.”

  “Can you drop me off with her?” Melody asked quickly. “I don’t want her walking alone.”

  Her mother looked at her in surprise, her dark eyes softening. “Thank you, Melody. I’ll just get my keys.”

  Melody hurried out to the car and tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for her mother. She didn’t have to wait long. As she fretted about her sister’s ominous lyrics, she finally noticed the dark circles under her mother’s eyes.

  While Aria had become more supportive and loving toward their mother after learning about the circumstances of their conception, Melody had become more distant and withdrawn. She had been openly critical of her mother naming her two daughters Melody and Aria, when her own name was Harmony. Talk about cliché. Just because she was obsessed with music didn’t mean her daughters would be as musically inclined as she was.

  Now she felt bad about her criticism; after all, she and Aria had both turned out to be exceptionally gifted with music as well. Her jaded view of humanity made her want to lash out at everyone, including those who were closest to her.

  As they pulled out onto the small residential road and began driving toward the junior high, Melody felt her anxiety grow exponentially. She knew people always joked about twins having a kind of metaphysical bond, but she knew it was true in her case. She could always tell when her sister was in trouble and her sixth sense was screaming at her that something was terribly wrong.

  She pulled out her cell phone and called Aria. It went to voicemail after four rings. She hung up and called again with the same result. As her heart began beating faster, she pulled up her Google Maps app and searched for her sister’s GPS beacon.

  “We should have caught up to her by now,” her mother said anxiously.

  “She’s not answering her phone,” Melody informed her breathlessly as her heart rate sped up even more. “Turn here! Her cell phone is several blocks away.”

  “That’s the industrial section of town,” her mother muttered as she quickly glanced at Melody’s phone. “Why is she over there?”

  “Hurry,” Melody choked out, starting to hyperventilate with worry.

  The car’s engine revved up as her mother stomped on the gas. She barely slowed down as they cruised through a four-way stop. She guided her mother into an abandoned factory compound. A black sedan sped out of one of the old bays, spitting gravel behind it as a middle-aged male quickly turned his head away from them as he drove past.

  “Call the police!” her mother commanded as tears began leaking down her face.

  Melody hurriedly dialed 9 and pressed Send.

  “911, what is your emergency?” a woman’s voice asked as they parked the car in the bay the black sedan had come out of.

  Melody was too choked up to speak as the sounds of screaming reached her ears. She jumped out of the car before it came to a stop and ran toward a fifty gallon drum that was sitting in the middle of the bay.

  “Hello?” the dispatcher’s voice crackled over the phone’s speaker. “Is that someone screaming?”

  Her mother was beside her a second later. There was a pair of vice clamps holding the lid down on the large drum. Melody desperately helped her mother yank the clamps off as her ears were flogged by the most terrifying screams of pain she had ever heard.

  As they pulled the lid off of the drum, Melody’s heart froze in terror at what remained of her sister. With a despairing cry of anguish, her mother reached into the drum and pulled Aria out of the acid filled drum. There was no trace of her sister’s beautiful dark skin; all that remained was raw, red blisters and blood.

  “Aria!” her mother cried in terror. “Oh my God, my Aria!”

  “I need you to tell me where you are!” the dispatcher’s voice demanded from the cell speaker.

  Her mother snatched the phone out of Melody’s shaking hands. “We’re at the old paper mill. I need a life-flight immediately!”

  “Can you tell me what happened?” the dispatcher asked tersely.

  “My daughter has been dumped into a vat of acid!” her mother wailed in a voice so filled with pain that Melody almost didn’t recognize her. She could see her mother’s arms and hands blistering from where she had come into contact with the acid. “Her skin is completely burned off!”

  “Mommy, it hurts!” Aria’s voice was weak, and her words were barely recognizable through her destroyed lips. “It hurts so bad!”

  “I’m here baby,” her mother sobbed, trying to hold her quivering daughter without hurting her more. “I’m going to make it better, I promise.”

  “It hurts so much, mommy,” Aria whimpered piteously.

  Melody felt liquid running down her knuckles and realized her fingernails were biting into her palms as she clenched her fists. Aria hadn’t called their mother by the title of mommy since she was seven years old.

  “Mel?” Aria’s voice was fading.

  “I’m here,” Melody choked past her sobs.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t help you…” her voice faltered and she started coughing up blood.

  “Please, God!” her mother shouted in desperation. “Somebody help us!”

  The sound of sirens grew loud quickly as a sheriff’s car sped into the lot outside the bay, followed shortly by an ambulance.

  “Sweet Jesus, what happened?” the young deputy gasped as he finally saw Aria’s disfigured body.

  “We need to get her to a burn unit fast,” the EMT said urgently as he arrived on the deputy’s heals. “We’re going to need a chopper to get her to Seattle.”

  “Can you give her something for the pain?” her mother pleaded through her sobs.

  “I can try,” the EMT said doubtfully. “I’ll need to contact the burn center first; I’m not trained for this level of injury.”

  Melody lost track of any further dialogue as she stared into her sister’s destroyed face. Her eyelids were gone, along with her once-brightly shining brown eyes. There was a small nub where her nose used to be, and what was left of her ears was melted against her head. Where a rich mane of midnight hair once covered her head, now only a blistered and bleeding scalp remained.

  “Why can’t I see anything, mommy?” Aria whimpered painfully. She coughed up several more mouthfuls of blood.

  “It’s just really dark,” her mother told her comfortingly. “Mommy will fix everything.”

  “Mel?” Aria asked thickly.

  “Right here, Aria,” Melody whispered, trying to hold back her sobs.

  “Take care of mommy, p
lease?” Aria’s voice was suddenly serene.

  “I’ll take care of both of you,” Melody whispered through her tears. “I’m not letting you leave me behind.”

  “I’ll be back soon,” Aria choked, and then began spasming.

  The EMT rushed over and gave her a shot of something translucent. “The morphine won’t get rid of the pain for a burn this severe, but it will take the edge off.”

  Melody looked up as the sound of a helicopter grew louder. She absently noticed the deputy had tears streaming down his face as well.

  “She’s going into cardiac arrest,” the EMT informed a life-flight paramedic as she hurried over to assess the situation.

  The look of horror on the life-flight paramedic’s face was quickly masked as she transported Aria over to the chopper on a gurney. Melody followed her mother over to the helicopter and watched the paramedics try to insert an IV into her sister’s slippery arm. Melody was terrified of flying, but she didn’t even notice as the chopper lifted off the ground and began the short journey to the Harborview Burn Center.

  The next hour was a blur of anxiety and fear as Melody watched her sister struggle to stay alive. The doctors had to resuscitate Aria six times in the first hour. It was shortly after the second hour that her sister slipped into a coma.

  Her mother was also in the ICU, having the burns on her arms treated. As noon approached, Melody couldn’t stand the endless wait anymore. She stopped the next nurse to leave the ICU by stepping in front of him.

  “I need to know what’s happening,” Melody said firmly. “Is she going to live?”

  “It’s too early to make any predictions at this point,” the nurse told her sympathetically. “There are too many factors…”

  “Just try,” Melody cut him off, taking a deep breath. “What are her odds? I need something!”

  “Okay…” the nurse said reluctantly. “It’s a miracle that she’s still alive. She swallowed a great deal of the acid and her entire body is burned more severely than anyone I’ve ever seen before. Her internal organs are still functioning somehow, but her lungs are only operating at approximately ten percent capacity. The fact that she slipped into a coma is the only reason she is still alive right now.”

  “How long?” Melody asked, unable to be more specific as a sob choked off the rest of her question.

  “I’ll be surprised if she makes it through the next twenty-four hours,” the nurse sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Like I said; it’s a miracle she’s even alive at all right now.”

  “What about my mom?” Melody whispered through her tears.

  “She’ll require extensive tissue repair surgery on her arms and hands, but she’ll recover,” the nurse replied tersely. “There is a chance that her fingernails won’t grow back though.”

  Melody glanced down at her own hands automatically, noticing for the first time that her palms were covered in red blisters from the limited contact she had shared while touching her sisters destroyed skin.

  “You were burned too?” the nurse asked in sudden concern. “Come with me.”

  Melody followed him into another room where he had her sit on an exam table. Even seeing the burns now, she still couldn’t feel any pain. The nurse flagged down some other personnel, who quickly began wrapping her hand in burn bandages.

  “How much pain are you feeling?” one of the women asked.

  “None,” Melody replied dully.

  “Have you been given any kind of pain medicine?” the woman asked with a frown.

  “No,” Melody replied shortly.

  “Hmm…” the woman murmured thoughtfully. “Could be shock. We’ll need to check for nerve damage.”

  “Excuse me,” a man in a dark suit stood in the doorway. “I’m Detective Hallaway. Is now an okay time to ask a few questions? The longer I wait, the more distance the person who did this will be able to put between us.”

  “Do you feel up to answering a few questions?” the woman asked reluctantly.

  “Okay,” Melody replied with a sigh. She could feel a bleakness growing in her stomach, spreading into the rest of her body. It felt like a light inside of her was slowly being extinguished.

  “Do you remember seeing anyone at the site of the incident?” Detective Hallaway asked as he took out a notepad.

  “There was a man in a black four-door sedan that was leaving when we arrived,” Melody replied. “He was looking the other way when he passed us.”

  “Did you see what kind of car it was?” the detective asked intently.

  “I think it was a Buick,” Melody answered slowly. “The back windows were tinted, and there was a missing hubcap on the back tire.”

  The detective continued asking questions for another five minutes before closing his notebook with a satisfied grunt.

  “I think we have our suspect in custody,” he told her grimly. “He was arrested after a hit-and-run about five miles from the incident site. A DNA test should confirm whether he is the culprit.”

  “How would a DNA test prove anything?” Melody asked with a frown. She felt the blood drain from her face as realization suddenly hit her like punch to the stomach.

  “She doesn’t know?” the detective asked the woman still attending to her bandages.

  “No, we thought she had endured enough trauma for one day,” the woman replied disapprovingly.

  “My apologies,” the detective murmured contritely.

  Melody barely heard him. She felt a ringing in her ears and couldn’t seem to get enough air into her lungs. She barely noticed the nurses trying to calm her down. She blinked as a wall of black came rushing toward her.