“NO!”
“Breanna!” Claire hissed, “Calm down!”
Bree was now staring at the phone, horrified, “We have to go!” She screeched and ran out of the kitchen, “WE NEED TO GO!”
The three of us stayed at the table until we heard the front door slam shut and her car start up. Bree was screaming from the car for us to hurry, fat tears falling from her eyes. Robert opened the driver door and pulled her out, depositing her in the back seat which I slid into after.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! DAD GO!” She screamed, cradling her head and rocking back and forth slightly.
I rubbed my hand across her back, and after I shared a confused look with her parents, he finally backed out of the driveway.
“Breanna honey, where is it I'm going?” He was talking soft and melodic, like she was a patient and he was the therapist.
She rattled off an intersection through her sobs.
Mom turned around from the passenger seat and pulled Bree's hands from her face, “Breanna, you're being dramatic, calm down and tell us what's wrong.”
Bree's phone rang again and she pushed the talk button, but didn't say anything. I grabbed the phone and managed to get it out of her death grip, checking the screen first, I brought the phone to my ear and spoke, “Uh, Konrad? Wha –”
“He's not waking up! I can't get him out, there's blood everywhere and he's not waking up!”
“Who Konrad?”
“The ambulance is pulling up, you need to hurry!”
I heard him screaming for whom I'm guessing were the EMT's, and then the call ended. I realized then that we could hear sirens from the car as well and looked up to see we were only a few blocks away now. Bree was still harshly whispering unknown words.
“I think he might have wrecked my Expedition?” I guessed, still confused. Then it hit me. Brandon. He was supposed to be taking Brandon home. Oh God no. Please no. Don’t take him from me.
We rounded the corner and saw the ambulance, fire truck and three SDPD cars blocking off part of the street. Dad drove down the street enough so he could park, and not block the rest of traffic, and that's when I saw everything. Konrad being pulled away by two police officers, struggling to get back to Chase's truck that looked like it was fused to the front of an eighteen wheeler. A scream that rivaled Bree's ripped from my throat and I bolted out of the car before it had stopped. I ran past the officers holding Konrad and made it by another few before a fireman caught me and swung me away from the wreck.
“CHASE!” I screamed and wailed on the man to put me down, “CHASE!” Everything was so silent, yet so loud at the same time. I couldn't hear the sirens, I couldn't hear the shrieks and sobs from his family, I couldn't even hear my own voice anymore. I can't describe what filled my ears, only that it was deafening.
I continued to struggle to get to Chase, and somehow realized I was no longer being carried away. I must have fallen to the ground and now two people were holding me so I couldn't get back up. I saw Konrad crushing Bree to his chest a few feet away from me, both sobbing and falling to the street as well. I didn't know where Claire and Robert were, but I couldn't make myself look around for them. My eyes snapped back to the truck as a few men pulled Chase through the passenger side door. He was limp, his blond hair and body covered in blood. A surge of adrenaline shot through my body and the next thing I knew I had pulled away from the people holding me and was running towards where they had put him on a stretcher in the street.
“Chase! Wake up! Please wake up!” I grabbed his lifeless hand before a female EMT could begin to remove me from the area again. I screamed at her and reached back towards him, “Don't leave me like this! Wake up Chase, please!”
I was taken to the back of a police car where an officer was trying to calm me down, and find out my relationship to the victim. I couldn't concentrate on him anymore, the high pitched silence was back. I looked over to Chase's family where they were standing next to a couple officers. Robert was the only one speaking, Claire and Breanna were clutching each other as Konrad was being taken to a second ambulance so the medics could tend to his arms. He had torn them up pretty severely when he tried to get Chase out of the truck. Another medic walked up to the family and spoke to the officers, I didn't need to be near them to know what he said. Bree's jaw dropped in a soundless scream and Mom fell to the ground while Robert bent at the waist, gripping his chest with one hand, his hair with the other. My arms cradled my belly as my little gummy bear gave a soft kick. “Daddy's gone baby.” I whispered.
~~~
Konrad was driving back after talking with, and dropping Brandon off at Chase's house, he had seen the whole thing. Chase blew through a red light, never once slowing down, the driver of the semi had been going almost sixty miles per hour.
“If there is anything we can do for your family, please let us know.” A couple I vaguely remembered from the New Year's Eve party hugged the four of us and turned to leave.
My eyes glanced over to the coffin and I felt the air leave my body. I'd been careful to keep my gaze on everything but the coffin, and now that I was looking at it, I couldn't seem to stop. I gripped Bree's arm and struggled to catch my breath.
“Breathe Harper.” A deep voice commanded as someone wrapped their fingers around my wrists.
My breaths came but they were coming too fast, and my ears were ringing. Chase was in there. Chase was in that box, dead. It was my fault, why did I let him leave that night? Big hands cupped my cheeks and turned my face, effectively tearing my eyes from the front of the church. As soon as the coffin was no longer in my sight I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on my breathing.