The sound of the gurneys almost deafen my ears, and the light from these doctors' torches is blinding me but I keep running towards the scene. It is 12 o' clock. In the midnight, I know even though I don't look at the clock over my head. With sweaty palms and terrific faces, five gurneys are wheeled towards the emergency rooms by the late night doctors. Even though their mouths are shut tight, I can hear millions of inaudible sounds coming out of them. Each of the gurneys are being wheeled by two personnels, and each time they pass me by, i peer into them to see the victims' faces clearly because I can not see them from where I am.
The first face I see is badly disfigured. It's got a big mark from the forehead down to her upper eyelid, her lips are charred and her jaw is almost totally detached from the rest of her face. Hot drops of blood trickle down her head to her chest and her dress is soiled. She looks like she is no longer breathing and just as the ambulance pass by me, I see something in her hands-A red neck piece. She is clutching it tightly like it is her whole life. My red neck piece. Yes, this victim is my only sister, Jamie but I do not cry. I mean, I always want to cry but I can't. So my face is firm and peaceful, but I am screaming inside me. My legs are hitting the air and I'm ripping my hair inside of me, but outside? I am standing tall. Somehow, with all the swiftness as they pass by me, her hands shake and she loses hold of the red neck piece. As thick and shiny as my hair, our hair(hers blonde and mine black). It falls from her hands and drops at my feet just as soon as the second ambulance approaches me. I bend to pick up my red neckpiece-the one thing that binds my sister and I together but whoosh...it is air. I can see it on the cold tiled floor but when I try to pick it up, it is not there. I fall and shiver with the noise in my head but I cannot cry. I get up quickly to take a look at the second victim but I can't see 'its' face-the whole body is wrapped in a blue satin material that looks and smells like death. I wait for the third but it moves so fast I can't get a proper picture of her, but I do know it is a female.
The fourth has blood dropping from his nose and his eyes are shut tight like he is in another world. The fifth body is wheeled upstairs and I hurriedly follow it. As I climb the staircase after them, I see a woman descending it; her countenance looks disheveled but her heart is dancing. She is jumping and laughing inside of her. When I look into her eyes, that's what I see but she does not see me pass. I stop staring at her and follow the ambulance which is now being rolled into the theatre with calculated moves. I want to see who the victim is, but they are so fast that they enter and lock the door before I can catch up.
I sigh and hesitate for three minutes and then I remember the red neckpiece-the one that fell from Jamie's hands. "Jamie!" I scream in my head. Then my feet begin to move very fast down the stairs. I do not have the power to stop them from moving and they only stop at Emergency Ward 1 and I suddenly and supernaturally find myself inside without using the door.
The neck piece still lay there, close to the reception. There on the bed in the emergency Ward lay my sister Jamie with her pale face and bloody body. Her left eyebrow is now gone and her nose and ears are bleeding. Her lips are still charred and a man in white coveralls keep wiping blood off her face and body every now and then. There are three men around her, plus a woman, pushing and pulling some strange machines on the wall and on the floor, to save her.
The woman is placing a stethoscope on Jamie's chest. I watch her from the corner I am standing. She does it three times and then she stops, placing her head on the side of the bed which isn't bloodstained and I see, from her eyes two drops of tears fall into the soft bloodstained bed where Jamie lay. Just then, the three men stop pushing and pulling the machines, they shake their heads from side to side as if on cue and one of them proceeds to cover my sister's body with a long blue satin cloth- the same one the second victim has on his whole body. I shiver, seeing this cloth because I know it is used to wrap corpses in readiness for cremation. Suddenly I find my voice.
"Don't! She's not dead! Don't cover her up!" I scream. My lips shiver as reality dawns on me. My whole body utter a yelp but they do not even look at me
"Hey Doctors! Jamie's my sister, she cannot die! Please save her" I mutter under my breath because raising my voice doesn't help.
"Pack her up quickly, the poor girl has given up" one of the men say to another and I try to cry but tears do not come. My eyes sting badly. I watch one of them roll her body like a burrito and wheel it out of the theatre. My feet scurry after him but it is all hopeless, so I soon stop going after him.
I go up the stairs towards the fifth accident victim like a defeated warrior and lay my head on the door of the ward like a wounded child. For some reason, I do not want to see any more of these gory sights. So I turn to go, but, I hear a voice
"Hello" I hear someone say to me. I turn around swiftly to face a tall man in white coveralls. His head has hair as black as coal and his voice sounds like several elephants trumpeting. I think he is a doctor here but I am shocked because he can see me, hear me. When he opens his mouth, I see that his teeth are very long and that his eyes shine in the dark. Dark red eyes, and with fingers that look like claws.
"Please sir, I need you to save my little sister. Please stop that man from taking her there. I do not want her to go there" my voice is breaking but my eyes are as dry as a tree in summer.
He moves his head from side to side and opens his mouth to talk. "You're a spirit", he says, "I have noticed you roaming about in the past hour and that's why I have come up to you. I am no doctor. I am here to save you" he raises his arms and I see a tattoo on it. The tattoo of a blue werewolf.
His revelation shocks me and I know I should ask, "how do you see me then? People here can't see me or hear me" but I say something else, "No sir! I can see, feel, smell and talk. I cannot only cry and that is the one thing I suffer from, how can you even call me a spirit?" I shiver again, my feet floating in the air
"Your body is in there" he says pointing at the door I am leaning on.
"You have to go back to it please, before it is too late"
"Please save my sister" I plead with my eyes, ignoring his words
"I need you to do this, Ariana. Please go back to your body now" he insists
"My sister, Jamie..." I trail off
"Save what can be saved. Go in there now" he commands
I reluctantly push the door open and just as it opens, I see the doctors about to cover the body on the bed with a long blue cloth just like the one Jamie's body's wrapped in. Just as they are about covering my face, I slip into my lifeless body.


Chapter 34--CONTENTION, NOT COMPETITION