Surviving a Real Life Horror Story

Chapter Two

I wiped the sweat off of my forehead as I traveled towards the elementary school. The heat was stifling even though it was already mid-October, and thanks to that conversation with Andi I was running late. I had to nearly sprint the last six blocks which only made me hotter. I ran towards the elementary school and when I arrived I stopped to catch my breath.

While I waited for Krista to get out, I found a seat on one of the benches a few feet away from the door. I thought of Andi once again and the competition that she was planning on entering. She couldn’t really be considering something so thoughtless and dangerous. Her tone had been so excited, like she was talking about a Halloween prank. It seemed that she didn’t even understand the stipulations.

The entire time I had known her, she had been a vain girl. She never seemed to use her brain, she used her appearance. It had gotten her pretty far I’d admit. I had a feeling that she thought it would help her out here as well. In my heart I had a feeling that it wouldn’t matter to the people of the competition. She was just another competitor that had to be eliminated.

I never knew she was vain enough to risk that.

If she won the money I knew what it would go towards: makeup, clothes, nails and hair. Her family lived in poverty, but Andi wouldn’t help her family out by giving them a dime; she’d merely worry about vanity things, anything that would make her hotter.

What saddened me was that she really believed that her life was worth less than her appearance. She wasn’t a smart girl, but it didn’t seem as if she even had common sense. I shook my head. She assumed I’d join her in her hair brained plan, did she know me at all? Or did she merely associate herself with me so that she’d have someone to outshine on a daily basis because I was nothing but a plain Jane?

Finally the bell rang and the hordes of tiny elementary school kids poured out of the building to their waiting siblings and parents. As the last few trickled out of the building, I realized that I didn’t see Krista among them. I knew that she went to school today so I had a heart dropping feeling as I wondered where she was. A minute later, I pushed myself inside the building.

As I passed the school’s office, one of the assistants stopped me. “Can I help you?” she asked.

I nodded. “I’m here to pick up my sister, Krista Weathers?”

“Ah, well I’m sorry to say Miss Weathers is in the nurse’s office,” the woman said, looking at a clipboard in her hands.

My heart fluttered in my chest and my mind began to race as I wondered what happened. “Is she okay?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure, you’ll have to go visit Nurse Mae for details,” she said.

I was running down the hall before she could finish her sentence. I flung the door open to the nurse’s office and Nurse Mae looked up at me from her desk wide-eyed.

“Where’s my sister? Is she okay?” I demanded, looking around the room as I tried to catch any glimpse of Krista.

Nurse Mae stood up slowly. “She’s sleeping right now.”

“Can I see her?” I asked though I knew I’d see her with or without the nurse’s permission.

“Of course, she’s right through here,” she said.

I was right on her heels as she led the way. She stepped into a small cubicle that was made of a light blue curtain on three sides. In the middle was a small hospital bed. My sister, Krista, was lying on it; her body was a small limp form under the white sheets.

I stood beside the bed as I looked at her, my heart mildly at ease as I saw that she was okay. I set a hand to the side of her small face as I just observed her. Her blonde hair was sprayed all over the pillow giving her an angelic look as she slept.

“What’s happened to her?” I asked Nurse Mae without taking my eyes off of her.

“She felt weak at lunch today and she was having some difficult breathing,” she said. “Her teacher brought her in. We called your Mom and let her know.”

I sighed sadly looking down at my frail sister. She was so thin, so pale. She was deteriorating, getting worse with each passing day. I brushed a lock of her blonde hair away from her face.

“Her condition is getting worse you know,” Nurse Mae said.

I nodded. “I know, she hasn’t been eating much lately and I haven’t seen her play with her friends in weeks.”

“You want my advice as a medical professional?” she asked.

I nodded, looking up at her through sad eyes.

“You need to check her into the hospital so that she can be under constant observation,” she said. “The doctors might be able to make her better, at the very least keep her comfortable.”

“We’ve already done everything they suggested. Even the chemo didn’t work,” I said trying to keep back the sorrow. “There’s nothing left but surgery to try to remove the tissue, but after all the money we’ve put into her welfare our insurance won’t pay for anything else until we find the money to pay them back.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nurse Mae said. “Her situation really is tragic. It’s sad whenever something like this happens to a child. That’s why I signed up to be a school nurse. Usually the worst we get are stomachaches and scraped knees.”

I was silent as I took that in. Scraped knees were the worst that happened to most elementary school kids, except for the one I cared about. Call it bad Karma, or bad luck, it was tragic either way. I pushed it to the back of my mind as I looked at Krista’s small, sad face again.

“Can I take her home?” I asked.

Nurse Mae nodded, sensing that I was done talking to her.

“I’m gonna bring you home now, Krista,” I whispered in her ear.

She didn’t stir or wake up from the deep sleep she had sunk to. I pulled the blankets off of her and tucked my arms beneath her to cradle her in my arms. I could feel all the bones in her tiny body, every curve of her skull as her head rested against my chest.

The feeling made my heart wrench.

“Is your Mom here to take you both home?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I can carry her home. We live less than a mile away,” I replied.

“You’re sure you won’t drop her?” she asked worriedly.

“No, don’t worry, I’ve done this before,” I replied.

Krista’s body was so light; she had absolutely no weight left to her. It was hard to believe I was holding a ten year old child when she felt as if she weighed as much as a toddler. She was losing weight like she was time. I wondered how much of it she actually had left.