One in a million (part six)
Title: One in a million
Rating/Warnings: PG or PG-13 I guess
Summary: Iris decides to finally tell Ian the truth, which will be a complete shock. It causes Ian to take an imporant decision.
Author's Notes: I don't own anyone or anything, just my imagination and my story. I apologize if there are any (grammar) mistakes. This chapter is in Ian's POV.
Previous Chapters:
Chapter one: http://lazah.livejournal.com/935.html
Chapter two: http://lazah.livejournal.com/1226.html
Chapter three: http://lazah.livejournal.com/1497.html
Chapter four: http://lazah.livejournal.com/1556.html
Chapter five: http://lazah.livejournal.com/1922.html
Iris went to sit down on a stump under the trees and motioned me to join her. I sat on the opposite end, leaving enough space to spy on her body language and facial expressions. I won’t let her get away with any lies this time, I thought with suspicion. She folded her hands in her lap as she nervously started to speak. I copied the movement as I listened carefully.
“Whenever people wake up after a coma, doctors call it a miracle. Everything seems to be a miracle whenever humans don’t find an explanation for it, but actually, it isn’t. There is indeed a possibility to force yourself to wake up, but the risks are very high, and the chances of succeeding are too small to tell everyone how to do it. Also, if humans find out and they aren’t supposed to, it will haunt you for the rest of your days, and even longer. This is what happened to my grandmother.”
She paused and I saw her struggling to continue. A little tear was formed in the corner of her eye and I felt the need to catch it as it rolled down her pink flushed cheek, which reminded me immediately at Anthony's. My hand went up to wipe this little bulb of crystal clear moisture away, but I pulled back right on time. I didn’t want to bring her out of concentration, as she sat there so focused, staring in the distance. I wondered if she even realized I was still next to her, but she cleared her throat and continued to speak.
“My grandmother lived alone in her little house, peacefully sipping coffee and solving crossword puzzles to waste her spare time. Grandfather died three years before, and she was slowly starting to enjoy her life again. It helped I visited her often, to go to the market together or to take a walk in the park, feeding the ducks. She was an old woman so he didn’t need to use a lot of power to knock her out with a vase. The robber she caught sneaking around in her backyard... She was in a coma for ten days when she woke up. Off course, doctors called it a miracle, and I always wondered why she had that little smirk playing around her lips when they mentioned that word.”
I kept my breathing calm but I was really surprised by the fact such a little kid was speaking such a mature language.
“I was always a curious girl, but not anymore. Not anymore since my curiosity caused my grandmothers punishment. I found her diary one day and I started reading. Pleasurable fragments of us together, of grandpa, of family reunions she enjoyed. Till I came to a piece she wrote after she woke up. Her handwriting was still curly and told me it was the 1st of August in the left corner. I can remember her exact words…”
She was staring in the distance and suddenly shook her head a little bit, as if making herself come back to reality. The shadows of the branches were dancing around on her face while the orange sun was finally giving in to her tiredness, slowly disappearing after the mountains. She still hadn’t looked me in the eye since she started speaking, and she still didn’t when she started to quote what she had read in the diary.
“It’s been a week since I’m out of my coma, and I’m so glad to have my family around me again. I always have been around them, but they couldn’t see me, couldn’t hear or couldn’t touch me. I can’t believe there is a more frustating feeling in the world than that. Off course everyone is telling me how much of a miracle it is that I woke up, but I know better. In those ten days I was in a coma, my family was getting more worried, more desperate, more sad. I couldn’t handle it anymore, I would’ve done anything to comfort them, to show them it’s okay, but I couldn’t. The moment I saw my little Iris break at the foot of my bed, sobbing and mumbling desperate prayers, was the moment I decided to take the risk. I would wake up and be very weak, having to recover a few days, or I would die. A very big risk but I felt the need to do it. So I focused deeply, I used all of my love and all of my energy to convince my body to wake up. It didn’t seem to work but suddenly I felt like my body was absorbing me. Me and all of the energy I had left. I couldn’t open my eyes yet, but with my last energy, I managed to squeeze Iris’ hand lightly. I knew I made it.”
Iris coughed, a little choked up in her tears, which were now fully streaming down her cheeks.
“I stopped reading when I heard her gasp. I looked at her face and never saw her in such despair, so panicking, her eyes completely frightened. And right now, now I am in a coma myself, I know she hadn’t lied about the shadows. She isn’t here, I can’t see her Ian! And it’s all my own fault. I found out by secretly reading her diary. I wasn’t supposed to know and now she isn’t here. I caused her punishment, she is with the shadows now. She’ll never be able to rest in peace, she will always be a lonely soul, and I will never have any opportunity to see her back. I can tell you since you’re an inbetweener yourself" she said, for the first time looking directly into my eyes "...But promise me to never tell it to anyone. Please?”
She was a mess, completely heartbroken and tore apart with guilt. She didn't deserve this. It was horrible what happened to her grandmother, but it wasn't her fault, she didn't know better.
“Don’t feel guilty, you were such a little kid, it’s normal you were curious. You still are a kid, and I’m sorry I was so mean to you. But I have to give it a try. Hopefully my love for Anthony is big enough to wake myself up, but I love him more than I love myself. So I have to do it. Keep strong Iris, you’re a good girl, you won’t be punished, and you will make it. Your grandmother would be proud of you, believe me.” I said as I kissed her forehead.
I took one last look at her as I turned to walk away. A little smile was playing around her lips when I said this to her, and I was glad this would be my last memory of her. But right now, there wasn’t any time to lose. I need to wake myself up before Anthony... well, before he would try to join me...