Time of Death

When the first drop hits, it’s like her whole house of cards comes falling down. She knows that sound like the back of her hand, if we’re talking about the hand that she can only see the thumb of. It’s an odd concept to try and forget what you can’t remember, but it’s what she had planned to do. She was holding it together pretty well there at first. She’d almost fooled herself she could move on easily, but then, you know, the weather happened.
After a few weeks she could smile again, sometimes laugh, without being overtaken by the heaviness in her chest. But then it hit her like a led balloon, or rather a million led balloons, raining down from an inky sky. She’d readied herself for the sympathetic looks at school or the memoriams that would inevitably pop up around town, but not in her wildest dreams had she thought her biggest weakness would be a force of nature. At first it was just an itch that she couldn’t quite scratch. The images creeped back to her quietly, but then they began to add up. They’d told her the memories would eventually come back to her, but she figured if she crossed enough fingers and toes, she could keep them away. I guess luck just wasn’t on her side.
Or maybe it was geography.
She’d been through it many times in the months following the accident, but it was one night in particular that hit her hardest. Her nose was deep in a copy of The Princess Bride when the soft tapping began on her bedroom window. At the sound, her heart started to beat faster, immediately recognizing what was happening. She cursed the northwest for it’s constant rainfall and slid off the chaise that sat in the corner of her room, leaving her book splayed open behind her. She crossed her bedroom to the floor-to-ceiling window that ...

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...ay. She unlatched a box and started searching for something.
Jasmine looked around at all the students, unable to ignore their prying eyes. It’s like they all knew. They all thought this was her fault. She looked back to Melody, her limbs twisted unnaturally under her like a rag doll. These people were circled around them like this was some kind of show. She scooted farther from the paramedics, pulling her knees to her chest. She could barely feel her heart beating anymore, all she felt was her skin crawling with guilt. Everyone seemed to be closing in on her.
Then she heard it. Like nails on a chalkboard and swallowing thumbtacks. She felt all the hope ooze out of her in that instant. Her head felt light and then everything went black. The sound of the rain echoed in her ears, forever imprinted in her mind, along with those fateful words.
“Time of death; 10:47pm.”