***Dorothy's POV**

I looked around my almost completely arranged apartment, that I had completed in two days that I moved here, and my eyes caught a picture that I had put on the side stool.

It was a family picture that a lady helped us take on our visit to an amusement park. It was a very memorable time that I couldn't forget. It was two weeks before their tragic accident.

But the day I wouldn't forget was the day of their accident. I still the hollowness in the pit of my stomach but still it felt like I had overfed.

I had been in school on preparation for defending my project as it was my final year.

Two people before me, and my phone rang. I didn't understand why that an unsaved number was calling me.

“Hello?” I asked, as I bent my head down in order not to be seen.

“Is this Dorothy? Dorothy Reyes?” A male's voice rang on the other side of the phone.

“Yes? It is Dorothy. How can I help you?” I asked, and at that point the announcer called out a particular person.

“George Huston” The voice rang through the speakers, making it one person more before me.

“It's your parents” The voice said again, this time, it was low and I could hear the hurt and tremors behind it.

“What…what do you…what happened?” I asked, as I felt my heartbeat increase, amd suddenly it felt stuffy in a five hundred seater hall with five conditioners.

“Can you come to Greenlife Hospital?” He asked, his voice getting patient.

“Yes. Yes. I'm on my way” I agreed, picking up my bag and going towards my supervisor.

“Erm…ma'am” I called to her, sniffing, as she was speaking to one of my professors. I could already see images blur due to my unfallen tears. She turned to me, her eyes and temple squeezed as she looked at me quizzically.

“What's wrong, honey?” She asked, her hand placed softly on my arm.

“My…I..they..they…called..from..” I stuttered as the oxygen in my lungs seemed like it was cut off.

“It's okay. Easy, sweetheart. Calm down. Come with me” She cooed as she held my hand and told her associate lecturer to skip my name.

She led me to the quiet hallway, and we waited for a lady to pass.

“What's wrong?” She asked, her hands still on my arm.

“My parents are in the hospital and I…I need to be excused, please” I asked her, as I pressed my lips together.

“That's not something you need my permission for, but it's good you informed me. I'll push back your presentation, okay? Go and take care of your home first” She smiled as she enveloped me in a hug, and I felt a tear leave my eye, but I ran out of the building, trying my tears back.

I arrived at the hospital and I met the receptionist.

“Hey. I'm…I'm Dorothy. I got a call that my parents were here” I told her hurriedly.

She looked at me with sympathy in her eyes, as she led me to a doctor standing at a corner.

“I'm so sorry, love” She whispered as she tapped the doctor.

My heart sank the more, as my mind raced–what did she mean by that?.

“Dorothy? Come with me” He took my hand as we walked. He took me through a hallway of different patients.

“What happened to my parents?” I asked, as I tried pushing the lump in my throat down, but it's was as stubborn as I was.

“You see, things are beyond our control sometimes. Most things. I'm so sorry, Dorothy, I really am” He spoke, and each time his tone drop lower, soon he stopped infront of a room, with curtains covering it.

“What…what are you talking about?” I asked, as I looked at him, pressing my lips together and sniffing.

He turned me to face a room that was behind me. I saw both my brother and my parents on different beds, but they weren't as they were when they left home.

“Mom? Why…dad? What happened?” I asked as I sat on the bed still in-between my dad and my brother's bed.

I looked between the three people that I cherished more than anything in the world, laying on there, with broken and bloodied limbs.

“Dorothy, is…is that you?” My dad croaked out, not moving his head.

“Yes, dad. What…what happened?” I asked, my hand across my mouth as I tried to stop my sobs.

“It was…he..” He got cut off as he started coughing.

Then the machines started beeping, I turned to my mom but it wasn't her, it was from behind me the beeping was coming from.

I turned and I saw my brother wasn’t breathing anymore.

“Raymond? Ray!” I screamed, shaking my brother. He wasn't responding.

“Doctor. Doctor” I screamed going out to get the doctor.

The doctor and a nurse came in and checked my brother.

“I'm so sorry, Miss Reyes, but your brother is gone” The doctor announced, hanging his stethoscope on his neck.

“No..doctor. Please do…” My mom voice croaked, but then she started coughing.

“Mom. Please..don't do this to yourself “ I cried, holding her hands.

“Miss Reyes, can I talk to you for a bit?” The doctor asked and led me out the room.

“What's going on?” I asked him, my hand on my waist, as the other one tried cleaning off the ocean of tears on my face.

“Your mother suffered brain hemorrhage and it's bled deep into her brain, and some of her….” He was cut off by the beep of a machine.

I ran into the room as I saw my mother's chest heaving.

“Mom. Mom!’ I called out to her as my vision began blurring again. This can't be happening, please Lord.

I repeated this in my heart as I felt my heart literally breaking, it sank deeper into my gut and I began feeling nauseous.

“I…I love you, sweetheart. Take care…of yourself” She whispered, her voice sounding weak and she brought her shaky hands to touch my cheeks as she looked at me smiling, and a small tear escaped her eyes.

I leaned into her touch but it didn't last as her hand dropped, almost immediately, and her eyes still stared me. Her smile was there with a small tear, and the machine stopped beeping.

“No…Mom. No, please” I screamed, letting the tears fall freely as I sat on the floor, holding her hand to my forehead, soaking it with tears.

It soon became hard to breathe and my strength left me. I didn't have the energy for anything. I just sat there, everything felt like it was on stand still.

Lethargic. That was exactly how I felt.

“Dora?” I heard my dad voice, groaning behind me. My heart began climbing up again, holding my dad's voice close and using it as some kind of a glue to put it back together.

“Dad. Hey, I'm here” I smiled, admist the tears, as I turned to him on my knees, taking his hand to my forehead, replacing my mom's.

“I want you to do a favour for me. Don't…don't go….after the company, okay? You'll find better” He whispered, and the tone of his made me know that he in pain, as he started coughing hard.

“Dad, what do you mean?” I asked him but the machine started beeping again too.

“No, please. Dad, you can't do this to me. Okay? You are my only hope and family now, please” I pleaded as I cried on my dad and hugged him.

“I…I'm sorry, child. I…love..I love you” He cried and his breathing became shallow as it became loud and after sometime I couldn't hear it anymore.

“Doctor. Doctor!” I yelled to the doctor, as my head was still on my father's chest.

“Miss Reyes, we would need you….” He began but I cut him off.

“My father should be alive. I'm not hearing his loud breathe anymore, please check him” I croaked out, making way to the doctor and dragging him to my father.

“Miss, your father isn't…” He began, but his eyes glanced to the nurses behind him, as his head was bowed down.

“No, check him. The machine might be lying, you know, a glitch” I managed to speak as my eyes began welling up again, I was trying so much to convince myself that there should be something.

I prayed for there to be something else. But there was none.

I was brought back from my flashback as I bit my teeth, making my jaws clenched, and I felt the cold tears fall from my face.

“I miss you guys so much” I cried, and I let out my tears and sobs, I was the only one at home, so I cried freely. I sat down near the side stool, as I held the picture to my chest and I cried.

It is going to two years but the pain was still there, the heartbreak was the still there, and my heart sank anytime I remembered them, their deaths and how my life changed drastically afterwards