Variation: A Novel

Fifteen months later

My vision wobbled and my ears rang. What had just happened?

“You’re okay,” Lina promised, holding something against my head as liquid dripped down the side of my face. “You’re going to be okay, Allie. You just have to hold on. I’m so sorry. I never should have taken the curve that fast.”

Flames danced in the corner of my eye as I looked up at my sister, but I couldn’t find words. The acrid scent of smoke and melted rubber singed my lungs with every breath.

Lina smiled down at me. “I love you, Allie. I’m so sorry.”

I opened my mouth to tell her that I loved her, too, but all that came out was a whimper as pain rushed over me, blaring from my head and radiating up my leg. I tried to move, but while my left foot caught the grassy edge of the embankment just enough to jar the rest of my body, my right foot wouldn’t respond. Where were we? The edge of a road? Why was I so cold?

“Listen to me,” Lina ordered, her tone sharpening, and everything spun for a second before she came back into focus, but some of her words disappeared into the incessant ringing that split my head. She put more pressure above my temple. “Follow your heart, and take care of what I’m leaving behind.”

Leaving? Why would she leave us? How was I supposed to take care of Anne and Eva? They needed her, not me. Lina was the one we all looked to.

“You have to live.” Lina slipped her ring—Mom’s ring—off her hand, and stuck it in the pocket of my white skirt.

At least it had been white. Now it was brown and gray in places, and red in others.

Lina lifted my hands to the bundle of fabric pressed against my head. “I love you. Don’t move. Help is coming, just wait right here.” She stood and brushed off the hem of her blue dress, then ran down the edge of the embankment, her long brown hair flying behind her as she broke into a sprint.

Stay. The word was clear as day in my head, but my lips didn’t move.

Flames rose into the night sky, licking up the limbs of the gnarled tree Lina ran toward.

Not just a tree . . . Lina’s car. It was crumpled against the base of the trunk, passenger door wide open, and fire rose from the sides of the mangled hood.

An accident. We’d been in an accident. What the hell was she doing?

No. I tried to scream, but nothing came out as Lina raced to the driver’s side. Didn’t she see the flames?

What could possibly be so important in the car?

Oh God, were Anne and Eva with—

Boom. Heat rushed against my face and lit up the night.

The car exploded.