Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal Page 0,123
a wall, then lit a cigarette. It was only a minute or two later that I heard the most horrible sound I’d ever heard in my whole life, the sound of an explosion, a loud thud, glass crashing and steel twisting.” My voice cracked and my tears stayed fresh on my cheeks, my arms coming to hug my body, trying my best to keep myself as calm as possible so I could finish saying what I wanted him to know.
“I think I could never tell you how scared I was, seeing everyone running around me, screaming. The driver nowhere to be found: he ran or something, he was just...not there. I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I could only hug my knees to myself and cry and shake…and watch.” My breathing started to become uneven, and I still tried my best to control it. By that point, I didn’t even think about what the prince was doing behind me anymore or if he was listening or whatever. I was nine years old again and trapped in the car, watching with teary and terrified eyes as people ran, shouted, cried and screamed.
“Papa!” My voice was panicked and my breaths were shallow, fear filling my insides and tears filling my eyes.
“Manon.” His voice was very low and his breaths were barely there. Worry filling his words, and an undeniable sorrow was in his tone.
“Papa, I’m so scared, please come here already.” Begs and pleas.
“I’m afraid I won’t make it this time, Sweetie-Pie.” Gasps and sobs.
“No, no, Papa, you have to come here, you have to.”
“Papa loves you so much, Manon.”
“My grandfather called me, his last words were that he loved me, calling me with the name that I never allowed anyone to call me ever again. It was ours, and I made sure that it stayed that way.” A wave of longing hit my heart; I missed him so much, it hurt so badly. “And when the call ended, the scene around me just didn’t, nor did the fear in my heart.”
The space between the backseat and the passenger seat felt so tiny as I slid myself down there, my eyes refusing to obey my mind’s order for them to close tightly shut. They stayed wide open, watching in terror all of the horrible things happening around me.
My tears blurred my vision, and somehow I was grateful for it, because the sight would be cloudy for a moment, preventing more horrible things from entering my mind. But it would clear again way too soon when my tears would escape my eyes.
The smell of something metallic burning, all of the smoke up above that I could see through the window, filling the place around the car, my hands too shaky and too scared to leave my knees and close the opened window, my head moving frantically to the sides, my body pulling up to see something, then curling down when the ‘something’ caused me to scream with closed lips, too scared to even open my mouth. Wanting to be found yet so afraid, that being lost and forgotten would be better, because the world outside of the car was too terrifying to even think about leaving.
My grandpa had never lied to me. Never. But I kept wishing that he had finally done so. That he’d lied when he told me he wouldn’t make it. That he would come eventually and end this nightmare with his warm smile and loving hug.
“Do you have any idea how I felt as I watched people jumping from the building to the ground? Right before my eyes, I saw it all. And when I heard the second explosion...I couldn’t stop the shaking in my body after that, I was literally vibrating,” I rubbed my throat with my hand, desperate for the tightness in it to lighten a bit, just a bit so I would be able to talk, and I think it worked. Just a bit.
I could never, ever forget the bloodcurdling screams I heard coming from thousands of New Yorkers as the first building collapsed. I could never forget how much it hurt as I kept screaming and crying for Papa to come and save me while I watched more horrific moments and witnessed the most awful thing you could ever see in your life. I could never forget the smell of dirt, smoke and ashes that filled my lungs to the point it was a miracle I stayed alive.