The car was flipping. My view shifted to slow motion. I saw the world right side up, then it seemed to slowly turn until it was upside down. That happened three times. Under all the fear, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to the other car. In the background, I could hear a girl screaming. I wasn't sure if it was me or my sister.

Finally, with the world upside down, we came to a stop. Glass rained down around me and sparkled on the ceiling of the car below my head. I was hanging by my seat belt, dazed and disoriented with blond hair in my face. My body still felt like we were flipping and my head still spun in pain. I put my hand up to it and it came back wet with warm blood. I stared at my fingers, unable to comprehend that it was my blood.

I glanced at Claire in the driver's seat, only she wasn't in the seat. Her seat belt failed at some point and she lay sprawled across the ceiling in a bed of broken glass and scattered CDs. Her red hair was matted with blood at one side. Somehow that got my mind going. I fumbled with my seat belt until I clicked the release button and dropped, with no grace, to the ceiling. I landed face first, and the world went dark.

I opened my eyes. Time had passed, but I had no idea how long. I hoped it had only been minutes. My heart fluttered. It couldn't have been longer, someone would have come to help us if it was longer. I lifted my head, but when I tried to push myself up to crawl, nausea washed over me. I made it a couple inches toward Claire before I collapsed into darkness again.

“We got two here,” someone yelled. My eyes fluttered open to see a black man in a paramedic’s jacket looking in the other side of the car. “Neither of them appear conscious,” he added. I would have corrected him if I hadn't passed back out.

Life continued to come in small flashes like that.

Next I was in an ambulance. A woman with hair as blond as my own was holding a large plastic bubble over my mouth, slowly squeezing. She smiled when she saw my eyes open, she had a nice smile. I saw her turn to say something, but I didn't hear it.

Then lights were flashing by overhead. They were bright florescent ones that reminded me of school. I heard strangers speaking over me.

“We got these two, and another two from the other car.”

“Do we have ID on them?” someone asked.

“Yeah,” answered the first voice. “This is Alyssa Jacobs, that’s her sister Claire. The other two. . . ” I faded out of consciousness before I heard anything else.

I saw the operating room in jumps and flashes. Bright lights pointed down at me while men dressed in surgical masks leaned over me. I felt them cut away my shirt and felt oddly embarrassed. I welcomed the haze of sleep when it came again. This time I knew it was artificial.

Then the world started to get strange.

I was standing on a city street while people walked past me without noticing. I spun in a circle, almost falling in my heels. All the women wore nice looking, calf length dresses and the men were in suits and hats. I looked down to see I was wearing the same sort of dress. It was black and white stripes at the top with a black skirt. Pain burned in my head. I gripped my head, willing myself not to scream as I stumbled sideways. My eyes shut.

“She should be fine,” someone said. “It's Claire we need to worry about.”

“No.” My mom's voice was more a sob.

The street flickered back into focus. I was laying at the edge of an old, cobbled road. Bright light filled my vision and I was looking up at the florescent lights again. From the corner of my eye I could see mom and dad talking with a doctor.

Then I was on the street again. A woman ran by into the street. Her long red hair seemed to float behind her. When she looked my way, I saw it was Claire. I tried to call out to her, but nothing came out. I felt the hospital room tugging at me as I closed my eyes. I forced them open again, digging my fingers into the space between the stones of the street and clinging to it. If Claire was here, I wasn't leaving without her.