1-23: Slipped Away: Part One

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The knock on the door jarred Eden out of her sleep. She pulled herself to a sitting position on the couch, quickly looking over at the bassinet. Jett was fast asleep, his little hand curled around the bear she and Lyric had bought for him a few days ago.

The first thing she noticed when she entered the hallway that led to the front door, were the flashing lights. The red, white and blue bounced off of the walls and into her brain, alarms ringing. Her stomach was tight and her thoughts went straight to Kiara. 

What if by not calling her, she had wrecked? What if something horrible had happened to her? Eden pulled the door open, and the snow fell in sheets, covering the top of the officer's coat in front of her, and sliding into the doorway. The ice hit her face and she shivered.

It wasn't an officer she recognized, and that was weird in and of itself. She knew almost everyone her dad worked with. 

"Can I help you?"

She wrapped her arms around herself, glancing over his shoulder at the police car parked lopsided in her driveway.

"Eden, right? Carter's daughter?"

That struck her as weird, the informal way he asked. The sound of his voice. 

"Yeah? What's going on?"

He looked down at the ground, and back up at her face.

"There's been an accident, you need to come with me."

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"Just get in the car, Aria. Keep complaining and I am going to leave you here."

Aria threw a dirty look at her husband, shivering in the wind. It was freezing and the last thing that she wanted to do, was sit in a car for thirty minutes while they drove back home. The snow was falling so thickly, she could barely even see out of the window. She trusted Carter's ability to drive in messes like this, but it didn't stop her from being pouty about it. She pouted about a lot, and always had.

"Don't worry, momma. It's not that far until we're home.

And hey, I won. Think about that. Maybe it'll make you happy."

Lyric's soft voice cut through Aria's inner monologue and she gave her youngest daughter a tight smile. She took her hand and helped her into the backseat, closing the door after she was safely inside.

Carter paused on his way to the driver's side. He walked over to Aria, touching her reddened cheek softly.

"I love you, I'm sorry. I know this isn't what you wanted to do with your night, and I know you hate driving in this stuff. But it's going to be fine."

He knelt down, pressing his lips to hers, and opening the door for her to climb inside, just as Aria had done for Lyric. He shut it quickly, rushing to the other side. He slipped a little on the ice, and just before he opened the door, he said a prayer quietly in his head.

He never prayed, but right now seemed like a good time.

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Atticus entered the waiting room doors, finding Eden in the throng of people. He rushed over to her, wrapping her in a hug. She was crying, mascara all over her face, baby Jett sleeping soundly in his car seat. 

"What happened, where is everyone? All I know is that there was an accident."

Eden shook her head, stroking her fingers over the bear tucked into the side of Jett's car seat.

"They haven't told me anything yet, I know less than you do.  He didn't tell me much when he dropped me off, because he got another call. He said the doctors would explain, but they haven't explained any fucking thing at all."

Atticus ran his hand through his hair, looking at the baby.

"Is Kiara with you?"

Eden shook her head again, guilt dropping into her chest.

"No, dad told me to text her, and I never did. I don't know where she is."

Atticus brought his eyes slowly from Jett and onto Eden's face.

"You what?"

"I don't know where she is."

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"Why are the roads so empty tonight?"

Lyric pressed a hand to the window, the cold seeping into her skin. Carter made some type of disgruntled noise, and Aria leaned over, turning the radio off quickly, like somehow, that would help him concentrate.

"Because most people know to stay home in this weather, but this was important to you, sweetheart. So we went. We'll be home soon."

Carter made a turn, the ice contrasting heavily with the wheels. Even with the chains, and the snow plows clearing what they could, black ice was dangerous. It was worse at night, and with each time the car slid, Lyric grew more guilty. This was her fault that she had demanded to go anyway. 

She should have just said she'd skip it. Even if she won, it didn't seem like it was a very fair deal. This was scarier than she had bargained for.

Lyric brought her eyes from the side window, squinting in the bright lights that she could make out coming down the other side of the road.

"I thought you were supposed to turn your brights off when other cars are approaching?"

Aria said it with irritation, and Lyric sank down farther into her seat, pulling her phone out. Eden hadn't texted her about Jett at all. It made her wonder if maybe they had fallen asleep. Even in the brief hours she spent playing piano, she missed him. He had completely changed her life.

She turned on the music on her phone, turning the volume up enough so that the music filled the car. 

"You are. I don't know what this person's deal is. I can barely see the road as it is."

Carter cleared his throat, the speedometer dropping.

"I'm sorry, daddy. I should have just stayed home."

Carter didn't respond, just slowed the car down the closer he got to the oncoming one.

Aria turned around, placing a hand on Lyric's knee.

"It's just some ice, Lyric. It scares me too, but it's not a big deal. I promise."

The thing about black ice, is it is virtually invisible. Hard to avoid, nearly impossible to clear off of roads. It hides on the sides of roads, on sidewalks. It blends in with asphalt, and even if a street appears clear, sometimes it isn't.

You can lose traction in an instant.

And just one second... is all it takes.

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Atticus and Eden looked up in surprise when Cassius stumbled through the open glass door. He looked like a mess, but not for the same reasons they were. He looked intoxicated. On a few different levels. He walked over to them, his eyes going from the baby, to Eden, to Atticus and back again.

"You guys have no idea what happened... Do you?"

They both looked at him, and Eden tilted her head.

"Why does it sound like you do...."

It was more of a statement than a question, and Eden instantly got to her feet, her face inches from her little brother's.

"What do you know? What happened?"

Cassius took a step back, but not before Eden smelled the alcohol on his breath. It was like he'd dumped a bottle over his head.

"I might have an idea, and I have no fucking clue what to do."

Eden and Atticus exchanged a look. Atticus instantly joined Eden in standing and locked eyes with Cassius.

"What the hell are you talking about, Cassius?"

He looked back at the baby sleeping in the car seat, sleeping through the talking, the bustle, the loud cacophony of noise that rang through the hospital. His eyes glazed over for a moment, and he almost looked like he could actually cry.

"Mackenzie was with me tonight."

Atticus stiffened, one of his hands curling at his side. Cassius finally brought his eyes to his brother's, and Eden had absolutely no idea what was going on. She looked at Atticus, who mumbled something out of the side of his mouth, before giving his attention back to Cassius.

"She saw you kiss Kiara, or heard it, so she came looking for me to do something about it. She was already drunk when she got there, but I let her keep drinking. 

I slept with her and let her drive home drunk."

It was a lot of information for Eden at once. She looked at the rage in her twins eyes and the guilt in her baby brother's. Atticus didn't look as upset as he could, he still looked like he was trying to figure everything out. He didn't seem phased by the fact that she had cheated on him, and Eden's guess was just that he was still worrying about Kiara.

"So what are you actually saying?"

Atticus' voice was cold, cutting.

"She was supposed to call me when she made it to her place, and she never did. I think maybe she had something to do with this, and my guess is it has something to do with our parents too. They should have been home hours ago."

The pieces fell into place in Eden's head and she reached out, shoving Cassius so hard, his butt hit the floor.

"Not just our parents, you fucking loser! Lyric was in that car too!"

It took everything in her not to punch him in the face. But people were already staring, and when Eden had shouted, Jett had stirred a little in his peaceful sleep. She rocked the car seat softly and turned back to face Cassius, who had found his feet again.

Her voice was low, venomous. It cracked, betraying the pain in her chest.

"If something happened to my sister, I'll fucking kill you."

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When the car slid, Carter tried to correct. To fix the wheels. The patch of ice was so long, he couldn't find enough traction, in enough time, to right them. It slid the SUV into the oncoming lane. The dark red F105 slammed into the side of the Hummer, going around 80 MPH, smashing the passenger side of the car into an unrecognizable shape.

The force of the impact, combined with the thin layer of ice on the street, caused the SUV to flip twice, coming to rest on the side of the road. It looked like a little toy car that a child had beaten with a hammer and cast aside.

Glass, gasoline and ice glittered from one side of the highway to the other. Smoke billowed out from underneath the hood of the truck, which aside from the smashed front end, had no damage at all.

The screaming had stopped, the crying too. There were no fires, no explosions. Nothing to indicate to anyone who hadn't heard the crash that anything had happened at all. There were no answering sirens, no voices.

The snow continued to fall, and the world continued to turn.

No one knew their entire lives were about to change, and no one would know anything at all, for hours after it had happened.

The music on Lyric's phone played until the battery gave out.

The resulting silence, was deafening.

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I didn't get around to kiss you
Goodbye on the hand
I wish that I could see you again
I know that I can't