• "Jake!" I cried as I sprung up but then cringed at the pain in my chest. It felt like my eyes had been shut for years and the light was beating on them so everything was a bright white. My eyes adjusted and I was in a room. A hospital room. Then it all came back to me. My birthday. The cafe. The gunman. The shooting. The pain in my chest, no. I was shot. Then a blow of pain hit me in the chest again sending me collapsing into my bed and into a deep sleep that no nightmare could break. But I didn't have my normal dream that tormented me every night. This time there was Jake crying my name but I was falling and falling. I wanted to reach out to him, to feel his warmth, but I couldn't reach him and again I felt the stabbing, sharp pain in my chest as I went cold.

    Then the original dream that sent me tossing and turning in my sleep came. I was walking down the sidewalk with my mom and dad by my sides, my mom’s warm laugh, my dad’s deep voice and his sense of humor. Maybe that’s what attracted me to Jake so much in the orphanage. I tripped and fell, scraped up my knees on the cold New York pavement my hands freezing up on the ice. Being seven, I cried, such a baby, the orphanage can toughen anyone up.
    My dad pulled me up and put me on his shoulders and mom wiped the tears away and kisses my cheek. The happiness continued. Mom laughing. Then everything stopped. Then i felt myself being flung back onto the cold pavement. Warm blood rushed through my hair then onto the pavement I struggled for air. My mom’s eyes were full of fear as she looked back at me, struggling to keep my eyes open. Then there was a gun shot and the life flew from her as the guy laughed with pleasure. What a psycho. Then the guy’s eyes dropped to me.

    "You poor pathetic thing." The man says aiming the gun at me, smiling. Then a knife struck him in the shoulder. He scrambled back wincing. I glared down at my dad he was smiling at me with his sparkling eyes but then they dulled and his face tightened with pain. I somehow got up with the worst headache I have ever had. I saw a bullet had been shot into his stomach. I put my head down on his chest. He strokes my hair even though it was covered in blood.
    "I love you." We both whispered at the same time then his eyes closed and his chest stopped rising and falling.
    "Daddy? Daddy?" I screamed then a jab of pain hit me and i tumbled back shivering. Everything blurred either with tears or my condition, maybe both. I saw lights and I was lifted up and brought into a white car. Then I heard gun shots.
    "NO! NO! NO!"
    Then it hit me. That guy who killed my parents, who shot them to death. Shot me. He was the guy in the cafe.

    Then after that all I remembered was waking up with a bandage around my head, nasty headaches that sent me collapsing to my knees, a rather ugly lady telling me I was a orphan, taking me to an orphanage, and putting me in grey clothes.
    Jake.
    He was there. Whenever he passed me he I felt a wave of pain. He reminded me of my dad. My dad who spent his last moments comforting me while he had a bullet in his body. Saving me with his last traces of strength. Jake, Who instantly guarded my body with his own not thinking that he could die, Who was thrown into a table for me.
    In the orphanage I was bullied. But one day it got out of hand a boy pushed me, ripped of my bandage, and opened the wound.
    I felt the energy drain out of me along with my blood instantly. The boy kicked my limp body. Picked me up and slammed me into a wall I felt myself begin to get thrown back into the sand but then as I braced for the ground, I was caught. Things got blurry and I eventually was unconscious.
    I awoke with the boy standing over me with a smiley smirk from ear to ear on his face. He had brown eyes, lightly tanned skin, light brown hair and was tall.
    "You okay?" he asks happily but with a hint of concern in his voice and on his face. It took me a while to come to my bearing. But he understood and waited.
    "I… I’m fine," I stutter pulling my self up with a grunt, I notice I’m in a nurses office and he has dark bags under his eyes. Was he here all night?
    "Good,” he says smiling "eat up!"
    I look up and he’s holding out a roll and apple slices. I feel a sharp shoot of hunger jab through my stomach and greedy trembling hands attack the food.
    "Whoa, he jokes” don’t want that coming back up." I control myself and slowly begin nibbling the food then wonder how long I’ve been out. He sees the sudden surge of confusion in my face and smiles. Its like he reads minds.
    "You've been out for about a day or two."
    "Thanks for helping me, well saving me. Any more of that and I would've drained myself of all blood." I thank my voice hoarse.
    We both laugh. Then I realize it’s the first time since my parents died.
    "I’m Jake." The boy greeted.
    "Ameth, but just call me Amy." And that’s when I knew I had a friend.
    After that Jake and I were like magnets. There were rumors, childish love taunts and more but that never pulled us apart.
    I woke up ands something beeped. I looked around for something connected to my arm to record my heart rate or something like that but found nothing.
    "Someone was sleepy."
    I turn to the voice and see a slim, pretty woman with slick, black hair, olive skin and blood red lips by the door.
    "Hi I’m your nurse,” she greets warmly "welcome to heaven."