Her dull eyes stare into the TV as the ash from her cigarette falls and the smoke rises, filling the living room with a dark grey cloud. I smile at her, the kind, warm,  gentle little girl smile. In return she gave me a foul glare, and an unwanted cold scowl. I turn away, still smiling; deep inside I knew she loved me in her own special way.

We were alone, just me and her. Me and my grandma. I inhale. The ashy smoke fills my lungs. The burning was worse than sticking your hand in a fire, my eyes start to

tear up, it was too much, I began to cough attempting to get the what felt like flames out of my lungs. My grandma started to cough as well, but to me it was normal. She always coughed due to her smoking, but something about this cough didn’t seem right. After a minute she was still coughing, with each passing second the coughing worsened. It got harder, wetter, drier, louder, all at once. It was way more intense than mine ever was. My mind filled with questions
whats wrong with her? Why is this happening? What’s happening? Do I get help?

Her eyes begin to droop and her coughing slows, until it falls to a stop. I stare at her with wide eyes, waiting for her to say she’s fine, waiting for her to finally give me a hug and say she’s ok. But she didn’t. She didn’t even move, my grandma just gazed at me with open eyes. A small, shredded tear rolls down her face followed by more and more, her hands begin to slowly tremble. Thud! My grandma now lays in my lap, she has fallen. Her cold, stiff, wiry hair digs on my bare legs, like needles. I look down at her in fear, she doesn’t move, she just lays still, as though this was normal. I gently touch her skin, she is ice cold on her arms and burning on her face. I panic not knowing what to do.

For the first time in my life, I had to finally be the hero. And I never thought that being a hero, is the most scariest thing. I lift her slowly making sure not to move her head. I lay her in the couch, I stand back and look at her. Wow she looks really uncomfortable, I thought with a smirk on my face. No matter, I need to find help. I’ve always been afraid to call 911, if I get it wrong it could be the end of her. Suddenly I hear sqreech! The car! That’s my grandpa’s car! I jump, and sprint to the door, I struggle trying to get the door open,
“Why is this door locked?!?! It’s never locked! Why now!” I screamed under my breath

Finally it rips open smacking me in the face, a sharp pain runs across my face, I gently feel my cheekbone, it’s bleeding. My wound burns and stings when I touched it. I ignore the pain, sprinting to my grandpa’s van on the other side of the street. My mom sees me bleeding and instantly rushes over.
“Teagan oh my god, how did this happen?!” she softly screamed
my grandpa then rushes over as well to look at the cut on my face. My world started to spin as more and more blood came out, I shook my head.
“Oma she’s hurt or something. I don’t know what happened she fell… and she’s not getting up or anything.”. My breath was short and strained but my mom instantly leaves me along with my grandpa. By the time I turn around they are already in the house. I begin to jog back to the front porch, that’s when I hear a loud scream. I jump in surprize at the sound of this, I’ve never heard something so high pitch and ear splitting in real life.

I burst open the door, making sure not to hit my head again. I see my grandma crawling on the floor screaming at the top of her lungs. The horrific sight stunned me. I froze standing right in her way it seemed like. I look down at her and she looks up screaming louder
“Tea!! Leave!! LEAVE NOW!!”, she presciently cried
Her voice is sharp and loud. I still stood my ground for I was unable to move. The sight of my grandma crawling on the floor like a zombie scared me. Her eyes were red, her skin was extremely pail. She looks at me with dead eyes and grabs my leg.
“AHHHH! OMA What are you doing?!” I shrieked.
She pulls me down on the ground and kicks me to the side. My Mom and Grandpa stand in shock to what just happen then reflex kicks in. My grandpa calls 911 and My mom picks my grandma up and brings her to the bathroom. I slowly get up now i’m in even more pain, my leg hurts, I look down and see she had clawed my legs and my face was still bleeding. I open the bathroom door and find my mom holding back my grandma’s hair as my grandma is throwing up. My grandma slowly looks up and sees me she screamed again,
“Kitty! I said to leave! Get out don’t..”
She begins to throw up again. I knew I had to leave, to try and calm her down but seeing her like this, all I wanted to do was help. I left anyways I knew it was the right thing to do. I went to see what my grandpa was doing, turns out my brother had went to the store with them and now he was helping prep the car. I hear my grandpa swearing into the phone behind me. I felt faint as if I’ve been hit by a truck or something.

I turn around and see my Mom holding up my grandma, and my grandpa and brother rush over to help. They pick her up and swiftly and gently put her in the car. I begin to walk over to car to get in and my brother stops me. I ask,
“Kody, what are you doing? We have to go.”
He grabs me and I struggle to get away what is he doing we need to leave.
He leans in and says, “Mom said to stay here. “

I stare at him with big eyes, tears now begin to flood my eyes. The salty tears flood into my wound and it pain begins to rise, I ignore it and wipe away the tears. I won’t cry, I can’t cry. My dad said I can’t ever cry. So I didn’t I didn’t want to cry until I knew the time was right.

“OW!! Kody that really hurts be gentle!”
He pushes hard with a burning hot cloth on my face, the pain swells and stings. I feel like someone stuck lemon juice in it, I couldn’t take the pain any longer. I freak out and punch my brother just hard enough so he would back away. His anger, pain, confusion, and fright all came out at once he punched me right in the face, right where the cut was, it begins to bleed again. He looks down at me and the blood runs down my face his eyes begin to tear up and he hugs me for the first time.
“I’m sorry peep, i’m sorry I didn’t mean to I just….”
“it’s fine Kody. I understand.” I said with concern.
I’ve never seen my brother this way, I’ve never seen him cry, except for when our other grandpa died. And this was the first time he hugged me the first time he seemed to care.

A few hours later it’s now late, the dark sky falls over us, and fireflies fills the cool, night air. I sit on the porch and watch them. They dance in the night sky to the music of the crickets. In some way I’m relaxed. I was to scared to go inside, that’s where everything happened, where my life changed.
“Where are they, shouldn’t they be back by now?” I sighed to myself.
A small shred tear rolls down my face, I brush it away feeling the scar on my face from where the door hit me.  It will heal, just give it time. I thought to myself just like what happened today, time will heal everything.

I fell asleep listening to the sounds of the beautiful night. I was lucky I wasn’t kidnapped. What a day that would have been if I was. It’s still dark out, I must not have slept to long. As my eyes adjust I see something coming closer, My eyes didn’t focus in time, and the blurry image grabs my arms. My eyes finally focus, it’s my mom. I relax at the sight of a familiar face. But I then tense up
“Where’s Oma?” I asked
“let’s go inside.” she demanded
I could tell she had been crying her eyes were pink and puffy, plus her cheeks were red.

“Tea, Kod, You two love Oma right?”
“Yes’m” I say
My brother doesn’t answer, he sits and waits for our mom to continue
“Oma isn’t coming home, she had a stroke, then she freaked out in the ER,” Her voice rises and being to become more furious
“Then She started yelling and screaming at the doctors and she had another stroke right there!”
I pounce at her restraining her from moving anymore, I slowly begin to release and it turns into a hug. I actually managed to calm her down.

“Oma almost died today, Tea, you saved for life. If you waited just one more minute, she wouldn’t be with us. You saved her. Kody you did amazing helping get her to the car, thank you.”

My face froze, my body froze. Kody froze as well. My heart shattered, my brain collapsed, my eyes filled with tears, and this time they didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop them I wanted to cry, I needed to cry. I saved her, but what now, I can’t help her now, all I  can do it sit and wait. Everything’s different now. She’s fine but for how long? How will my life be without her? My grandma means the world and it was taken away.

Sometimes I think back to the time in the living room, and wonder why she did this to herself. Did she know this would happen? And if I could have done more. I learned that even in the scariest of moments, you can always stand out a hero and save lives, but not every life and be saved.  Even when you, think you failed, in the end it can be all worth it. After that day my family changed and I never looked at them they same way as I did before, We fell but we still try and stand tall. Even with cuts and bruises we can help and save anyone if you love them enough.