Chapter 1: The Accident
It was a beautiful night out, the stars were shining, the sky was clear, and the wind was blowing very gently. A cruise ship was sailing smoothly across the sea, lights shown from the ship making it glow. Figures walked about on the decks, glorious ballgowns were worn by the beautiful ladies, while dashing black tuxedos were worn by the handsome gentlemen. Tables were decorated with white tablecloths, vases filled with red roses, and candles that smelt like vanilla and strawberries. The people abord the ship where talking, laughing, and having a good time. The reason is this cruise ship is the location of a gala dinner party; it was being held in the honor of the success of the new movie titled “From Our Stars” it stared the famous actress Isabella McLoughlin as the main character Stella, and her co-star Pam Smith as Stella’s rival Samantha.
A lot of people from Isabella’s studio where abord that cruise ship, along with the producers, directors, other actors and actresses from the movie, and famous people. Yet no one knew the tragedy that was about to take place that same night,
Isabella was standing by the railing of the ship looking out at the gorgeous night sky, her long brown hair was curled and held at the back of her head by a beautiful cherry blossom hair clip, two locks of hair were framing the girl’s face, her bright blue eyes shown like the water glowing in the sunlight. Isabella was wearing a red strapless floor length mermaid tail party dress, it was made for her by her stylist Grace Wilson, Isabella just also happened to be wearing her favorite apple red closed toed heels. Around her wrist was a silver bracelet that had diamonds on it, around her neck was a beautiful silver locket that had her name engraved on the front of the heart.
Isabella was so deep in her thoughts that she didn’t notice that her assistant Lillian Rose was walking up towards her. Lillian, or Lilly for short, has medium length light brown hair that she normally kept in a ponytail, and light brown colored eyes, this evening Lillian was wearing a baby pink off the shoulder floor length dress with sparkles decorating the dress, a pair of pink wedges, a pair of pearl earrings, and a matching necklace, for the gala party Lillian has her hair in a side braid that rested on her right shoulder.
“Bella,” Lillian said getting the attention of the beauty looking out at the night sky, Isabella turned around to face her friend and assistant. “Hey Lilly, what’s up?” Isabella asked with a smile, “I was wondering, how are you enjoying the party?” Lillian asked, “I’m liking it, I’m still a little in shock at how well the movie turned out.” Lillian nodded at her friend’s response, “Oh and before I forget, a week from today you are needed in the studio to start on the demo recordings for your new album.” Lillian said, “Alright,” Isabella said before she wrapped her arms around the light brown-haired girl, Lillian smiled and hugged her friend back.
“Now you go and enjoy yourself.” Isabella said as she pulled back and released Lillian from the hug. “Ok, just if you need anything please let me know.” Isabella nodded as she watched her friend walk away to enjoy more of the party. The brown-haired girl turned back to face the night sky, ‘I wonder why my music isn’t as popular as I would have liked it to be.’ She thought before another member of her studio approached her. This time it was her mentor, Carla Michaels, who approached her.
Carla has short ginger colored hair, and chestnut-colored eyes, for the gala, Carla was wearing a navy-blue fitting one sleeved floor length gown, Carla was also wearing a pair of black heels, a pair of round gold earrings, a matching necklace, and a bracelet around her wrist. “Isabella,” Carla called, the brown-haired girl turned around to face her mentor, both women were wearing smiles on their faces. “Hello Carla,” Isabella greeted, “I came by to congratulate you on the movie’s success. I’ve trained you well,” Carla said, Isabella giggled, “I did learn from the best.” She responded, “I hope to see more success like this from you in your upcoming projects.” Isabella nodded, “Of course, I wouldn’t want to fail you or myself by not giving this my all.” Carla smiled satisfied with Isabella’s answer, “Wonderful, now I’ll leave you to enjoy yourself.” Carla stated, before she began to leave. Isabella waved to her mentor before turning to the night sky.
Her mind soon became occupied with the thoughts of someone special to her, that person just happened to be her best friend, Eric Everhart. She missed him dearly that every moment she spent away from him hurt her heart. Isabella always wondered if Eric missed her just as much as she missed him every day of every month of every year, she spent away from him. Isabella looked down at her locket, it was a gift that Eric gave her last Christmas. She has cherished the locket since he gave it to her. Due to his crazy schedule at the hospital, it was hard for Isabella to see Eric. They do talk over the phone every now and then and exchange text messages every day to check on each other. “I want to see him again,” Isabella said to herself as she looked at the locket, she gently lifted it up and turned it around looking at it. She ran her finger over her name that was engraved on the front in cursive, she opened the locket and looked at the picture of her and Eric.
It was a recent photo; they took it while at the aquarium for her birthday. They both looked happy to be together for such a happy day. Isabella smiled before she held the open locket close to her chest. After a minute she closed the locket, flipped it back to its correct direction before she looked back at the sky and thought of Eric. Unknown to Isabella, was that her biggest rival, Scarlet Evergarden walked up behind her. Scarlet has raven colored hair, silver-colored eyes and an aura that screamed trouble. For that gala, Scarlet was wearing a black cocktail dress, black 3-inch stiletto heels, and heavy makeup. ‘I don’t know why everyone loves her, they should love me and me alone!’ Scarlet said in her head she was very ticked off about the fact that Isabella had more fans than she did.
‘I have a better mentor and training, why can’t the people see that?’ She thought, Scarlet’s mentor just so happened to be the younger brother of the richest man in the country. Scarlet always liked to rub that fact into other people’s faces and bring down their spirits. But apparently that wasn’t working on the amazing Isabella, so Scarlet was going to take matters into her own hands. If no one was going to see her projects and achievements as a big deal, then she was going to have to remove the attention seeker from show business.
Scarlet placed her hand on Isabella’s shoulder, but before Isabella could turn around to see who had their hand on her shoulder. Scarlet, the person behind Isabella applied force to her hand that was resting on Isabella’s shoulder. The force was so much that the brown-haired girl lost her balance and started falling very fast towards the water. “AAAHHH!” Isabella screamed, “SOMEONE HELP ME!!!” Everyone abord the ship heard Isabella scream, Carla, Pam, and Lillian were the first ones to reach the railing, “Someone call the Navy Rescue Team!” Carla ordered, “On it!” Pam answered, as Pam took out her phone to call the Navy who had been behind the boat since the beginning. A splash was heard from the ocean, that was when it hit everyone. Isabella has fallen into the ocean below, “We have to get her out!” Lillian cried in panic for the safety of her friend. Carla placed her hand on the young girl’s shoulder. “It will be ok Lillian, with the Navy’s high-end technology. They will get here fast and save her.” Carla said, and everyone knew that Isabella couldn’t swim in her dress, so that is why in case anyone fell off the ship, the navy could come to save them.
“They’re on their way.” Pam said as she put her phone away and not even a minute later, the Navy was near the spot where Isabella fell into the ocean. 3 navy sailors wearing diving gear jumped into the ocean in search of Isabella. Everyone got worried for Isabella, while Scarlet was hoping that the brown-haired girl drowned. But that was not the case, the 3 divers came out with a soaking wet Isabella. The girl was barely breathing, “We will be taking her to the nearest hospital.” The captain of the rescue team said over the intercom of the ship so that everyone could hear. Then once all the divers and the barely alive Isabella were on the rescue boat, the captain turned around and as fast as the boat would go, they headed back to shore. While one of the sailors called 911 to get an ambulance to their location for a safe way to get Isabella to the hospital.
The captain of the cruise ship decided to turn the ship around and head back to shore. It took the cruise ship a total of 10 minutes to get to the dock, while it took the Navy Rescue Boat 3 minutes to get to shore. Lillian and Pam got off the ship and rushed to the parking garage where Pam’s car was, the two girls decided to carpool to the hospital. The hospital that Isabella was being transferred to was the same hospital that Eric worked at.
*At the Hospital*
Eric sat in his office; he was exhausted from the day’s work. He had 3 surgeries, and 4 car crash victims in recovery. He just so happened to have 5 minutes to himself and gather his thoughts, these thoughts happened to be about his childhood friend Isabella. He missed her very badly that it killed him to be so far away from her, he did occasionally see her but that was not enough for the black-haired doctor. He looked at the picture that sat on his desk near his computer, it was the same picture he had put into the locket he gave Isabella for Christmas last year.
He smiled as he thought of Isabella’s smile and giggle whenever she was happy, all he ever wanted was for Isabella to be happy. Even though it was Eric’s dream to be a doctor, his biggest dream was to be with Isabella. He has loved her since they were in middle school, as Eric was in his thoughts and smiling at the thought of seeing his best friend and crush again. Angie, the head nurse at the hospital, came running into his office in a panic and panting. Eric looked up at her and his happy mood was now one of worry. “Angie, what’s the matter?” He asked, “An ambulance just arrived, and we have an emergency.” she said as she caught her breath. “Really? What’s the emergency?” Eric asked, “The patient they brought in is none other than Isabella Mcloughlin.” Hearing the name of his crush made Eric even more worried yet determined to help. ‘She’s hurt?’ He thought to himself before standing up.
“Alright, Angie take me there.” He said, Angie nodded before leaving the office with Eric on her heels as she led him to the emergency entrance where the EMTs were unloading an unconscious and soaking wet Isabella from the ambulance, Eric got scared and worried even more. The EMTs rolled the stretcher into the hospital just as Eric rushed to the brown-haired girl’s side. “What happened?” He asked in a panic, “The Navy told us that she fell off the side of the cruise ship that was out tonight. But the thing they don’t know is if she lost her balance or if someone pushed her off.” An EMT answered, they all continued to an empty room where they could work on saving Isabella’s life, Eric would occasionally look at Isabella and noticed that her breathing was weakening. “We have to hurry, or we may lose her!” Eric said, everyone quickened their pace towards the room that was open.
Eric turned to Angie, “Get me on Isabella’s case, I want to be her primary care giver while she recovers.” Angie nods before running off to gather everything Eric needed and to get his name on the documents for Isabella’s doctor. They got Isabella into a room and Eric along with other nurses started to work on saving her life, they performed CPR, which got the water out of her lungs. They checked her vitals and got the necessary IVs and treatments that would help Isabella recover. During this process Eric worried for the life of his crush, once all treatments where done it was time for Isabella to recover but, since her body was too weak to heal with the help of the medicines on its own, Eric had no other choice but to put Isabella under a medically induced coma. ‘Please don’t leave me, I need you to heal and come back to me.’ Eric thought as he looked at his crush who was now asleep.
Eric couldn’t believe that Isabella was now in a coma, yet he knew that it was the best way to help her heal. The black-haired doctor moved his right hand to Isabella’s face and gently moved her hair out of her face. She was beautiful, and that was a quality that made Isabella who she was. “Please get better.” He said softly before he placed a gentle kiss on Isabella’s forehead.
Angie knew the history between Eric and Isabella, so she talked with the head doctor and asked him if Eric could focus on Isabella for a while, since her being in this state was hard for Eric to handle. The head doctor understood and cleared up Eric’s schedule so that he could focus on Isabella. Eric never left Isabella’s side, he worried for the worst, yet he was relieved that he was able to save her life. “Why would anyone want to try and kill her?” Eric asked himself as he looked at Isabella, but then the doors opened, then Lillian and Pam ran inside. “How is she?” Lillian asked worriedly, Eric turned to them and tried his best to smile for Isabella’s sake. “She is stable, but sadly she is in a medically induced coma at the moment, it was the safest way for her to heal and recover the right way.” Eric said informing the two girls of Isabella’s condition.
“I see, at least she’s alive.” Lillian said with a sigh of relief that her friend was alive, “She’s right,” Pam added, “Girls, you both were there when the accident happened. Do any of you know what could have happened to lead to her falling?” He asked, Lillian and Pam shook their heads sadly. “We don’t know how it happened, but she somehow fell off the ship we were on for the gala. You know the one that celebrated her new movie.” Lillian said as she tried not to cry, “Yeah, I know, I saw her movie, she was amazing as always. But who would do this to Isabella? She is such an amazing person,” Eric stated, “We don’t know,” Pam said, Eric sighed, “What I do know and can promise both of you and her family is that Isabella will wake up and once she does, we can see if she remembers the person who pushed her off.” Eric said, Lillian and Pam nodded at him since they knew that Isabella was a trooper.
Every day after the accident Eric worked on trying to take care of Isabella’s injuries, he wondered how she was feeling before she fell. ‘I promise you Bella, that I will protect you.’ Eric thought, as he waited for her to wake up.
