Shock

Shock

It was 8am, Sunday the 21st of April 1996 when my friends sister woke me. With concern in her voice, she told me my mother was on the phone and sounded very distressed. As I tried to comprehend her sentence, coming out my sleep state, I had no idea of the black hole that was about to consume me. I picked up the receiver wondering what my mum could be so upset about. “Hi mum”, I said in a weary voice. Hysterical, my mum manages to say “Nikki, you have to get to Frankston hospital Intensive Care Unit right away. Hailey is on life support and the whole family needs to be there for a decision”. Completely bewildered, I asked what was wrong with her and what decision but she had no answers. As I realised something was incredibly wrong everything around me ceased to exist. I was falling hard and fast in to an unknown reality and felt the universe crumbling beneath me. After placing the receiver back on the base I stood there as my world began to spin out of control. My heart was pounding like it was going to explode through my chest like a supernova. My mind was panicking as if the cosmos was about to collapse on itself. Apprehensive, my friend told me I looked like I’d seen a ghost. I explained as well as I could before asking if I could take a shower. She handed me a towel and gently told me to take my time and we would leave when I was ready. As I stepped in to the hot shower my body grew weak. My legs and hands began to shake, and without warning, gravity pulled me to the shower floor and time stopped. I opened my eyes and watched the running water pour down the drain, I couldn’t move and I couldn’t think straight. My stomach was churning like the chaotic clouds of Jupiter and I suddenly began to heave stomach bile. Trauma was consuming me in to a black hole; I was in psychogenic shock…