'Reflections'
Prologue

"Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic."
-Oscar Wilde

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VIENNA PRESCOTT HAD ALWAYS BEEN A BIT 'DIFFERENT'.

Though, at least in her opinion, being different was a not necessarily a bad thing. She had always been more interested in learning and reading books than she had ever been playing with any kind of children's toy.

She didn't know why that was, but she liked it that way.

Vienna grew up in a warm and comforting household, on the outskirts of a small historic town with her parents, and her older brother, Ronan.

Her father had been an archaeologist, with a passion for discovering history that could never be matched by anything, and her mother had been an amazing child psychologist. Her knowledge of the brain, and her expertise when talking to children had been something extremely admirable. And though he was away from home more often than he was there, her father was very much present in Vienna and her brother's upbringing.

Due to the influence of both of her highly intelligent parents, Vienna grew up a well rounded child. Her father taught her the expansive details of whatever historical dig he was doing at the time, and her mother taught her the inner-workings of the brain.

On top of being a well-educated child, very early on in her childhood, Vienna's parents realized that she had an incredible ability to retain anything she was told, anything she heard, or read. This was a rare yet very useful skill that they had noticed in their daughter early on, and they were very impressed to have found out her skill.

Though, at the time, they had no idea just how useful Vienna's skills could actually be.

Vienna had been provided with a happy and carefree childhood full of books, playing outside with her brother, and loving parents. She had a beautiful house, walls adorned with family photos from years passed.

They were a happy family in a happy town, Vienna's parents were very proud.

They had two very smart kids, steady jobs, a nice house, a loving marriage. What more could they possibly ask for?

Everything was seemingly perfect, and maybe it was, until the day of that dig.

When Vienna was only ten years of age, her father was sent on a very special dig, one that only the best of the best archeologists had been invited on.

It was a small yet rare dig site, one full of potentially groundbreaking discoveries.

Luckily, Vienna's father was able to bring his family along to the dig for a weekend when he wasn't on duty.

Young Vienna stepped out of her mother's car and was instantly met with the warm summer sun. It was late August in Connecticut, which made for a very hot day, especially on a dig site located directly in the sun.

Vienna squinted her eyes before she was met with her older brother Ronan shoving a pair of sunglasses into her hands.

"Mom said to put this on." The thirteen year old boy mutters.

Vienna studies the glasses closely. They weren't her favorite, they were quite old considering that she has had them for a while. Though she knew the benefits of sunglasses: protection from ultraviolet light, commonly referred to as UV, which is a type of electromagnetic radiation.

This particular type of radiation can be very harmful to both the skin and eyes, causing skin cancer and cataracts. Vienna learned this from a recent reading in a science textbook found in her father's study.

Despite the young girl's dislike for the sunglasses, she put them on, because she knew that the risks were not worth it.

"Hey, sweetheart!" Vienna turns around to see the tall, broad figure of her father blocking the sun from her eyes. Her father was a tall man with light brown hair, which Vienna had inherited from him. He had warm eyes and a wide smile which is usually on his face, he was a very happy man.

"Dad!" Vienna steps forward and launched herself into his arms, clinging to his neck.

He chuckled and placed a gentle kiss on his daughter's head. "I missed you, kid."

It had been two weeks since her father had been on this dig, but Vienna had missed him dearly.

Sure, Vienna had her mother and brother when her dad was away, but she got along best with her father rather than any other family member of hers.

"I missed you too." She exclaims as she pulls out of his tight grip to let her brother and mom greet him.

"Hi honey." Their mother smiled sweetly as she kissed her husband quickly. "How's it all going?"

His grin grew impossibly wider at this question. "It is going wonderful. You won't believe some of the things we've found, and all the guys here are amazing. It truly is the best of the best."

"Yeah it is, Dad." Ronan, Vienna's brother, speaks up from next to her. "Because you're here."

Their father brushed it off with a shrug and a smile. "What can I say?"

"You could tell us when you'll be coming home." Vienna states almost impatiently. She had been missing her father lately.

"Oh, I'm not sure yet." He says quietly.

Vienna frowns.

"Hey, no, don't be sad, sweetie. Look at me." A tone of slight sadness took over his voice. "I'll be home by the time you start fifth grade, alright? I'll be there for your first day. And your first day of eighth grade, Ronan."

Ronan and Vienna both share nearly identical grins at this news. Their faces looked similar, though Ronan had his mother's blonde hair, whereas his sister had their father's hair.

They certainly did look like siblings when they smiled though.

"There's those smiles." Their dad smiles triumphantly.

"Dad, can you show us the dig site?" Ronan asks excitedly.

Their dad nods, a certain type of childlike wonder filling his eyes.

"Right this way, family." He says, placing a gentle hand on his wife's back and motioning for his children to follow.

"Dad, I've got to use the bathroom." Vienna says. "Where is it?"

"It's just around the corner to the left. Make sure to hurry back." Her dad says, offering her a smile before leading her mother and brother away.

Little did she know, that would be their last conversation as a full family.

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VIENNA'S BATHROOM BREAK WAS  INTERRUPTED by a loud crash followed by a series of ear-splitting screams.

She jolted, dried her hands on the front of her cat t-shirt and shoved the heavy door open. Her eyes were met with an unbelievable sight.

There was a landslide, cascading from the previously stable dig site and into the canyon.

A landslide.

One in which Vienna's family happened to be right in the middle of.

A landslide....

Vienna's head quickly snapped away from her thoughts, and she began running, running as fast as her short legs could carry her. She had to save her family. She wouldn't be left alone, she just couldn't.

She reached the edge of the canyon, screaming loudly. Her voice rang out.

"MOM? DAD? RONAN?" She was desperate for any of her family members to shout out her name back, to give her some sort of confirmation that they were alive.

But she heard nothing as the rocks piled on the floor. Where was her family? They had to be down there, right?

Right?

Vienna, without a second thought, lowered herself down into the wreckage, moving small bits of rock and rubble out of her way. She knew that this was the least-smart thing that she could possibly do, but she truly couldn't think of anything else to do. She would do anything for her family, even if it meant putting her life on the line.

"Vi-" she heard a weak, raspy voice.

She turned around quickly, her long  braid whipped against her neck. "Dad?" She cries, tears streaking her cheeks. She couldn't stop them. She could see her dad, but he was covered in many rocks, many heavy rocks that he couldn't pull off of himself, and neither could Vienna.

She knew that she couldn't get the rocks off of her father. She knew in that moment that she had no way to save him. But she pushed those thoughts aside.

That was her dad, her favorite person in the world. She couldn't let him go.

"DAD!" She screams louder, running toward him, trying to pull one of the great boulders from his already-crushed body.

"Sweetie." He choked out, coughing slightly. "It's too late. They're too heavy. I can't get them off, and neither can you. It's too late-"

"Dad, please." Vienna sobs, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she tried to pry the boulder from her father's weak body.

"I'm so sorry, Vienna. You know I love you so much. You know that. Please remember that, as long as you live, you will always be my little girl." A tear falls from his eye. "I'm sorry we didn't get more time. But you, my smart girl, will do beautiful things. I just know you will."

"I love you so much." Vienna sobs, falling to her knees next to her father.

"I love you too....never forget that....never....." one final gasp of air came from her father's lips, and with that, he was gone.

His eyes closed slowly like curtains closing after a play, though it was the kind of play you never really wanted to end.

Vienna's hands covered her face as she cried out. She cried so hard that she thought she'd never cry again, her eyes burned with dust particles mixed with tears.

"Vienna." She looked up through tears to see the tall, lanky figure of Ronan.

She had never been so happy to see him in her life.

"Ronan." She stands up, knees nearly failing her. She stumbled to him, collapsing into his arms.

"Dad, he-" she gasps.

"I know." Ronan squeezed her tightly agaisnt him, closing his eyes to let the tears flow.

Vienna was in pure shock. She couldn't quite grasp the situation, it all seemed too surreal to be true in any way. She grasped the tattered fabric of her brother's shirt, sobbing into his arms.

"We've got to get out of here-" he sucks in his breath, trying to hold himself together for his little sister, though it was quite hard to do that when you are facing the body of your dead, crushed father.

"We can't just leave Dad-"

"Vienna, he's gone. We can't stay. We have to focus on getting ourselves out-"

"There's no point in getting out if we can't bring Dad-"

"Vienna, yes there is. We have to go." He grabs her tightly, hoisting her up over the rocks and jumping up quickly himself.

"NO, RONAN, I CAN'T-" Vienna screams, feeling strangely out of her own body.

Ronan quickly grabs both of her shoulders, forcing her to stop thrashing against his grip.

"Yes, you can. We just have to focus on getting out of there. There's some medics helping Mom, she's still alive. They're going to take us to the hospital. Focus on that...."

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT MOM, I WANT DAD." Vienna screams.

She didn't truly mean those words. She did care about her mom, truly a lot. But the death of her father was coming crashing down all at once, and it was almost too much for her to handle at this moment.

Ronan's face dropped, he looked slightly shocked. He knew that Vienna had been closer to their father than she ever was her mother, but it was still shocking to hear the normally positive girl screaming those words for all to hear.

At least, all those who were still alive.

"Vienna, come on." He didn't address her previous, because he knew that she could never mean them.

He pulls her towards a nearby ambulance, though she was just a ghost of her former self, walking through The rubble of the landslide, which was still crumpling slightly, the body of her father buried in the wreckage.

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VIENNA STAMPED HER FOOT ON THE GROUND ANXIOUSLY, her worn pink shoes making a nearly silent tapping sound against the ground. She didn't quite know what to do with herself in that moment. She had already read various medical pamphlets found in the waiting room of the hospital she was sat in, everything ranging from a common cold to cancer. She knew all of the information, she had retained it all in remarkably clarity. Though, that wasn't the only thing that she recalled.

She remembered her father's tear on his cheek, his words, his dying breath.

That was something she would never forget as long as she lived, nothing could drown out these memories.

Ronan was next to her, though the two siblings didn't try to speak, neither of them could think of anything to say to the other.

No false words of comfort could possibly help them.

Their father was dead, and the status of their mother somewhere in this hospital is unknown.

Suddenly, a doctor walks briskly into the waiting room, crossing over to the two children. The man had kind, yet worried eyes and a slightly oversized lab coat with a picture of himself clasped onto the front in the form of a small badge.

"Vienna and Ronan?" He kneels down in front of them.

The two children nod silently.

"Your mother is going to be alright." He speaks slowly. "She has a broken arm, but other than that, there is no physical injuries. She does know what....what happened to your father, though she is still slightly disoriented, which is to be expected."

Vienna nods, absorbing every word the doctor says.

Disorientation after an event like this was to be expected, Vienna had been experiencing a bit of that herself.

She hoped disorientation was all her mother was going through. Because Vienna had read a couple waiting room pamphlets about traumatic brain injuries, and none of the stories sound exactly heartwarming.

Vienna swallowed the rising lump in her throat to speak to the doctor in a low, raspy tone.

"When can we see her?"

The doctor directs his eyes to the little girl, she looked so small and helpless, he felt so sad for her in that moment, she had lost nearly everything.

"I expect that you can both see her in a few minutes. In the meantime, is there someone I can call to come sit with you guys? Maybe grandparents?"

Vienna shook her head abruptly.

"No, no grandparents...." She was so quick to answer this specifically because she had only met her grandparents a couple of times in her whole life. Her father's parents died when she was younger, as they had decided to have children later in life. And as for her mother, she has a rocky relationship with his family.

Ronan's eyes flicker to his sister for a moment, but he nods in agreement at once.

"No, we don't have anyone to call."

The doctor nods. "Alright. I'll do everything I can to make your mother comfortable, and I hope I can have you both come back shortly to see her."

And with that, he stood up and walked away, but not before asking the lady working at the front desk to keep a careful watch on the two silent children in the waiting room.

"Vienna?" Ronan spoke directly to Vienna for the first time in the hour.

Vienna looks at him silently.

"You're smart, smarter than I am. Do you think mom will be okay, like really okay?"

Vienna ponders this for a moment. She loved being smart, she loved being able to learn anything she wanted, though sometimes she hated how people always relied on her to be the very best, it got tiring eventually.

She thought about Ronan's question, how would she answer it with full certainty? Even though she was smart, she was at an utter loss for words at that moment. Though, she spoke after nearly a minute of silence.

"After something like this, I don't think anyone would ever be fully alright again. But I haven't seen her yet, I don't know enough about her to know  how her mind is working now. We'll just have to wait and see. But I feel like, after a while, things might start to be....okay?"

This almost sounded like a question, though for once in her life, Vienna was entirely stumped. She had no clue as to what her mother was feeling, or what their family dynamic would be moving forward.

And that was truly terrifying.

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VIENNA WAS SHAKEN AWAKE HOURS LATER by a kind looking nurse. She had light pink scrubs and butterflies on her cap.

Vienna hadn't originally planned to sleep, though her body became defenseless to all of her emotions, and she had fallen asleep in the middle of the hospital's waiting room.

It only took a few seconds for the girl to remember exactly why she was there, because she knew that she could never truly forget the events of that afternoon.

Her eyes opened slowly, her blinks coming in harsh movements as she got the sleep from her eyes.

"My mom-is she okay?" She rubs her eyes with her palm, not caring of the many potential germ risks of being in a hospital.

The nurse nods. "Yes, dear. That's why I came to wake you and your brother. The doctor that came to speak with you a little bit ago said that your mother is waking up slowly, and that you should come see her soon. I'm sure she'd be very excited to see the both of you."

The nurse's eyes flicker to Ronan, who was just waking up. He was a bit of a heavy sleeper compared to his sister.

"We can go see her?" He mumbled, voice almost incoherent, though the nurse seemed to understand both kids with perfect clarity.

"Yes, you can. Whenever you're both ready." She says with a gentle smile.

Vienna exchanged nods with her brother, who nods gently to her.

"We're ready now." The girl swallows, pushing stray strands of fallen brown hair from her face.

The nurse nods, motioning for both of the children to follow her.

They walked down a stretch of halls, peeking into each room carefully. Vienna saw a variety of different patients: a young girl with a cast on her arm, an older woman hooked up to a lot of machines, her husband at her side clutching her hand. A middle aged man in a knee brace, and a woman who was seemingly a cancer patient, holding a small boy.

Vienna wondered about their lives, their stories. Despite her father dying just hours earlier, she still worried about others.

Maybe this was because the severity of the situation hadn't sunk in fully, or maybe due to Vienna's caring nature rooted deeply in her persona.

Or maybe it was a mix of both.

They finally reached the end of the hall, the nurse gingerly opening the door.

Vienna saw her mother hooked up to an IV, and a breathing tube ran through her nose. She looked rather tired, and her face seemed slimmer than it had been just hours prior.

She immediately burst into tears,
uncontrollable sobs at the sight of her mother.

It was an unstoppable wave of emotion, and nobody could stop her tears. She felt relief, anger, sadness, grief, all in one moment. She thought it to be nearly impossible to feel all of this at once, but here she was, entirely breaking down, coming undone in the messiest and loudest way possible.

The nurse reached for the girl, whispering a comforting word, though she only wanted her mother.

She rushed forward, sitting on the edge of the bed, burying her face in her mother's shoulder.

Her mother's voice was breaking.

"Oh, Vienna."

Ronan held back, standing in the doorway almost awkwardly at the sight of his sister and mom.

"Ronan, sweetie, come here." His mother held out her uninjured arm, and Ronan crosses the room quickly, melting into her embrace.

He wasn't much of a hugger anymore, but now he certainly needed a hug.

"Mom-" little Vienna's voice broke. "Dad, he-"

"I know honey." Vienna's mother's voice is unstable, though she is trying to hold it together to the best of her abilities.

"I couldn't save him." Vienna sobs. "I'm sorry-"

"No, sweetheart, don't apologize.  It's not your fault at all. Nobody could've saved him, I swear."

Vienna sniffs, pulling back to look at her mother.

"I could've, though."

"Vienna, you're a very capable girl, you're so smart. But believe me when I say that even you couldn't have saved your father. I'm so sorry."

Vienna nods gently, though she still wasn't convinced.

Little did she know then, but she would carry this guilt on her shoulders for many years to come.

Ronan blinks hard, tears falling from his eyes which were bloodshot.

"Guys, the doctor says I can go home here in a couple days," their mother says in a failed attempt to cheer all of them up, including herself.

"But dad will be gone." Ronan grumbles.

"I know. It's going to be hard, but trust me, we're going to get through this, alright?"

Both kids nod silently, adjusting themselves on their mother's hospital bed.

Vienna subconsciously moved closer to her mother, as if trying to find some sort of comfort in this horrible reality.

Her mother placed a gently kiss in her hair, lip quivering slightly. The loss of her husband was certainly the worst thing to happen to her, and now she was left alone with her two children.

Sure, she had been left alone with her kids before, her husband had often went away on his digs, so it was usually just her and the kids.

But this was different. Her husband was dead, gone, he would never come back. He would usually leave her with a kiss and his return date, but she didn't even get to say goodbye this time.

She truly wasn't sure how she was going to deal with all of it, but she had to do it for her kids, that much she knew.

She held both of her children close to her body, as if they would be taken by the merciless hands of death just as her husband had been.

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THE WEEKS TICKED BY SLOWLY, DAYS MELTING TO NIGHTS, MONTHS MOVING SLOWLY.

Seasons changed, babies were born, people were buried. It was the same old earth, though it seemingly felt duller and darker than ever before, because something was missing.

Someone was missing.

Months passed, and everything changed, but at the same time, nothing changed.

After  the death of her father, Vienna felt like she couldn't move on.

At eleven years old, she felt as if she had nothing to live for. And that was something that nobody should ever have to feel.

Vienna knew she was still living, but she felt numb to everything around her. She was doing her best to stay strong for her family, who were very much struggling.

Though sometimes, it was hard to keep a brave face, she was barely 11 years of age, she had celebrated her birthday a few days prior.

Vienna had turned to reading books since then, and they gave her a somewhat comforting message, that things would maybe, just maybe, be alright.

She read of characters overcoming harsh obstacles and coming out possibly stronger in the end.

And when she read textbooks, like her mother's psychology books, she read of different disorders: depression, anxiety, amongst others.

These made her realize that she wasn't entirely alone, even if she felt it at times.

This feeling of isolation wasn't a permanent thing, even though the young girl thought it was at times.

Even though she was stuck in the darkness, Vienna hoped that a light would bring her old self back.

She wanted something, or someone, to help her out. There was someone out there who was able to do it, she knew that.

And that fact was the only thing keeping her going.

     
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cam's notes!!

Baby Vienna</3

This is a very tragic backstory, BUT I'm a sucker for angst so I had to give her a sad backstory ofc.

I'm so excited to finally be writing this story, and I love where it's going already, I hope you love it too<3

Pls lmk what you think :)