“Not everything is fun and games, you know,” Kailee repeated to me for the tenth time that morning.
“I know that. I'm not saying anything about fun and/or games.”
“Don't kids usually stop thinking like this when they're seven?”
“Maybe,” I laughed and sat down on the grass next to her. The meadow we were in was a small place on the top of a very large hill overlooking the entire town. From up here you could see everything; our house, Mr. Barns' coffee shop and the small elementary school. Everything looked so small and insignificant from up here. It put the whole world in perspective.
The bright green grass of the summer's day was long and tickled the backs of my ankles. My yellow flip flops had slipped off of my feet, leaving them bare and pale against the warm sun.
“Well, why are you so strange then?” Kailee said as she put her arm over her eyes to keep the sun out. I could tell she was smiling even though her tone was a bored one. The green summer grass flowed and rippled in the warm breeze like lush green waves.
“I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one who's right.”
“Quite a little optimist you are.”
“No, I'm just stubborn,” I winked.
Kailee sat up and sighed. “Okay. Time to go, Stubborn One. Mom and Dad are waiting. We have go to to Grandma's today, remember?”
I wanted to stay here forever, just looking up at the peaceful blue sky, but I knew that I had to go. Quietly slipping my flip flops back on, I followed Kailee as she trudged through an opening in the trees that led to a path. Taking one more look at the empty meadow, I frowned. An eerie feeling of loneliness took over as the sky suddenly got darker with thick gray clouds. Turning back, I followed my sister through the woods and down the path that eventually opened up to our small backyard.
“Ma! We're back,” Kailee shouted and our mother appeared from behind a counter.
“Ah! There you are. You ready? We want to make it before it starts to rain,” she stated. She was a very nice lady and widely accepted in our small town. She never yelled and was very understanding. Her brown hair was almost always tied in a loose bun at the back of her head and the subtle crows feet upon her face, at the corner of her eyes, showed that she laughed frequently.
“Your father is getting the car ready so we should head out. Do you have everything you need for the weekend?”
We nodded and grabbed our light jackets before following her out to the car. Dad was already waiting patiently in the drivers seat when we opened the doors and got in.
“'Bout time,” he sighed as we all buckled our seat belts and he started the car. My father was also very nice and adored by the town. With his crows feet and laugh lines, he also looked as if laughing was just as easy as breathing.
The car started up with ease and slowly backed out of the driveway. The clouds ahead were blocking the view of light and not even a hint of the sun's rays could be seen. Fog slowly crept out of nowhere onto the small-town road, twisting and weaving it's gray body all around, further obscuring the view of the road.
A half an hour into the drive and the fog was still heavily surrounding everything. The road was fairly empty. Only the dim, blurred brightness of the occasional headlights gave notice to the cars as they crept on by. We ignored the dullness of the weather and joked around, trying to lighten up our moods as the fog and gray clouds darkened the afternoon, and turned what used to be a warm and cheerful day into a dark and dreary night.
As sudden and powerful as a raincloud passing in front of the sun, my whole life turned upside down. The road we were on was steep and dangerous in the darkness. The fog had obscured anything past the front of the car and we had only the hill on our right to guide us. Another pair of headlights slowly illuminated themselves through the blurred grayness. Their fuzzy yellow glow coming towards us in a lane they didn't belong.
I didn't understand. They were too close, weren't they? Shouldn't they be red, or at least farther over? My mother's shrill scream brought be back to reality and woke my sister in the seat next to me. I looked from my sister to the lights that were moving closer to us, like a childish game of chicken. Only this was no childish game. And someone was going to have to move. The car coming at us was a large truck and the driver behind the wheel seemed to be foolishly sleeping. My father was panicked as well as my mother, who hadn't stopped screaming since the headlights appeared, seconds before.
The sudden jolt of the wheel and the slickness of the road made our small car slide quickly to the left. Even after my father let go of the wheel, the car wouldn't stop sliding and we suddenly hit the bars on the side of the road with unbelievable force. The car toppled over the edge of the road and the screams of my family members drowned out as the panic overwhelmed me and silenced the world. I was aware that I was also screaming and my throat hurt dimly in the background. The sharp sound of glass breaking blended into the background as well as the sharp pains in my arms and legs as the glass sliced through my yellow dress. All four sides of the car were closing in on me as the metal was forced inward due to the impact with the ground. The car flipped over again and my head smashed against a sharp shard of glass, sticking up from the destroyed window pane.
I could feel the wetness of blood soaking my dress and dampening my hair. I could no longer scream. My energy was weakening, as well as my consciousness. I was so hung up on my own pain that I hadn't noticed that my family had stopped screaming. The car tumbled once more and then came to a halt, taking it's time to settle in one place.
Through the my dizziness, I slowly opened my eyes and put my surroundings together. I had to blink a couple of times because my eyes refused to work and kept blurring everything around me. I could only see the smudges of dark red and smell the thick sent of iron and salt.
Suddenly my eyes opened and I was fully alert. “No,” I whispered to myself. I looked down at my bloody body. I was laying on my side, for the car had rested that way. My cute yellow sun dress was sliced in several different places and blood stained. I realized, then, that the car was still, the heaviness of the silence taking over everything. No screams. No... nothing.
“Mom?” I croaked in a sore whisper that broke the heaviness of the silence and seemed to fill the air. “Dad?” I realized that my whispers came out more like whines and sobs as the silence continued. “Kailee? Someone, please. Please answer me!”
The tears that filled my eyes, I refused to shed. I felt that if I succumbed to the pain, that this would all feel more real. And I wouldn't accept that. Squeezing my eyes tightly closed, I wished this all away. Maybe it was just one big nightmare that I would wake up from at any second. But I knew that was wrong and I would never wake up from this terrifying reality. I silently, and slowly, opened my eyes. My head pounded and I felt numb yet at the same time I could feel the ache of my arms and the dull dizzying ache inside my skull. With all of the courage I could muster, I turned to look at the person in the seat next to me. If I hadn't been here the whole time I would not have known who I was looking at.
She was slumped over, leaning sideways with the car. Her long hair was soaked with dark crimson stains, tainting the light, softness. The face was also unrecognizable, no longer clean and smiling. A deep shard of glass had taken it's place in the passenger's chest, a gruesome, thick trail of blood soaking into their t-shirt. The sight was enough to make even the toughest of men vomit. The worst part of it though, the absolute worst, was that her eyes, no longer full of life and color, were wide open; frozen in terror, a permanent scream resting upon her face.
My head snapped back and I stared at the disheveled seat in front of me. I payed no attention to the body next to me and concentrated on prying myself out of the seat. My legs had gotten trapped between the seats and I couldn't move them. My knees were scraped and bleeding as well as most of my body. Though freeing my legs resulted in the removal of more skin, I was glad to be able to move. I squeezed my eyes shut one last time, took a deep breath, and opened them again. With bravery and effort I managed to climb out of the car. Carefully crawling over the body of my stained and forever-sleeping older sister, who would never be able to crawl out after me.
The cold grass felt good against my bare legs. The wind whipped around my dirty face and the sky had grown thicker with clouds. I hadn't realized how long we had been resting in this spot, but it must have been a fairly long time, as the night had taken over and the blackness hid the wreck from view of passersby. The cool, wet, and almost calming rain washed away some of the blood and grime that was crusted onto my skin. I no longer had the energy to keep myself awake and with the rain and cold night as my only comfort, I finally succumbed to sleep.
Or so I had thought.
Once my eye lids shut, the blackness I wanted so desperately to fall into melted into pure white. I squinted against the harsh new light and looked around. I couldn't see anything. No walls. No floor. But I knew there was solid ground beneath me. I turned around once more and found myself in front of a large door. The sudden appearance of the door had frightened me. It hadn't been there before, yet here it stood now, right before my very eyes.
The door stood tall and almost noble looking. It was wooden and framed in white. Gold glistened in swirls of beauty throughout the pearl whiteness of the frame. I looked behind me. Everything was just as blank as it had been before the mysterious door appeared and it was as if I had almost forgotten the car crash.
While I was turned, my back to the door, it opened. The force behind the door was like a vacuum. The wind rushed around me and swept me off my feet. It carried me through the door and the blackness behind it. Different scents filled the air as I fell. The scents of wood and trees. Again, I could hear myself screaming but I wasn't paying attention and it was as if it wasn't actually me who was screaming. The ground suddenly stopped my screaming and brought my falling to a halt. Finally.
Finally I could be surrounded by the blackness of sleep.
