The engine roars louder as I push on the gas. It’s such a narrow road, there’s barely enough room for two cars. He’s making it impossible to escape.
“Take the exit,” the robotic GPS voice instructs me over my rattled breaths. My chest rises and falls erratically. Shit, I have to turnnow.
So I do.
Then my phone pings. Service. Internet. Signal. My lips curve hopefully. I peer at my screen and internally celebrate. Ican report this asshole to the Sleepy Coldwater police and look for a hotel.
I have service, holy hell, I?—
Unknown:
I told you I would be seeing you soon.
Unknown:
You shouldn’t be driving out in a storm like this. It’s dangerous.
It’s him.
Everything feels like it’s in slow motion. Blood thrums in my ears as I slowly look in the rearview again. I don’t stop driving. My fear triggers autopilot.
Unknown:
It’s perfect, actually. Coraline Rosa loses control of her car while driving in the record storm and dies tragically. They’ll never suspect it was a truck.
Scrunching my nose, I lunge forward and snatch it. Still driving and being chased, I manage to plug 911 into the keypad. An agonizing pause of silence thickens my anxiety before it finds a connection. It rings twice before the call is dropped.
“No! Damn it!” I stare into the rearview mirror and see a silhouette. It looks like a man behind the wheel, but I can’t see any more details. It’s too dark, and his headlights are blinding.
“What the hell do you want from me, you crazy asshole?!” I scream inside the car, not caring if he can hear or see me anymore. My eyes are pinballing from the rearview mirror and the road before me.
The sound of his truck engine roars louder, the head of this car swallowing the view.
Here he comes.
I dodge him by frantically spinning the wheel to my left, my heart in the base of my throat with fear so paralyzing it’s streaming in my blood.
Am I going to die?
Is this how he wants to end me?
When I think I’ve outmaneuvered him, he hits me in the right corner of the car’s bumper harder and more precisely, like he has a goal to get me off the road…and he’s winning. I’m in a cyclone. I’m trying to keep up, but I’m no match for the winds, the snow, and the maniac. He won against my desperate efforts. My car spins into circles, and the next thing I know, I’m flying. Airborne. The top of my head crashes into the roof of the vehicle. I’m off the road, smashing straight through the metal barrier and rolling down the side of the mountain.
Oh no!
Please, no!
I scream just as I’m being thrown against my will against the side of the car. My seatbelt cages me inside as my car hits a tree, and then another tree. I can’t hold myself up. Everything is out of my control. I feel helpless as I try to hold onto something. The only thing I can do is register my blood-curdling screams.
Every single window breaks, and pieces of glass fly everywhere. Shards are exploding, then carving their way into my body. I’m clawing at everything to make my body stop hitting the inside of the vehicle, but I can’t hook my fingers into anything. It’s all too much, and it’s all happening too damn fast.
As I continue to roll down the mountain and gain control of the uncontrollable spinning, memories enter my head. My life is literally flashing before my eyes.
Christmas dinners. The beach. The first day I held my first art piece in my hand. Traveling, Italy…the future that I’ve been so excited about, all of my plans are in my head, blurring together, the ache in my soul growing, and a final blow to my head takes me out, silencing my screams and my pain. I close my eyes to protect them from the glass and accept my fate.
Everything goes numb and quiet.
Pain and the color black.That’s all that makes sense. There’s a ringing in my ear and warmth trickling down my face like a tear that starts from my hairline.
