You Take the Breath Right Out of Me

You know how people always say that your life flashes before your eyes when you die? Well, I never believed that. Then again, I guess I honestly wouldn’t know…seeing as I’ve never quite been close to dying. Let’s just say that those people were right.

Time seemed to stand still. I tried to spin the wheel, hit the accelerator – but nothing would move. I stared hopelessly into the bright white light of the headlights and in that light there was a movie playing…a movie of my life.

Memories I didn’t even know I had were flashing before me: when I was born, my baptism, Johnny’s birth, little events as a toddler, grade school, middle school, meeting the guys, finding out that I would be valedictorian, getting acceptance letters from colleges, going out with Brian, having sex for the first time…all of it was present in that light.

I could hardly even see it now because of the insane amount of tears that were pouring from my eyes. My chest racked with sobs and the music in the background was slowly drifting away from my hearing. The only thing I could hear was the most unpleasant sound ever.

The tires squealed as the brake was finally being applied in the other car, but it was much too late. The front end of their car blew right into the driver’s side of mine. Both cars began spinning from the force. I cried out as I felt the front end of their car ram into my body. I felt each of my ribs break almost immediately on my left side and my left leg was being pushed beyond its boundaries as the car pushed it over my right leg, which was caught in the middle.

The air bags in the side and steering wheel activated, easily crushing me back into my seat. My lungs felt as if they had been shattered into millions of tiny pieces and I couldn’t breathe. My head flung to the side, sending sparks of pain in the form of severe whiplash down my spine. My car had been pushed far enough that it ran into a telephone pole, the metal wrapping itself around it. My car was reduced down to nothing but a thin piece of metal with a body in the middle of it all.

The windows and windshield had broken, sending shards of glass toward me, piercing my flesh and causing my leather seat to be covered in blood within only a couple of minutes. I was crying so much that I didn’t even realize it anymore. The world was dimming around me and a hint of gasoline reached my nostrils. Oh no…

I could hear groaning coming from whoever was in the other car and then they took off running, leaving me behind. “HELP M–!” My cry for help couldn’t be finished.

The car blew up in flames and I was trapped inside the fiery pit. My screams filled the night as the flames ate away at my skin. Since I had been injured so badly before, I knew that it wouldn’t take long before my life would end.

Eventually the flames died out, the music was still playing in the background sounding like a wounded animal, and my body was in there somewhere, completely unrecognizable. My hand was extended out, looking as if I was reaching for someone’s invisible hand to help me out. But no assistance ever came.

It took an entire hour and a half before the police, firemen, and EMS people showed up. They were far too late. The police had the car of those who killed me pulled away to be investigated. The firemen put out the small embers that remained. The EMS pulled away my sad excuse of a body from the charred car, wrapping me up in that black zip-up body bag.

It’s odd…I didn’t know that you were able to watch the aftermath of your own death. I mean that’s completely normal right? Suddenly, I glanced down to see myself…well not necessarily myself, more like a see through version of myself. What the hell is going on? Shouldn’t I be in heaven or something by now? Am I a ghost?!

*Brian’s POV (One Hour Ago)*

“Chug! Chug! Chug!” everyone around me shouted, drunkenly of course. The music was banging all around us and I could barely even hear a thing, but who cares? I was having a blast. I lifted up the small shot glass and welcomed the burning liquid in my throat. Glass after glass, I had won the contest.

Matt was leaning up against the wall nearby looking out the window. “Dude, who’s car is that?” he shouted over at Jamie, the dude who was having the party.

He took a look, “That’s the car that me and my bro stole a couple weeks ago. It’s a Mustang, dude. Wanna take her for a spin?”

“Fuck yeah!” Matt shouted, rounding us all up to go for a spin.

Since Jamie threw the keys at me, I gladly accepted the role as driver. None of us cared that we were beyond drunk and in no position to drive. It’s not like we haven’t driven like this before and nothing happened then. So why would it happen now?

The engine roared and we took off down the street. My foot was like a lead anchor pushing down harder and harder on the accelerator. We had all the windows down and the stereo blaring. This was insanely fun. “Hey look! Someone else is on the rooooad!” Zacky pointed, barely even able to lean forward without falling back down.

“Oooh yeah look at the pretty car,” Johnny said.

It wasn’t until we were mere feet away from the other car that I decided to hit the brakes. We wouldn’t hit them anyway. I’m too skilled of a driver for that to happen.

Well things didn’t go according to our plan. The front end of the Mustang hit the other person’s head on making this sick crushing metal noise. The smell of gasoline immediately filled the air, and surprisingly we were all able to react.

“Abandon ship!” Jimmy shouted, rolling out of the car. We all followed his example and began to take off running in the opposite direction. I wonder if the person in the other car already got out?

As I was running past the car, I looked inside to see a girl still trapped inside. It might just be my mind fucking with me, but I swear that looks like Callie. Obviously, that can’t be…seeing as she was back home studying. I easily shook away the slight uneasiness that had built up inside of me and followed the rest of the guys back to safety, hearing the faint sound of an explosion in the distance. It probably wasn’t real though…I have a very imaginative mind when I’m drunk. I’m sure everything is just fine.

“Let’s head back to the party before it ends!” Matt announced once we got away from the scene. I can’t wait to tell Callie tomorrow how much of a great party she missed!

~*~

Rays of sunlight poured into my room and shaky voices filled my ears. It’s too early for all this. I groaned as I went to turn over – my head felt like hammers were banging inside of it. This is why I hate waking up in the morning sometimes. Oh damn and I have school today too. Shoot me in the face – not literally of course.

With my eyes still closed, I got up out of bed and felt around for some clothes on my floor. I went into my bathroom then and grabbed some Aspirin out of the medicine cabinet. The relief was already arriving once I walked downstairs.

When I walked into the kitchen to grab a quick bite to eat, I saw something weird. My mom was crying a little, clutching the cordless phone and staring blankly out the window, watching the rain drops fall. “What’s wrong, Mom?” I asked, accidentally startling her a little.

As soon as she turned to look at me, more tears fell from her eyes. “Oh my poor baby! You don’t know do you?” she cried. My confused expression encouraged her to continue. “C-C-Callie was killed in a horrible drunk driving accident last night! Mrs. Seward said that her body was completely unrecognizable. She was burnt alive.”

All color drained from my skin. Car accident? Drunk driver? Burnt alive? T-there’s no way that that could’ve been from us. That girl in that car wasn’t Callie. No, there’s just no possible way that that was Callie! I dropped the glass that I had been holding and watched as orange juice spilled all over the place.

No. That was the only word that kept repeating in my head. I didn’t kill her….there’s no way in the world that I could’ve done that. I was briefly distracted from my thoughts by my phone’s obnoxious buzzing. I pulled it out of my pocket and flipped open the screen to see it say ‘Five Missed Calls’ and ‘One New Voicemail.’ Quickly, I put the phone to my ear and listened as Callie’s voice played back to me.

“Um, hi Brian…it’s me. I’ve tried to get a hold of you a couple times now and I guess I’m just not important enough for you to answer. I mean, you were the one who said to call you if I needed to talk about anything. Guess that was just a lie. Well anyway I hope you’re having fun at that stupid party without me. I’m heading back to school now to get something I forgot. Guess I’ll see you tomorrow…” And then she hung up.

She drove back to school…which means that that really was her in that car. I killed the girl of my dreams. Just the thought of all the pain she must’ve experienced made me sick to my stomach. All the color of the world just drained away, leaving behind nothing but a black and white wasteland. I felt dead on the inside. If only she knew how terrible I feel.

Hell, I feel like killing myself. That’s what I deserve after all.