Afterlife.

"So anyway, you need to meet me at roughly 2:16 this afternoon to try on your dress." She rushed out. I laughed at the frantic tone of her voice; in the background I could hear the soft strains of Paolo Nutini's Rewind vibrating through the car stereo. She was trying to relax and I sure hoped Dan was driving. In her state, she'd kill herself.

This was my best friend, Anne. She was currently stressing in a manic way about the details of her last dress fitting before her wedding in two week's time.

"Don't laugh Phil, I'm speaking at a perfectly normal pace." She shouted into the mouthpiece. I said nothing, just laughed harder at her defensive tone. I turned a corner onto the main crossroads of the town. My lime green car had barely stopped at the fresh red light when I saw a frantic waving in my peripheral vision.

"I can see you, stop waving like that!" I called, winding down the window to talk to her in the next lane. Her hand was tangled in her dark blonde hair as she grimaced at me, her chocolatey brown eyes wide with panic.

"Phillipa, I'm stressed." She whined, stating the obvious and I smiled reassuringly.

"It's all fine. You have two weeks to get everything perfect, the dresses are all done, the food is taken care of and all you have to do is music. Dan's doing the rest. Hello Dan." I smiled grimly. He nodded curtly to me.

And this was Dan in a nutshell. We didn't get on, Dan and I. I didn't know what Anne saw in him. He didn't know what she saw in me. It was a mutual failure of friendship, neither of us cared much about it.

"Yes, but it's still terrifying. What if I blow up at the altar? Or worse, what if there's a stain on my dress that I don't notice?!" I chuckled at her upside down logic.

"Don't worry Anne, it's going to be fine. You're going to walk perfectly and not trip, there's going to be no stain and no explosions. And god-damn it you are going to get married without a hitch Anne." I said, tears in my eyes. It wasn't even my wedding and I was emotional. My final single-ish friend was tying herself down and I was left alone to become an old lady with several cats.

"Where am I supposed to meet you?" I asked, ignoring the sounds of sirens in the distance. It was a commonplace here to hear them, however to see the police was a rarity sparking several discussions on what they spent the entire day doing – besides paperwork.

"Um, meet me in the Costa on the Broadway so we can eat then get to trying on the dress." She mused and I nodded. The light turned to amber. The sirens had grown louder, almost unbearable. I turned in my seat.

"Dan move the car!" I screamed as a silver Ford Mondeo careered around the corner I had just turned around. In the split second it was in my eye line I noted the wildly panicked expression of the driver and the bloodied hands that were shaking as he twisted the steering wheel frantically. Within seconds the car was crushing into the back of the red convertible beside me.

The car was no match for it. It totalled and the uninjured, yet gore spattered, driver got out, running down the pathway with officers following them.

The traffic light turned to green as I jumped out of my car. The deep scratches on my paintwork caused by shattering glass were nothing compared to the potential damage within the concertina of metal beside me. I tried to open Anne's passenger door just as Dan fell face first out of the other side. Running over to his open door I did something I hadn't done since my Grandfather died.

I prayed to God.

"Anne!" I shouted hoarsely, pushing my way into the wreckage. I fell back at the sight and odour of blood, cracking my head against the concrete, almost feeling the individual grains of grit and glass pushing their way into my skin. The initial spurt of blood slapped against my cheek before slowing to steady, fast flowing rivulets rushing down my neck and chest.

I still prayed frantically in some small corner of my mind. I realised afterwards that this was when I realised the worst. Yet still I ignored the blood running from my head and tried to push my way past the first of the paramedics and policemen back into the car. A hand grabbed mine weakly and I glanced back.

Dan was crumpled almost flat out on the floor, dark, thick blood seeping from his mouth. I painstakingly crawled over to him, cutting my knees on the broken glass from the carnage behind me.

"Dan." I choked; he looked up at me with panic struck eyes. He kept looking at the wreck and I shook my head. I watched tearfully as his eyes closed and his breathing and pulse grew shallow and weak.

"Daniel O'Reilly, don't you dare die on me. You can't die. Don't you dar-" I sobbed hysterically, shaking him as his colour drained. Paramedics pushed me away from his frozen form as my whole world turned to black.