Her eyelids were heavy, worse than any form of exhaustion would have brought. She strained to open her eyes, her long black eyelashes were painfully caked together. Her crystal blue orbs fluttered open slowly and lazily searched her blurry surroundings. She blinked heavily several times to clear the flashing dark spots scattered across her line of sight. The edges of her vision were foggy and strands of straight dyed black hair fell in front of her face obscuring her sight even further.
She tried to turn her head but sharp knives of pain stabbed her neck, red hot pain that radiated from her skull down to her rib cage. Her muscles tensed, her whole body momentarily immobile until the wave passed. Her chest rose and fell quickly, trying to keep herself from vomiting or passing out completely. A few salty drops streamed down her cheeks as she clutched the seatbelt holding her contorted body in place and stared out the cracked windshield in front of her.
Shards of glass were scattered across the dark intersection. As the traffic light changed from green to yellow to red, the shards reflected a light show like a dance floor at a night club. Bits of black and silver plastic littered the street, huge pieces compacted and broken on impact. Cold metal was dented, a twisted wreckage wrapped around a lamp post. Gasoline pooled on the ground, a strong scent that burned her throat, strangling her silently while lay helpless in the passenger seat.
David hung there limply in the driver’s seat, his seatbelt the only restraint holding him in place and not completely slumped onto her. His face was turned towards her and his eyes were closed. A red streak trickled from his right ear while his head hung from his shoulders motionless. His silver SUV had rolled, and crashed into a lamp post, passenger side on the ground. She could see him dangling like a rag doll out of the corner of her eye and she wanted to reach out for him, to move him, try something to wake him up. She tried to scream his name several times but her words were caught in the throat by shooting pain in the right side of her chest. Tears welled up in her eyes, the salty drops clearing away the blood that had dried on her face.
Movement in the hanging rearview mirror caught her attention. A man stumbled from the black sedan that had hit them, a blue can hit the ground near his feet as he nearly tripped over them. He nearly fell several times as milled around his vehicle. He paced in front of for the hood for the first time and her heart dropped as he passed his victim.
She could see that poor other girl as she stared in the hanging mirror. Her torso lay flat against the hood of the sedan, her legs still on the inside of the windshield. Her white dress and pale skin outlined her contorted frame contrasting against the black paint of the car. Her exposed body was splattered with drying red streaks which pooled around her and dripped onto the pavement. Her blonde hair was fanned out around her head, most was matted together with blood from the gash on her scalp. The girl looked young, no more than twenty years old. Her small frame dwarfed by her companion that paced around her body. She lay lifelessly in the open, the man pacing in front of her body, occasionally stopping to stare at her. He crouched down to look at the girl up close, his head in his hands. With all his movement, she couldn’t make out his features, only that he was tall with broad shoulders that now hung with regret.
The silence was broken by the familiar sound of sirens. Her ears rang painfully and the glass in the street reflected a new variety of colors. She almost smiled, they were going to help David. The sound of heavy boots smacked against the pavement, approaching the accident from all sides. She could see their legs moving rapidly across her vision through the windshield, moving tools and spreading flakes from a bucket on the spilled gasoline.
“Hello?” she whispered, trying to catch their attention.
“Hey, what’s your name?” a man’s voice spoke from David’s window. He held a flash light that shone in her eyes, hiding his face from her.
She inhaled sharply, pain pressing into her ribs.
“M-Michaela” she stuttered, pressure building in her lungs.
“Hi, Michaela. I’m Justin. Can you tell me your last name?”
“Steele. Please help him.”
“Is this your boyfriend? What’s his name?”
“David is my brother. Please help him.”
Justin screamed something over the sirens at the men behind him. He screamed something at the men behind him, something she didn’t understand. He reached in through the window and felt David’s neck. David’s blonde hair was dyed with red in several spots near his face and when Justin touched him and tried to wake him, he remained silent. Michaela just looked at him, her baby brother slumped over his seatbelt. He wasn’t a baby anymore, he had just turned nineteen and she was nearly twenty one. David was tall, over six feet, muscular with tan skin but now all she could see was the little boy who used to run around the house with underpants on his head.
“Michaela, we are going to have to cut the roof off before we can help you and your brother okay? The tools are going to make a lot of noise and will shake the car. You may have a spinal injury so I’m going to need you to stay still.”
The screech of the tool drowned out her response as they cut away metal from the SUV. The violent sound of crunching metal pierced her ears painfully but she did not cry out because no one would hear her screams. Several minutes passed while she lay there in the violent shaking of the car, her legs crushed under the dashboard. She could see the gashes that had been sliced into her legs but she felt no pain. The violent motions caused her much pain, rattling in her head, throbbing pulses behind her eyes. The roof fell away exposing her to the light the fire trucks provided.
“Michaela, I’m here” Justin spoke again. He was a good looking guy, with dark eyes and tan skin. His helmet sat back on his head, his forehead dripping with sweat. He was blurry, his features hazed by her severe concussion. He kneeled next to her, wrapped something tight around her upper arm. Michaela thrashed and screamed, contorting from the pain she was causing herself. She scratched at his clothes, pushing him with all the strength she could muster. His helmet hit the ground as she shoved his face away. He lost his balance and fell on his ass.
“Don’t touch me! Help David! Help David!” her voice was cracked as she screamed.
“Michaela I am just trying to help you” Justin’s voice was filled with concern.
David was still suspended in his seat. Michaela was not going to leave him laying here while she was getting help. She kicked and screamed, now that her legs had been freed, fighting off the paramedics as they tried to help her. Her head swirled and she stopped moving, reaching up towards her brother.
Michaela clutched his limp hand and let the tears roll down her cheeks. His fingers were cold and he remained unmoving despite her vicious attempts to wake him.
She stopped fighting. Her hands dropped back down to her sides.
“He’s dead isn’t he?”
She was suddenly ten years old again. A little brown haired girl with a ponytail braid and a charming little smile. She ran away from a little boy as he chased her around the front lawn. They both yelled and squealed when they were tagged and had to chase the other. She ran into the street, crossed without looking, followed by her little brother. Tires screeched, and stopped nearly two feet from David in the street. He crossed quickly after Michaela, not realizing how much danger he had been in. Their mother had leapt from the front steps, screaming at them as they stopped in their tracks across the street. She grabbed Michaela by the shoulders and yelled at her for how dangerous that was. She knelt down so she was eye to eye with her daughter and said “he is your brother, you have to protect him, make sure that he’s safe”. She wiped the tear from her daughter’s face and kissed her forehead.
Justin began to stand to let the paramedics get close to help her. Michaela grabbed his gloved hand tightly, pain shooting up her arms as she revealed a jagged piece of glass protruding from her rib cage.
“Take him first” she nearly whispered.
“Michaela we need to get you out of here”
“Him first” Justin just nodded, and yelled something at the men close by. They brought over a stretcher for David and pulled his lifeless body from the driver’s seat. They lay him out and covered his body with a white sheet as they rolled him away. Michaela finally let the paramedics come close to her. They pulled her from the wreckage as they had done with David. They spoke to her but she remained silent, her eyes glazed over and spilling with tears. Her bandages were quickly stained with red but she felt no pain anymore, just numbness.
She whispered “stop” as they rolled past her brother. She reached out with her left hand and pulled away the white sheet. He looked like he was sleeping, like he would wake any moment and crack a joke at her, but he would never. Michaela ran her fingers through her brother’s hair. She heard her mother’s voice ring in her ears, “he’s your brother, and you have to protect him”. She closed her eyes.
I couldn’t do it.
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