Chasing Shadows

Part One ~ Chapter Eleven

“It is such a shocking sight, living in fear for the very thing that comes to reality.”

-Ethan

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Johnny’s mom dropped us at home later that night. I was supposed to stay at Johnny’s until the next morning, because my parents didn’t want me overnight at the hospital. Which was understandable, but the anxiety of not knowing what was going on was eating me away inside. I closed the door to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. My shoulders shook as I attempted to take a deep breath. And the moment replayed in my head.

            I was asleep in the very back seat of the van, comfortable in the lull of the moving car as the heat came over me from the vent. Suddenly, I got the sensation that I was falling. Falling, falling, falling. And I was instantly woken up with a jolt by a scream from the passenger seat. I shot out of my seat, gripping onto the seat handle and looking around. Next to me, Johnny had looked like he’d just woken up too. We both looked at each other in confusion.

            And then I made the mistake of turning around.

            The site made me want to scream. But I couldn’t find it in my throat to make a sound, which ended up coming out like a strangled gasp. My vision was blurred, and I the shock felt like it was closing in and suffocating me until I was no more. I wish I hadn’t seen it. I just desperately want to go back to that moment and make myself turn back around. Close my eyes and bring my knees to my stomach, just breathing deeply. Erase the memories from my mind.

            Getting hurt myself, being kidnapped, it changed things about me. The pain soon becomes bearable, after weeks and weeks of trying to push it away. But the fear never leaves. There’s a constant fear, one that eats away at my skin moment by moment. However, none of that prepares one for seeing a person they love get hurt. It is such a shocking sight, living in fear for the very thing that comes to reality.

            Johnny clenched my shoulder, squeezing it tighter. We were both turned around on our knees in the back of the van, glancing out the glass in the back. There was my dad’s car, turned over on its side. It was being crushed up against the side of a bridge by a different car, I couldn’t see what kind. But I was almost ninety-nine percent sure I knew whose car it was. There was shattered glass all over the road, and our car had slowed to a stop. I was so mesmerized by the scene that I jumped when the other car started up and sped away. Just like that, the moment that I had blinked, and the car was gone.

            I lowered back in my seat, feeling tears overwhelm me, as the sounds blurred around me. I could vaguely here shouting, screaming, but there was a feeling of numbness that drowned it all out. Johnny convinced me to get out, although I wasn’t ready to walk over. I didn’t want to go to my dad’s car. I didn’t want to see what I feared. I didn’t want Mr. Grey to have succeeded on his mission. I didn’t want that day to come.

            Slowly getting out of the car, I went over to where everybody else was across the highway. There were no other cars passing. My walk turned into a run, I couldn’t handle the fact of not knowing.

Only Julia was conscious. Amy and Matt were covered in shattered glass, and my mom was in the process of trying to pull them both out. Johnny’s mom was on the phone, yelling frantically.

            I went over to help, my heart catching in my breath, trying to pull Matt out. “Please be alive,” I whispered to myself, whispering those words softly to myself over and over as if it would help. I tried to feel his pulse, but my hands were shaking too much to keep my fingers steady. I could see my breath in the cold air, and the tears running down my cheek were starting to freeze.