Suddenly Blinded

Suddenly Blinded - Prologue

“Moves Like Jagger” was playing on the stereo and a group of drunk teenagers were in the corner strip-dancing. In another corner of the room there was a drinking game set-up where even though it was well past midnight, people were still actively taking part. I hadn’t been a heavy drinker, and stuck to my own two glass limit, and even then my last drink had been at ten. My friends looked at me weirdly, considering I was part of the popular group, they all expected me to drink like them. A couple of my friends were already blind and still guzzling down the booze. It was now New Year’s Eve; a couple of guys at my school had decided to throw the party a day early in hope more people would turn up; a couple of hundred had. It wasn’t a bad party at all, but I really just wanted to go home to bed.

“Hey, Cassie, want a ride home?” One of my guy friends, Samuel (Sam), asked, startling me back into my surroundings. I had been off in the land of the fairies…again.

“That would be great Sam!” I shouted over the music and gave him a hug. I quickly withdrew though, as I remembered Sam had always had a crush on me and in a party atmosphere who knows what he would do. “You sober though?”

“Sure am, Cass. Wouldn’t dream of drink-driving, you know my mother would have a fit!” He laughed light-heartedly before grabbing my arm and dragging me through the crowds. I was surprised the cops hadn’t arrived yet; with all the noise that was going on, the neighbours should have made complaints by now; I know for a fact mine would have.

He didn’t lose his grip on my arm until we got to his red Chevrolet pick-up. And even then he was always touching me as he helped me into the back seat. For some reason he even helped me do up my seatbelt. His eyes lingered on my lips and I knew he was going to kiss me before he did. It was only a brief kiss too, some could even say it was a kiss of friendship. I knew better. I carefully shrugged away, muttering inaudibly some random excuse.

“I have wanted to do that for so long.” He whispered in my ear before slamming the door shut and getting in the front seat. We drove around to the front of the house, where a group of his football mates were waiting; obviously we would be taking them home too.

“Who’s sitting next to Cass?” One of the guys asked his voice full of drunkenness.

“The most sober, please.” Sam requested pointing to a guy with short black hair. He seemed to be standing upright and his head wasn’t rolling around on his body; he still seemed to have his mind. The guy hopped in, not even introducing himself to me, and buckled up his seatbelt. When everyone was in the Ute we took off. I realized it was going to be the most uncomfortable journeys of my life as I was sitting on only half of my seat the two others were so large. Sam cranked the music up a bit as we drove but no one seemed to care; the air of the party was gone.

We dropped off the two guys in the back first because they were staying at the same place. Not even Sam said a word as he pulled up to the front of the suburban house and the guys jumped out. They didn’t even mutter a word of thanks and we certainly didn’t wait for them to go inside.

“You don’t really like those guys,” I guessed as I spread out on the back seat, avoiding the sweat stains the boys had left behind.

“No, but my mum is friends with Tray’s mother and I would be killed if something bad happened to him. He’s also on the football team which means, due to school code, I have to look after him.”

The guy beside Sam started snoring, and we began to laugh hysterically. Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” started playing and I began to dance in the back. Sam joined it, his movements small at first but as the beat rose, he got more into it. I didn’t even have time to register that we were now on the highway and that Sam was swerving all over the place. The only time I registered this was when I saw too blinding flashlights coming for us; a trucks. There was a honk of a horn and then everything went into slow motion

I saw Sam’s head bang against the steering wheel and I know I screamed. But his head came back up and I knew he was still alive because he caught my eye in the side mirror. He smiled and mouthed the words ‘I love You’ as if something bad was going to happen. I refused to believe something bad was going to happen.

I turned to see Sam’s other friend had not done so well in the impact, his face had hit the dashboard and several of his teeth had fallen out. He also had a severe head wound, but I could still hear him breathing, even if they were only small breaths. I turned back to Sam and noticed his head was now turned towards me, looking directly at me, staring straight into my eyes.

“I Love You!” Sam yelled, his eyes blazing red. He grabbed my hand for comfort. Then the windscreen shattered as the front of the truck was completely bent. Shards of glass flew everywhere, one landing in Sam’s neck, slicing it pretty deep. He looked directly at me as he gasped, grasped his next and breathed his last breath.

I briefly noticed that the airbags had not come out as just as I turned to check if there even was an airbag behind me the side windows smashed and glass was thrown into both my eyes, and let me tell you it hurt. The radio bleated its last beat as Lady Gaga screamed “I was born this way”, I saw blood drip from my forehead and from my own eyes, I turned my head back towards Sam and then everything went black.

The last thing I had seen was Sam’s head through all the hazy red of my own blood.