Baseline [n.h]

01

My heart is pounding with such ferocity that I'm afraid it's going to burst.

The unharmonious beating sound attacks my eardrums,muffling the noise of the chaos that ensues around me.

A roaring engine.

Screeching tires.

Ear piercing alarms.

No matter how hard I slam my foot onto the brake, the car continues accelerating forwards.

"Holy shit!"I scream, my head snapping to the dashboard to catch a glimpse of the speedometer.

Eighty nine miles per hour.

The number reads like a death warrant, immediately sealing my fate.For I knew that travelling at such a dangerous speed often lead to a fatal outcome, but it was one that I was not yet ready to face.Salty droplets of sweat leaked from my palms onto the smooth leather steering wheel, as my grip tightens around it in an effort to regain some control.
Using all the strength I can muster,I forcefully try to yank the wheel to the the left.My knuckles turning a pale shade of white as I do so.

But it doesn't budge.

The steering wheel stays locked in its place, displaying no signs of movement. My breath hitches at the back of my throat, trapped their by the pang of fear that was growing inside me.
I wasn't ready to die, not like this.Where the only thing I could smell was burning rubber and fuel; and the only thing I could see was a towering brick wall drawing closer and closer by the second.

In desperation I begin clawing at the metal handle, violently tugging in the hope that the car door will fly open and I'll be able to leap to my freedom.

"Come on, please!"

My heart shatters once more when I realise that the door is sealed firmly shut, trapping me inside the racing vehicle.Not willing to give in, my elbow connects with the window in an attempt to smash through the glass.Hammering my fists against the transparent surface,I let a blood curdling scream climb out of my mouth.

"Ahh!"

The car continues propelling forward, with the sight of the brick wall only a mere twenty feet away.Adrenaline pumps through my body like blood as I repeatedly punch the car window.

Then it shifts, like everything is happening in slow motion.

The front of the car crumbles against the impact of the solid obstacle, pieces of metal pierce through the air and land on the windscreen.
An agonising sensation paralyses my body, the heat of flames prickling at my skin.

I jolt upwards,panting heavily with my palms clinging to the black duvet for support.The air in my bedroom felt thick, suffocating me with its warm density.I was perspiring heavily, beads of sweat stringing down my forehead and cheeks.Glancing over my shoulder,I check to see if I had left a stain on my pillow like usual.Not surprisingly,there was a large sweat patch surrounding the spot where my head had been.

"Fuck"I murmur to myself in the darkness,filled with frustration that I had let another nights sleep be disturbed by a ridiculous dream.

Over the past few years I had grown accustomed to this exhausting process.Waking up to find myself tangled in bedsheets and my lungs feeling as though they were full of water.So much so that I had developed a system to try and help me clear my head afterwards.Most of the time this entailed going for a walk around the city during the early hours of the morning, convincing myself that the fresh air was doing me good.