Caedes

5 | intelligent eyes

Thursday, 12:47 P.M.

The distinctly familiar smell of rust filled my nostrils and I slowly opened my eyes.

Brilliant sunlight blinded me once again as the world slowly stopped spinning around me. Every part of my body, except for my head, was numb. While the ringing in my ears slowly subsided, the rhythmic pounding behind my forehead only got worse. It felt like someone had taken a jackhammer for a spin right on top of my skull in a brutal attempt to access the contents of my brain.

What the hell had even happened?

Once my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I tried to make sense of the sight in front of me. Sprawled diagonally across the truck bed with my left arm draped across the side of the pickup and my right leg lying in between the scattered gardening tools, I felt like one of those crash test dummies. Oddly enough, the spare tire had somehow ended up underneath my left thigh, cushioning it. Despite the general inconvenience of the situation, I considered myself lucky. At least until I looked to my right.

Crimson liquid had trickled down the window and collected in a small puddle beside me, slowly soaking my dusty white shirt. I scrunched my nose. That definitely explained the smell. Judging by the throbbing pain emanating from the back of my head, it was probably mine.

With a groan, I tried to straighten up to inspect the damage. I'd almost pushed myself into a sitting position when a sudden wave of nausea washed over me.

Please no head trauma, please. It's in bad shape already.

It was probably too late for that, but maybe I got lucky. Maybe it was only superficial.

On a positive note, the feeling was slowly returning to the rest of my body. Using the spare tire for support, I pushed myself against the back of the truck cab in one swift motion. I was just going to ignore the dizziness as best as I could for the moment.

Just don't pass out.

Again.

My fingertips were instantly coated in warm blood as I tentatively pressed them to the back of my head. That pretty much confirmed it. What felt like a large gash was likely responsible for the growing pool of sticky carmine substance next to me.

Bingo.

Not wasting any time, I pulled the not-so-white t-shirt over my head and rolled it into a tight ball to press it to the back of my skull. By looks of it, I had already lost quite a bit of blood. No need to lose any more. Briefly wincing at the unpleasant sensation, I closed my eyes and tried to remember what exactly had happened before the crash.

The bright flash of a small object. Annabelle screaming. Jim's hands nowhere near the steering wheel and blood everywhere. A reddish-brown rock formation coming closer at an alarming speed. The impact must have knocked me out.

But that meant...

My head snapped around and another wave of dizziness washed over me, but I barely noticed it when my eyes landed on the two slumped bodies in the cab. No airbags had gone off and Jim's head was pressed into the steering wheel. His arms hung limply at his sides with one hand still curled around the small silver switchblade. When my eyes landed on the dark red tip of the bloody blade, I exhaled slowly through my nose and turned to the passenger seat, expecting the worst.

Annabelle was in a similar position. She'd fallen against the dashboard, facing her unmoving husband. One of her forearms rested right above her head, obscuring my view of her face, while the other was bent at an odd angle off to the side. The gash on her thigh looked like it had stopped bleeding, but not before completely staining the fabric of her jeans and most of the seat beneath her.