Dances With The Daffodils

KIAH

'Arrivederci!' she calls as I step into the parking lot.

The cold bites into my cheeks and I pull my hood up to keep warm as I search for Leah in the dark. But as I do, a gust of air pulls at my coat and I stumble. Footsteps pound the sidewalk. 

Something runs behind me. A shadow. A flick of wind.

I catch myself on the wall and stop, breathing fast. I check and check but there's nothing there. The bright lights of the club glare down at me. It was the wind. Must have been.

Had to be.

But when my eyes flick over to the edge of the building, in the gap between the bushes and the brick wall, I see the flutter of a long, brown coat. The figure, whoever it was, disappears into the dark.

A car horn sounds behind me.

'Hey!' shouts Leah. 'You coming or what?'

I turn to watch her mum's old Hyundai gently lolling across the tarmac. Smiling, I put the brown-clad figure out of my mind and walk over. He was probably just some creep.

'Sorry.' I reach the window. 'You know what Kaylee's like.'

I open the car door and slide inside. Despite its age, the car is in pretty good shape. The slippery seats still shine and all the lights on the dash are lit up and working.

'Shift that bad?' she asks, pulling out of the lot.

I tell her it wasn't.

Leah blinks and I see her jaw tighten as she suppresses a yawn. A weed of guilt grows in my stomach.

'You don't have to pick me up, you know.'

Not taking her eyes off the road for a second, she grumbles and whacks me on the arm. 'What sort of friend would I be if I didn't?'

'A normal one,' I tease.

She chuckles. 'Yeah, right. Just because I'm not as dull as your other friends.'

'Hey.' I laugh.

Leah and I don't see much of each other at school. We move in different circles: her with the skater crowd, me in the library hoping that sitting with the smart kids will rub off on my grades.

We pull onto the main road and I push myself down in the seat. I flick open the sun visor, letting the lights of the car behind us catch in the mirror. A huge Volvo, unnervingly close.

'Well,' Leah says, changing the subject, 'maybe think about a different job. I know there's not much, but there's gotta be something better than working in that grimy place.'

'Hmm.'

I don't see what else I can do. At least at the club, I've got the security guards watching my back. And I doubt Héctor would let anything happen.

'What about the cinema?' she suggests.

'Ugh, way too creepy. At least there's plenty of people coming in and out of the club. That place is deserted.'

Leah grins, checking her mirrors. 'Well, on your head be it.'

We both chuckle as something dark moves out across the road.

Two ravens, shrouded in the night, fly in front of us. They twist together under the light of the street lamps.

'Can you see that?' Leah asks, leaning forward.

'Yeah.'

We both stare up at the birds and I feel the car career gently to the left. And before we realise what's happening, we're on the wrong side of the road.

I'm about to warn her to pull straight when I look down from the birds and see the headlights. A truck. Huge and fast and steaming towards us. There's no time to stop.

Everything happens in slow motion. 

Leah screeches and jams the wheel in the opposite direction. We lurch to the side and the seat belt cracks against my shoulder like a whip.

For a second, I think everything is going to be alright. The front of the car jerks back to the right side of the road, but the back of it lingers. It takes too long to pull straight.

The truck barrels past us and clips the side of the car. The sound is blinding, ripping through my head like a gunshot. Then, as if we've been drawn into a cannon and fired, the car flips.

And for a moment, we're flying. Upside down and floating like an astronaut you see on TV. My stomach flips and my heart thuds. I reach out, grabbing for Leah. She does the same. Her fingers brush against mine as we scream.

Before we come down into a pile of blood and metal, my hand meets her wrist and I run my fingers over her dark beaded bracelet. It's cold.

We hit the ground.

Or, at least, I think we do. I don't know how long it's been when I wake up. My eyes take a moment to open, they're sticky, almost sealed shut.

The car radio blares and sputters and the faint smell of gasoline makes my nose burn. Moonlight pierces through the broken glass. I'm in my seat, at least, with something warm and sticky running down my temple. My shoulder aches against the seat belt and I realise we're upside-down. The metal shield of the car has crumbled around us, covering everything in a sheet of glass and smashed steel.

With horror, I feel my fingers still entwined in Leah's. I call out to her, I think. I can't tell. Is she alive? My thoughts dissolve into a sticky haze.

I wake again. Some time has passed. But now I'm bombarded by lights and sirens. Help.

Shouting. A woman is screaming by the side of the road. Maybe she was the other driver. I wonder how bad we look.

After a while, I'm lifted from the car. I'm floating as they place me on the stretcher and lights and voices dance around me. Leah's hand is gone now. I didn't notice it slip away and I can't even move to look for her. My body doesn't feel like it works.

A man leans in close, his beard tickling my ear. He asks me if I'm alright, I think.

What a stupid question.

I try to make a noise, anything, in response, to let him know I'm alive. I don't know if he heard. All I can think about now is Leah.

Her hand is gone.