It was a wet, rainy night – lightning flashed across the sky and thunder rolled as Brendi drove her boyfriend home from dinner. Aaron was sitting in the passenger seat next to her and they sang at the top of their lungs as they rounded the corner to his home. Another streak of lightning lit up the cloudy sky as I pulled up to his driveway. She put the car in park and stopped the windshield wipers, just as the song on the radio ended. Turning in her seat she gazed into Aaron's eyes and found, as usual, that she was being pulled even deeper into them. His black hair accented his almond shaped eyes and if he hadn't been so wet from running around in the rain, she would have reached her arms around him and held him close.
"Make sure you call me when you get back," Aaron said as he prepared himself to step out into the torrential rain. Brendi reached for the radio dial and turned the volume down so that she could hear him talk. "I want to know that you got home safe."
"Will do," Brendi replied, kissing him gently on the cheek. He was warm and still smelled of his shampoo, even though they had been playing in the rain most of the day. Smiling, she inhaled the welcome scent and ran her fingers through his hair.
"Here I go," he said, turning to her and winking. He gave her one last kiss before he reached for the handle and swung the car door wide open. The rain came pouring down on him as he slammed the door shut and raced toward the safety of his empty, open garage. Waving goodbye, Aaron blew her a kiss, and then Brendi watched him go inside, sighing happily to herself. He said he was the lucky one.
Putting the car back into drive, Brendi turned her windshield wipers back on – not like they did any good. The rain was pouring so hard now that Brendi seriously considered parking the car and seeking refuge in Aaron's house to wait out the storm.
Shaking her head, she instead looked up and fixed her rear-view mirror, looking at herself and cursing her inherent feelings of independence. Her blue eyes shone back at her as she noticed that her long brown hair – now tied in a ponytail – was curling and matted in areas. Her love of the rain was going to kill her one of these days. Clawing at her now messy hair, Brendi finally gave up and simply re-did the ponytail. She would wait until she got home to fix it.
Pulling out from the front of the driveway, Brendi turned the corner out of Aaron's neighborhood, watching as lightning frequently flashed across the sky. Looking up ahead through the rain, Brendi could see that she was the only person stupid enough to brave this kind of weather. The streets were empty except for the few parked cars and the grasses on the side of the road were beginning to be beaten down by the heavy water droplets falling from the sky.
Suddenly a lightning burst struck a tree in the median just as Brendi passed it. The resulting fire was quickly put out by the rain, but Brendi's quickly beating heart was not relieved. Turning onto one of the side roads, she realized that she was completely and totally alone. No grasses bordered the roadway, no trees decorated the median, no cars were passing her with windshield wipers beating a steady rhythm.
Brendi wiped her forehead off with her sleeve. It made sense to be as scared as she was – her car was the tallest structure in what was closely becoming a quarter mile. If lightning struck anywhere nearby…
Then, a blinding flash of light lit up the windshield. Brendi tore her hands off of the steering wheel and used her forearms to cover her eyes, after noticing that the dials on the front of the car were going haywire. She could hear the radio screeching out different frequencies – first understandable music and then a wailing of notes that seemed faintly familiar. Screaming to no one, Brendi realized that she was not in pain – the car was grounded, but she still could not open her eyes without being blinded by the continuous white light.
The lightning should have stopped by now.
With this thought came a second blast of light on top of the first, and then…
Nothing.