The brakes can't stop what's happening.
They're useless.
I know it.
My friends know it.
The people driving on the highway -including the bastard that cut me off- know it. Especially when I run into the bastard that cut me off at full speed.
That's when everything begins to happen too fast. The impact sends my car sideways, half way between the two lanes. A SUV crashes into the rearend of my car, sending us spinning on the slick road.
I'm aware of the sound of car breaks squealing and metal meeting metal.
It's not something I want to be hearing. Not something I want to be in the middle of.
It had to be my imagination, but I see a red sportscar fly over us, flipping as soon as it lands, bumper first.
My car is in the process of spinning when a different car rams into my side, and I turn to see my best friend, Alicia's, head go through the passenger side window with a loud thump.
I hear a loud scream. I can't figure out if it's mine. I don't have time to.
Soon, my car is flipped over. I don't even remember it happening. One moment I'm bouncing and sliding around in my seat and the next I'm not even touching my seat, being braced against my seatbelt.
I think that I hit my head on the top of the roof because there's this terrible pain on the very top.
I feel like my heart has fallen right out of my ass as everything becomes blurry. All I can see is red... I know it's blood.
The breaking of glass fills my ears and I can hear myself swallow.
Where are my arms?
I started to panic even as I reach up to rub my eyes. Even though I was too afraid to see what had happened, I had to know.
I mean, I just kept seeing Alicia's head go through the window.
Now that everything is still, and I can tell that it's over, I don't know how I should feel. Relieved? Should I feel relieved?
I hear someone groan in pain, but I can't bring myself to ask if everyone's okay.
I can see better.
My shoulder starts to hurt from my seatbelt cutting into it. I try to shift and look around.
Alicia's gone.
I can't even call out her name. My mouth won't move.
I hear the guys in the back scream. I'm glad to hear more than one.
That's when I feel the impact.
People say that when you die your life flashes before your eyes but all I could do was find the irony on how I was dying the same day I was born.
I opened my eyes, believing that I was dreaming.
I was in a... place. A weird place.
I couldn't see the floor because fog or smoke or something covered it.
I looked around. It was dark, like night except without the moon or stars.
The place was dead silent. I felt...isolated. Which is weird because I also felt like there was too much space around me and any second now I was going to drown in it all.
"Where are we, Morgan?"
The voice shattered the silence with such a force that I jerked, spinning around. I felt so dizzy all the sudden that I had to close my eyes.
I felt two fingers -at least what felt like two fingers- against my throat. Against my pulse. I put my hand to my throat.
"...gone," I felt someone whisper in my ear.
I opened my eyes and almost screamed at the sight before me.
Alicia -at least I think it was Alicia- stood before me. The only thing that made me half way positive that it was her was her eyes. Her blue eyes.
I brought my hands to my mouth to stop the warm bile that had made it's way up my throat as I took her in from head to toe.
Half of her face was practically gone, covered with blood that also matted her hair down. Her right arm was bent at an awkward angle. Cuts covered the upper half of her body, and her legs...
...God, her legs. They were completely crushed. They didn't even look like legs. It was like something heavy had landed on them. I couldn't see how she was standing.
I couldn't handle it.
"Morgan?" Alicia asked, sounding concerned. "Are you okay?"
I puked, heaving.
I looked up seeing Chris -one of my friends who had been in the backseat- standing next to Alicia, oblivious to the state she was in. He had a few cuts and bruises, his neck looking a little purple, his eyes bloodshot.
"Are you okay?" Alicia asked again, coming closer.
I winced, seeing her legs move. It took everything I had not to puke again.
I swallowed, moving my gaze to Chris.
"Are we... in hell?"I asked, my voice becoming a mere whisper when I said the last part.
They both stared at me blankly, then looked passed me.
I whipped around seeing Tom, another guy that had been in the backseat, standing there. But he kept disappearing and reappearing, like a faulty light bulb.
"Tom..." I began , but he disappeared and didn't come back.
"You're not supposed to be here," a voice said.
I turned around, facing Chris, for it had sounded like a guy's voice, but they were both looking around confused.
"You're not supposed to be here," the voice said so fiercely that I could practically feel its anger rising.I turned around since the voice had sounded so close, but I was shoved forward.
The thing was, I kept falling. I didn't know which was worse: feeling like I was was never going to land or knowing that sooner or later I would.
All I could see was darkness.
I began to scream. I was terrified.
I opened my eyes, which I didn't even remember closing, and I was back in my upside down car.
A guy was in the process of taking me out. He jumped back startled, letting out a scream himself.
I looked around frantically, my breathing uneven. Almost like I had forgotten how air was supposed to come in and out.
"I thought you said she was dead," the guy said in a shaky voice to one of the paramedics that had rushed over at the sound of my screams.
They both looked at me with this strange, unreadable look and said, "She was."
