Alfred bounced impatiently in the backseat of his parent's car, trying to crane his neck far enough into the front to see what was going on ahead of them.
"Alfred," his mother admonished. "Please sit down properly."
"But mom," he whined. "I only have four more minutes left! What if this person stops me from meeting my soulmate?"
His mother sighed. "I've told you before that you're going to meet them no matter what. Things like being held up in traffic are all accounted for in the countdown."
Alfred huffed, but settled back into his seat. He glanced at his watch again out of excitement and habit: three minutes, thirty-seven seconds. While he should have felt lucky that he was meeting his soulmate at the young age of seventeen, it still felt like he had waited for a millennium and now that it was so close, he felt like he was going to go crazy having to wait just a little longer. His entire life's dream was to find his soulmate and then make them the happiest person on earth.
"I think they're stalled," his father commented, referring to the car in front of theirs. Alfred pressed the button to make his window go down and stuck his head out to get a better view. Sure enough, sitting on the train tracks twenty feet ahead was a small car blasting some sort of punk music. Alfred could just make out a figure sitting on the driver's side. They appeared to be fiddling around with the controls, presumably trying to get their car to move forward so the rapidly growing line behind them didn't turn into an angry mob.
"Well they need to hurry up and get out of the way so I can go lay eyes on my soulmate. I'm sick of having this thing on my wrist," Alfred said. He pouted when his parents ignored him.
"Maybe we should get out and offer to help?" his mother suggested. "It looks like they could use a jump."
"Let's give it a little longer," his father said. "If they haven't moved in another minute then they're definitely stalled and I'll get out."
"Oh come on!" Alfred protested, holding up the wrist that his timer was wrapped securely around. "I have places to be!"
"Alfred."
Alfred stopped complaining upon hearing his mother give him the tone. Instead, he allowed a soft smile to form on his face as he tried to imagine what his soulmate would look like. There were so many possibilities, but Alfred's main daydream always revolved around green eyes. He had such a weakness for green eyes. He hoped that his soulmate was okay with affection because he didn't think he would be able to stop himself from hugging them in three minutes when they saw each other for the first time. He had never been more excited in his life.
"What's wrong?" Alfred heard his mother ask, her words directed towards his father. Glancing up, he noticed that his father had a slightly worried expression.
"They just really picked one hell of a spot to stall," he said.
"Is any spot a good spot when it comes to your car stalling?" Alfred asked.
"There sure are better places, at least."
"Isn't this track still active?" his mother mused.
"On occasion," his father answered.
Alfred looked down at his watch again. Two minutes, three seconds. Becoming agitated that it was taking so long, Alfred squirmed around in his seat until he was looking out the rear window and tried to scan the faces in the cars behind them. The person ahead of them would need help in order to move again and that would take a while, so it seemed that the one Alfred was destined to spend his life with was probably in the line of cars. The idea of his soulmate being so close sent tremors of excitement up his spine.
"Do we have jumper cables in the trunk?" Alfred heard his mother ask. He wasn't paying close attention; he had spotted a sleek sports car in the line behind them and the windows were tinted enough for him to be unable to see who was in it. How cool would it be for his soulmate to drive a car like that?
"We should," his father said.
"Hey mom?" Alfred said, a hint of nerves in his voice. "I only have like a minute and a half left. Should I get out or something?" His parents exchanged knowing looks with each other.
"Honey, you know how to jump start a car, don't you?" his mom said. Alfred's eyes lit up in understanding and he nodded.
"Yeah!" Leaning his head out the window again to look at the car in front of them, he grinned. "Do you think that's my soulmate?"
His father smiled deeply at him. "Why don't you go offer them some help and find out?"
No more needed to be said to convince Alfred and he promptly opened his door and hopped onto the road. He couldn't help but stare curiously at the stalled car as he moved around to the trunk. Punk music was still blasting away and it looked as if the driver's actions had become increasingly frantic. Alfred thought to himself that it was kind of cute and merrily popped the trunk of their car open and scanned for the cables.
"Mom?" Alfred called. "Where are they?"
"Should be under the plastic bag," his father called back. Alfred paused to glance at the car on the tracks. He felt almost certain now that his soulmate was in there and he could make a cool first impression by helping them. How perfectly things had turned out. Now with thirty seconds left on his clock, Alfred reached into the trunk and shifted the bag, finding the cables nestled beneath it.
The sound of powerful machinery froze his movements just as he was about to pull the jumper cables out. Immediately, he jerked his head up and stared with wide eyes at the train tracks. He couldn't see anything…but trees pretty much obscured every bit of the tracks except for where they had been cleared away for the crossing with the road.
"M-mom? Dad?" Alfred said, panic leaking into his voice. He dropped his grip on the cables and walked shakily to the driver's side of their car. "Do you hear that?"
His parents broke off their conversation and stilled, listening. There was no denying it now; that sound couldn't belong to anything other than a train and it was clearly approaching rapidly.
"Oh my god!" Alfred yelled, feeling his knees go weak in terror. He heard his father swear and get out of the car, his mother following suit.
"Hey!" Alfred's father waved his arms around, trying to catch the attention of the person on the tracks. Alfred realized with a growing urge to vomit that the punk music was probably loud enough to drown out the sounds of the train. How had the situation changed so drastically in such a short time? A fleeting thought told him that it might not be his soulmate up there and that it could still be someone in the cars behind them, but there wasn't time to hope for things like that when someone's life was suddenly at stake.
Alfred began to run forward, ignoring the shouts of his parents. Distantly, he heard people getting out of their cars to get a view of what was about to happen, but he ignored them too. All that mattered was running as fast as he could towards the train tracks and saving the man who had stalled in the wrong place; for now that he had closed some of the distance between them, he could see that it was definitely a blond (Blond! His soulmate was blond!) man who had seemingly finally noticed the iron horse coming towards him.
"Get out of the car!" Alfred screamed. He could feel the vibrations from the train through the ground. The man had reached for the door handle and was beginning to push it open. Alfred could see pale, elegant skin and he realized with a cry of anguish that he couldn't run fast enough to be of any help. The front of the train was already in view which meant—
His soulmate seemed to realize that it was pointless—the train was already too close—and looked over at him with sad, green eyes (dear god was he beautiful) and Alfred felt his watch fall off onto the hot asphalt. He swore he saw the man mouth 'I'm sorry' and then the train was barreling into him. Alfred heard screaming from a dozen people, himself included, as the train tore through his soulmate. The car, still playing the music, was carried out of sight down the tracks in a collision of metal and shattering glass.
AN: I don't publish anything in forever and I don't follow through on my updating promises and then I come back with this. I'm sorry guys, I'm such a train wreck! *gets shot*