So I thought I'd do something to try and distract myself from the excitement of the fact I'm finally getting to go to New York this weekend- and what better to do than share a little teaser of what's to come in my new story with you all! I really hope you'll enjoy it, I'll be back with more when I'm back home again. Let me know what you think!xx
Prologue
February 20th, 2009
He was running late, and not just ten minutes late but a little over three hours. It wasn't his fault, and he hadn't done it on purpose- this time at least. He'd been so wrapped up in what he was doing, finalising the remaining few details before he was due to deploy to Afghanistan at the beginning of the next week, that the time had just completely gotten away from him. He somehow doubted that Rebecca would see it that way. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that she'd be in bed surrounded by wedding magazines and lists of things to do, planning what was probably going to be the biggest wedding anyone had ever seen thanks to a little encouragement from his mother, and she'd bombard him with endless questions the second he walked through the door. He kept on telling her that whatever she wanted would make him happy, and trying to gently remind her that he'd got six months in Afghanistan to get himself through before he could even really think about any of this. He hadn't missed the look on her face every time he made reference to the fact he was going to be leaving her again. She'd known what she was getting into with him from day one, he'd always known he wanted to join the army, but for some reason she seemed to enjoy making it harder on him having to leave than it already was.
He pulled the collar of his uniform up around his neck as he walked out to his car, the icy wind sending a shiver down his spine. At least Afghanistan would be warm, there was always an upside he kept telling himself. Then again he wasn't sure he'd actually enjoy the stifling desert heat anymore than he was enjoying the subzero temperatures that February had brought. He was tempted to run to his car to get out of the mixture of hail and snow that was raining down on him, but even in the dim light of the car park he could see the ground was icy and treacherous and he knew he'd probably fall over if he tried to do anything other than walk slowly. The thought of driving home down winding little roads was far from appealing. He briefly wondered what Rebecca would have to say if he just stayed the night. He could imagine vividly how that conversation would go down, and he was fairly certain he wouldn't have a fiancée to go home to when he got back from Afghanistan if he did that.
He climbed into his car, his nice shiny little silver sports car that Rebecca hated him having and kept telling him at every opportunity that he'd have to change ready for when they had kids, and started the engine. He groaned in frustration as he realised that his windscreen was frozen solid and he'd used the last of his de-icer that morning. Reluctantly he turned the heating up and sat there, staring at the ice on the window as it slowly started to melt. It was going to be a slow process. The clock on the screen on the dashboard ticked ever closer to nine o'clock.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and stared at the picture of him and Rebecca on the lock screen for a moment. It had been taken on a holiday to New York, the trip she'd been pestering him to go on for months until he'd finally caved. He needed to learn to relax a bit more, she'd told him. There was life outside the army- that was her new favourite phrase at the moment. She was right, and he'd had an amazing time, but despite the fact she kept trying to push him he wasn't going to be ready to consider leaving the army any time soon. He didn't know how much clearer he could make that to her. There was still so much he wanted to do and achieve, the army felt like his home and he knew she'd never understand that. As he'd tried to explain it to her that it wasn't that he didn't want to be there with her every day, because he did, but the army gave him a sense of purpose and belonging that he'd never quite managed to find at home.
As if she'd known he was thinking about her, his phone rang. He hit the button on his steering wheel to answer the call and the sound of her voice filled the car over the roar of the heater. At least his windscreen was finally beginning to clear and he could think about heading for home.
"Where are you?" She asked, straight to the point as always. The tone of her voice immediately made him picture her standing in the kitchen, hands on her hips as she glared at him for putting something back in the wrong drawer or whatever it was he had done this time. She never managed to stay angry at him for long.
"I was just about to call you." He put the car into gear and focused for a second on navigating his way out of the icy car park without hitting the few cars that were still scattered around. "Sorry, I got held up sorting things out for next week." He had genuinely meant to call her, he hated the thought of her sitting there on her own in an empty house wondering where he was. It was just that as per usual one thing had led to five other things that he needed to sort before he could go and there were never enough hours in the day.
She was quiet for a second and he wondered if they'd lost the connection. "I know." She answered quietly. "Are you on your way home now?" She asked. She'd been sitting by the window of the house they'd bought together almost a year ago now, watching the thick snow flakes as they fell to the ground and worrying about him driving home so late at night.
"Yeah I left ten minutes ago." He lied. Somehow it seemed better in his head if she thought he'd at least left before nine o'clock. He wasn't really sure the logic behind it and she'd probably know he was lying anyway, she always did.
"Okay. Drive carefully, there's lots of snow here." She told him, he could hear the worry in her voice.
"I will. It's pretty icy here too. Might take me a bit longer to get home." It was days like this where he hated this car as much as Rebecca did, even though he loved it at the same time. It was giving him a headache concentrating on trying to keep it facing in the right direction and going forwards as the tyres skidded trying to find some grip on the icy road. If she could see him now she'd be launching into another one of those carefully thought through lectures on why it really wasn't a safe and practical family car.
"Please be careful." She reminded him again. "Do you want me to put you a plate of dinner in the microwave? I made your favourite spaghetti." She asked.
"This is why I love you." He grinned. "I'll see you in half an hour or so?"
"Yeah, I'll wait up for you." She agreed, he could hear the smile that was playing on her lips in her voice. "I love you."
"Love you." He replied automatically, hanging up the phone and turning on the radio. His eyes squinted in the darkness as he focused on the road in front of him. He knew the route like the back of his hand, he'd been driving it twice a day almost every day for months, but in the dark and covered in a fine dusting of snow it looked different, almost eerie somehow. His foot inched down on the accelerator a little more, as much as he dared, if he carried on crawling along at this pace he'd be lucky to make it home before his weekend off was over. His stomach growled at the thought of his dinner sitting on the plate waiting for him and his mind was a million miles away, still thinking about the pile of stuff he'd left on his desk unfinished and thinking about everything he still had to do.
He was ten minutes from the main road, and fifteen minutes from home. His tried and tested short cut down the back roads had probably cost him more time than if he'd gone down the main road in these icy conditions, but it was force of habit. He'd been driving that way for months and knew where he was going well enough that he didn't really need to pay attention. It was handy, considering the fact that his brain really wasn't paying any attention to where he was going.
The deer that shot out of the pitch black woodland to his left frightened the life out of him and snapped him back into paying attention to where he was actually going and reminded him of the fact he needed to concentrate on what he was doing. His heart was hammering in his chest and he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his body as a result of the near miss. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel tight, leaning forward in his seat a little as he focused on the dark and icy narrow road in front of him.
He might've been paying extra attention, but he still didn't see the other deer run out in front of him until the very last second. His instinct to swerve out of the way took over, even though somewhere in the back of his mind it had already registered that the road was too narrow and he hadn't got anywhere to go, he pulled the steering wheel hard. Time seemed to stand still as the animal stood frozen in the glare of the headlights.
He didn't realise he'd closed his eyes until the sound of splintering glass brought him back to reality. He'd forced his eyes open to look and see if he'd hit the deer, but his attention was drawn to the terrifying sensation of spinning as the car flipped off the road, hitting a patch of ice as he'd swerved. He couldn't quite tell what direction he was facing in for the split second that the car was airborne, then it landed back on the ground in the ditch with an almighty crash that deafened him.
He could see the dim light of his phone screen, now smashed in a similar fashion to his windscreen, in the footwell. It took him a moment to process that it was underneath him because the car had landed almost on the roof in the ditch. Then with the searing pain that had shot through his entire body as he tried to move to reach it, conscious of the fact there was a real possibility no one would know where he was down the deserted road, he'd quickly realised moving wasn't going to be an option. He could barely catch his breath and he was aware of the sensation of blood seeping down his forehead from where he guessed it had hit the steering wheel. He 'd been about to make one final attempt to try and grab his phone and call for help when everything around him had started to spin and he'd passed out, slumped against the steering wheel.