Chapter 5: Road Kill

Slowly he began to wake up. He could barely open his eyes, and his head was throbbing in pain. It was like someone bashed his head with a sledgehammer. When he opened his eyes everything looked blurry to him. He could not make out what anything was.

He could hear a faint voice calling out to him.

"Justin," he heard. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere far away.

Then he heard it again, "Justin."

This time it was getting louder, and everything around became less blurry. It started to form something solid and clear. He could see now that he was in his room, but he was lying on the floor.

He jolted upwards, and saw that he was in the middle of room. He rushed to the window, and opened the curtains. A bright ray of sunlight shined on him, and he saw that the storm had completely disappeared. He was slightly relieved of that.

He looked down, and noticed that his hands were covered in black smudge. He tried to wipe it off, but it only smeared on his hands some more.

"What the hell?" he said as he stared confused at his hands.

He turned around, and saw that on the floor there were pencils on the floor he was lying on. Just as he stepped forward he turned his attention to his desk where he saw a small pile of paper. Then a tiny wind brushed against the pile of papers, but they remained piled. He looked at them with a puzzled look.

"Where did those come from?" he thought. He knew that there wasn't a pile of papers last night. He was always very observant and had a very good memory.

He walked towards his desk to investigate those papers more closely. When he was close enough he reached out his hand to the papers. Just when he was about to grab them he heard his mother shout, "Justin!" from downstairs.

"What?"

"You have a visitor, and it would be very much appreciated if you actually got out of bed before noon."

"Okay mom."

He decided to leave the mysterious papers for later. He ran out of his door and downstairs where he was greeted by a familiar smiling face. Sadie was downstairs eagerly waiting for Justin to come. She was standing with Justin's mom who was also waiting for his arrival. They both looked at him and smiled.

"Well," said his mom, "look who decided to wake up before twelve."

"It's not that hard to wake up."

"Well it is when it comes to you," said Sadie. "I remember when you were ten, and nothing could wake you up. You would still be sleeping even when we were at school."

Sadie and his mom laughed while Justin merely smiled at the joke.

Then his mom turned to Sadie.

"Well since you're here do want to join us for breakfast, or in this case brunch."

She raised one eyebrow at Justin. Sadie laughed.

"Sure, I would love to."

"Great! Then I'll just get everything set up, and it'll be ready in ten minutes."

Mrs. Marsh walked off into the kitchen to cook brunch, leaving Sadie standing in the hallway and Justin on the stairs. They both looked at each other for a second. Sadie smiled for a second, but then disappeared while she looked down.

"I'm sorry I haven't come over much. I just needed some time to get over what happened. I hope you're not mad at me."

Justin came down the stairs, and put one hand on her shoulders.

"You're here now."

He smiled at her, and she smiled back at him.

"Come on," he said, "let's go help my mom before she ends up burning everything, unless you're into charred bacon and crispy eggs."

Sadie laughed as they both headed into the kitchen to help out Mrs. Marsh making brunch.

Meanwhile….

Down in the heart of San Francisco in an average looking white house that resided in a calm neighborhood, two little girls came down running down the stairs.

"Daddy, daddy!" yelled the girls simultaneously.

They ran all throughout the house and into the kitchen where they were greeted by their father, Joe. He smiled as he picked up both his girls each in one of his big arms.

"Hey babies what are you two up to?"

The five-year old daughter, Peyton, in his right arm said, "You said you would play with us today. Remember?"

"Yeah, you pwomised," said the three-year old, June, in his left arm.

"Girls," said Joe's wife, Jen, "stop pestering your dad."

"They're fine Jen."

She smiled as she came up to him and kissed him.

"I know I just don't want you to throw your back out like last time."

Joe laughed.

"Well thanks. I really needed something to make me feel older."

"Come on daddy," said Peyton, "let's play now."

"Yeah," said June, "let's pway now."

Joe put both girls down.

"I'm sorry girls I can't."

"Awww but why?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Yeah Joe," said Jen, "what do you have planned today?"

"I told you Jen I got to go work the security detail at the airport."

"I still can't believe you got fired from your last job. You were so dedicated to your job."

"I know, I know. But I promise I'll be back before the girls go to bed. Did you hear that girls? Daddy's gonna put you bed and read you a bedtime story."

The both looked at him with puppy dog eyes and at the same time said, "You promise?"

He leaned down and kissed both their foreheads.

"I promise."

He went to Jen and kissed her as well.

"Bye honey."

"Bye."

Joe went to his car, and drove off into the city. However, he wasn't driving to the airport. Instead he drove for half an hour until he parked in front of a small blue house. The door opened and out came a familiar face, Debbie. She walked towards the car, and smiled when she spotted Joe in the driver's seat.

She got in the car, and when she was all buckled up she leaned in towards him and they kissed. They both locked lips with each other, kissing passionately in the car.

"Good morning to you too," she said after they were done kissing.

"So where too?"

"The Browning Hotel; I booked us a suite to us for the rest of the day."

"Perfect."

They kissed each other once more, and then Joe began driving. Debbie pulled out a cigarette, lighted it, and started smoking.

"Remind me again why we couldn't just do it at your place?"

"Because I'm currently taking care of my sick grandmother, and I think it would be gross to do it with her in the same house."

"So who's taking care of her now?"

"My roommate, Jill."

"Okay."

They were both silent for a moment, until Debbie broke the silence.

"How long do you think before your wife finds out?"

Joe's face turned serious.

"I'd rather not think about it."

"Well I'm just saying if you feel like it's not working out you can always file for divorce."

"I said I don't want to think about! God!"

"Okay, sorry."

Joe continued driving into the heart of San Francisco, and soon they came up to a right turn at an intersection. Debbie turned down her window and flicked her cigarette outside. Joe took the right turn, and continued up a very long and steep hill with houses and other buildings on both sides of the road.

As they were going up a hill Debbie looked at Joe with a concerned look.

"You know I care about you, right?"

"Yeah, yeah I know" said Joe in an uninterested tone.

"I just think that after two months of going out you'd realize that you're much happier with me than you are with your wife. There's no shame in that."

Joe remained silent.

"Eventually she's gonna find out, and she'll kick you out faster than you can blink. So when that does happen I want to think about your other opti-"

"Just drop it already!"

Debbie sat back in her seat, angry at Joe for yelling at her. They made it at the top of the hill where there was a stoplight. The light was red so he stopped.

"Look," he said, "I'm sorry for yelling. Can we just please start over and enjoy today?"

Debbie stayed silent. The light turned green, and Joe began driving forward.

She mumbled, "Arrogant prick."

Suddenly a speeding car rams into Debbie's side of the car. The passenger side window shatters and one big shard slices Debbie's neck. The car turns until the left side is facing the steep hill. Joe, who was unharmed, wipes away the glass bits on him and sees Debbie. A huge cut on her neck pours out blood like a hose. Debbie trying to cover it up, but the blood continues to spray everywhere.

"Debbie!" said Joe in shock.

Out the blue Joe sees another car driving towards them on Debbie's side. The driver tries to stop, but it is too late. He rams against Joe's car, only this time it sends his van tumbling down the hill. Joe's van just completely spins out of control as it continues to go downhill. Drivers manage to avoid the van as it comes down towards them. To Joe it felt like forever as the car spun all the way down.

The came near the bottom of the hill where the intersection was. A small red SUV drives forward, but fails to notice the tumbling car coming straight at him. Right as the SUV makes it to the center of the intersection, Joe's van slams into the SUV's left side. This made Joe's car come to a halt, leaving Joe's side facing the ground and Debbie's side facing upwards.

Gas started pouring out of the van, and was traveling forward as something was drawing the gas near it. It looked more like a stream instead of a puddle.

Meanwhile inside the broken van, Joe was lying on his left side. He had multiple cuts on his body, he was bleeding severely, and his legs were pinned. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He saw his car completely devastated.

Then he felt something fall on his cheek. It was wet, and warm. When he turned his head right, he felt his neck ache with pain. When he looked up he was horrified to see Debbie's mangled body hanging by her seat belt. The huge cut on her neck was still dripping out blood, and bits of glass were embedded in her face.

Joe stared at Debbie's corpse in shock until something else caught his eye. Through the broken wind shield he noticed a stream of liquid slowly moving towards the sidewalk. He looked beyond it, and saw a cigarette lying on the ground. He then remembered that Debbie threw her cigarette out before he made the turn.

Just as he realized this a strong wind came, and blew the still burning cigarette towards the stream of gas. When it finally touched it the gas lit ablaze and the stream of gas became a stream of fire. When Joe saw this he immediately freaked out, and tried get out. He wriggled around as fast as he could but his seatbelt restrained him. He smelled the fire coming closer, and by now he shook like crazy to get the seatbelt off. He tried with all his might, but the fire got to the car. Joe realized this and screamed in agony as the car exploded in a huge fiery blast, killing him instantly.

Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, Justin was quietly eating breakfast with his mom and Sadie when suddenly he started screaming in pain. He fell from his chair to the floor and continued to scream and convulse uncontrollably as if he was in excruciating pain.

"Oh my God, Justin!" his mom said.

She and Sadie ran, and kneeled beside Justin who was still screaming and shaking.

"Justin!" shouted Sadie. "Justin, what's the matter? Justin!"

Then Justin just stopped screaming and moving. He looked up and everything around him was going dark. His mother and Sadie tried to talk to him, but their voices grew faint. Eventually Justin just fainted, and everything became pitch black darkness.

Write some reviews if you have something nice to say about the first two deaths.