Drop Dead Shimmer

- The 250 first words -

THE ACCIDENT

 GAIA

I’d been in the ditch for a while. Ever since the night blurred into silvers and reds and the minutes froze. Since Mark’s eyes widened from behind the steering wheel and the screech of collapsing metal killed our joy. The heat from the flames didn’t faze me, but I wondered why I was outside it when my friends were not. I was the only one who was cold.

Face down in the dirt, I couldn’t see the car wreck anymore. Behind me, voices yelled. Deafening soles slapped the ground as they ran toward me.

“Shush,” I whispered to nobody. Then, I saw him sitting there with his legs crisscrossed next to me in the grass. He owned the silence the way they should. So serene, so beautiful, so quiet. I wanted to laugh, but couldn’t, so instead I stared.

He was barefoot and his hair passed his shoulders in cascades of golden amber. Well-worn jeans hung off his hips, and against the backdrop of night, a white shirt flowed ghostlike to his waist. With head tilted and chin resting in his hands, he gazed at me curiously.

Does he have all the time in the world? I wondered.

The light he exuded was different from the shocking blue of the ambulances. His glimmering irises met mine, and in that moment the pain rushed in. Jolt after jolt of agony sped through my spine. I broke away and pressed my eyes shut.