Affinity (RDJ)

Chapter 4 - Hurtful Truths

It's the screams first that rouse you from your slumber.

Piercing screams combined with continuous smashing and metallic screeching as the car around you shatters and warps into something no longer resembling a vehicle. You think that you've never heard a noise more deafening, more terrifying. Until it all stops. And all you can hear... is nothing. You will the noises to return because nothing is more terrifying than the silence that surrounds you right now.

You blink, looking around to see that your surroundings have completely changed. You're in a car, yes, but it's on its roof. You're crushed into the side, the windshield nothing but millions of tiny diamonds surrounding you. You try to move, vision spinning, until you feel a hot, searing pain rip up your left arm. You glance at it quickly, afraid of what you might see, and it's twisted in the mangled metal that was once a car door. Streams of sticky crimson run up your arm and into your armpit and you look away feeling dizzy.

You blink to bring your surroundings into focus, but you wish you hadn't. As you try to piece together where you are, you wonder why you can see the road and the street so clearly across the back seat of the car. That's when you realise that there is no back of the car left on the right side. It's gone. And all that's left are mangled twists of protruding metal. It's gone. And so is your sister.

This time, the only screams you can hear are your own.

'Remy, Rem! Wake up Rem it's okay! It's okay.' It's your brother, shaking you and holding you to him. You wish he'd let you go. You feel like if he does, you'll finally get what you deserved that dreadful day.

'I-it was a nightmare...' you whimper, curling up into a little ball.

Only, it wasn't, was it?

'Same one again?' he asks, rubbing your shoulder supportively, head tilted.

You nod.

'I'll make you a cup of coffee, okay? You just... you just stay here for a bit.' He gets up and you try to gather yourself, try to forget what you just saw in your dream. But you can't. It was all too real and the guilt is stifling.

You're still sitting there on your bed when your brother returns with two steaming mugs of coffe. 'What time even is it?' you ask, grateful for the heat from the mug.

'It's 5.30. You'd have been getting up in an hour anyway so not too bad today sis,' he replies, sipping his beverage and trying to wake himself up.  'So, you gonna tell me what that dream was about?'

You shrug. 'Just the usual.'

'The crash?'

You nod and he blinks in return. Your brother doesn't really talk about the crash, or anything that's happened since really. He feels guilty, you think. That he wasn't there and you all were.

He doesn't press, so changes the subject. 'So, you need a ride in today?'

You shake your head, taking a sip of coffee. 'No thanks. I'm gonna try getting the bus, familiarise myself with the route. If you could pick me up though, that'd be great,' you reply, a worn-out smile on your face.

He smiles back, nodding and ruffling your hair. 'Sure thing Rem. I'll pick you up whenever you need, kay?'

'Kay,' you reply, finishing your drink and standing up. He takes your hint and does the same, leaving you to get dressed in peace.

You decide to get the early bus, just to gauge how long it takes to get there with the traffic and what time you'd need to get it when you weren't doing a trial run. It's 7.30 and your first class is at 9, so you decide that you'll try to find the library if you get there early.