Alive - George Russell

Teaser

Stepping inside the room I welcomed the smell of sweat, rubber and a thin layer of chalk dust in the air with a relieved sigh, quickly greeting everyone inside. My first destination was the changing room, getting my everyday stuff into the locker decorated by my name, and changing into my usual gear. Fridays were always just normal strengthening training without any special equipment or any floor exercise. They were chill days even though we had to lift weights and push ourselves during balance tasks. We never had to go for perfection during exercises and just had to make sure we did everything that was on the list for us. It was the only occasion where we went for quantity and not as much quality. The trainers made sure we wouldn't injure ourselves and that we followed how they should be done, but it wasn't even close to when we had to have even our fingers in the right position while moving around. It felt like nothing compared to the first 3 days of the week.

" Ready? " I heard a familiar voice but looking around I couldn't spot the source of the sound. Thinking I just misheard something I made sure my locker was closed before exiting the small room, taking in the gym, searching for any sign of other people there.

" Guys? " I asked, closing the door behind me and walked through the room until I was in the middle of it. " Anyone? " I asked again, confused about where they all could have gone. Just seconds ago this side of the door was full of laughter and rushed discussions.

Taking a full turn I hoped they were just hiding somewhere behind me, but what my gaze landed on was the empty space of missing weight racks and rowing machines, while the door was gone as well leaving behind a plain white wall. I could hear some kind of beeping but I couldn't recognise the direction it was coming from, as I felt like it was either on me or inside my head. I was about to take a step back as it turned into ringing, making me wince and my heartbeat quicken. As I searched for the exit that would take me to the hallway I noticed that 3 of the 4 walls were the same plain white colored ones and only one stayed the same as it was in our usual gym. While I was confused, my legs acted on their own and took me closer while my arms were already lifting up so I could open the window. There was continuous honking and swearing outside while my body followed in a floating motion. I could see the person at the window opening it up, but couldn't recognise the woman as myself or anyone in my team.

I had the urge to scream as in just a second my body was yanked out, through the window and over the busy highway. By the time I came to a stop at the hard shoulder, it turned into a picture perfect village road that was completely snowed in. My eyes followed the tyre marks, my feet following orders and taking me over to where the lines took a harsh left turn, as a shudder went through my body from the outside cold. Lifting my head up I could see the car in front of me turned over in the ditch, completely motionless. I wanted to get over there to help but my body stayed put, my limbs frozen like I was under a spell, losing all control over my body. A loud screeching made me look to my left, seeing several cars coming down the road, one of them already sideways, skidding across the middle line. It was the source of the noise as the brakes were slammed down fighting against the power of physics with all their might. I knew it wouldn't be enough, my mouth already open to let out a scream but it got stuck in my throat. I was pushed away right before it could have touched me, making me stumble backwards and fall back, my hands trying to grab onto anything as I felt the ground disappear from under my feet and my vision went white as I looked up at the sky.

I woke up with a scream leaving my mouth, my fingers wrapped around the corner of the blanket in an iron grip. I felt dizzy as soon as my senses came back and my eyes could finally detect my own bedroom around me. My heart was in my throat beating at a sickening pace, as it planned to leave my body through my mouth. At least it felt like so, while I still couldn't take a breath deep enough to reach my lungs. Falling back onto the mattress I forced my fingers straight and closed my eyes to finally get my body to relax and get back the control that the panic always took away from me after dreams like this. I knew it would take a minute before my breathing would be normal again, exhaustion catching up with me meanwhile, as I fell asleep late and I could see the clock stating it was just an hour or so later. My mind felt hazy as I tried to forget everything that was thrown at me just seconds ago, trying to convince myself it was just made up by my imagination even though I knew it was based on memories. However, it still worked, it just took some time before I could finally take my first full breath and also let it out. As soon as my heart was beating in a normal rhythm I pushed myself up into a sitting position, leaning back onto the headboard. While trying to find a position in which my back didn't throb with pain, my hand wandered over to my phone for some distraction. Just a couple of years ago back in England I would have called those few friends I had, but moving to France and practically closing the door on my past meant that wasn't an option anymore. I just had to learn how I could deal with these nights.