The End Zone

Chapter 26

The second I get into Zack's passenger seat, my eyelids start to close. I've been so paranoid the past few weeks that it's nearly impossible for me to sleep.

Still, I force myself to stay awake. I play with the radio or trace circles on the window.

"Just go to sleep," Zack says. "You look like a corpse."

I'm too tired to even respond to his taunts. I shake my head groggily, trying to remember whether I was drawing a butterfly or a tambourine.

"I can't," I murmur, curling up against the edge of the seat. "I have an essay due at midnight and if I let myself sleep, I won't be able to wake up."

He glances at the clock. "It's already 11:00. Can you ask your professor for an extension?"

A light scoff escapes me. "If I didn't have van Hoffen maybe." I shake my head. "It'll be okay. Once I work this out, I'll go back to sleeping normally and it'll all be fine."

"You're having trouble sleeping?"

"Even more than usual," I say. "I keep thinking they're there watching me."

He pauses. "You can sleep in my room."

That wakes me up. I straighten my back, slowly looking over at him.

"Are you..." My voice fades away as I glance in the side-view mirror.

Behind us, a red car is tailing us so closely, it's almost touching us.

"Zack," I say. "Let the car behind us pass."

He crosses his eyebrows then glances behind. Rolling his eyes, he motions for them to pass.

Instead, they speed up even more, bumping into the rear of the car.

My head whips around. "What the hell?"

There's no one else on the road, allowing plenty of space for them to pass. Instead, they go again, ramming into us harder.

"Zack," I say. "Zack, pull over."

"I can't," he says, pushing on the gas. "Hold on."

I roll down the window to get a look outside, trying to ignore the way my pulse is racing. It takes one second for me to recognize the driver. His hair is curly and blond instead of brown but the face is the same. It's the face I've seen in my nightmares for months.

"Oh my god," I say. "It's Marcus." I turn forward, forbidding myself from looking back again. "It's Marcus! He's chasing us!"

Zack speeds up but Marcus follows just as fast and way more recklessly. He rolls down his window beside us.

"Pull over!" Marcus roars. "Let's finish this!"

My heart feels like someone is holding it in their palm and squeezing. I can hear my breathing get louder the more I try to control it.

He rams into our car again, from the side this time. Zack's knuckles are white on the wheel.

There's a crash. One that makes my teeth grit and a shriek that doesn't sound like my own rip out of my throat.

It's followed by a moment of silence. Like someone put a jar over us. It lasts too long before disappearing.

I feel myself fall into the darkness.

---

When I open my eyes, there's a man with large hazel eyes looking down at me. My eyes flicker to the badge on his uniform. There are sirens in the distance, muffled by the doors of the ambulance.

I open my mouth but no sound comes out. Instead, a stabbing pain roars through my ribcage, as if someone has reached in and pulled my bones out.

"Lay back. Lay back," the man says. "She's awake! Can somebody get me some water?"

"Where is he?" I say. "Zack..."

"Don't speak," he says. "We're arriving at the hospital. Save your energy for-"

"I need to know if he's okay," I whisper.

The man opens his mouth to reply when the ambulance parks and I'm rolled out on a stretcher. I try to get up but every breath in me collapses until I've fallen back.

My eyelids start to close but just as I'm being rolled in, I catch sight of a stretcher.

It's covered.

Panic shoots through me and I'm pushing down on my palms in an attempt to get up. People all around me are telling me to lie down. Telling me to calm down. But all I can see is the outline of a body on that stretcher not so far from my own.

"No," I whisper.

It all comes back to me at once.

Looking into his eyes at the party where we first met.

Opening my front door to him, damp-haired and smirking.

Kissing on the football field.

Saying I love you under the stars.

It feels like I'm dying. Pain rips through me over and over again but there's nothing I can do about it. The loss of control I've always feared has come. It swallows me and tortures me until all I can do is lay back and let the darkness engulf me.