(Ivann's POV)
The sound of a car horn woke me. When did I go to sleep? I didn't remember going to bed. When I tried to lift my head, there was pain, shooting pain all over my body. "O-ow," I groaned and winced as I picked myself up off the steering wheel, silencing the horn, and sat back in the seat, glass spilling off my shoulders. There was a hiss coming from the engine as smoke rolled out from under the crumpled hood.
"Sir, are you okay?" A stranger asked. I think they were a rodent of some kind, but I didn't know, everything was blurry.
"I-I think so," I told them as I moved each limb to see if anything was broken.
"What happened?"
"I-I don't know. I-I don't remember," I answered as I tried to remember how this happened. For the life of me, I couldn't remember crashing my car. I could remember Sean and me yelling at each other, and then me running out and getting into my car, and then after that, nothing. "I need to call my husband," I told them as I wrenched the door open and fell to the ground.
"Whoa-whoa! Just hold on, an ambulance is on its way," they said as they rushed to me.
"I need to call my husband!" I yelled at them as I tried to get to my paws.
"Okay okay, but don't move around too much. You don't know if you're seriously injured or not," they said as they gently pushed me back to the ground. "Do you have a phone on you? Is it in your car?"
"No, I left it at home."
"That's all right, you can use mine," they told me. "What's his number?"
They typed in his number as I gave it to them, and then they handed me the phone. I winced as I put the phone to my ear, but I didn't pull it away. I listened as it ringed three times, and then Sean answered.
"Hello?" he said, questionably. Tears filled my eyes and streamed down my cheeks at the sound of his voice. "Hello?" he echoed, again.
"S-Sean," I said quietly, on a trembling breath.
"Ivann? Where are you? Whose phone are you using?" he asked frantically.
I ignored his questions and told him, "I-I was in an accident."
"What?!" he shouted, worry filling his voice. "Where are you? Are you okay?"
"M-my car... My car is in the ditch... I-it's totaled," I sobbed as I looked at my car, my vision clearing just enough for me to make out all the damage.
"I don't care about your fucking car!" he barked. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know. There's someone here with me. They called an ambulance," I said as I turned my head to look at the figure kneeling beside me. It turns out that it wasn't a rodent, but it was a fox, a male fox. "Thank you," I told him under my breath, and he smiled and nodded.
"I'm coming to get you. Where are you?" he asked, as it sounded like he was rushing out of the house.
"No, don't. Just go to the hospital. They'll probably take me there anyway."
He growled in frustration. "Okay, but you stay on the phone with me until the ambulance gets there."
His voice was filled with panic and worry that he spoke loud enough to where the fox could hear him. I looked at the fox and he nodded that it was all right for me to use his phone until the ambulance got to us. "Okay."
Sean chewed me out the whole time I was on the phone with him, mostly, "what the fuck were you thinking?"
I gave him the best answer I could. "I wasn't." The flashing lights pulled my attention away from his reaming. "The ambulance is here."
"I'm ten minutes away from the hospital, so I'll be waiting for you."
Before I hung up, I told him, "I love you."
I handed back the fox's phone, just as the paramedics were jumping out of the ambulance and grabbing the gurney. "They've gotcha now, buddy. I've got to get home. The wife's probably worried sick about me," he told me as he patted me lightly on the knee, and then he stood up and walked away with a police officer. That was the last time I ever saw him. I never got his name, and I never thanked him for stopping and staying with me. I'll refer to him as my guardian angel, when I talk of that night, again.
The whole ride in the ambulance to the hospital, I tried to remember how I went into the ditch, but I couldn't. I did, however, remember the dream I had when I was unconscious.
Everything was cast in a smoky grey as far as I could see. Embers and ashes fell all around me, like snow, and out of the haze, my demon appeared. Slowly, he walked through the ashes, his steps barely making a sound as he approached me. Suddenly, he combusted into a brilliant cerulean inferno. The flames burnt away his terrifying exterior, and out of the blue blaze came Paul. The flames caressed him, wrapping around him with a warm glow as he stood there. Tears shimmered in his eyes as he looked at me.
"Ivann," he called to me, his voice an echoing whisper.
"P-Paul," my lips trembled as I said his name.
He nodded. "You don't have to be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you. I just came to say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I wasn't who you thought I was. I'm sorry that I was weak. I'm sorry that I betrayed your trust. I'm sorry that I hurt you." His tears simmered as they streamed down his cheeks. "Ivann, I'm so so sorry," he cried.
"It's okay," I told him as I reached into the flames and took his hand.
"You were the one for me, but I wasn't the one for you. Sean is. Love him and let him love you," he said as he squeezed my hand. "I know how much you want a family and I know it's hard right now, but don't give up. It will happen, in do time," he assured me. "I have to go now," he said as he let go of my hand and turned and walked away.
"Paul, wait," I said as I ran to him, grabbing his hand again. He turned and looked down at me, his brilliant green eyes as warm and inviting as the day we met. I swallowed hard and then I pulled myself up onto my tippy-toes and kissed him. "I love you," I told him as our lips parted.
"I love you," he echoed with a soft smile.
The blue flames roared as they engulfed him, incinerating him until there was nothing left but ashes that drifted away.
