Stupid Love

39

Peaceful dreams, sometimes tell you something you shouldn't know. Some of those bring the past, mine only bring pain. I look around me, cold darkened place, I don't see anything, nothing until the touch of my phone vibrates through my bones. I turn it on and turn the flash on, i look around, i'm unfamiliar of the location, the bed is not mine. Rough and cold, I look for Ruby, she was just by my side, I begin to look harder, as I get to the darkest corner of the room I see, you. Maddi, I know it was her, her birthmark on her hand. Then same hand reaching through the wall. Then an eerie whisper, "she's gone" Rings through my ears,I look around and see a bright light. I get up and walk towards it, the environment reminded me of a church, but more so empty and distant. I walk over to this stage, where a casket and flowers where, I glance down and see Shawn. Lifetime by Three Days Grace begins to fill my mind, as the lyrics "You were the one I wasn't supposed to lose" repeats into my head. Tears begin to flow from my eyes, I look up and see his memorial.

A bitter cold breeze hits my body, feeling like thousands of knifes hitting me, I look back down at the casket. It's gone, as I begin to look around I can hear my work radio going off. It sounded urgent as I walk into the darkness, the sound fills my ears as I hear my conductor scream "Where's Corbin?" Confused I yell out, "I'm right here!" No response as I can hear the engineer, "Both engines are in emergency, Let me know if you find Corbin, I'm calling the superintendent now." I look around and finally can see the glimpse of the railroad cars. It's darken, I feel a lot colder than I was before. "Did he have a wife and kids?" I hear over the radio, "No, he never mentioned anyone." Finally getting to the gravel road next to this unfamiliar place, I look around to see if there's any context clues to determine this place, but I froze when I hear the conductor say "I found him, call 911 he's still breathing somehow." I finally turn and see it, snow packed with ice ravaging the land as the white grain railroad cars lay sideways on the ground. Smoke erupts from the exhausts as I begin to walk over, slowly loosing feeling in myself I see blood spattered across the fresh snow.

I push forward and see myself laying underneath the car, I kneel down, I don't look the same. I look different, I couldn't tell what it was but i know this wasn't the same look I had before I showed up. I look around and see my phone laying in the snow, i pick it up as a shiver runs through my spine. Something told me not to but i unlocked it and went through it. all my contacts were gone, there were no messages, no apps, nothing besides photos. I opened the photos app, and looked through as there's nothing in it beside in the hidden folder, i unlocked it and saw pictures of me and ruby, I smiled before shedding a tear. we looked so happy together, but i can tell it ended when the last photo was February 7th at 2:40 pm. There was a strange orange cat and a dog in our photos, I wanted to cry when I couldn't find anything else as I close out I see the date on the lock screen. March 25th 2024, 0127. I put the phone in my pocket and turn back.

I see this strange conductor I've never seen before, he looks down at my body. "this kid had his whole life ahead of him," He says, forcing it out of him before he began to cry. I look down at myself, My brown curly hair covered in snow. "Did we lose her?" I asked, Weakly the response surprised me, "We're here because of her." I look up and it catches me off guard seeing, everyone. blank stares within each of them, not a word comes from them as I hear, " join us Corbin," i spin around and see Shawn and Maddi standing there, looking down at my slowly fading life. "No," I respond as they quickly vanish as soon as they got there, A whimper comes from the ground. I look at myself, "The night that changed everything is coming." I kneel down once more and reach out to hold my own hand.

"Trust your gut, trust your feelings, trust your heart." the words fill the air as my own hand slips from my grasp and hits the cold ground. I stand up, the conductor begins to talk on the phone, I listen as his words sent shivers through my spine. " We're on the ground and we've had a fatality. No it was Corbin, he was off to the side and I didn't check the derail and the car went off the rail and went sideways and landed on him." A brief pause as I look around some more, I still don't know where I am, loosing my vision and feeling I fall to the ground next to my lifeless body. I jolt up when I finally see Ruby, she begins to walk towards the wreckage. I wanted to ask what happened, what caused all of this. But all I could do was watch you walk past me and kneel down next to me, you began to cry. "Corbin, can you hear me." the conductor stood there and watched, "he doesn't have much more time." I walk around and in front of both myself on the ground and Ruby and sat down. Watching and waiting for you to do something, Ruby, crying as she lets out a scream. "Why Corbin!" I look at her, trying not to cry, I look and see myself hold her hand, she takes it, "I told you to be safe." I look and see myself smile, "i love you" I said weakly, you don't respond for a second, hesitant, "I love you more Corb" As my hand goes limp and my eyes begin to shut, I see my body slowly falling to the ground with the sound of Ruby screaming and crying, begging anyone, someone not to take me away from her. I stand up and see the carnage began to slowly go dark as I turn around to see nothing but darkness, "What did you do!" Screams in my ears as I jolt up. I look around, the room is full of light and I see Ruby lying in bed. "You're okay hun," I look at her and smile, trying to process everything from my dream, you look at me and ask. "What'd you dream about?" I wanted to say it, I wanted to say all of it, as my eyes began to water, i bite my tongue and say "I just had one of those dreams where you felt like you were falling." She laughed, "oh okay, come here!" I rolled back into bed and hug her, i squeeze as hard as I could and buried my face in her shoulder and cry.