𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚞𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 📸

The accident.

⚠️ TW! Graphic ish injury detail ⚠️

—ASTRAS POV—
(Aged 12, 6 years ago)

It was summer of 2018, me and my parents were just returning from a family vacation away to a small island off the coast of Greece. I spent the whole journey staring out into the never ending distance as the car glided smoothly across the winding country road, despite the narrowness of the road my line of vision never shifted, it was as if I was staring out into a perfectly positioned painting. Sunlight seeped in through the car's sunroof, creating a perfect mix of the warm glowing sun and coolness of the air con that my parents had on in the front of the car.

There wasn't a whole lot to be heard besides the subtle hum of the cars engine and faintness of the radios music. In my family we have the radio on the same preset every single time we go for a drive, it's a old station with music from the 80's, my mom says it 'reminds her of when she was younger' so neither me or dad ever bothered touching it. I've never really listened to the music, it's normally drowned out by my thoughts as I relive past memories in the back of the car, but I did recognize one of my favourite songs by Tears for Fears, 'everybody wants to rule the world'. "Can you turn up the radio?" I asked my mother who normally controls the volume, "Of course darling I love this song!" She replies.

Suddenly the outside world didn't matter anymore, I had been drawn in an entrapped by the famous beat of the song, at one point I even began singing along with the band when it came to lyrics I knew. Surprisingly my mother who's normally a more discreet person started singing along with me, and eventually dad joined in after supposedly feeling 'left out'. We seemed like the perfect family, all cheerfully singing to our favourite song, dad was doing some quirky dance moves while turned to face me and mum, laughter bubbled from the cracks on the window along with the shear loudness of the radio, the group was so caught up in the shared moment of care free joy to notice the midnight grey Toyota pickup truck speeding directly towards us.

Meters before impact dad finally caught on to what was about to happen, despite it being day the approaching vehicle's headlights blinded us as our cars breaks slammed on, the sound of the tires melting away as the rubber tires scraped against the pavement filled the air and the scent of burning rubber overwhelmed my nostrils, despite our efforts the brakes didn't slow us down, we were to late.

As we collided head on with the truck time seemed to switch to slow motion, glass shards appeared to floated past me as the windows shattered, I looked around to see the terrified faces of both my parents, mum was trying desperately not to cry where as my dad had a intense face of both concentration and despair, as if he knew there was nothing he could do besides hold on. This all felt so surreal, like I was dreaming, but I was brought back to reality when all three of us were brutally thrown forwards, but I was instantly pulled back as my seat belt recoiled, smashing my skull into the roof in the process, leaving me short of breath and feeling like I could collapse at any given moment.

Everything felt like it was to much, the world was spinning around and my vision was blurry with tears. God it hurt to move but I had to get out the car, I had to know if my parents we okay. It took nearly all my effort to unbuckle my belt, to escape. The initial impact of the crash hurled our car into the air, causing it to come crashing back down onto its roof, undoing my belt meant that i would fall causing myself more pain, but I couldn't dwell on the pain right now, I need to get out, so that what I did, while battling conscious I dragged my weak body out of the shattered window besides me, the shards of glass impaled my fragile body leaving deep crimson cuts down my pale stomach and a large section of my legs.

Each movement was agony but the sensation of adrenaline had already take over, giving me the power to finally get out the wreck of a car and over to the front seats where my parents were sat. It was eerily silent, no noise could be heard coming from the front seats or anywhere for a matter of fact, there was just the constant sound of a roaring fire burning in the background. While walking to the front of the car, the place where the most impact was taken, also the place where my parents were sat, I just told myself over and over that they we're going to be okay, that they survived the crash. Immense pain spread through my whole body as I forced my mangled body to move, a few moments of struggling later I collapsed onto the asphalt road beneath my feet just in-front of the cars windshield, once again my eyes swelled up with tears and darkness started to take over, gradually consuming my sight.

The final thing I saw before losing consciousness was the unmoving, bloody remains of my parents.

A/N - nice little bit of  ✨trauma✨ to start the book, let me know what you think!