The Demon's Mark

The End of The Road

Jack woke up with a gasp, his lungs seizing as he woke up in this suffocating nightmare.

Pain shot through his body, so intense it felt like a thousand knives digging into his flesh.

Jack's vision blurred and swam before him, the world  looked like a mess of twisted metal and broken glass.

Jack was still strapped by his seatbelt into his seat, and he was half-pinned against what was once the door of their Jeep- and he was also crushed by the dashboard.

His head pounded, and his ears rang with a piercing shrillness.

"Wh–what...?" Jack muttered, the words coming out thick and garbled.

Blood trickled from his mouth, metallic and warm.

He blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog from his vision.

The first thing he registered was the sky, as they had rolled and Jack was looking right up at it.

The sky was still blue and bright, though the sun was dipping lower. They'd been on the highway, cruising after they had a romantic dinner date-  coasting down the beautiful California highway in the late afternoon glow, just the two of them...

Kyle.

Panic clawed its way up Jack's  throat as the memory rushed back—the roar of the engine behind them, the sudden jolt as another car slammed into them, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time - a car going recklessly fast- came towards them and Jack immediately recognized the danger and started to pull over - but it was too late the car swerved and ran them off the road, sending them rolling down the hill.

Jack was reliving the sickening sensation of rolling, tumbling down an endless hill. He turned his head, ignoring the agony that shot down his neck.

"Kyle?" Jack said- his voice cracked, raw and desperate.

"Baby?" Jack tried to scream in fear- but the blood pooling in his mouth made it hard

Jack strained to look at the passenger seat—or what was left of it. The Jeep was mangled, crushed. Through the web of shattered glass and torn metal, he saw Kyle slumped in the seat, head hanging forward, his body twisted awkwardly.

"Please, no, no, no," Jack whimpered, reaching out with a trembling hand.

He was in immense pain but he had adrenaline pumping in his veins.

Jack barely could- but his fingers brushed Kyle's arm, cold and lifeless.

"Kyle! No, no, baby, please!" Jack sobbed, shaking him.

His hand moved to Kyle's face, cradling it gently, as if he could will him to open his eyes, to look at him, to say anything.

"Baby, wake up, please... Please don't do this to me..."Jack whimpered.

But there was nothing. Kyle's head lolled to the side, Jack wasn't certain- but he felt it- He was gone.

"No... No...!" Jack's cry was primal, a sound torn from the depths of his soul. He pressed his forehead against the steering wheel fin front of him,feeling the jagged metal surrounding it biting into his own chest.

But-  the pain didn't matter. Nothing mattered. His world was ending here, on the side of this road, on this stupid cliffside, in the wreck of their Jeep, with Kyle's lifeless body beside him.

He didn't know how long he stayed like that, crumpled against the steering wheel, his hand somehow able to find Kyle's lifeless one.

Jack was sobbing and shaking. Minutes, hours—it all blurred together. But then the adrenaline kicked in, shoving aside the grief just long enough for survival instincts to kick in.