The Light in Darkness

Chapter 13: Reliving the Nightmare

-Katrina-

"It was too late." I thought."Shit! Get d-" My dad yells as a familiar truck horn erupted from the left side of our car. There was no way anyone could have stopped it. "Katrina!" My mom screams as our car is hit and begins to roll off to the side of the road. "No one should have survived, not even me." I thought as we rolled with our car. Slowly, our car comes to a crunching stop as we collide into a lamp post right next to the sidewalk, but that wasn't the only thing that stopped. My parent's screams and cries have also halted when the car settled. "But, I survived. And now I'm about to know why." I thought as I opened my eyes.

Through the thick dense smoke, I am able to open my watering eyes as the familiar smell of gas and burnt hair erupting filled the car around me. From the upside down angle I was looking from, I could see where the smoke and smell was coming from. It was coming from the front seats where my parents were hanging upside down from. "M-mom? D-dad?" I cough, "Are y-you alright?" There is no response to my worried cry, which scares me and causes me to focus my eyes more on my parents through the flames. Past the flames, in the front seat, I am able to see a horrifying sight. My parents were dead and the smell of burnt hair was coming from their corpses as their flesh burned off their exposed skin.

I let out a bloodcurdling scream at the horrid sight before thrashing in my now, blood soaked car seat. "I need to get out of here! I need to get us help!" I internally scream. As I continue thrashing and fight the car seat's grip on me, I end up hitting the back of my head against a piece of metal behind me and begin to lose consciousness from the sudden blow. "Owww." I sob quietly as the flames got closer to my seat. "W-why? Why is t-this happening?" I cry hopelessly.

"Oh my God! Someone call 911!" A woman shrieks outside. "I'm trying, they're coming!" A male replies frantically. The nearby voices bring me back to focus, and I slowly turn my head to look out and greet the onlookers through my left window. Through the smoke, I am able to see many sets of feet standing outside of my burning SUV as they watched and waited for the police to arrive. "H-hey, I-I'm a-alive. P-please s-somebody, a-anybody h-help me." I wheeze as I start to lose focus. To my anguish, no one hears my cries and they continue to watch and videotape my demise. "Dude, this is so messed up!" A teenager exclaims excitedly. "Totally man!" Another teen replies as they recorded the wreckage. "N-no y-you're messed u-up m-man." I sniffle, "W-why isn't anyone h-helping us? P-please s-someone, h-help us!"

As I strained crying out for help, I start to slowly fade back out again to the smoke's influence and the throbbing pain coming from my head. As I faded, I couldn't help but give in. I accepted my fate to died here with my parents and gave up all of my hope of being saved. I also started to look back over my short-lived life and say what I thought would be my last words. "D-don't w-worry m-mommy and d-daddy. I-I'm c-coming h-home too." I mumble before losing consciousness once again.

I wasn't out for long though. I think I was out for a max of a minute or two before a familiar voice sounded around my car which revived me back to life from my undead sleep. "Get out of my way!" A male yells as I hear him push through the crowd of selfish cowards. With no energy remaining, I make no move to turn towards the familiar voice, nor do I open my dried eyes. Instead, I listen closely to the man's footsteps as he got closer to my burning car. Once the man reached my car, I hear him quickly crouch down and look around. He lets out a groan of disgust, probably towards my parent's bodies before quickly rushing over to my left backseat door. I hear what sounds like him gasp in surprise, before climbing in through my window and grabbing a hold of one of my dangling hands.

His hands were cold as ice and I let out a weakened groan as the feel the man untangle me from my bloody car seat to free me. Once I was freed, he catches me from hitting the car's roof and pulls me close into his arms as he carefully crawled his way out of my car with me. Almost instantly, I could recognize the smell and texture of the man's outfit. It was a suit and the man was wearing a familiar musty cologne. A cologne, that a certain someone I met earlier wore. Instinctively, I cling tighter to my hero as he carried me out of the wreck and into the fresh air of Gotham City.

The crowd gasps and cheers as the man brings me out of the wreck and back into the cruel world, but I could easily tell that something was wrong. I could sense the man, who had rescued me, staring down at me. He seemed to be troubled and very concerned over me as if he was waiting for me to do or say something. Figuring that it was indeed me he was troubled over, I give him the comfort of knowing I was alive and all well. Slowly, I open my redden eyes to greet my hero and give him the comfort he seem to crave. Upon opening my eyes, I expect to see the familiar shadow cloud over my hero's image, but instead I don't. Instead, I am greeted by the familiar icy blue eyes of the brown haired stranger I had met back at the park a few minutes ago. I smile widely and try to let out chuckles at seeing him again, but instead all that comes out of my throat is coughs as I smiled up to him. I see a smile of relief appear across his face as I smiled up to him. As I smiled up to my hero in pure joy at seeing who he truly was, the feeling of sleepiness returns to my pained body and I conclude that the memory was beginning to finally die down. Before I can shut my eyes however and return to the abyss of mister Scarecrow's toxin, I make sure to thank my hero. "T-thank y-you." I manage to cough before passing back out in the man's comforting arms.

"My parent's thought he was an enemy, but they were wrong. He was really a friend and a ally to us." I thought as I faded back to reality, "He's not a monster like you thought mom and dad, he's a hero. He's my hero."