It was a brilliant day; the sun was shining down, the sky was the bluest blue ever; not a cloud insight.
No sign of anything bad or unpleasant.
Mum, Dad, Reinette and I were going out for the day, driving around the small seaside town that was Brookshire.
The road was flat, newly surfaced, and smooth as the little Mercedes rolled about. Mum and Dad sat in the front seat, grinning widely as they playfully argued over which icecream flavour was best, while Reinette and I had out little headphones on as we watched The Fairies on the portable DVD player.
The first stop was the shops; A large shopping centre just down the road from where we live. It was great- the service was friendly and they had the best clothing stores.
We spent a good two hours of the day in there- Dad going off alone to look at the sports shops, Reinette and I dressing up in sparkly, fancy too-expensive outfits, wasting time, and mum helping us find good clothes and happily laughing along with us when we occassionally tried on the silliest things. We played the game of "spot the most ridiculous outfit, which I believe Reinette won when she found an outfit I swear was a clown suit. The label disagreed.
After we finished, leaving with a car packed full of bags, Dad drove us all to the beach. We spent the next few hours there, being childish, playing in the sand, bulding sandcastles- with moats!- digging holes as deep as we could and of course we went swimming. I loved to wade out into the cool, sparkling blue water, and we did, hanging out at the sand banks, splashing each other and having water fights in the clear ocean. And just for the spirit of it all, we even sent dad out to get fish and chips from the best store in town 'Jerry's Fish'- Original, I know- and we spent the afternoon munching on the tasty, warm food and basking in the glorious afternoon sun.
Around 5 pm, we decided to pack up and head home. It darkened quickly during the ride and eventually dad had to turn the headlights on.
We took a scenic route through the woodlands, down the winding roads as we laughed and sung silly songs. Back then, we lived out of town, in the woods somewhere, surrounded by nature. It was always so lovely and peaceful. As we turned around a bend in the road, a thick layer of fog descended upon us.
Dad cursed to no one in particular and rolled his eyes.
"Where on earth did this come from?" I recall mum saying, "David, you better slow down, it's impossible to see anything in this-" she was cut off by the screeching of the tires as a blurry object flew across the road at a high speed. We would have hit it for sure if Dad wasn't such a softy and swerved out of the way, narrowly missing the deer.
"Woah, woah, what is happening?" I cried, confused. "Dad?"
"I have no idea!" my mother replied. "David, for heaven's sake, get a hold of yourself!" We all got thrown to one side.
"I can't stop!" Dad cried as the car went swerving from side to side, losing his control over the vehicle. "The brake- it won't-"
"Put your foot on the brake!" Reinette shrieked as we went tumbling across the side of the road. I was panicked, clutching on to the edge of my seat, shaking like crazy. Tree's, bushes, shrubs, dirt and that mist flashed across my vision as something metal clanked about and I couldn't control the swaying about my body was doing.
"Dad!" I shouted at him, "We're going to cra-!"
The sound of tires screeching, the sound of something cracking, the ear piercing noise of someone screaming and a burst of shrill, cold wind. Then everything went black.
***
I sat up in bed screaming as I recalled the memory as a dream, and sweat trickled down my spine.
I panted heavily, wiping my forehead, leaning over to squint at my clock. It read 4:30am. I groaned and rolled over again, trying to control my breathing. After awhile it calmed down, and I could hear my heartbeat thudding its regular thud, sure and secure inside my chest.
I thought that the nightmares had stopped. They hadn't haunted me for a couple of weeks. I thought I had started to get better, after all this time. Why had it started back now?
I stretched and wiped the sweat from my forehead, reluctantly getting up and out of bed, I slipped on my slippers and wandered down stairs to the kitchen. Something must have happened that night. Something I didn't remember, and that no one witnessed. Unless they witnessed but they didn't remember either.
I sighed and removed the water jug from the fridge and a glass from the cupboard, pouring myself some water. Wiping some more sweat from my forehead, I took slow sips and took deep breaths.
I finished my water and headed back upstairs, tucking myself comfortably in bed.What could have happened though? I don't understand what could possibly have happened to cause such a bad thing, never happened to anyone else in the entire history of the universe? What
Something bad.
10 years. That's how long I have been 'blessed' (note the sarcasm?) with this curse. The unmanageable, uncontrollable doings of the most weird girl in the world. Me.
