The Limbus

Ch. 1- Open Road

The Limbus

Thunder, that's my wake-up call. My vision is quite blurry as I look up at the ceiling. Without my glasses, I can barely read anything 2 feet in front of me. But my clock is close enough to read. I turn my head to check, my neck cracking with the twist. It stings, but only for a moment. 5:28. A bit early, but I get up nonetheless. Work starts at 8, so I have a bit of time to relax. Even though I'm only 25 I already have a full time, 12 hour job. I may be just a couple of years out of college but at least I'm putting my degree to use.

It's still dark out and the rain isn't exactly helping with that. It's actually quite fierce outside. I hope that the rain at least slightly subdues before I have to leave. In the meantime I figure I could just make some breakfast and coffee. I don't feel like cereal, so I get the batter out and hand-make some pancakes and crack some eggs for an omelet. Old fashion breakfasts always taste better to me than just regular cereal.

By the time everything is made, eaten, and I've gotten dressed the time passed to around 7. I decide to head out, although it only takes 20 minimum minutes to get to work, being early isn't going to hurt me. I look out the window before I head out. The rain looks a bit more peaceful, but still hard to see. The clouds are thick and the sun hasn't risen much so it's still quite dark out. I could just drive slowly and carefully and try to arrive at work around 7:40. I have to drive out of town a ways and pass through a country stretch. Some deers may cross there, but I don't think they would be out in the rain, so I should be safe on that.

I start up the car from in the house so it's ready when I run out the door to it. I want to stay as dry as possible. I open the door with my booklet and folder in hand and make a break for the car. I open it and get in as quick as possible. Once my feet are in I slam the door shut. Although it only took around 5 seconds total, it felt so much longer. First thing I do is check my book and folder to see if any water got on it. I make graphic designs, and if anything was smudged, I would have to fix it before my boss saw it. Nothing looked damaged, which is a relief. Putting the keys in the ignition, I head off on my way to work. I pass by a few cars here and there, but traffic isn't insane at these hours. It really starts to pick up around 9 in the morning, so I got the lucky work hours.

I'd been driving for only around 10 minutes when I heard a horn blast. from what sounded like a semi. In these parts they aren't exactly common, yet they're not rare either. They're speeding, and with me going slower than posted, they might want me to speed up. I flash my turn signal to tell him to go around because I wasn't going to speed up. When I look in my rear view mirror, something dawned on me. No lights were behind me, so I was kind of freaked out as to where he went. I felt something rear end me, but I still didn't even see any lights, much less an actual car. I try to regain my traction, but the wet roads weren't helping. I immediately sped up, but I got hit again, with more force this time. Somehow, I was still on the road, but I still didn't even see anything behind me. Then the third hit came, and I went straight into the ditch. I went so fast it seemed like my steering wheel turned right in the direction of it. I felt a massive impact as I hit a telephone pole and everything went black. My whole body was numb. I couldn't feel anything.

I woke up in my car what seemed around days later, but I knew it could have only been a few hours. My body felt sore, like a vigorous workout you feel the next morning. I unbuckled myself and got out. I was still in the crash zone, and my car was demolished. I looked at myself. I didn't have any cuts on my body, but I had red marks everywhere, like scratches and they created red blotches. My clothes were a different story. My shirt was bunched up and torn at the chest where I had impacted the wheel. My sleeves were ripped and my pants had holes where my knees are. I was amazed for a second, but realized something. The rain had stopped, and probably for a while, because my car was perfectly dry.

I checked my watch to see the time, but it wasn't moving. It must have broke on impact. 7:17 was the time it was frozen on. I thought I could check my phone, but it wasn't in my pocket. I went back to search the car, but it wasn't even in there. I saw my necklace, and it looked like it was hanging off something. I went to grab it, but it wouldn't budge. It almost seemed suspended because I couldn't see where it was caught. I leave it be, seeing as after I get help I can find a way to get it out later. I figured to just head back to town. I was only 7 miles out, so it shouldn't be all that bad.The sun shines down hard in the spring sky, but I don't feel hot. There's not a single cloud in sight. It feels cool out. It's strange. Almost like a perfect day, even after that awful storm.

The walk isn't even that bad. I work out a lot, so I don't tire too easily. As I begin to enter the city limits, I don't hear the normal bustle around, I don't even see any cars. Thinking about that, I didn't see any drive down either. No one was here. As I'm walking around town, I don't see or hear anything. The city turned into a ghost town, and I didn't even know why. It's actually really scary. Just as I enter the business district, I hear the sound of glass shatter. A person! I didn't care that they might have been breaking into a shop, or if they just broke something that sounded like glass. I wasn't thinking that. All I could imagine was that someone could help me find out what's happening, or rather, what happened while I was in that crash