Reality Check : : Barry Allen (REWRITING)

10

"Sweetie, time to wake up." I groan slightly as someone pokes me repeatedly. Wait, isn't that Mum's voice?

"Mum? What's going on?" I ask. I'm in a parked car, sitting in the back. Mum's kneeling beside me, crouching on the dirt outside the car.

"Surprise!" She says, grinning. I frown in confusion; the Flashverse was just a dream? I sigh in relief. "We'll be leaving again in a bit. I just thought you should wake up now since we're gonna be there in another hour or so."

"What? Where're we going?" I ask.

"Honey, we wouldn't have carried you out of bed and put you in the car -humiliating ourselves in the process- if we were just going to tell you straight away where we're going." Mum points out. I nod understanding.

"Is she up?" Dad? He's back from his Broadway job?

"She is." Mum grins, standing and stepping back so that she and Dad can stand side by side outside the car. He wraps an arm around Mum's shoulders affectionately and I haven't seen them this happy in a while. Whatever this surprise is, they must be excited.

"Let's get back on the road then." Dad says with a sense of adventure in his tone; wherever we're going, we've never been there before. Maybe it's Disneyland or something.

"Wait, we need a picture first." Mum squeals, pulling out her phone. I get out of the car and we stand in a group, striking various ridiculous poses.

"Okay, okay. I think that's enough shenanigans for now. There's plenty of time for more when we get there." Dad chuckles, giving me a wink to remind me that he knows what I don't about this sudden trip.

"Lance, don't be such a tease." Mum scolds, walking around to her side of the car and opening the door. "We need to get going anyway if we want to be there in time."

"In time for what?" I ask innocently.

"Now who's being a tease?" Dad accuses, both of them cracking up laughing and leaving me wondering where on earth we could possibly be going. Mum starts the car and we're off again, then Dad groans.

"Debby, turn around. We have to go back." He says, looking over at his wife with a sad look on his face.

"What? Why?" I ask. Mum sighs.

"Did you forget the thing?" She asks. Dad nods.

"I left it on the bed." He says.

"Are you sure?" Mum sounds slightly annoyed, and I can tell she's doing the maths in her head to see what time we'll arrive now that we have to go back for whatever this thing is.

"Positive." Dad says. Suddenly neither of them are as happy as they were a few minutes ago when I woke up.

"Okay, let's try to make it as quickly as we can." Mum sounds super serious as she slows the car down before turning it around and driving back the way we just came.

I lean back in my seat, having no idea how long this is going to take or why we're even doing it in the first place. I stare out the window and slowly, my eyelids get heavy and close.

The next time they open, we're in a populated area rather than the middle of nowhere. How long was I asleep?

"Mum?" I ask tiredly.

"Don't worry, honey. We'll be home in about ten minutes, then we can get going again." She tells me.

"Okay." I mumble. Dad's asleep in his seat, an open packet of lollies on his lap. I smile slightly at the sight.

I missed this, and that dream about losing them was a little too real.

"Wow, the weather sure has changed since we left." Mum mumbles, and I watch her lean forward so that she can see better through the windscreen.

The weather hasn't just changed since we left though, it's changed in the past thirty seconds.

"Mum, stop!" I yell, but it's too late. Just as I finish speaking, I can feel the car getting launched into the air and a scream bubbles up in my throat.

Everything seems to go in slow motion as things start floating up around me... Only they aren't floating up; they're being thrown by the inertia caused by the impact.

Glass shatters and I can feel Mum's seat pushing back onto me from the impact at the same time as a tree branch breaks through my window and slices through part of my arm. We're upside down, all three of us hanging by our seatbelts. Pain starts in my legs and travels to my lower back, where it stays and intensifies.

I can't hear anything but a loud ringing noise, and I can feel a liquid running down my arms that I know is blood. I don't have the energy to move anything, and soon enough I succumb to unconsciousness.

Now you know.