They were going so fast, flying through the night. The road ahead and behind was dark, an abyss to swallow the headlights. Trees on both sides and stretching above were a shadowy blur as they passed.
"Slow down!" she yelled over the roar of the engine. He gritted his teeth but wouldn't answer. She knew they couldn't. There was no time for caution.
Then a shadow moved in front of them, stepping into the short beams of the headlights. Beady eyes turned on them. She screamed, he cursed, and they lost to the laws of physics as the car tried and failed to both swerve and stop. The brakes shrieked and her head slammed into the window, both cracking. Pain and dizziness flooded her as the car spun and flew, this time literally, off the road and into a tree. It hit broad side, crushing the door into her shoulder and arm.
The sounds of crumpling metal, shattering glass, breaking bones, and her pounding heart filled her ears. She didn't know what came first: the pain, the shock, or the sounds. Nothing seemed to make sense, everything seemed out of order. She couldn't move. Nausea and dizziness consumed her every time she tried to nudge her body out of its confines. She couldn't talk, only whimper.
His face was above her, tugging on her, tugging on the door, pulling her from her prison. He was mumbling incoherently. Or maybe she just couldn't really hear him over the sound of her own shock. He yanked her roughly from the car and dragged her off the road and into the woods.
Odessa's body jumped, sending bolts of sharp pain all through it, at the same time her eyes flew open and she sucked in a ragged lungful of air. She coughed and shuddered, gasping and sobbing, trying to remember what she'd just dreamed. Speed like flying. Shadows looming and jumping. The sickening thrill of spinning and a loud crunching noise coinciding with a splitting shock to her head.
She closed her eyes again and saw more clearly: a face and a voice. Pulling on her, dragging her into the woods. Running into trees and stumbling on roots and rocks, then being pushed down hard onto the frozen ground. A cold knife on her neck and warm blood on her throat. Being left to die.
She curled into a ball and shivered, remembering the cold, cold ground beneath her body as she'd lost consciousness. And then as hot tears spilled down her cheeks, she lost it again.
**********
A/N: Well that explains the broken ribs, concussion, etc. But not who but her in the woods, or why. What are your theories? Share in the comments!
YOU ARE READING
Dark as the Night
Mystery / ThrillerShe doesn't know why she was in the woods, broken and dying. She doesn't remember her past or what happened to her. But because of two boys and a camp full of refugees, she's learning about who she is - possibly for the first time. There could...
