The Third Man

Chapter 5 - The Dream

It was an autumn full moon night, the winding road seemed to welcome his car, covering the whole road with leaves. The song 'Close To You' was playing, a little louder than usual, but it didn't seem to bother him, even though he had always found the song a little annoying. Peter was waiting for this day since a long time. He should be happy, but he felt hollow and sad and he didn't know why. He looked at the seat beside him, there was a little boy sitting on it, imitating handling of the steering wheel, as if he was driving the car.

Kids and there innocence. Peter always found it adorable. He grinned thinking about it.

Wait.

'There is something strange about this kid' Peter thought.

Peter looked at him again, the kid's head was already turned towards him. Peter's face turned pale white from horror.

The kid didn't had a face.

No eyes. No nose. No ears. No hair. Peter's heart was pounding in his chest, eyes transfixed at the sight in shock. Suddenly the tyre of the car hit a rock and bumped. Peter looked ahead of the window pane, traumatized. He was heading straight to the side of the road into the crash barrier. He went into a state of confusion, and instead of pushing break, accelerated the car. The car collided head on with the crash barrier. The force of the collision lifted the cars hind wheels into the air.

The song started replaying.

'Why do birds suddenly appear,

Everytime, you are near......'

Time was moving so much slower than it usually did. Peter felt everything happening around him clearly. Peter's hands were on the steering wheel and he had his seatbelt on. This kept him from being thrown out of the vehicle. He saw the airbags opening to protect his face. Parts of window glass shattering into thousand small pieces, each twinkling like diamonds in moonlight, passing past his face.

He realised that the seatbelt securing the kid to the seat gave way. He was slowly flying towards the window. Peter wanted to get hold of him but somehow he just couldn't, instead he kept staring at him. First the kid's head made contact with the glass that was still intact, slowly pushing and breaking it's way out, starting to bleed. His fragile neck wasn't able to withstand the force and bent at an awkward angle, his body thrusting him forward, until his whole body had broken free out of the car.

Peter witnessed every moment of the accident with precise detail, his mind filled with horror, unable to process the events of the night. He wasn't able to move from his place. The song growing louder and louder, undisturbed by silence, rendered after the accident. He was trying to breathe, but it was getting very difficult. He tried harder and harder, each breath making a loud wheezing sound. The air he was breathing was strangely cold, very cold, piercing his lungs like needles.

Peter woke up startled, gasping for breath. His heart was pounding, reverberating through him, pulsing in his throat, echoing in his ears.

He gulped down several mouthful of air till he felt somewhere near normal. He was lying in an awkward position. Everything in front of him felt hazy. It took him few seconds to remember that he had fallen deeper into the crevasse. Strangely the song in his dream was still playing, breaking the perfect silence. It was then that he remembered it was his alarm he set for nine in the morning. He was processing things faster now, he had fallen in the crevasse at around thirteen hundred hours yesterday. He did the math. He was probably unconscious for twenty hours, that was pretty bad. If he had any major injuries which required immediate care it might have gotten worse, which meant he was staring death in it's face.

Just as he moved to get up, he felt a sharp stinging pain in his left bicep. He let out a blood curdling cry, which kept echoing in the crevasse. The pain was making it impossible for him to move, to breath. He was forcing his breath out, making a loud wheezing noise. He slowly turned his head to look at his hand.

What he saw next sent shivers down his spine. His ice axe was protruding out of his left bicep, piercing it through and through.

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