Remnant Of The Gods

Chapter 6

The moment someone bumped into me on their way to the accident sprang my awareness back and I started moving. Simon raced towards the road with me puffing and panting beside him. Don't let it happen again, don't let it be him. I chanted in my head as I ran. I stopped as I came across the accident, Simon pushing past me as he tried to help. I couldn't see anything under the truck - it was almost as if the car had been made of tin foil in the way it had folded onto itself. How could anyone survive this? The darkness started to close in as I fought to stay focused.

"ANTHONY!" Simon yelled, moving around the car to the back and into the window of, "TONY can you hear me, oh my god." I breathes as I realised that the car had spin, crushing the back of the car rather than the front and I could see Tony and Lisa drooped limply in their seats. Simon beat against the windows, looking for some form of life from either of the cars. Each time he called for Tony he would look back at me as I slowly crept forward, my movements becoming disjointed as I saw the wreckage close-up.

Simon tried to pull open the doors but they were damaged beyond repair, the front of the car warped by the initial impact, leaving him no chance of getting to the occupants. Tony's car was a lot more damaged than the truck though, at least he was protected in some way by the impact which had hit on Lisa's driver side door.

The truck driver emerged from his vehicle and tried to help but was panicking too much to be of any real help so others ushered him away from the rescue efforts. Simon tried to break with windows of Tony's car seeing, and knowing, that there was nothing he could do for Lisa. He then tried the windscreen as others started to bang on the windows as well but all he had, all anyone had was their bare hands so they just kept beating on the windows with a sense of hope that was slowly fading within me. As the truck gave a groan and moved, Simon drew back suddenly looking at something on the ground slowly pooled at his feet as he uttered a sharp expletive. A few of the others backed up a few paces, looking nervous.

The puddle passed the car and continued to travel between each of the feet of the now backpedaling rescuers. Its colours would have been amazing to look at on a summer's day, as the colours travelled in a rainbow across the ground. The blue-red glaze shined brightly against the asphalt as it crept along the ground, moving constantly to display its magnificent colours. I wished I appreciated the glory of all of those colours against the black ground and the beautiful art that it made but in those minutes, Simon's beating increased tenfold. Simon had realised what it was, well before I did as I stared at all of the colours. The movement from the truck drew my attention then as my gaze travelled to the truck as a cup or container fell out of the window.The smallest flicker of light caught my attention. It was a cigarette, once held by the cup on the dash of the truck and was now dropping from in between the small gap at the top of the lid.

"GET BACK" someone yelled to me, looking more fearful then I had ever seen him before. He eyes were wide with panic as the sensation of impending doom rushed over me as he ran towards me, "GO, RUN, IT'S-"

It was only a fraction of a second as I watched in a trance-like horror as the cigarette reached the ground, drifting lightly through the air. It gracefully landed and the wind blew it off to the side to meet with the pool of liquid on the ground. Simon was waving his hands, screaming, and indicating for me to go down, move, do anything, as he ran. Instead I ran towards him, pushing now to reach Tony and Lisa, I had to do something.

Both cars exploded into flames just as Simon caught me, falling on top of me and forcing me to the ground underneath him as we fell. He was protecting me from the blast as the sound echoed around us causing me to quiver in fear though I tried in vain to see what had happened.

All the while as I watched my ears were ringing as I heard a horrible scream, piercing my ears and hurting my head. It was only when Simon got up, cradling me against him and rocking me quietly that I realised it was coming from me. As he rocked me, the time that had slowed during the crash seemed to catch up to us as I sat in his arms like a child.

Simon looked back to see the now flaming wreckage not too far from where we had landed. He rushed to draw out his cell phone like many of the others the surrounded us while keeping one arm around me, calling for help as he rushed through the information to get them here as quickly as possible. I just stared at the two cars as they were flaming with small crackles like that of a warm fireplace, I could just feel the heat of the cars as they burned.

Picking me up off of the ground, Simon huddled me against him as we waited for the emergency crew to arrive. I initially tried fighting his grip but it was no use, there was nothing we could do now as the flames licked up the sides of the vehicles. It would be suicide to try to get to them now.

It had only been a few minutes between when we left the foyer to when the ambulances arrived but it had felt so much longer. The paramedics they gave me a once-over, pushing past the people who had stopped to ask if I was okay and noted that I needed assistance. A light haired paramedic then came around and treated some of the wounds I had on my arms and the side of my face and then moved to continue doing the same for everyone else. Simon refused their help even though his wounds were a lot worse than me as he had protected me from the blow. He was pacing around me, circling in a tight bubble probably trying to keep me in one spot and stop anyone else from asking me questions.

No matter how much they tried to cover the bodies I could still see them. I would always see them.

The shadows set in as the sun's light diminished behind the grey clouds as it began to rain on the blazing car. The towering building next to us loomed menacingly as its shadow crept along the ground, moving closer to us though I knew from the raised hairs on the back of my neck that it wasn't the only one. As I stared across the road, the familiar blurred form across the street in between the now separated vehicles. It was the moving shadow from the cemetery and once again, it had captured my unwavering attention.

Simon begun to get me moving, slowly walking in front of me as I has reached and eerie calm, staring off at the blurred figure. He headed towards the police and began talking to them, I saw Simon moving away from me and toward the police out the corner of my eye, waving an arm towards me so I would follow. My eyes and body refused to move though, fixated on the shadow that tried to blend in with the road all the while, it watched me as well. There was no way, no indication for me to tell but I could feel it looking at me.

The fire from the cars slowly dying from the effort of the rain and the firefighters began to illuminate the shadow as it stood still, staring straight back at me, the two red embers rising to my stare. Our eyes were locked together as I made out the figure that stared back at me from the shadows. The longer I stared, the longer the flames seemed to suck me into their depths.

"Hey," I jolted forward as Simon grabbed my shoulder and gave me a small shake, breaking my focus of the shadow and bringing me back to reality. My temper flared for a moment, a touch of darkness clouding the edges of my eyes but I refrained - What was that? I hadn't even noticed Simon was back but I welcomed his company now that he had returned, my temper cooling as I tried to bring my emotions under control. This was Simon. I looked back to where the fiery eyes loomed but couldn't see them any longer. Was I going crazy?

Simon helped me move again with a small tug under my arms, helping me regain my balance as pins and needles set into my hands. Flexing my hands, trying to rid myself of the pain I walked with him, moving towards a police vehicle and I looked up at him questioningly. Simon sighed and pointed into the car, indicating that we had to go.

Lisa had been smiling and thanking me. I had just made amends with my father. How had everything gone from bad to worse?