Darkness in the Afternoon Sky

Excerpt
***
Cate:

The raucous sound of grinding metal echoed in my ears, sending violent tremors through my body.

Someone just slammed into us.

The thought was a wild refrain filtering through my shock and confusion. Dad's limp, silent body pressed against mine, cold and wet. When the car stopped sliding, my heart was a rabbit in my ribcage, kicking furiously. Blood stained my clothes and my hands shook. I couldn't shake the sense of wrongness reverberating through my bones. The steering wheel jutted out at an odd angle, pressing at a pain that grew nearly numb. I closed my eyes, willing that strange, desperate noise to stop. What was that noise?
I calmed down enough to see that it was my breathing. Overcome with panic, my lungs became a prison for air, burning and heaving... I shook my head, pressing hard against the immovable steering wheel. I looked out the broken window, and couldn't see the road. The car was flipped over.
An ugly noise throbbed through the darkness, and I covered my ears, mopping up red near my forehead.
It was me. I was screaming.