Silence *

TW

After a good two hours of unsettling silence, I could no longer contain my frustration. Summoning a surge of audacity, I confronted Colin directly, locking eyes with him as he remained impassive, gazing absentmindedly through the window. I won't wait anymore.

"Colin, for heaven's sake, why are you, at one time, ignoring me and the other time being a complete jerk to me?" I could sense a flicker of reaction in him, so I pressed further, determined to break through his wall of silence and that cocky face.

"This peculiar aloofness of yours... You were a jerk from the moment I met you but you weren't like this- ignorant red headed punk, was it because I ran away?" I remarked, knowing full well that it struck a chord with him. His composure shattered as he abruptly interjected, his words severed by an abrupt disturbance.

"And what do you expect me to do?" he began, but before he could finish, darkness enveloped everything. I was plunged into an abyss, devoid of vision.

Amidst the void, a voice echoed, faintly beckoning me. My head throbbed with disorientation, and my body ached with a dull pain.

"Al--" The fragments of sound swirled around me, unintelligible at first. Gradually, as if emerging from a haze, I regained my senses. The voice grew louder, clearer, but the ringing in my ears didn't stop.

"Alice!" The familiar but muffled cry reached my ears, still tinged with distance. I struggled to open my eyes, battling against the lingering haziness. Eventually, with a tremendous effort, my weary eyelids fluttered open. The world before me remained blurred, yet I could discern the owner of the voice.

"Colin," I murmured weakly, attempting to clear my sight. And there he was, standing before me, an unexpected expression etched across his face—worry. Tears glistened in his eyes.

"Alice! Fucking hell you scared the shit out of me!" His voice quivered with relief as he wrapped me in a gentle embrace. I instinctively returned the embrace, feeling the residual pain coursing through my body making me hiss..

.

.

Leaning wearily against the sturdy trunk of a tree, I winced as sharp fragments of glass dug into my side, causing me immense discomfort. My head throbbed painfully, and blood trickled down my face from a wound inflicted during the accident. Colin, who had miraculously escaped with only a few bruises, told me that I must have struck my head. As he approached me, concern etched across his face, I snapped out of my dazed thoughts.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice tinged with worry.

Forcing a smile, I replied, "Yeah." However, my smile faded quickly as a pressing question emerged. "What happened?"

Colin's gaze lingered on me for a moment before he began to speak, his tone heavy with the weight of the recent events. "A car crashed into us. The driver died instantly. We were driving, and suddenly, there was this deafening noise of metal colliding. I blacked out. When I regained consciousness, I saw the lifeless body of the driver impaled by shards of our vehicle. That's when I snapped back to reality, checked on you, and managed to get you out from the car. The strange thing was, when I went to check on the driver of the other car, there is no other way to put this, but he was nowhere to be found." Colin glanced at me, his eyes searching for answers. Lost in my own thoughts, I contemplated the absence of the driver. Either he had fled the scene or...perhaps there never was a driver to begin with.

"I know what you are thinking, and I think you are right, if there really wasn't any driver what was this all about then?" Colin wondered and the realization hit me."You don't think that-"

Colin stopped me mid sentence "We don't know that yet, all we know was that the driver wasn't there, we can't jump into conclusions. They left the car here, now we just have to figure out what happened."

I nodded, trying to adjust a bit, "yeah, I suppose you're right..." The instant I shifted my torso, a wave of pain flew through my body. Clearly, the sudden movement hadn't been the wisest idea. Colin hurried over to me "Hey, what is it?" he said slightly panicking.

I mustered a smile, though the pain was unmistakably etched on my face. "It's nothing, I'll be fine," I reassured him. "Yeah, I don't think so, what is it?" His gaze remained fixed on mine, waiting for an answer.

"It's my side..." I muttered, lifting my black hoodie slightly to reveal the bleeding cuts. His eyes widened, "why the hell didn't you say anything?!" His gaze momentarily shifted away from me, scanning the surroundings. I was looking at him confused as he abruptly dashed back to the car. He returned with a piece of fabric and crouched down beside me.

"What are you..." I began, but before I could finish, he gently began patting around the wounded area.

"Ah!" I grunted in pain once again, causing him to halt his actions. "Sorry," he apologized before resuming. I found myself unable to tear my eyes away from him, a burning question escaping my lips. "Why were you avoiding me?" His hand froze, his gaze meeting mine. In that moment we locked eyes and an unspoken silence surrounded us.