I Love You to Death

The weekend passed in the blink of an eye. I had spent the majority of the weekend with Aria who is... my girlfriend? Yeah, that seems to be the right term to describe our relationship status. I'm still unsure if the feelings I felt for her are love or not, but I definitely like her more than if she were just a friend.

One of the main reasons the weekend seemed to fly by is that I spent the majority of my time at home watching movies while cuddling my new lover. Aria was overjoyed when I brought up the idea, hugging me so tightly that I nearly suffocated.

On Sunday, we stayed at my place while binge-watching a horror movie franchise, Aria's favorite. If it weren't for the need to eat and drink, I'm sure the two of us would have stayed on that couch all day. Fortunately, the farthest we had to go was the door of my apartment, where the aforementioned essentials were delivered directly to us.

Following this pattern, Sunday flew by, and Monday has now arrived. Alongside it, came my date with Aria. We have gone on many dates before, as she made up a tenth of the dates I had over the last year in pursuit of love. This time, however, she is my girlfriend, and I need to save her. 

Aria had class this morning so she left after saying goodbye. It was at that time that I checked on her timer so I knew just how much time I had left. However, something strange happened when I checked it, that hadn't happened before.

(The day of death has come. Cause: Car Crash)

The countdown has frozen. I could no longer track it, which means I have no clue when she will die today. When I heard this, I panicked. Aria immediately noticed the change in my expression and asked me what was wrong.

I had already explained to her the voices I started hearing two days ago, and she was surprisingly accepting of the fact. I had expected her to doubt my words, but she seemed to just shrug them off, saying that I had no reason to lie to her. She became nervous however when I said she might die today.

When I told her that I could no longer tell the exact time she would die, she also started to panic a little. She soon calmed down, however, saying that she would just avoid the roads while heading to campus, and while her plan would work for the morning, We had a date in the afternoon that would require us to take some main roads.

Aria left before I could say this as she needed to rush if she wanted to make it to class on time. Sighing while shaking my head, I sent a message to her phone pleading her to be careful, and informing her that I would pick her up from campus this afternoon.

Ten minutes later, she responded to my text, accepting my arrangement. Knowing that she was safe, I set down my phone while berating her in my mind for rushing off and making me worry. I was already drained mentally, and I hadn't been up for more than an hour. 

I made my way to my bedroom to go back to sleep. I needed all the energy I could get for later. Saving Aria's life would require me to be on full alert. As my consciousness faded to black, I kept thinking of what I could do to save her.

Hours passed, until I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. My eyes shot open, and I grabbed the noisy bedside distraction. The first thing I did was look at the time. It was already quarter to three, schools out.

The person calling me must have gotten pretty impatient waiting for me, because when I finally picked up, she let me have it. "Hey dummy, what took you so long to answer? I thought you were just going to ignore me." 

Despite the provocative nature of Aria's voice, I could tell she was just joking, so I explained to her why I was late to answer. She laughed when she found out I had been asleep all morning before she told me where she would be waiting for me to pick her up.

I was a little worried that she planned for me to pick her up on the main road so I told her to wait inside until I got there. She agreed But told me to let her know when I was getting near so I wouldn't have to wait for her too long. I agreed but was still worried about her. She reassured me before saying goodbye and hanging up.

I got freshened up quickly before leaving my apartment. The railways were down for maintenance this afternoon, so I was forced to drive my car to pick Aria up. This only heightened my increasing worry, as I still didn't know when she was set to be killed. 

With a gradually increasing sense of unease, I reached the parking garage and got in my car. The quickest route to the college would take ten minutes. I let Aria know this before beginning my journey. The journey passed quickly and I was a couple of minutes away.

I called Aria to let her know I was almost there, but I was sent straight to voicemail. I tried calling her again, but nothing... Shit. I sped up, and the college was in my sight. She had told me to meet her by the main building, so that's where I went. My feeling of Unease reached a pinnacle as I got closer and closer to Aria's location, and It wasn't long before the reason for the unease was made clear. 

BAAAAAAAANGGG!!!!!!!!!!

A sound like gunshots ran out, and I could feel the control of the car slip through my hands. Sparks flew from my passenger side wheel as a screeching sound was heard all around. My front tire had exploded. I must have run over a nail or some glass. Either that or the tire pressure got too high in this heat.

The cause of this wasn't so important at the moment, as I needed to figure out what to do. I couldn't coast to a stop as there were students at the crosswalk up ahead. I couldn't pull to the side of the road as it was already lined with cars. 

If I could slow down enough, there was some grass I could drive onto 100 feet from me, the only question is how. I slammed on the brakes trying to take as much momentum away from the car as I could before I was forced to make a move.

I turned the corner, into the field of grass, where I stared face to face with the worst thing imaginable... Aria. She was sitting on a bench in the field looking at her phone while waiting for me. As the sound of screeching turned the corner, she looked up at my car in horror.

Turning the corner took almost all the remaining control I had left in the car away from me. It didn't help that I was now on grass. I had less than ten seconds to do something before my car made contact with Aria, most likely killing her.

My body seemed to move on auto-pilot. My hand subconsciously reached for the emergency brake and pulled it, while my other hand tried as hard as it could to steer my car away from Aria. Doing all I could do by myself, I left the rest up to fate.

My car began to enter a drift as the wheels dug into the grass unmovingly. The back bumper just barely passed Aria before the car began to flip. All linear momentum the car had got transformed radially, as I began to count the flips. First one, then two, then three, then four. 

As the fifth flip came to an end, the car landed roof down and proceeded to skid to a stop. Glass shards could be seen everywhere inside and outside the car. I had a couple of lacerations on my face, but luckily, all of the damage I suffered was minor.

My head was still a bit woozy as I unbuckled my seat belt to get out of the wreckage. The door itself wouldn't open, so I crawled through the window while being careful to avoid any stray pieces of glass.

After getting out of the car, I attempted to get to my feet. It was easy at first, but as I stood up, a flash of lightheadedness took over, and I began to stumble. Just when I thought I was bound to hit the ground, a pair of comforting arms wrapped around me, as someone's head was driven into my chest.

I could feel a teary wetness begin to soak my chest, as my arms wrapped around the lady holding me reciprocatingly. Aria tightened her grasp on me when she felt this, and she started crying harder.

"I thought I lost you, you big dumb idiot. When I saw that car coming around the corner, I thought I was dead. Then I was relieved when it missed me, only to become worried again when I realized it was you inside the car." Aria spoke frantically into my chest, almost inaudibly through the sound of her tears.

"With each flip of your car, I could feel my heart wrench in sadness. If you didn't come out as soon as you did, I was going to rush over and drag you out." As Aria continued her tirade. I looked back on today's events, disapointedly.

What was I thinking driving a car here? I knew that a car crash would be the cause of Aria's death. How stupid could I be to think that I couldn't have been the driver that did it? Negative thoughts hijacked my brain, as they began to spread like a virus.

A minute passed in silence, as Aria continued to cry, while I continued to think. She loosened her grip on me and brought her face away from my chest before looking into my eyes. I don't know what expression I had on my face at the moment, but it definitely wasn't a good one.

Before I could react, Aria grabbed the sides of my face, forcing me to make eye contact in a state of surprise as she comforted me. "Don't you dare blame yourself, Leo? It's not all your fault. When you told me about this two days ago, I said I would help you. Despite that, I didn't stop you either when you said you would drive to pick me up."

"I failed to keep my promise to you, and it nearly cost us both of our lives, So don't you dare blame yourself." Her words helped a little and my expression softened, but I couldn't shake off my feelings of guilt so easily. I kept thinking about what I would do If I truly was the cause of her death. I would be unable to forgive myself.

Aria must have noticed that my thoughts were slipping again as she pouted slightly before pulling my face down to her level. She then proceeded to push her lips against mine while once again constricting my movement with her arms.

I let her do what she wanted, as I stood there dazed for a while before finally kissing her back. So there we stood, surrounded by the wreckage of my car, and a large group of college students, Aria and I stood, kissing.

When we finally broke from our kiss, we were both desperate for air. She stared at me with an expression that could only be described as one of love and obsession. It took a while for the both of us to calm down, as Aria hugged me again while shaking. In a barely audible tone, I heard Aria whisper something as the cops pulled onto the scene.

"I love you to death, idiot."

...

In a void of shadows and darkness, Lady Death broke into uncontrollable laughter as she heard the words that Aria muttered.