prologue

Elena Murray

It is raining heavily, as always. The rain not helping me drive as the windscreen wipers struggle to keep it at bay, but I couldn't care less, not when I just needed to get home, to bury myself in my duvet and forget that this day even existed.

I huff in annoyance as my car wheels screech against the road as I take a badly calculated U-turn, the trunk of my car almost hitting the car behind, causing me to internally curse myself for getting drunk.

I will be honest, getting drunk today wasn't really part of my plan, but when my father told me that he was getting married to some Caribbean bimbo only three weeks after my mum passed away, and my brother leaving for military service this morning, with me losing my job only three days ago, it really did put the S in stress, leaving me to drink my sorrows away.

I rubbed my eyes with one hand while my other rested on the steering wheel as I pressed my foot down on the accelerator. I probably shouldn't be diving this fast in the heavy rain and drunken state, but I couldn't care less, not when I was driving home, my sanctuary of peace, the only place where I could truly be me.

Most of the roads are empty, with only a few cars on the streets. I wouldn't say I'm surprised by this, seeing that it is well past midnight and the weather isn't looking friendly either.

I slow down when I spot a red light in the distance through my blurry vision, coming to a swift halt beside the light when it doesn't change colour. I close my eyes for a few brief moments, enjoying the silence, haunted by the sweet words of my mother in the car.

She would have gotten a heart attack if she'd seen me drunk driving in the rain and probably would have joked about me killing her before she reached eighty with my stupidity.

I open my eyes, my throat closing in on itself for the hundredth time today as my eyes water, knowing that she would never reach eighty when she barely made it to fifty. Ma didn't deserve what she got, she deserved better, a thousand times better.

She didn't deserve dad's problems, or my stupidity, or my brother's recklessness. She only deserved happiness, a world full of joy and nothing else, but she didn't get that. She only got hurt, pain and sorrow.

The tears come cascading down as the light changes from red to green, causing me to push down on the accelerator harder than before, breaking the speed limit. Did I care? No. Would I care tomorrow? Probably.

I am driving at 90 miles per hour by the time I make it across the city. The adrenaline from the speed helps me cool my nerves while the tears make it even harder for me to see through the rain.

I tell myself to stop and park, to wait out the rain, but I don't. Instead, I quickly speed up to about 100 miles per hour, so that the scenery around me becomes a quick blur.

Time seems to stop and hold its breath when a blinding light has me covering my eyes, my head smashing against the back of my seat before it reels forwards to smack against the steering wheel, only to be stopped by an air bag which muffles my scream of surprise.

I try to get up but I can't, the collision having left me completely paralysed as I try to collect myself. The impact having given my head a concussion, while my arm is left to bleed out from the broken glass of the windscreen.

I try to lift my head to see what's happened, but I can't. It feels heavy, with my neck also crying out in pain at the forced movement, causing me to stop my movement as I lay there trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

Hopefully I didn't run over a pedestrian, because that would definitely send me to prison. I hope it was just a car crash with no one in the other car sustaining any major injuries, or better yet, a tree crash. Maybe I just bumped into a tiny tree and I will get out of this with no big injuries.

Okay, I doubt it's a tree, seeing that I saw a white light flashing towards me before I saw my whole entire life slipping through my fingers, so my best bet is car crash.

My thoughts come to a sudden halt as I hear someone curse loudly near my car, I try lifting my head again, but all I manage is a grimace and a moan full of pain when my head and neck spasm in pain.

Whoever is near my door curses even louder as they yank  it open.

"Shit, shit, shit..." a stranger bursts out saying.

"Fuck, Liam I need back up, " comes the stranger's gruff voice as he lifts my head up ,causing me to wheeze in pain," Fuck.... She's bleeding out....she needs medical help."

His voice cuts off when he begins to unhook my seatbelt, his movements hurried and his eyes frantic as they find mine. I will be honest, I'm too disorientated to actually see much, my mind is too hazy as the man taps on my cheek and shouts something at me.

I try listening to what he's saying  but its to much, so I just slum forward so that he understands that I am way too tired to care about the crap he's saying.

Instead of taking it as a sign to get lost and hopefully never come back, he lifts me out of my seat, so that I am know facing the freezing cold rain which just makes me shiver in pain. Why couldn't he just leave me to die alone?

Before I know it, he has me sitting in a car, driving off to God knows where. I try to fully open my eyes, but it doesn't work as I feel myself drifting off into a dark abyss.

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Wake up. wake up.

Open eyes. I tell myself, but it doesn't work, my eyes feel as though they'd been glued shut for God knows how long.

I knew waking up in the morning was difficult, but never this difficult. I try forcing my eyes open, the bright light of the new day hurting them as they flutter open. I try to rub them. When I realise I can't, my wrists are restrained by some scary looking machines, one of which is a heart monitor, causing  my eyes to bulge out of their sockets as I frantically look around the room.

My chest heaving with panic when I realise I wasn't in my room... or in my bed, but a hospital room...

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