She turned down the radio.
“You’re going too fast.”
“Relax, we’re fine,” I soothed.
I knew these woods. We were fine. I’d been partying in them for years. She gasped every time I took a sharp turn. The cars headlights only illuminated a few feet out in front of us, so I could understand why she was hanging on the edge of her seat. I decided to take a short cut and swerved left and then right. We would get there faster that way and then we could go back to having a great night. Like none of this bullshit had happened.
When I saw the clear path in front of us, I heard her breathe a sigh a relief, and I knew I had made the right decision.
Except it was too soon…
My heart dropped and pure panic took over, locking up my senses. A tree laid out in front of us a few feet ahead, probably a result from one of the last few hurricanes.
“AUSTIN!” she screamed bloody murder.
It vibrated throughout the car, and I immediately looked over at her with regret and sorrow written clear across my face. I slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. The tires spun in the mud, causing us to slide closer and closer to our destiny that waited with open arms. Alex’s screams and the sounds of branches whipping by filled the small, vacant spaces. She instinctively placed her arms over her face, and my whole life flashed before my eyes within seconds.
My parents…
My brother…
The boys…
Alex.
Half-Pint.
Her.
That’s when I remembered I didn’t have my seatbelt on. It was her life or mine.
Hers or mine.
Hers or mine.
Hers or mine.
I. Chose. Hers.
Everything from there on out happened in slow motion. I threw my body towards the passenger seat, placing my arms over her tiny frame, desperately trying to hold her back. Glass shattered all around us as metal screeched at our sides. I felt my body being thrown backward as if I was flying through the air.
I shut my eyes and awaited my fate, praying to God for the first time in my life, to please, please…
Save her.
And then…
Everything. Went. Black.
<>Briggs<>
There’s no way to describe someone’s brains being blown out of their head, splattered on the floor and walls. Time just seemed to stand still, nothing moving, including me. Sour bile burned in the back of my throat, threatening to surface. There was an unfamiliar smell lingering in the air. Whether it was the scent of blood or death, I wasn’t sure, but I would never forget it for as long as I lived.
It was now a part of me, burned into my senses whether I wanted it to be or not.
My eyes floated to a coolness I felt on my arm and I flinched sending the white matter to the floor after realizing what it was. That’s when I noticed my shirt. Red speckles splattered all over my white Superman tee. A sight I would never be able to un-see. A feeling I would never be able to un-feel. Despair washed over me, like when my parents died.
Adding to the pile that would forever haunt me.
The guy was dead, his blood not only on my clothes but also my hands. Another life lost because of me. I didn’t know how many more deaths my soul could handle.
I was doomed.
I would burn in Hell one day.
I might not have been the one who pulled the trigger, but it didn’t change the facts.
Uncle Alejandro did it for me.
That didn’t make it any better.
If anything, it only made it worse.
My eyes jerked in rapid movements, imprinting the gory details of the evening into my mind, my memory, and my soul.
Their nonchalant faces taunting me, like they didn't have a care in the world.
The kickback from the gun as it jerked back my uncle’s arm.
The flash behind it.
The sound of a bullet as it blasted through his skull, lodging into the steel door of the elevator, only a few inches away from my face.
The ringing sound in my ears caused from the blast, left me thinking I was deaf.
Blood…
Brains…
The God awful stench, imprinted.
All of it.
I took off like a bat out of Hell. I didn’t think twice about it. I ran on pure emotion and adrenaline, trying to seek shelter anyway I could. I punched the code into the service elevator as if my life depended on it. The scene wouldn’t stop playing out in front of my eyes, over and over in my mind.
On instant replay, I was powerless to stop it.
My heart pounded out of my chest and the walls felt like they were caving in with each passing second. The elevator dinged, the doors slid open and I was back in the kitchen. I pushed off the wall and ran as hard and as fast as I could for the front door. My legs burned and my body ached. I immediately tried to open the door, forgetting that it was still locked. I turned the knob, but it wouldn’t budge.
“What the fuck?!” I screamed out, barely being able to hear myself. “Fuck!” I yelled in frustration, banging on the door.