by D. Breeze
Her parting words bounced around my brain, she was right, in a way, I didn’t belong in society, my ‘gift’ made me different. But never, not ever, had I had doubts about her as strong as they were when I was lying there. I knew realistically, Jamie didn’t know about my ‘gift’, but still, he was nice to me and he didn’t think I needed to be alone. He wanted to know me.
I needed my phone, I wanted to text him. That was safe, mother would never know about texting. I didn’t even think she knew I had a phone until Jamie told her he had it. I’d bought it myself from skimming money off the bills every month. I know it’s stealing, but she never would have noticed and I wanted to have one for emergencies. It’s not safe for girls to be out on their own anymore. I was lying there thinking about it when I must have drifted off to sleep.
~*~*~*~*~
I was dreaming, but visions come to me in my sleep too and that one, it took over my dreams and I instantly woke up. I was engulfed by panic but I had to let it play out before I could react.
He’s male. I know that, and he’s in trouble, what trouble? I can’t tell. There’s the sound of creaking metal, a lot of crashing, banging, screeching. The noise is unbearable...but not in my ears...just in my mind. I can smell...I’m not sure what it is, petrol maybe? Oh no! It’s a crash, a bad crash, but I can only see one car? Surely with a crash there’d be another car involved? The images are so blurry, as if my own mind doesn’t want me to see them. A field, a tree, a mangled wreck of a car, sparks, smoke...gosh...it’s all so messy.
I need to move, I need to see the front, the side...anything that’s closer than I already am. I try for it, so so hard that my brain aches.
No no no, that can’t be right...I don’t want to see this. Harvey flashes before my eyes, unconscious I think, or at least he’s not moving. Blood runs down the side of his face and his head lies at a funny angle across the steering wheel. Even though I know it’s him, I feel like I need to see more, where is he? How the hell did he get in that mess?
I suddenly realise that he’s in the field next to college. Why would he be there at night-time? Shoot. But he’s hurt, badly. He needs help and there is no one there to give him it.
That was another reason I hated my ‘gift’. I had a decision to make, if I ignored it, Jamie could lose his brother and his parents could lose one of their sons. But if I told him? He’d know, he’d probably tell people. Oh no, oh gosh...I had no idea what to do. Then I had a flashback of something Jamie had said earlier. ‘He’ll always be my brother, and I love him, I would never want anything to happen to him’
Decision made.
Well, in all honestly, with Jamie’s words playing on repeat in my mind, there was no decision to make. I jumped up from the bed and raced down the stairs faster than my legs wanted to move. I felt like it was all on me, I had to get Jamie, we had to save Harvey, if he died, it would be on my conscience forever and I really didn’t want to live with that.
I dashed out the front door, not bothering to check that my mum was asleep first and ran straight across the front lawns to Jamie’s house. I knocked my fist loudly on the front door but cringed when Mrs Travis...damn...Cheryl opened it. She frowned down at me before speaking in a hushed voice.
“Goodness me Rhianne, it’s almost eleven o’clock, what on earth is the matter?”
“Please, please, Mrs Travis, Cheryl, please can you get Jamie for me? I know it’s late, but it’s important.” I was panting for breath but I needed her to hurry up! She seemed to sense my urgency and asked if I wanted to come in but I shook my head and just repeated, “Could you please just get Jamie for me?”
She spoke softly up the stairs and within seconds, he came jogging down the steps looking all tousled and sexy but I didn’t have time to ogle him.
“Ree? What’s up? What’s so urgent? If you wanted your phone, you could have waited until tomorrow you know!” He joked.
“I don’t have time for this! Grab your keys, we have to leave NOW!” I demanded.
He looked slightly taken aback by my urgency and his brow furrowed but he moved straight to the kitchen and I heard him grab his keys. He jogged back to the hallway and shoved his feet in his trainers. He didn’t have a top or socks on, and he was only wearing denim shorts but he told his mum he’d be back in a while, to which I heard a soft, “Ok, drive carefully son”.
I cringed at her words, maybe one son drove carefully, but the other definitely didn’t.
Jumping in the car, he reversed off the drive and then stopped. He looked over at me and suggested, “How about you first tell me where we’re driving, then you can take the time to explain to me why the hell we’re out at all?”
He sounded slightly annoyed at me, but then I didn’t blame him considering I’d clearly gotten him out of bed.
“Drive to the fields next to college...” I told him and he started driving so I continued. “Right ok, so here’s the thing, this is not going to make any sense to you, but Harvey either has already, or will soon, be in a car crash and he’s hurt, or he will be hurt, and oh god Jamie...can’t you go any faster?”
He raised an eyebrow at me in disbelief but he didn’t stop driving and I was grateful seeing as I was sure we didn’t have any time to waste. He didn’t respond, and I didn’t explain further. He didn’t even bother to put the music on, we just drove in silence. As we rounded the island near college, I heard it. So did Jamie, not surprisingly considering it was loud, but he immediately turned to stone and threw a confused look my way. He slammed his foot on the accelerator so hard the wheels spun and screeched, making me wince.
The noise was deafening, so I knew we were close, the sound of creaking metal, a lot of crashing, banging, screeching, exactly the same as my vision. I saw the wreck as soon as we were close and Jamie slammed his foot on the break, it was a good thing that I was wearing a seat belt because my frame jerked forward and I hissed out a breath as the belt cut into the flesh along my collar bone.
Ouch.
My head snapped on impact as the car hit the curb and came to a stop. It took a few moments for my vision to clear but Jamie was already out of the car and running towards the smashed up wreck.
I opened the door and swung my legs to the side and was nearly hit by another car as it sped past but skidded to a halt in front of Jamie’s.
The stench of burning rubber was rife in the air, but I took deep breaths through my mouth and tried to ignore it. I walked past the red car at the curb, but I stopped in my tracks when I glanced through the window and saw that Mikaela was sat in the driver’s seat, staring at the scene in front of us. She was deathly pale, but her eyes were red and puffy. She didn’t even blink when I tapped on the window; it was like she was in a trance.
I knocked harder to get her attention and she jumped so high she banged her head on the roof of the car. Had it have been under any other circumstances I probably would have laughed but there really was nothing funny at that moment. She frowned up at me but opened the door and stepped out.
“Are you ok?” I asked stupidly. She clearly did not look ok.
“This is all my fault...it’s his fault...but this is my fault” She kept mumbling, she wasn’t talking to me, I think she was talking to herself. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused, like she wasn’t with me at all.
“Um, Mikaela...” I started, then cleared my throat and asked, “Would you like me to do anything? It will be fine now, Jamie’s here, he’ll get him out.” I don’t really know if I was trying to convince her or myself but still. She was constantly mumbling incomprehensible words under her breath so I turned and ran the rest of the distance to the wreckage.
As I got closer, it was still hard to see being as it was pitch black all around us, but I could see Jamie yanking at the door and screaming at Harvey to wake up. He did a double-take when he realised I was close but then resumed the task of trying to rouse Harvey.
I felt useless, completely and utterly useless. I just stood there staring at the scene before me, wonder
ing if this crash had anything to do with my vision earlier in the day with Mikaela crying in the field. It made sense, they were both there, and she was blaming herself, but blaming him as well. My brain ached, I wanted to understand just what had happened.
Like a bolt of lightning, I heard a loud crack/bang/rumble noise, like nothing I’d ever heard and I flinched at the noise. But when I looked back, Jamie didn’t seem to have noticed and Mikaela was still standing in the same position. I realised the sound was in my head and frowned because that wasn’t normal, not even for me. But before I could think it through too much, flames were dancing in front of my eyes like an explosion. It was like a vision, on top of reality, it scared me and my entire body started to tremble uncontrollably.
I shouted at Mikaela in desperation for her to call an ambulance, which seemed to snap her out of her trance and I watched long enough for her to grab her phone, then I ran the rest of the distance to help Jamie.
“JAMIE, YOU NEED TO GET HIM OUT OF THAT CAR AND MOVE AWAY...NOW!” I screamed as frantically as I could.
“I CAN’T FUCKIN’ MOVE HIM, HE COULD HAVE A SPINAL INJURY OR SOMETHING!”
“ARGHHH! WOULD YOU LISTEN, YOU HAVE TO MOVE HIM, THE WHOLE THING IS GONNA EXPLODE! I CAN SMELL PETROL!” My voice was hoarse from the volume but he needed to listen to me.
He stared at me for a few beats, then put one foot against the body of the car and wrenched with all his strength to open the car door. It opened with a loud creak and Jamie reached in but seemed like he was struggling with something.
Reaching the wrangled mess of metal that used to be a car, though not much of it was really left intact, I tugged on Harvey’s arm but Jamie said the seat belt wouldn’t unbuckle. Everything was chaotic, we kept banging heads and getting our arms caught but it was urgent! I could feel it. I pulled the rest of the belt out as far as it would go and screamed at him to lift Harvey upwards out of it.
Getting him out after that wasn’t as difficult but as soon as he was free, Jamie fell to the ground with Harvey on top of him, still unconscious.
Oh no, there wasn’t time for that!
I could hear sirens in the distance and sent a silent thank you to whoever got them there quickly but we weren’t safe, the sparks from the engine were flying everywhere and I could still smell petrol. I knew the explosion was imminent so I shoved my hands under Harvey’s arms, hefted him off Jamie and started dragging him backwards towards the road.
Let me just say, a six foot one, stocky male, is not light. I had barely dragged him a few feet before Jamie was next to me, he was breathing heavily and was sweating profusely, but he put his arms under Harvey’s body and lifted him over his shoulder. I wondered if we might have been too late, he didn’t seem to be responding at all, it was horrible to watch. He might have been an arrogant, rude, mind my language, asshole most of the time, but seeing such a built, strong, athletic boy looking so out-of-it and broken, it was really really awful.
As Jamie bent to put Harvey down, I felt it. The explosion shook the ground beneath my feet and I rocked backwards from the force of it. The heat from the flames hit my face so I ran backwards away from it. Jamie threw his body over Harvey’s to shield him from the blaze, but thankfully we were all just far enough back not to get injured...more than we already were.
I looked at the twins on the ground and tears pricked my eyes at the sight. Harvey had that. Harvey had a brother who would put his own life at risk to save him, and physically shield him with his own body. He really didn’t know how lucky he was.
The sirens were growing louder and I saw the blue flashing lights at the end of the road so for the first time in, what was probably only minutes, but felt like hours, I let out a sigh of relief. My part was done, I’d done all I could and we saved him.
Oh, my, god! I’d played a part in saving someone’s life! The realisation took the wind out of me and I must have blocked out the entire Harvey/paramedics/ambulance scene because next thing I knew, I was being jostled into the back of the ambulance with Jamie, sat next to Harvey who was lying on a stretcher.
My whole body was wracked with the shakes and I couldn’t even control my own breathing. My lungs started to burn like I was breathing in fire. I was gasping for air and I had to fight down the feelings of nausea rising within my body. One of the paramedics covered my mouth with an oxygen mask and tried encouraging me to deep breath. I couldn’t though, it was almost like there just wasn’t enough air.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced right to look up at Jamie.
He was filthy, his skin was glistening with sweat and he had a gash that ran diagonally from his hairline to his eye-brow. It was only about two inches long but I didn’t like that cut, at all, I didn’t like that he’d been injured even a little.
“You’re going through an adrenaline crash, do what the paramedic says, breath deep. In through your nose and out through your mouth. You can do it” He repeated ‘in through your nose and out through your mouth’ a few times and eventually I could suck in a good breath of air and the shaking subsided...slightly.
The paramedics were chattering medical jargon, which I didn’t understand a word of, but I focused my attention on Harvey and what they were doing. His head was in some sort of yellow, padded, box thing? I assumed it was to prevent him from moving it, but I figured if he really did have a spinal injury, being dragged and then carried across a field would probably have done irreparable damage anyway.
One of them put a needle in the crease on the inside of his arm and drew blood, while the other one was monitoring some sort of machine at the side of him. Harvey was already covered in wires and had an oxygen mask over his face, I was too busy freaking out to even notice when they did that. I hadn’t thought about Mikaela either, I had no idea what had happened to her.
In no more than about five minutes, we were being shuffled out of the ambulance outside the hospital. Harvey was rushed in ahead of us and I suddenly realised that I had no reason for being there.
I didn’t even know why I was!
I grabbed Jamie’s arm lightly when we hit the entrance, he paused and looked down at me.
“Um, I’ll just wait with you until your parents get here. Then I’ll walk home...” I suggested, but he just stared at me looking blank. So I asked, “Are you...um...will you be ok?”
He placed his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me lightly, pulling me into his side. I tensed at his action but stared up at him when he spoke.
“You ain’t goin’ anywhere pretty girl. You’re staying with me and when we find out if Harvey’s gonna be ok, which we will, I’ll find a way to get you home. It’s not safe for you to be out by yourself in the dark and what sort of person would I be if I let you go home by yourself? Plus, let’s face it, you’ve got some explaining to do yeah?” He phrased it as a question, but we both knew it wasn’t. Shoot!
How could I possibly explain it to him. I figured I had a while to come up with an excuse so I just nodded, he nodded back once, grabbed my hand and pulled me inside. Jamie had butterfly stitches put on the gash on his forehead and then we were told to wait in the ‘visitor’s’ waiting area for news.
Not even ten minutes had passed when the door burst open and Mr and Mrs Travis scurried through, Cheryl looked flustered, panicking I guess.
Mr Travis on the other hand - looked impeccable, as always.
Crisp, clean, ironed suit, with polished black shoes. His hair was cut short, but even on all sides, no style to it. He was always clean shaven; I figured he must use his razor every day because I’d never even seen him with a bit of stubble, let alone a beard of any sort.
He always carried a briefcase with him, no matter where he was. I’d noticed him once in the shop at the end of our street and he was even carrying it then.
Who does that?
Cheryl had been crying, that was clear, but Mr Travis had a scowl on his face and he pointed at Jamie and boomed, “YOU BEST START TALKING BOY. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?” He didn’t n
otice me at first, odd considering I was clinging to Jamie like he was my life-line, but when he did, he added in slightly quieter voice, “And what the hell is she doing here?”
Jamie had gone solid next to me and I felt myself tense along with him. I never understood why his dad seemed to really dislike me...my mother I could understand, but I’d never done anything wrong to anyone. He really didn’t like me being there though. I loosened my grip on Jamie’s arm and was about to suggest I go home when Jamie spoke up.
“Don’t you ever speak or look at Ree like that again. No wonder your other son is the way he is when you speak to people like that. Your son is somewhere in this fucking hospital, bleeding from the head, unconscious and you, fucking....you come in here pointing your finger, shouting in the middle of a god damn waiting room and looking down your nose at other people as fucking always.”
He was cut off when Mr Travis’ head turned an ugly shade of red and he roared, “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT! YOU WILL WATCH YOUR MOUTH BOY.” I flinched at the noise, but Jamie sent a glare so hostile towards his dad that I fought the urge to shrink back and hide. His voice was grave and came out in a growl.
“I will not ‘watch my mouth’, how could you? You’re a stuck-up judgemental bastard at the best of times but you’re standing there acting the big man, shouting in the faces of the two fucking people...WHO SAVED YOUR SON’S LIFE!” His dad rocked back as if he’d been hit but Jamie ploughed on... “If it wasn’t for me, and for Ree, your fucking blue-eyed boy would have gone up in flames with the rest of the fucking wreck. So get off your high-horse, stop pinning the blame on other people, when Harvey had hit a fucking tree! No one else was there Dad, we’ll just have to wait until he wakes up to find out what happened. Sit down and act like a fucking dad for once.”
I watched as Mr Travis clenched his jaw and ground his teeth. His eyes were full of fire, and not the good kind. He opened his mouth but stopped when Cheryl placed her hand on his arm and said in a placating tone, “Please, Malc, not now. One of my boys is injured, as you can see, and the other one, well I don’t even know if he’s ok. Please please just sit...down.”