Nate woke with a start; he had dozed off on the couch waiting to surprise his wife with a romantic night, by way of apologizing for yelling at her the night before. Honestly, he isn’t even sure why he got so mad at her, she needed to buy a new pair of shoes, her others were worn. He supposes it has everything to do with the fact that he had lost his job weeks ago, and he’s sure he won’t find another anytime soon. He sighs and glances about, confused for a moment as to what scared him, and then he remembers the sound of screeching tires and a harsh crunch of metal coming from the street just down the block.
Nate looks down at his watch with a frown, she should have been home by now. He looks out the window and glances down the street to see the car accident, a black SUV seems to have ran the red light and T-Boned a red Sedan, it looks almost harmless and he stands, backing away to grab his phone to dial her. Two rings in he hears a woman scream from outside and a cold feeling strikes him, he hears words, and feels a sting of pure fear in his chest, “No, NO! I’ve killed someone!” He drops the phone and looks back out the window, confused, sick, and scared, he doesn’t see anything, for a crowd is starting to gather, not so much around the struck cars, but between them, “The poor baby!” Another older woman calls. He’s out the door in moments and running as fast as his feet will carry him.
The crowd pushes and some try to push away others from joining, as the group presses in and becomes far too packed, Nate fights, he pushes people out of the way, yelling at others to move, and then he sees it, the shopping bag with the shoe store logo printed on it. His mouth goes dry and he feels his knees give, her motorcycle lays under the red car, crunched and destroyed. Tears spring to his eyes, he feels himself lift up, and he starts to scream incoherently, “Cynthia! Oh god, please no, Cynthia, please” His voice breaks as he finally beats his way through the wall of people.
There she lays, but it’s not her, it can’t be her, it doesn’t look like her, but then it does, Nate feels his stomach clench and threaten to expel his lunch. This bloodied mess is his wife, limbs splayed, broken, body punctured and bashed, bloody, her blue eyes stare glassily under the car. He reaches for her hand just as someone pulls him away, there is yelling, but Nate doesn’t comprehend, he sees flashing lights, and someone is wrapping a blanket about his shoulders, asking him questions, trying to figure out what happened, but he can’t, he doesn’t know. She’s gone.
***
She was making a left turn, almost home, to a man she was quite ready to give a piece of her mind to, and good news. Cynthia grins to herself as she starts to make the turn, hardly noting the red car beside her. She just got a job; Nate is going to be so proud. That was the last thought to run through her mind when suddenly her world is a mass of pain, she looks to see a large SUV scream through the red light and pins her into the side of the red car, all goes black, she is thankfully saved from most of the pain.
Cynthia hears, but does not see, nor does she feel, but she hears the screams of people she doesn’t know, cries of remorse, she tries to speak, to tell them not to worry, there is no pain, she has always hated when others were upset around her, she always wanted to make them happy, though now she finds it difficult, not being able to see them and all. She sighs, this is no good, maybe she’s paralyzed, perhaps this is why she’s not able to see anyone, or able to speak out. She hears her name; a man is screaming for her, it’s…Nathan. Her eyes fly open at the horrible sound of his screams. She sees now, sees the group of people, all of them looking quite disturbed, all of them looking down, some sobbing, watching someone. She pushes through, or they seem to move, a woman adjusts her feet, giving Cynthia just enough room to pass around her, a man turns his back to her to hug his wife, again allowing her to pass by unhindered, and so she passes through the throng.
For a minute Cynthia isn’t sure of what she’s seeing, Nate is bent over something, it’s quite bloody, maybe a hit dog? She moves around and sees the tire of her bike sticking from under the car; she frowns and tilts her head, then looks down at the thing that her husband is sobbing over. A woman, broken and quite dead by the looks of her. Cynthia leans down “Nate, who is it?” He doesn’t hear her, angry, she reaches out to touch him on the shoulder, it is just then that an EMT is pulling the sobbing figure of her husband away. She stands and yells to them, “Excuse me! I was talking to my husband…Hey! Hellooooo!” she reaches out again, trying to poke at the man, but he leans down over the dead woman and lets out a small sound of disgust. She looks down again and really gets a good look at the woman on the street, she notes the blonde hair held back in a ponytail, the leather jacket, the dark blue jeans, the stark blue eyes just before the EMT reaches out and gently closes the lids.
She gasps as realization hits her. That woman is, was, her. Her breath catches in her throat as she screams; she is shaken to the very core. Dead? How can she be dead now? She feels cold, so very very cold, she backs out of the crowd of people, each one moving just in time to avoid touching her. She runs for Nate, but she finds that there is some kind of barrier, something that prevents her from getting too close to him, all she can do is watch as the EMTs tend to him, trying to get information out of him, trying to calm him, she screams for him, in need of his warm arms. She fights against the invisible shield, but to no avail.
As she stands there, sobbing and wailing, fighting against the veil that keeps her from Nate, she finally notices that everything seems to be going dark, she stops beating against the bubble and backs away, looking about her. A sense of dread fills her heart, like a rabbit suddenly aware of a cat well hidden in bushes, she looks about wildly.
Black snake-like things skitter across the pavement, they pay Cynthia little mind, it’s the humans they’re after. Despite her fear, Cynthia can’t help but to watch as these things slither up legs and climb up the bodies of everyone present. She frowns as she watches the things bury into the chests of every person, she winces, it looks like it should be painful, but no one notices. Several attached themselves to Nathan, and that’s when she screams out and reaches for the thin black tails, she expects her hand to pass through, but instead it grips quite firmly to the wriggling tail, she yanks the thing from her husband, it turns on her, as if to look at her, though the thing has no eyes, it opens a large mouth and squeals painfully, she drops it to cover her ears, and it takes her a moment to realize, those that haven’t found a body to latch onto are turned to her, snarling, wriggling, and coming towards her.
She screams and turns to run, the beasts jump out for her, latching onto her spiritual form, black fangs rip into her, tearing out small bites of her legs, she stumbles and falls, screaming in pain, she reaches out to the curb as if to pull herself up, she looks back to see more coming for her, coming to eat her soul. Suddenly a hand grips hers and pulls her up to her feet, she gasps as she looks up to see a woman with short spikey hair, she grins to Cynthia, “Hi, I’m Louie…Run!” and with a great pull and a loud peel of laughter, she hauls Cynthia away to safety.
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