They deserve better than this, all three of them.
I’d been driving about forty-five minutes or maybe a little under an hour, and I’m still in the mountains, when I notice the sky darkening and the temperature cooling noticeably It’s been gray all day, but now the clouds are thicker, lower. A heavy drop of rain hits the windshield.
“Shit.”
The last thing I need right now is rain.
For a moment, it’s just a drizzle. Maybe it’ll pass. I shiver in my thin shirt and turn up the heater, glad of the warmth that immediately belts out into the little cabin.
The car was never great in the rain—fogged glass, bad wipers—but those are fixed now. The heater hums steadily, the wipers cutting clean arcs across the glass.
I should be fine.
The rain picks up. Faster. Heavier.
The clouds shift overhead, dark and closing in.
A storm is coming, and it’s moving faster than I am.
I scan the road for somewhere to stop—nothing but trees. I check my map. There’s a motel and gas station a few miles ahead.
Maybe I can make it.
The road is empty, so I press down on the gas.
That’s a mistake.
The moment the speedometer climbs past sixty, the engine lets out a sharp, violent pop.
Everything happens at once.
The car jerks, slides—tires screaming as I slam the brakes.
My heart hammers against my ribs as the world spins.
I clutch the wheel, fighting for control.
Oh God.
Is this it?
Is this how it ends?
The car slams into the curb and jolts to a stop.
Silence.
For a second, I don’t move. My heart is still racing, my hands locked tight around the wheel, fingers aching.
I’m… alive.
I drag in a breath. Then another.
Did that just happen? Did I almost?—
No.
I can’t think about that.