a KEY
The pink scooter. I hold out the little black key that jingles between my fingers. It has a cute brown teddy bear keychain attached to it. It almost slipped my mind that I had these.
The slow breeze around me threatens to take it away, so I pull it closer. These belong to that girl, Lily, I should probably return it soon.
Great, now I'm hungry, tired and probably a scooter thief
Weirdly the thought makes me laugh. 'A scooter thief'?, wouldn't want to go around with that title anytime soon.
Maybe I should head back to that fancy high school, and find Aiden who could in turn return it to her.
What was the name of that high school again?
Come to think of it again, it shouldn't be too hard to spot a pink haired girl, if there was any hope that she'd be there.
Judging by the way she spoke to me this morning, her demeanour is pretty rare too. It almost felt like she had that innocence carved deep into her soul.
It's like she's being genuine, yet it's so rare to find someone who's so innocently selfless, that it makes you feel like they're putting on an act.
Cliche cinderella novel heroine
But no, she's the pink scooty girl, not a novel heroine, I tell myself. I grimace at the thought of those shitty novels.
Afterall , the reason I'm in this mess in the first place is because of a shitty novel. If I wouldn't have to edit Lily and Lucien's nonsense romance, I would be Elara and happy.
Wait.....
Lily?. Oh great, her name matches the name of the pink scooty girl, and.... they have the same pink hair, petal pink hair. That's a weird- ass coincidence.....
Yanking my thoughts back to the present, I try to focus on finding Aiden.
I backtrack as much as I can remember down the curb, as I finally step on to the mainroad, I glance around for any sign of actual people, but to my dismay I find none.
I continue walking, slightly cautious of the darkness that had claimed most of my surrounding, there were not many streetlights or lights at all for that matter.
Scanning the houses that lined both sides of the road, I feel this might probably be a residential area, though I don't think anyone lives here anymore, as silence etched upon like a cursed veil.
Subconsciously, my pace rose, I need to get out of here at least before it becomes totally pitch dark.
But just as I was a breath away, from bolting outright top speed, a shrill purr of a throaty engine, broke the silence.
A sleek cyan blue car plunged on to the street where I stood, wildly severing in all the odd directions. I squint my eyes to get a better look at the maniacal driver, he must sure have a death wish.
In a flash, I was soon blinded by the headlights as the car progressed further, I was far off on the extreme edge of the sidewalk, which was on a slightly elevated platform, different from the rest of the road.
I couldn't see anything for a while until....I finally caught a glimpse of the driver.
The driver was a 'she', not a 'he', the first thing I notice when I see the silhouette of dark brown waves against a pale face with flushed cheeks. Her head lolled slowly, and her cheeks almost looked flushed.
She is drunk.
My pulse rose, not because of fear of her hitting me, no. That was the least of my concern, but because against the screeching of the tires, was a faint sound, a bright orange coloured ball had rolled on to the main road, from an alleyway jutting through across the street from me.
A bright orange ball, what are the chances?
I don't know why, but I got this weird nauseating feeling, almost instinctually that soon, one of the streetlight will flicker and a little girl will come looking for this ball.
The driver will realise her presence fast enough to spare the child, but too late to spare herself.
I barely know how my brain could cook up this totally outrageous and oddly specific story on the spot, because I definitely wasn't a psychic before , but weirdly I got this deja-vu feeling....as if this had happened before.
And...it happens, exactly as I thought it would. The light overhead flickered, the car swerved right, the little girl, with two pigtails, definitely, no older than five, runs toward the road wanting to retrieve her orange ball.
It happens faster than I can run, faster than I could scream, faster than I could get a single word out.
I froze as the woman's eyes widen , the moment that realisations hits her as she registers the presence of the young girl
I froze as the woman madly blindly steers the car to the left, panic choking her raw
I froze when I hear the impact before I see it, the car smashes into the electric pole, wild sparks shimmering everywhere, as metal is crushed against metal, the sickening crush echoing off the abandoned street.
I froze. Completely.
A few long moments after, the mother of the little girl arrives rushing with fear etched into her face, she quickly pulls out her phone, scrambling for numbers until she finds the one and call, "An accident. Two streets left to Everest High. The car looks completely c...crushed"
Everest High, that's the one, isn't it, Aiden's school name.
I know I should scramble too, I should probably check if that woman is alive or...
But all I can think about is..
How?
It happened exactly as I predicted it would.
When did I become this cruel?, standing frozen when I should probably be helping, anything ...but this. The woman must be suffering, yet my thoughts are fixated on that futile little feeling of deja vu.
Think, think, think. Think harder, where did I see this happen
The ambulance pulls short and frantic a few feet away from the accident site. Four paramedics hasten their way towards the car, two of them balancing a stretcher in their hands.
The sirens rise above us in a chaotic frenzy, their rhythm ringing in my ears.
I cover my ears instinctively.
This is too much
And...suddenly, everything stops, the ringing, the crying, the panic, everything. I feel like a mere outsider witnessing this scene, just a little observer.
A voice speaks in my head, loud and clear:
"The light overhead flickered, the car swerved right, the little girl, with two pigtails, definitely, no older than five, runs toward the road wanting to retrieve her orange ball.
It happens faster than anyone could run, faster than they could scream, faster than they could get a single word out."
That's...no, that's not something I saw before, or heard before, that's..
Something I've read over and over again at least ten times.
Something I'd so sacrilegiously read, passionately despised.
Something I'd correct again and again, meticulously searching words for misspells and formatting issues.
This is....
An excerpt from the Chapter 1 of 'Bound to each Other'
The same novel I never finished editing, the same novel that was nothing but the final obsctale between me and my dreams to become a lawyer, the same novel that got me killed for it.
No, no, no.....that can't be, It must be a coincidence, right?!