My knuckles were white as I gripped the steering wheel ever tighter, my foot pressing unnecessarily harder on the already straining gas. The old truck couldn’t handle much more of this; it wasn’t in the right condition for this kind of treatment.

Something flashed out of the corner of my eye. Turning my head I squinted through stinging eyes as I tried to see what it was.

Maybe if I hadn’t done this I would have noticed it in time. The deer that had pranced innocently onto the road. The deer that caused me to veer sharply to the right in a fit of panic. Brakes squealed and gravel flew as I fought to right the truck back onto the road. However, I was too far gone. The truck plunged into a shallow ditch before leaping upwards, ramming into the forest and crashing into a thick tree with a sickening crunch. The crunch wasn’t only the sound of compacting metal but of shattering and splintering bone.

My head flew forward into the steering wheel, the seat belt doing little to restrain my body from flying almost completely through the shattered windshield. Bits and pieces of glass shards nipped at my skin, viciously tearing and maiming it. A searing pain leapt through my chest and my left leg, which told me that I had broken some ribs and the leg. It hurt to breathe, every breath was like a white hot dagger in my lungs causing me to sputter and gasp coughing up small clots of blood.

A rib had pierced my lung.

I knew I had to make it to Kye’s house, it wasn’t that far away. Maybe half a mile up the road. I could do it; I had to do it. I didn’t want to die yet, not like this and definitely not this early. I wanted to see the world, make something of myself. I wanted to get married and have children; I wanted to show them all the love and affection that I never got. Most of all, I at least wanted to say good-bye.

With ragged gasps I reached over and shakily unbuttoned the seat belt, opening the door before falling out onto the cool grass. My will to fight for my life flared up in my being like a beacon, sending strength to my body. Slowly I began to crawl forward, inch by grueling inch. My fingers dug into the rough dirt as I pulled myself, gritting my teeth with every wave of agony that flushed through my body. Black dots began to swim in my vision and I silently cursed under my breath. I could feel the hot, sticky blood trickling down my forehead and into an eye which was swollen shut. More of it clung like water to my clothes, staining them the color of death.

The black dots steadily grew more in size and number until there was but a small funnel of sight before me. “No, no, no!” I chocked out, hacking up another clot of blood. My strength was sapped after crawling just 5 feet from the wreckage, allowing me to go no further than where I currently laid.

Rolling to my side tears streamed freely down my cheeks. They were tears of acceptance; acceptance that I was going to die here and there was nothing I was going to do about it. They were tears of pain; pain from the beatings that had left me broken inside both in body and soul. They were also tears of grief. Tears that I had not shed for my father after his parting for a promise I had now broken. It also came to my attention that they were tears of sadness, for I had never gotten to say good-bye to my only friend. The only one that had been there for me for so long and I never got to say one simple word.

I could feel my body giving up the fight, growing weaker by the second. I could feel my pulse slow a little more, my blood pumping a little less. The chill of death was slowly creeping into my bones as my frail and broken chest heaved another wracking, blood riddled cough. With another breath I gurgled with blood rising up my throat before finally giving in to the temptation that was the peaceful feeling of death. The knowledge of no more pain, or sorrow, or longing. The knowledge that I would once again see my father wherever I may be going.

Chocking out my final breath my vision faltered as the trilling that had been ringing in my ears for a while now ended, leaving me in a world of silence. Soon after that came a world of darkness and I finally succumbed to the future of death.