Survived the Crash (Short Story)

The crash caused his ears to ring.

With squinted eyes, he could see the flames rise around him and illuminate the night sky.

Every bone felt heavy. He attempted to crawl over to what he thought was their bodies, but someone was dragging him away.

“Please…” he begged to the vision of the person that tried to drag him out from underneath the heavy metal sheets. “Save them… forget about me…”

The next moment was darkness.

His next memories were of white as he awoke in the hospital. His sight was still just as bad but quickly adapted and fixed itself to the newly lit room.

He turned his stiff neck to look at those around him, darting up and down crowded road-like corridors. 

The realisation came quickly, he was alive.

He sat up in his bed, unable to feel the pain as he was unable to come to terms with what was happening.

The doctors approached in his stainless white coat, holding a clipboard.

“It’s good to see you’ve final woken up, Tyler.” The doctor said but didn’t get a response.

Tyler sat in his bed staring at the wall in front of him. The beeping from the machines was reminding him that he was awake, he was about to open his mouth to know the truth, but his shaky lips stopped him.

“I’m sorry…” Said the doctor, unable to make eye contact with Tyler. “We did everything we could.”

The doctor walked away without saying anything else.

He already knew that they had died in the crash. 

At the age of 20, Tyler lost his parents.

His stay in the hospital was short. He was quick to heal and lucky enough to only come out with small bruises. His memories of the night were still there. The flames didn’t die, and the version of the girl that saved him haunted him. 

His haunting visions would quickly become a reality, when that same girl would stand at the end of his hospital bed, dressed in her heavy-looking dark green paramedic clothing.

Tyler looked up at the pale girl who he remembered, a girl he went to school with but hardly spoke to, Amy.

“Why…” Tyler spoke through his dead eyes that were quickly drying out. “Why did you save me?”

“You were the youngest.” She spoke as she fidgeted with her hands. “It was a tough decision, but ultimately the youngest will always be saved in a situation like that.”

“But I didn’t ask you to save me… I told you to save them… why didn’t you save them…”

Tyler kept repeating those words, even when Amy had walked off he kept thinking them. 

He stayed in the bed for an entire day before being let go from the hospital.

It was the night of the day after the accident.

Tyler walked out dressed in some cheap clothes he brought in the hospital store with what little money that he had on him.

With only one step outside the hospital, into the bleak winter air, Tyler stared at the broken street lights that were flickering around the hospital.

He looked down the dark silent roads as the wind continued to ruin his already messy hair.

BEEP BEEP

A quick syncopated car horn drew Tyler’s attention. He looked at the tiny old Ford parked in the hospital car park. It had its inside lights on, showing him the girl that sat inside.

“Come on, I’ll drive you home!” Amy shouted as she leant out of the car window.

Tyler had no choice, and slowly approached the car and sat down in the front seat, next to Amy who tried to smile at him but quickly dropped it after seeing Tyler’s still sunken expression.

“Where do you live?” Asked Amy.

“73 ******** road.” 

“Alright…” Amy started the car without asking any more questions and left the hospital car park.

It was a silent road in a bumpy old car. Amy had turned off the radio and drove with her head locked on the road. 

“How have you been? I haven’t seen you since we all left school a few years ago.” Amy had to break the silence but wasn’t sure how.

“My parents just died… how do you think I’ve been?”

“Sorry…” Amy said, “I just want to help.”

“You could have saved them,” Tyler said as the car came to an abrupt halt on the side of the road.

“What is wrong with you?” Amy turned to Tyler to scream at him.

“You don’t get it… I asked you to save them so they could live, I didn’t want to live. I was always looking for a way out that would cause them little pain, and when I thought I got it, I was saved and they were taken from me. I’ve been left alone to die.”

Amy shut her mouth and chose not to speak too much.

“I see.” 

“I’ll walk from here… thanks for the lift.”

Tyler unlocked his seatbelt and left the car, slamming the door behind him as he started to walk alone down the isolated street, but the sound of the old Ford engine quickly caught up to him.

“You don’t have to be alone!” Amy shouted out from the rolled down window as she tried to keep up with him. “You can talk to me about it.”

“Why? We weren’t that close, we are only friends on social media, we have zero interaction with each other. All we see of each other’s lives is the stuff we post online, even then we don’t interact with it.”

“It’s not about being close. I don’t want you to be alone. I’m worried about you.”

“I don’t need your pity.” Tyler turned down a small alleyway where the car couldn’t go. A path that led him away from his house, but also away from Amy.

Amy was against leaving. She quickly parked up the car on the empty roadside and chased Tyler down the alleyway, until she came across the park that was at the other end.

She walked slowly through the park and came to a stop when she noticed someone laying down in the middle of the grassy field.

It was too dark to tell who it was but light enough for her heart to sink. She ran up to it as quickly as she could, praying to gods she didn’t believe in, hoping that he was still alive.

“Please…” She said as she approached the silhouette and stood above it catching her breath.

“Huh?” Tyler laid on the ground next to her feet, looking up at her dark hair that fell down by her sides, blending in with the above starry night sky.

“Oh thank god.” Amy grasped her heart as she collapsed onto her knees, almost crying at the thoughts her mind came up with. “I thought I lost you.”

Tyler didn’t reply and turned his head back to the above sky, counting the stars that were occasionally covered by dark white clouds.

“Don’t scare me like that!” Amy’s voice echoed throughout the park as she laid down next to Tyler who didn’t apologise.

“Why won’t you just leave me alone?” He asked.

“Because if I do that, you’ll end up meeting your parents.”

“You make that sound like it’s a bad thing to want to go and meet them.”

“It is when they want you to live. How would they react if they saw you show up only a day after they arrived? You’ve gotta live for them.”

“My whole life I wanted to die, but now you are saying I can’t.”

“Why do you want to die?” Amy turned her head slightly to see Tyler’s slightly spotty face stare above.

“What reason is there to not want to die?”

“You get to live and have fun. You can experience one of a kind things that you’ll find nowhere else. You can meet the person of your dreams and spent the rest of your life with them and smile as you look at your grandkids.”

Tyler turned to face Amy who was still looking at him. The two of them looked at each other with their brown eyes, but Tyler quickly turned back up and said:

“That’s the difference between us. I saw online that you got into an accident, one similar to mine. But instead, you took it as an opportunity to help. You studied and became a paramedic in hopes no one would have to go through what you went through. But that’s the difference between us. I can’t see this as change.”

“I think that’s fine,” Amy said as her voice started to shake from the cold. “You lost your parents, you can be sad. You can grieve all you want and cry all you want but you cannot do something that will make them sad.”

“Hmmm…” Tyler still watched the sky as Amy looked at the side of his face that was unable to feel the cold.

“Will you live, for them?”

“I don’t know. That’s not a simple question.”

“I suppose you are right. When was the last time you cried?” She asked.

“Don’t know, a few years ago? I don’t remember.”

“Maybe you should. I cry a bit because I’m a bit sensitive. It feels good after a little cry, maybe that’s what you need.”

“I don’t know…”

The two went back to silence for what wasn’t going to be the last time for the night. They both rested in the park until Tyler started to stand up.
“Will you be able to accept what happens tonight?” Tyler said as his hand started to shake.

Amy sat up and looked over to him, watching the boy who was unable to cry at the death of his parents.

“I don’t know. I want to think that you’ll make the right choice, but then I can’t be certain. I say all these selfish things to you but I don’t know what the right choice is.”

“I’m heading home,” Tyler said as he jumped up and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Are you really?” Amy said as she grabbed hold of his cold red hand, standing next to him. “Tell me. Look me in the eyes and tell me, which home are you going to?”

Tyler didn’t understand that nature of the question but the tears in Amy’s face tightened his throat as if he was allergic to them.

“I’m going home…” He said as let go of her loose isolated hand, letting it drop down by her said as it rested, motionless.

“I see… I do hope that you’ll find happiness.”

Amy watched as Tyler walked off into the distance. She walked back to her car as the tears started to fall down her face and the quiet night was filled with her loud wailing.

She would never hear from Tyler again.

But then, she also never heard anything about Tyler.