Just a Few Rather Tempest-tic Tears

I banged hard in the steering wheel, furious tears spilling out as I drove off to nowhere. The tall buildings soon subsided into soft-rounded hills, beautifully yet simply decorated with those big, old oak trees.

I didn't realise the beauty without, though, for there was a tempest stirring within. No one was in the car to witness my savagery of thoughts, as I ripped my dreams to pieces.

The road stretched on, seemingly never-ending, into the dusky horizon. The sun sets in the distance, bursting out radiant colours of gold, peach and lemon.

I stepped on the gas pedal even harder, with no fear that any accident may come to me. These tumultuous periods are the moments in which I feel like my whole life and everything I've worked for falls down, like the little embers and ashes in a dead fire.

Why? Why am I acting like this? You may ask, and here I am, a few hours later, writing it to you.

Well, let's just say that today might be the worst day I have experienced in my whole nine-and-twenty year old life. Ever.

My two-year relationship ended over a teary phone call, my father died in a car accident, my mother got accused of causing the accident and was jailed for the rest of her life, and my perfect half-sister gets married.

How horrible everything feels.

Soon, the once smooth road turns into something a bit more bumpy, which turns again into a full-on off-road road. My car's wheels, spinning as fast as who-knows-what, jumps up and down as it skims over the sharp pebbles.

I drive on, still mashing my feet into the gas pedal and my fist into the steering wheel. The calming hills soon disappeared too, replaced with mountains and mountains of harsh rock, carved out by the gods.

Loud music blares through the speakers, but to me, it means nothing. The beats bang against my ears, causing my brain cells to go boom-boom and get drunk.

The trashy lyrics insert themselves into my head, like a knife piercing a juicy piece of animal flesh. I yell the words out, trying to get all the suppressed indignation and cruel spleen out.

The beautifully painted sky dispersed into a much calmer, much darker sky, now dotted with shining stars. The evening wind entered my car as I rolled all the windows down, letting the birds and the prairie-dogs hear me.

I ripped the seat-belt off my chest, as I drove faster than ever, leaning back into my chair as if what I was doing now was totally normal for an inexperienced, immature adult.

I mentally blamed myself for everything that has gone wrong in my life; it has always been like that. Even the incident where my friend's leg broke.

The pounding song stopped; and so did my head. I took a few deep breaths of the fresh, night air. It slightly smelt of cacti and bird poop, but I didn't care.

My foot relaxed on the gas pedal a bit, as I slowed down on the road, my tears still flowing down, but this time, I have lost my tempest.

I looked out of the driver's window, and out there, I saw the desert stretching on and on, endlessly slipping its way here and there, always finding a spare bit of land to heat up.

I put on Olivia Rodrigo's new hit song, "Vampire" and boy did I scream that night. In fact, I screamed so hard, my throat hurt so bad after that that I stopped sniffing up tears.

I drove even slower, now inching on with a snail-like pace. The car's engine revved, as if sighing as it felt its down crescendo. With my eyes fixed upon what's going on in front of my car, I rolled the windows down again and turned the AC on, full blast.

A calmer Olivia Rodrigo song changed the desperate one, and I sang softly the words to "All I Want". As I hummed along to the tune, I started paying attention to the nature around me and the fact that I have no recollection of seeing these exotic plants, harsh cliffs, and hearing the blood-curdling whistle of wolves and whatnot.

Closing my eyes as I directed my car towards the side of the road, I finally stepped on the brakes for the first time in a few hours. I slipped the hundred dollar bill and my pocket and turned on my phone's flashlight as I left my car to investigate.

The signs of a town faded into the twilight, and I could barely see the littered lights strewn in my vision. I swerved my phone left and right, held in my grasp up high as my arm could go.

There were no signs, no houses and basically no human habitation anywhere near, and so, I did what I had to do: Open Google Maps.

For a brief second, a wave of panic pulsed through me. A million questions flitted to and fro in my head in a blink of the eye. What if my anger caused this? What if the fact that I was acting like a child and mourning about everything led me to get lost in a place as lonely as this?

As I entered my car, another passed by. It had red lights on the top, a ''wiu-wiu'' sound being reverberated throughout the darkness of the surrounding area. Yes, I said ''wiu-wiu'' because that's what my nephew does when he's playing with his ambulance toy car.

A written address was plastered on the side of the vehicle, right under the big, red cross. Sadly, the ambulance was driving by roughly a bit more than a hundred and fifty miles an hour.

I was now fully panic-stricken, but a course of excitement and hope washed over me when I spotted that ''wiu-wiu''ing vehicle. If there's an ambulance, there's a hospital. And if there's a hospital, there must be a town.

I drove again, and the engine revved and coughed suspiciously as I plugged in the key. Another ripple of alarm at what might happen if my car's machine would end up breaking down before reaching my supposedly, though still uncertain, next destination.

I tried to wipe those nonviable fears, for I have been living with many fears, but none of them ever turned out true.

My car purred along the road again, the path itself continuously switching to and fro between harsh, bumpy, pebble-y cement and smooth, stretching, newly-made asphalt.

The lights that had seemed so far, were now seen a bit more clearer. Only a bit, though it was, I was beginning to get more hopeful as the minutes ticked on.

The desert-like scenery was soon left behind, however, and exchanged with a green, mossy forest, in which the road was surprisingly new.

The shade of the tall trees covered the starry sky, and the crescent moon disappeared behind a patch of clouds. Partly relieved, but also partly scared that a tiger or something wild like a wildebeest or something might jump out of the trees at any second, I drove on with a much calmer face.

The trees soon shrank into small ones, and these short saplings soon grew into huts, in which the lights of candles coloured the window with an entrancing shade of warm yellow.

My heart beat decidedly slowed and so did the running thoughts in my mind. 

I approached the city, now the huts growing bigger, into more industrious houses. I reach a road sign that clearly said, even with the dark night around it, “Welcome To - Branch Burk City.”

I sighed, as I turned my steering wheel to enter the gas station at the side of the road. I had everything checked up, and even visited the convenience store to get some food, for I was hungry after my sore tears and irascible anger.

I swear, never again will I go for a drive in a tempest again. Never in my whole life.

Third Person POV switch

And, true to her solemn words, she never broke her vow, nor did she ever get into a tempest again.