A Helpless Girl

The only sound I hear is the thick raindrops hitting my car. As I attempt to open my eyes, they automatically close shut due to a stinging sensation. A substance keeps dripping up my face and into my eyes.

What is that?

I feel weak as my arms sway back and forth. I’m trying to gain the strength to move any part of my body. I can’t talk, I can’t breathe, I can’t think. I try to make any noise I can, but barely a moan moves through my vocal cords. I need to figure out what’s going on.

Am I dead?

No, that can’t be. I’m starting to feel the blood rush to my head. I regain feeling in my arms as I become more conscious. I finally have just enough strength to wipe my eyes free and open them. I now notice what’s plastered on my face.

Blood.

It drips up my face as I hang from my seat belt. The light on my radio flashes the time in my face. It reads just a few minutes before midnight. My immediate reaction is to get out of this car and find help. I locate the door handle on the driver’s side. That’s where I need to go. I brace myself for the hard landing that is about to come after I unlatch the seatbelt buckle.

1…2…3… thump.

I kick open the door and roll onto the puddle-filled road. The rain stings now that it’s pelting at my body. It feels like a thousand cold pins and needles stabbing at my skin. I hear thunder rolling in the distance but notice there is no lightning. I stare at the river of blood in front of me flowing down the road as I let the powerful rainfall clean me off. The storm starts to get closer and more robust. The wind grows gustier, and the thunder becomes a resounding roar. My entire body aches, but I must get up and search for help. I slowly lift myself off the ground until I’m on all fours. I try to take a deep breath, but inhaling sends a sharp pain throughout my abdomen. I slowly sit back onto my legs. I instantly become dizzy, but at least I can look at my surroundings. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where I am with the heavy rain swaying around me.

I’m sitting in front of a T-intersection. There are only a few houses near me. One on each side of the road, to my left and right, and one across the road in front of me, past the T-intersection sign. My car is sitting upside down to my right. I try to gather the strength to move before another vehicle approaches and doesn't see me sitting in the middle of the road.

I rush to the house on my right and ring the doorbell. I’m under the awning in the entryway, away from the rain. There is still blood rushing out of me from somewhere. I try not to overthink that, as my main priority is to find somebody who can help me before searching my body for wounds. I ring the doorbell once more, followed by a pathetic knock on the door.

No answer.

I look through the window next to the front door, and it seems dark inside. I limp back into the rain and try the house to my left. I have false hope that I will have any luck here, as this house looks just as dark as the first. The lightning is flashing now, and there is no sign of the storm giving up. My vision is blurry, and I start to get tunnel vision.

I lower myself onto the soggy grass and begin to sob. I can’t remember anything. Where am I? Is there anyone around who can save me?

I end up crawling the rest of the way. When I reach the front door, I sit on the ground and rest my back on it. I take my hand and bang it on the door. I bang it harder and harder until my hand grows numb from the pain. I throw my head back, feeling defeated. My hearing remains muffled, so the lightning that struck the tree across the street barely phased me. I watch it as it catches on fire and then slowly fizzles out from the rain.

Again, 1…2…3…get up.

I immediately fall to the ground, rolling back onto the grass. I’m so dizzy, but I know I must keep moving. My heavily soaked clothes make it challenging to get around. I let out a screaming cry before getting up one more time.

I’m extremely unstable when I’m finally able to stand on my two feet. Every step feels like my legs are going to snap. Every heavy breath I take feels like my ribs are going to rip up my lungs. Whenever I turn my head, it feels like it will fall off my neck. I can only walk with my back hunched over.

The house across the street by the T-intersection sign has a porch that lines the front. This is my last hope. If no one comes to my rescue, I’ll die out here. I slowly and painfully get up the steps of the porch. There is a light on inside towards the far side of the house.

Thank God.

I ring the doorbell and sit back on my knees, exhausted, with my head hanging beneath my shoulders. The thunder and lightning are now putting on a constant show around me.

“Help…me…please,” I say breathlessly. I know whoever is in that house can see and hear me. The camera on the doorbell is lit up, but the light that was once on inside the home is now turned off. I bang on the door, trying to sound louder than the thunder. “I know you’re in there! I need your help!” I yell as I ring the doorbell once again.

Nothing.

I drop myself on the porch and continue bellowing, but there seems to be no movement from anyone. But then, suddenly, it gets quiet. The rain abruptly stops, as if someone had hit an off button. All that’s left of the storm is the lightning and its thunder. Just like that, my tears are gone with the rain. My surroundings are more transparent now. There are trees everywhere, and a man's silhouette stands among them. I can’t make out his specific features from where I’m at. I become distracted by the sound of the tornado sirens in the distance. When I turn my head back around, the man is gone.

I give up hope and return to my totaled car, which still lies upside down in the middle of the road. I use one of the porch posts to help lift myself. I lean over the railing to catch my breath and to give my body a break. I look up and see my destroyed car and the man from the woods. He startles me as he stands beside my vehicle, mouth agape. It appears as if the tornado sirens are coming from him. I feel like I’m in a weird dream where I can feel every ache resonating through my body and every shard of glass penetrating my skin.

I stop looking at the man once I hear sounds resembling rocks being thrown repeatedly. I see what’s happening now. Hail the size of bowling balls are falling from the sky. They crash into pieces everywhere as they smash into the ground’s hard surface. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. The man still stands there motionless, his mouth wide open, until his head concaves in from a piece of the ginormous hail.

The siren sound turns into a high-pitched screeching sound. I cover my ears and fall to the ground. I squeeze my eyes shut and tuck my head downward, trying to escape what I’m hearing and what I just saw. The pain in my side and my arm is getting worse by the second. There is pounding on my chest, and I feel like there is nothing I can do to make any of this stop.

Until it does.

Everything is now quiet except for slow, faint beeping sounds. I stay hunched over in a ball, scared to get up and what I might see next. My pain is subsiding gradually. I feel more relaxed now— sleepy even. Someone touches my shoulder, making me hesitantly lift my head and slowly look up. My vision is blurry again, and my eyes are heavy.

“Hey,” a muffled voice says.

I blink a few times to get my vision cleared up. The clock on the wall shows that it’s a few minutes before midnight— the exact time I saw while hanging upside down inside my car earlier. I look around to see a machine standing to my right. That’s where the beeping is coming from. I’m lying in a bed with an IV in my arm and a tube sticking out of my abdomen. That’s where the pain is coming from. I begin to panic, not knowing what’s going on and how I got here when seconds ago, I felt like I was fighting for my life with no help in sight.

“Easy now,” I hear from the voice again. I see a man with his hand on my shoulder. It’s the same man I saw earlier who was making unnatural sounds with his

mouth wide open. His head isn’t bashed in anymore. He looks like a regular guy.

Who is he?

Why is he here?

How did I get here?

Can anyone tell me what happened and what is going on?

All the unknown frustrates me. I have no answers, and I can’t communicate with anyone. The man is sitting next to me on the edge of the bed.

“You’re going to be okay. You’re at the hospital.” He tells me. “You got into a car wreck.” Finally, some answers. I nod to let him know I understand what he is saying. “You broke a few ribs and punctured your lungs. They slowly started filling up with blood, and they had to get most of it drained out before surgery.” That would explain the tube in my side and the pain in addition to it. “The doctors indicate that you should recover well, but you may feel slightly uncomfortable for some time. They are prescribing you some pain medication for you to take at home after you are discharged.”

He moves his hand and rubs the top of my head. I feel a sense of comfort with him even though I don’t know who he is. His hand slides down to my cheek, and I lean my head into his hand.

“I almost lost you, sweetheart,” he says as a tear slides down his face. “You ended up flatlining, and many people came in to help you. After performing CPR for a while, they brought in a defibrillator to help shock your heart back into rhythm. Thank God you woke up for me,” he says, smiling. That explains the screeching sound and the pounding sensation on my chest just before I started to relax to the faint beeping.

He slides his thumb on my cheek back and forth in a comforting gesture. I smile back at him to show I’m glad he’s here. He feels warm against my cold skin. I like his presence, but he’s still unrecognizable. I can’t speak, and it’s unclear if that’s due to being scared to try or if I physically can’t.

I feel drained, but I don’t want to sleep. If I do, I fear I’ll return to a frightening place like before. He holds my hand and asks if I need anything.

I shake my head no.

He then informs me that he will let my nurse know I'm awake and will be right back. After he walks through the doorway and into the hall, I analyze my hospital room more closely. It’s a generic room with a couple of paintings and a window. A small television is mounted on the wall in front of me, and a whiteboard hanging to the left is titled “My Care Board”. I squint my eyes so I’m able to read it. According to what it says in red marker, my name is Hannah, my nurse is Betty, and my discharge date is unknown.

When the man reenters my room, he’s holding a pillow. I suppose the one I have is becoming flat. He stands next to me by my bedside. I smile at him to thank him. I believe we share a special relationship, as his presence puts me at ease. He sighs and shakes his head ever so slightly as he begins to move towards me, making my feeling of ease disappear.

What is he doing?!

All I can feel is the soft pillow covering the entirety of my face, and my vision becomes dark. I try to move my hands and legs to get him off me, but I’m still too weak and in so much pain to do much of anything. The pressure on my face strengthens, and I fight to breathe.

This is it. This is the end for me.

The clock strikes midnight, marking the end of the day and my time of death.