Girl in the rain

My clothes were drenched as I strutted through the heavy downpour. My car had broken down a few miles back, and the signal on my phone was dead. I had finally made the decision to walk the rest of the way home, despite the storm warning that had fuzzed through on the radio before my engine gave up.

Thunder shook in the dark clouds above, sending rumbles through the earth, whilst white streaks of lightning tore cracks in the sky. My muscles shivered against the high winds and cold rain, and I crossed my arms, looking down at my feet, struggling to see my steps through the rain. The trees of the forest stood tall on either side of the narrow, empty, double-lane road. Every time the lightning struck, the shadows of their branches jumped out at me like dark arms in the night. Above the sound of the rain, I could hear little else but my own breath and my pulse beating strongly in my ears.

Halfway there.

Well, halfway to praying that some other reckless soul would be out on the long stretch of country road at this time of night. It was a distant hope, but it took my mind away from the cold and the fear that lightning could potentially strike any of the towering trees around me.

I turned around for a moment to face where I had come from. Darkness. A whole and swallowing darkness.

I contemplated going back to the safety of my car. 

But it was too late to go back now.

Right when I was about to reorient my direction, a light appeared in the distance. I had to squint at first to make sure that I wasn’t imagining it. Something about the sheets of rain did weird things to my perception of distance.

Yes. It was real. This must have been what a miracle felt like. 

I made out the shape of two yellow headlights on high beam.

Back-pedalling, I kept my focus on the car and stuck out my arm in signal. Please stop. 

My hand was shaking rather violently from the cold in my bones. I hoped I didn’t look like a crazy person. 

Hope was rising as it neared. But my heart quickly sunk. The car rocketed straight past me. The heavy sheets of rain even prevented me from seeing who was in the driver’s seat. 

“Holy shit!” I stared at the car in disbelief, watching my only hope of getting out of this storm drive further and further away. 

However, the car swerved on the slippery road. Then, the screech of tires pierced the air as the wheels lost their grip. I watched as it veered unnaturally to the right and slammed head-first into the trunk of a tree.

For a moment, everything went silent, and I just stared dumbly with my mouth agape and hands gripping my hair. Then, the lightning resumed and a cracking thunderclap shook the ground. I broke into a run towards the totalled car. Grey smoke was escaping from the hood as I approached.

“Are you okay!?” I shouted out, but my voice was drowned out by the storm.

The windows were tinted black, and I couldn’t see a thing from outside. Acting on instinct, I went straight for the driver’s seat and pulled open the door. I did a double-take, frowning in disbelief. There was no one there. I stared for what felt like minutes, folded and elapsed into a single second, before shaking myself back to reality.

“Hello!?”

I stuck my head inside and checked the rest of the seats.

Empty.

Stumbling backwards, I scanned the outside surroundings. Did the driver leap out before the crash?

I circled the car but found no one. So, I searched the car once more.

The backseat was littered with tiny shards of glass and a single pair of bolt cutters. I opened the glove compartment. Nothing. There was a dark leather briefcase on the passenger side, but it was wedged tightly against the dashboard and the crushed car frame. I tried to pull it free with no success. Coughing from the smoke, I stepped away in a stunned daze. I fished my phone out of my pocket, but the signal was still dead. The screen was quickly soaked by the sheets of pouring rain. I cursed and shoved it back into my pocket.

What the hell...my mind sought desperately for an explanation. And that’s when I heard it. A sound.

A cry.

Like that of an animal.

Then whimpers.

Adrenaline was pumping through my entire body, and since the thunder had been drowning out all the sounds, I assumed for a moment that I had imagined it. But it came again. More distinct. The more I concentrated on it, the more I was sure that it was real.

I suspected it was coming from the trunk. Slightly hesitant, I approached the rear of the car. The trunk had been unlatched in the crash and was narrowly ajar. I lifted the trunk door, and the whimpering stopped. There was a large, obsidian coffin of a box with a single padlock in the centre. A glowing, emerald cut stone rested in the middle. The beauty of the gem had sucked all my attention, until a thumping came from inside. Then, the whimpering resumed, and strange, nonsensical mumblings followed. Whatever was inside was speaking. It wasn’t an animal. It was human. I quickly fumbled at the lock with my numb hands, but it was thick and solid.

I suddenly remembered the bolt cutters that had been poking out from underneath the backseat. I ran to retrieve them, the rain still lashing sharply against my face. Placing the clip to the solid metal lock, I forced the two handles towards one another, straining and grunting as the lock resisted. It didn’t budge on my first try, and I had to try again. And again. There was more pounding from within, and a part of me, a primal, survivalist part of me, screamed to forget the coffin-box and just run. But the sound of the whimpering inside persuaded me to fight through.

On the fourth attempt, the lock snapped.

I froze for a moment as the weight of my situation began to settle. Then, gathering the courage to do what needed to be done, I took a deep breath and threw the bolt cutters aside, slowly placing my numb, aching fingers around the lid and lifting. The trunk light was flickering, and it took me a second to make out what was inside. I stood there open-mouthed. 

A young girl shivered from inside. She looked no older than eighteen and had long brown hair that trailed past her hips. She wore a strange cloth wrap around her torso and waist with weird glyph-like markings on them that looked completely alien to anything I had seen before. There was a blindfold around her eyes. She sniffed at the air and muttered something under her breath. She was curled in a foetal position with both her hands and ankles tied together in black cloth. Her bare feet were rubbing rhythmically against one another.

I had no idea what to do.

She continued to sniff at the air, then stopped.

It looked like she realised that she was no longer trapped in the coffin. She suddenly moved her body, twisting and turning, desperately trying to sit up.

“Hey…I’m not going to hurt you.”

The girl reeled back.

In that moment, the hood of the car burst into flames. The blaze seared itself into the dark of my eyes.

“I need to get you out of here.”

I could tell the girl was in shock, but I didn’t have any other choice. I reached for her, and

when my hand touched her skin, she whimpered even more. The flames grew bigger, even amidst the downpour. I was sure the car was about to blow. I wrapped my arms around her upper body and legs, hoisting her out of the car. She seemed to submit as I did so. Her body quivered madly as the cold rain fell on her skin. I only had one thought on my mind. Get as far away from the car as possible.

I broke into a run through the trees. My body moved itself. I was only aware of my ragged breathing, and the shower of water around me. I hardly even felt the girl in my arms. I didn’t understand what I was even doing. I just ran.

The car exploded.

Despite the distance I had covered, heat singed the back of my body, and I let out a cry. I smelled burnt hair, but I didn’t stop running. A second wind burst through my muscles, and I suddenly felt invincible. I felt like a god or a hero with a strength I had never before experienced. I jumped over logs and rocks, and my legs kept extending forward, even though the explosion had already happened.

Eventually, my second wind crashed, and my mortality returned to me, making my muscles heavy and tired. A flash of lightning revealed a stone hovel, or what looked to be the beginning of a cave formation. It would barely fit us both, but it was shelter. I finally collapsed on my knees with the solid stone as a roof over my head. Exhausted, I laid the girl down on the ground.

I sat back against the rock wall to catch my breath. My head was spinning, and my body was trembling violently. I had been warm for that short moment of strength, and now that it was gone, the cold came rushing in, fiercer than ever, my teeth chattering madly. I turned my attention to the girl, and she was convulsing, like she was having some form of a small seizure.

Christ. There was no time for me to rest. I untied her wrist and ankle restraints and rubbed her skin back and forth, trying to create some friction to heat her up. After a while, a part of her seemed to come back to, and she sat up, fumbling at her blindfold. I helped her take it off.

Her eyes were closed at first, squeezed shut.

I watched as they slowly opened. The air was sucked from my lungs. My heart froze. Time stopped.

Her eyes were not of this world.

They were an arctic blue, except her pupils were larger and yet narrower. More resembling a feline than anything human. Her eyes were fixed on me, and her brows dropped into a scowl. I was stunned into silence. Sensing my passivity, she spared a glance around her, taking in the surroundings before her eyes darted back to meet mine.

She began to speak, and her scowl shifted into worry. At first, my ears didn’t register the sounds at all. They came out muffled and strange, like within a different spectrum of sound. She grabbed my hand and gave it a light squeeze. Suddenly, my ears adjusted, and I could make out tones and syllables. It was not an earthly sound. It was strange and disconcerting and beautiful all at once. Like notes played underwater and the float of bubbles upwards. Her tone grew more urgent, and she gestured with her other hand. I could make out squeaks and trills to her language, akin to something like that of a dolphin.

I shrugged, still at a loss for words.

She paused, then closed her eyes. The features on her face softened. Watching her was like looking up from the bottom of the ocean as rays of sunlight danced on the surface waves. It wasn’t until this moment that I noticed this girl’s beauty. 

The girl opened her eyes once more and met mine. She reached far into me, searching inside my head, like how a librarian might roam a bookshelf, trailing her fingers over spines. My shivering stopped, and in the next moment, our minds seemed to synchronise. Her gaze pulled my consciousness back to the forefront, and the world suddenly came into focus again. Her eyes were wide and childlike, looking deep into me, reading me like I was an open book. She nodded, and I knew in that instant that she realised what I had done for her. She reached for my other hand, and as both of her hands touched mine, a voice sounded inside my head.

Thank you.

Her voice lingered in the soft spot of my mind, and it felt like fresh spring air and softly singing bird trills. Its memory was a tingle and hum of energy and impulse, like she spoke directly to the neurones in my brain.

Panic rose from somewhere deep inside me, but it was quickly met with another feeling. The feeling came from her. It was the clear blue of falling waves against a sandy shore. It was the calm of a gentle ocean cove and the song of seaweed swaying ever so lightly in a slowly moving current. It was a feeling of complete happiness I don’t think anyone has ever experienced. It was so overwhelming that I wanted to break down and cry. Cries of pure happiness. 

She squeezed my hands slightly more and smiled.

I felt my nerves ease and relax.

She smiled a sad smile, and her feline eyes looked off into the rain.

I wanted to speak; I wanted to ask her questions. 

But nothing came to my mind. Somehow, I was completely thoughtless. Each moment was crisp and alive, full of life. I could hear each individual raindrop pattering against the soil. I felt the warmth exude from my body in the calm relaxation that had settled over me. My breath rose and fell like bellows to the rhythm of the earth.

The strange girl raised her hands up and fiddled with something in the long veil of her hair. A leather cord came loose from one of her braids, and when her hand withdrew, she was clutching something in her palm. Her arctic eyes flicked up to mine, laced and steady with a fierce seriousness. I felt a pulse of emotion from her. She opened her palm, and lying there, attached to the cord of leather, was an aquamarine cylindrical crystal. A high-pitched hum rang outwards as she revealed it. I frowned in confusion. Despite the assurance she had given me, my mind was still having trouble accepting any of this as real.

Sensing this, she gave me another pulse of emotions, then dug a little hole in the earth with her fingers. She unwound the cord from the singing crystal and then planted it in the earth like a seed. She looked at me with a grave expression on her face and reached out to touch my hand.

Let it grow.

My mouth moved to speak, but she put her soft finger over my lips. 

Let it grow.

Then, without another word, she pulled me in close for a tight squeeze. Once again, I felt her emotions like the song of the sea, and before I could experience another dose of what I can only describe as pure ecstasy, she let go of me.

She gave me one last smile before stepping out into the rain.

“Wait...” I reached out for her, but the night swallowed her in a second. I knew as I walked out into the rain that deep in my bones that I would never see her again.