Accident Twin (Wednesday Words 2.17.16)

Welcome to a piece of Wednesday Word’s flash fiction on Darkling Dreams!

A good friend of mine, P.T. Wyant, is doing a blog post every Wednesday called Wednesday Words with a new prompt for a bit of flash fiction writing, just to get in the habit of writing something, anything. (Even if said flash fiction is complete garbage at the time. Garbage is better than nothing though, right?) If you’re looking for some inspiration yourself or just something to aimlessly write, then go check out her blog for this week’s prompt!

With that being said, I am going to share what I came up with for this week’s flash fiction prompt based off an occurrence and setting. So here is my very rough around the edges minute of inspiration based off her prompt. I’d love to hear what you guys think of it!

(Please excuse any errors you may see, I said it was rough around the edges.)

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Accident Twin

Rain pelted the car’s windshield in sheets, the wipers going a mile a minute to try to keep up with the storm. Lightning streaked across the sky, zigzagging and giving an eerie green glow across the pitch black night sky. The storm had been raging for miles now with not an end in sight. Cars along the highway crawled at no more than twenty-five miles per hour to try to see two feet in front of their hoods. The glow of headlights and taillights was nearly impossible to see, even if you were right up on someone’s bumper.

“I can’t see a damn thing…” Melanie muttered to herself, leaning forward in her seat to try to see better. Her knuckles were white on the steering will in nerves and tensions. She couldn’t wait for this storm to pass. It was so unnaturally long, so widespread. She had never seen anything like it.

The next flash of green lightning that lit up everything for a split second had her slamming on her brakes too late with a scream. She could see the high winds whipping the signs along the road, but what really made her eyes widen was the white Subaru directly in front of her.

Tires squealed, rubber burning as she plowed her little hybrid car into the rear end of the stopped Subaru with their four ways blinking. The storm was so bad that she hadn’t seen the car until the last moment.

A moment too late as it was.

The airbag deployed as she felt the rear end of her car actually come up off the highway’s blacktop. She was jerked forward against the seat belt with a cry, the material locking and knocking the wind out of her, bruising her ribs. The two cars skidded forward along the pavement, glass shattering as the slick ground made them spin out in puddles on the road.

Her entire world seemed to flash before her eyes; regrets, dreams, wishes, memories, and all the people she cared for and suddenly wasn’t sure if she had told them she loved them enough. She could have sworn she saw a flash of a woman who looked just like herself as well, yet it wasn’t her. The whole crash only lasted about ten seconds before the cars landed in a ditch off the road, but it felt like it lasted a lifetime. She gave another cry as her car hit the largest ditch and tipped sideways, shattering more glass as her car rolled onto its side, dangling her in her seatbelt.

When everything stilled her ears were ringing, her heart pounding, broken glass tinkling around her in the pattering rain. She tried to calm herself, taking in the fact she was still alive at least. She could feel blood trickling along her skin from the broken glass raining around her, her head pounding from hitting the airbag and steering wheel.

The next set of lightning brought her an unclear vision of someone pulling off the side of the road, getting out and waving a flashlight around as they ran to the vehicles.

“Is everyone alright?!” the voice called.

She vaguely heard a reply coming from the car in front before she heard more than one set of footsteps in the muck coming to her car and someone peered through the cracked windshield at her.

“Hang on there, we’re going to get you out. My husband is a firefighter. Just hand tight.” The voice sounded almost…familiar. Had she spoken to herself and just thought it came from outside the car? Unless that was her pounding head making everything wonky and delusional.

She barely had time to register much before she felt the car rock a little as someone managed to yank her driver side door open. Arms were supporting her, a soothing voice calming her before she found herself being pulled carefully from the vehicle and carried a safe distance away.

“Meredith, go get the medical kit.” It was a male’s voice this time.

Melanie was set down gently on a patch of grass away from the road and the crash and she heard the footsteps approach again as the other good Samaritan came back. The cold rain stopped pounding against her face as someone leaned over her.

“Can you open your eyes? Can you hear me?” That voice… It was so familiar. It was…herself, almost, with a slight difference in pitch. Had she not imagined that this time? Was she hearing herself talk?

Groggily, she managed to open her eyes, not having even noticed they had closed earlier as she had been carried out of the vehicle. Another flash of lightning overhead allowed her to see double of the woman leaning over.

A woman that looked exactly like herself. Her mirror image twin.

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Now you can find this flash fiction work and others on my profile on Wattpad! Click here for my profile and go dive into a sea of Shards of Imagination!

Cover made by @_teenagers on Wattpad