Chapter Text
Dawn kissed the road ahead, flinging my shadow forward, trying to race me. Again, I'd ridden the night away. Maybe it had been a blank; my memory of the past few hours was fuzzy at best. Or maybe this ride had been outside of time. A good bike had always been my wardrobe.
The sleek black puma whisked along, purring against the insides of my thighs. It was a motorcycle, but not a machine. If you went looking for its motor, you would find a beating heart. It ran on blood instead of gasoline.
I didn't know whose it was or where I'd gotten it. Hell, I barely knew where I was. But I was going home, and the puma would find it's way back to its owner eventually. It was winter; I remembered the wind, cold and cutting through the seams of my jacket, but I wasn't sure when that was. I couldn't feel anything at the moment. Not the cold that was turning my hands stiff, the mugginess trapped inside my helmet, or the heat of the animal I sat astride. I barely noticed the progression of morning, that I was no longer alone on the road.
The sound of the motor, of my breathing, cut out like a radio. I knew the signs well enough - I was about to go blank. The last thing I remembered was wondering if the upcoming traffic light was green or red.
I missed the impact, but I imagined later how it must have been. Blaring horns, the sharp crack of metal on metal - or bone - tires screeching. Perhaps a few screams. By the time I could hear good again, that presumed cacophony had died down. Muffled through the helmet, I picked up the conversation going on over my head.
"Oh God, is he dead?"
"Someone check..."
"Naw, look, he's breathing. Someone call for an ambulance."
There was light, either because I was only then registering it or because someone had pulled my helmet off. Possibly both. Several grey, hollow faces stared down at me, encroaching on the white expanse of sky above. One lady looked about ready to give me her kidney, if I happened to need it. I found that very funny, and decided to enjoy it, because the pain was coming. A man knelt by my head, pressing the helmet between his hands. "How're you feeling, kid?"
I looked up at him, past him to the white of the sky. "Dandy," I said, and smiled. His concerns multiplied. "Where, exactly, am I hurt?" I asked, trying to push myself up on my elbows. A few of the onlookers took a step back.
"Wait," the man gasped, his hand hovering at my chest, ready to push me down. "For God's sake, don't move." When I didn't keep going, but didn't lie back either, a puzzled look crept over him. "Can't you... feel it?"
"Not ye-" Oh. My leg burned, shooting sparks of pain up my spine; throbs from the back of my head met them halfway, and I felt like I might break right it two. I must've blacked out, in the normal way, because I still felt the pain, and the cold running over my hands and face, and a damp warmth soaking through the leg of my jeans. I came around for a few seconds as they got ready to load me on the ambulance, long enough to catch a glimpse of the puma, lying forgotten on the curb. She looked all right. White-clad emergency techs swarmed around me, pulling me onto a gurney. It hurt like the nine rings of hell, but I laughed, laughed until it brought prickles to the backs of my eyes. One tech asked why I was laughing, but I couldn't see him anymore and didn't bother to answer the darkness.
"Thank God," I think I said, though my hearing was going out, so I may've just thought it. "She was too beautiful to die."