Chapter Text
I'm driving down a dark, lonely road towards some town I’ve only heard of a couple of days ago. Am I a little crazy? Yes, but when has crazy not gotten someone where they need to be? I am dearly holding onto my insanity, as my conscience tries to swerve me away from finding someone I know nothing about. I am in the phone with my friend, partly having a backup plan in case I get murdered, but mainly investigating who I have to contact and where I am going to stay. Some voice inside my mind tries to question why I'm in my car, driving towards a place I've never been to, going to someone I've never met's house, while also having no plan whatsoever on how I'm going to not starve myself, and where I'm going to stay. I would say that what I'm doing is my plan B, but I don't think I even have a plan A. I just had an ambition, and a gut feeling and went with it, now I'm on the road, squinting at the barely visible highway, screaming into my phone. What has my life gotten to?
“D-I-Z-Z-N-E-E,” I bark into the phone for the fourth time. “... Yes, I’m sure that’s how you spell it, I’m looking at it Biana!”
She says something about it sounding too similar to ‘Disney’.
“That’s not my problem, that’s how it’s spelled,” I roll my eyes, “now, what did you find?”
“Well, not much,” she says, “just that he's 17 and has a big family. Apparently they own this pharmacy in town that everyone knows of, and a farm.”
“A pharmacy and a farm? Who is this guy? Mother Theresa?"
"I don't think you know who Mother Theresa is."
“That's not the point. Now, where was I supposed to turn?” I ask, but before she can answer a white spot in the pitch black road catches my eye, and before I know it, I've trailed off the highway, and I am bouncing down a bumpy hill.
I try to steer the car into control again, since stopping is not an option, but the road is so shaky I can hardly control the steering wheel. The darkness isn’t helping, and I’m sure it's going to crash eventually, I just hope it’s somewhere close to civilization. I see my life flash before my eyes, as everything seems to turn into slow motion. My life, I realize, has not been well-lived. The hill seems to end, and the car is starting to slow down. By some miracle I haven’t crashed yet, but I don’t hold onto the hope of not crashing because a red wooden wall comes into view, and after getting closer it reveals itself to be a barn—and there’s no way of stopping. I brace myself for the impact, and mentally prepare the speech I’m going to give the owner of the barn if I come out alive.
CRASH!
I open my eyes to see I only have a couple cuts and scratches, but nothing too serious besides the huge bump in my forehead. I start smelling smoke; the engine must be busted. There goes my 16th birthday gift.
“Marella? Marella?” I start hearing someone call my name in the distance, and realize I completely forgot about my phone call with Biana. “Marella are you there? What happened?”
I follow the sound to the cracked screen of my phone on the floor of the passenger’s seat. I pick it up and inspect it all over. It doesn’t look too broken, which is good because I’m going to need good reception here, and I can't get good reception if my phone isn't working.
I put the phone to my ear, “Biana?”
“My sparkles, Marella don’t do that to me!” I immediately regret putting the phone to my ear, “are you okay? Did you get in a crash? I heard so much going on, and you wouldn’t pick up!”
“I’m fine,” I say, way calmer than I feel. “There was a sheep in the road and I accidentally went off the road and ended up crashing into someone’s barn. I’m alright though,” I add before she can worry more than she has to, “just a couple scratches, nothing too major. I’m going to go see if there’s anyone nearby to help me out, and I’ll call you back.”
“Okay,” she says, although she doesn’t sound too convinced with my plan. “Don’t forget to call me, though, I need to know you’re okay! I mean it, or else I’m calling the cops.”
I knew she was serious. “Alright. I love you, bye.” I cut off the call before she could scold me any longer.
I force the door open and climb out of the car. I immediately feel a few bruises on my legs and arms, this was going to hurt so bad in the morning. I looked toward the car. Indeed, it was busted. The engine looked like a train with all that smoke, the tires looked flat, the doors and front dented. It looked pretty suck to the wall, as well. It would take several people to move it. Well, damn. I don't even wanna take a look in the engine. I'd rather imagine it's not too bad.
I start making my way out of the barn. It’s empty, mostly. I don’t know if I was expecting to actually find something besides stacks of straw. I light the way with my phone’s flashlight. There seems to be some horses I missed, but they are on the opposite side of the barn, so no harm came to them in the crash. They neigh in distress. I give them a sympathetic look, even though they won't be able to comprehend it. I truly am sorry to burst into their home.
There seems to be a road right between the barn and a house not too far away. Thank God, I think.
In no time, I’m already on the front porch. I check the windows first, but I can’t see anything inside but darkness. I work up courage, but before I can knock, the door opens, and a guy about my age looks straight into my soul with his bright blue, confused eyes.
I clear my voice. “Hi, I’m so sorry for the circumstances—and the time—” I am guessing it’s around midnight, “—but I lost control of my car and accidentally crashed my car into your barn.” I gesture towards the just mentioned evidence of the act behind me, and turn back to him to find him wincing. “I was wondering if I could stay with you for the night until I can find someone to fix this mess for us in the morning.”
He stares into the barn for a second longer until he turns to me and says, “for sure, that’s awful.” He welcomes me in with an arm gesture.
“Thank you so much.” I enter the house and hold out my hand.
He shakes it. “No problem, just glad you're okay. I’m Dex Dizznee.”