Work Text:
“I’m really sorry Mum,” Nick said, turning the car radio off to try to hear her better, “It’s raining cats and dogs and I’m struggling to hear you over the static.”
“Baby, I’m not sure...safe...driving…” was the last thing he heard before the call cut off.
Nick swore loudly as the sky lit up again, the rumbling following so soon after making it apparent that the storm was right on top of him. The wipers were going full tilt, and still barely keeping the screen clear enough for him to see 10 feet in front of the windscreen. As he drove through another puddle, struggling to keep his steering wheel straight, he realised that the only safe thing to do was to pull over to the side of the road.
Grumbling to himself; “Flipping storm, flipping rain”, he muttered as he tried Charlie this time, to no avail. “Flipping PHONE, aargh!” He shouted with frustration, chucking the phone onto the bags stacked up on the passenger seat beside him, the back seat already full of the last couple of weeks of his washing, which he always saved to bring home at his mum, Sarah’s, insistence.
He’d hated storms since he was little, when the terrors would chase him to Sarah’s bed, to his older brother David’s sneering delight. He shuddered with the recollections, and turned the radio back on to try to give himself something else to focus on but the rain, thunder and lightning. Even that was letting him down, eerie screams of static coming instead of the relaxing voices or music he’d been hoping for.
He attempted to peer out of the rapidly fogging windows, but his car was a typical student's old heap, and the heater had never been very good while stationary.
He was hoping that the rain would slow, but it was now coming down like knives against his windscreen, and he could barely see beyond the car’s bonnet. Putting the handbrake on and the gears in neutral, he pondered what his next move should be as he turned off the engine.
He picked up his phone to try Charlie and his Mum again, on both phone and whatsapp, but there wasn’t sufficient signal for any of the calls to go through. As a last ditch attempt, he sent a text to Charlie.
“Hey Char. Really sorry, but I’m stuck in the storm and it looks like I’m going to be late for the party. Please apologise to Tao for me; I know he was counting on me for our group costume, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop anytime soon and I don’t feel safe driving in it. I’ve tried calling, but it’s not going through, I hope this does. I love you, I’ll see you as soon as possible, promise xxx.”
The tall trees either side of the road seemed to close in on him as he sat there, the rain falling so straight & heavy it looked like thousands of needle wide stalagmites reaching up to the sky, the boom, crash and flash of the storm bearing down upon him.
His hands shaking, he closed his eyes and took some deep breaths, trying to ignore the weather raging round him and find his ‘happy place’ as his uni rugby coach had taught him to help with focus before a big game.
A sound began to intrude on his calm, beyond the storm. Immediately as he realised there was a noise, something crashed into the car and his eyes flew open before it had even stopped rocking. He twisted his body this way and that around in his seat, eyes scanning around, trying to see what had run into him, but there definitely were no other vehicles on the road. Then he heard it, a stuttering cry coming from the passenger side of the car. Shakily, he picked up his phone once more. No signal. He turned the flashlight on and, without any further thought, opened the car door and stepped out into the torrent beyond, closing it behind him.
By the time he’d taken the 3 steps around to the front of the car, his clothes were heavy from the deluge. As he peered through the murk, he could just make out a figure trying to pull themselves up on the car. He rushed further forward to try and help, but noticed their eyes closed and wincing in pain, and stopped, not wanting to make things worse.
“Oh, my God! Are you okay?” he shouted, in an attempt to be heard over the storm.
The figure finally raised its head and speared Nick momentarily with their ethereal blue eyes. Nick flinched back slightly “Holy shit - Charlie?!” As the figure lost its fight to stay upright on the car and began to slide to the ground, Nick rushed forwards, trying to get his hands under Charlie’s shoulders. Struggling a little to keep his footing with the wet and the dead weight of another person, he bent his knees, gradually lowering them both gently to the ground.
“Char, baby!” he cried, arranging his boyfriend over his knees so he could support him, the one arm underneath still holding his phone for some light, using the other to attempt to wipe the rain from his face, horrified at finding a swelling under his dark curls. “Baby! Char! Hey! Stay with me!” He shouted, as Charlie’s eyes stuttered closed. His panic rising and his tears mingling with the rain streaming down his face, he tapped Charlie’s jaw gently, peppering kisses over his cheeks, “Please baby, please stay with me!” His loud sobs cutting through the air as he rocked his boyfriend, his head tucked in tight to the side of his neck. “Baby, Char, Baby please! No, no, please stay with me, I need you to wake up!”
A pervasive cold had begun to spread numbly over him, the world beyond the boy in his arms a distant thing, far out of reach. The slowing of the rain escaped his notice.
Charlie’s body began to feel lighter. Panicking, Nick started pulling himself back to try to look, but was suddenly aware of a vehicle coming towards them, the lights dazzling him. As he looked down to his boyfriends face, he could only see the twin spots of the headlights in front of his eyes.
Within moments, the driver of the vehicle was by his side, pulling on his coat sleeve. “Nick! Nick! Hey sweetheart, are you okay?” From the volume and stressed tone of the voice washing over him, they’d clearly been trying to get Nick’s attention for a while.
As the spots across his vision began to clear, he looked up at the driver, recognising him with incredulity. “Charlie?” He gasped in amazement, looking down again at his suddenly empty arms. All there was to see was an eerie rising mist, somehow shimmering slightly in the lights from Charlie’s car.
He once again looked up at his healthy boyfriend, who was now mirroring Nick’s earlier panic as he’d found the… What had it been? A phantom?
“L-love you, Char.” He whispered, as he struggled to maintain consciousness, and then the still spreading numbness dragged him down into slumber.