In The Rain

All the power in her house went out about an hour ago, but it doesn’t really matter because it was 1:47 am. She had to turn all of her lights out at 11, she has a curfew. She sat on the window bench in her room. She had 3 teddy bear’s sitting on it. Her ex had given them to her a long time ago. She still keeps them, not for the memories, just because she likes them. She moved one of them over so she could sit down. Her room was cold that night which is strange; her room is always hot or at least warm. Tonight it was freezing cold. She leans her back against the wall and looked out the window. On one side of the window everything looked real. Everything seemed so beautiful and lively. The street lights were all out, which isn’t really weird because the one on her street had been broken for almost a year. She didn’t mind though. A breeze came and shoved the falling raindrops against her window. She had always loved the rain. It always made her feel so happy. She heard a buzzing sound underneath all of the noisy raindrops. She turned her head and saw her phone lit up on her dresser. She got up slowly. She was tired but couldn’t fall asleep. She picked up her phone.
“Hello?” She answers, sounding a little confused. Who calls at 1:50? She didn’t look at her screen so she didn’t see the number
“Hi, you’re awake?” A guy’s voice says
“You’re calling?” She replies
“Yeah. I was bored”
“Why didn’t you call your girlfriend?”
“It’s late there” He says
“It’s late here” She replies, walking back over to the window seat/bench
“So?” He replies. She could picture him smiling right now
“Nice teeth” she says in a wicked, joking voice.
“Hey!” he says “How did you know?” He says, acting embarrassed
“I know you oh too well” She replies, sounding happy.
“Yeah, you like the rain?” He asks her
“I love it” She replies nicely
“I thought so” He sounds pleased
“Thank you” she says kind of softly and quietly
“Huh?” He didn’t hear her
“Nothing”
“Tell me”
“No” She smiles
“Tell me”
“Or what?” Her smile fades “Did the power go off at your house too?” He laughs evilly. She smiles again “You really can hear a person’s accent when they laugh”
“You’re mean” He says, pretending to be embarrassed again
“Yeah, and you’re not?” She pushes the few blonde strands of hair in her face back. He doesn’t say anything and neither does she. She sneezes
“Bless you”
“Thank you” She thinks of how randomly timed that was but most sneezes are randomly timed.
“Does your nose still scrunch up when you sneeze?”
“Yes” she replies quickly
“How do you know that?” He asks, laughing a little.
“I don’t” she replies
“So, why are you up? Thunder keeping you awake?”
“I can’t fall asleep. I haven’t heard any thunder yet”
“WHAT?!” He yells
“Ah!” She says jokingly “Nope, haven’t heard it”
“Are you serious?!”
“Yes” She tugs down on her pant leg a little. The rain hits her window again, this time even louder “So why is it raining?”
“What do you mean?” He says, acting innocent
“Why? Are you sad?” She says, teasing him a bit
“No, just target practice” He says back
“On who?!” She says back sounding worried and amused
“I don’t know” he says like an idiot
“Wow, you amaze me some times”
“Bang!” He says randomly. A second later lightning and thunder shoot across the sky. She just stares out her window “Did you see that?”
“Yes” She says, stunned
“Told you. You didn’t believe me did you?”
“About what?” She says back, choosing to ignore what had just happened
“What do you mean about what? Are you an idiot?!”
“Just a little” she says sarcastically. He mumbles something. She smiles again but it doesn’t last. A bad feeling comes over her. She swallows deeply and she stands up. She can’t feel her heart beat anymore but she starts to draw in short breaths.
“Hello?” He says a little confused. She drops the phone. The back falls off as it hits the ground. She walks to the door but it’s more than just walking. She’s not running but not walking. It’s not skipping or trotting or speed walking or anything, it’s different. She turns the doorknob and the door creaks open loudly, as always. She goes downstairs and unlocks the front door. She stands there a second. The doorknob warm. Lightning strikes again and thunder roars. She twists the knob and pulls the door back. As she does a light flashes and a figure disappears.
“Wait!!” She screams and runs out. The door shuts quietly before her, which is unusual, it should do the opposite. She runs into the driveway and stops. Nothing has ever looked so real and so fake at the same time. Her feet splash in the small puddles formed in the depressions in the ground. Her blue and green plaid pajama pants are soaked along with the white tank top she’s wearing. She looks down at herself. She touches her arms
“My jacket?” She says, confused. She stands in the rain and looks up with closed eyes. The raindrops hit her face and she starts to smile. She starts to laugh and spin. She stops and opens her eyes. The cars are missing. Her sister’s car and her mother’s car. She doesn’t care though. She just runs around the driveway, letting the rain drench her. Her hair hits her back as she spins. She takes a deep breath and stops running and spinning. She stands there a second and waits for something. She looks straight ahead. The whole night is dark. There are no lights any where. No street lights, no lights on in neighbor’s houses, there aren’t even airplane or helicopter lights in the sky. She looks around, it’s perfect. She bites her bottom lip, a habit of hers, and runs into the middle of the cul-de-sac. There are puddles all around and no one to splash in them but her. The thunder roars but no lightning.
“You forgot the lightning” She says loudly and laughs
“No I didn’t” she hears someone, with an accent, reply. She laughs “You just didn’t see it” The person laughs an evil laugh
“Dance with me?” She says
“That’s not dancing” He replies
“You’re right, it’s better! Would you like to dance then?” There is no reply
“You are a very strange one” He says, he’s behind her
“Yes, yes I am” She says and giggles “Did I just giggle?”
“I believe you did”
“Stop acting so smart and old”
“Old?”
“Yes, old. Have fun once in a while”
“Fun?”
“Put the teeth away” She says, she still hasn’t turned around to face him
“You can’t even see me!” He says, jokingly shocked
“I don’t need to”
“Turn around and look at me”
“No”
“No? Why not?”
“Because when I turn around you’re going to disappear” He laughs
“Maybe you do know me”
“Maybe” She laughs. She reaches her hands back to hold his hands.
“Are we going to dance?”
“Yes” She says and spins under his hand. Now his hands are wrapped around her and they face each other. They just look at each other for a minute “you’re supposed to spin me back out” She says. He does so and they dance for a while. “Not too bad for an old man” She says once they finish.
“Old?”
“Yes! Maybe it would’ve been better with music”
“Maybe” He replies
“Crap!” She says and starts to hop on one foot
“What?” He asks. She hops over to the sidewalk and sits down “You’re going to get your pants soaked” He says
“They already are” She says bringing her left foot close to her
“What?” He asks
“I cut my foot on some glass and its bleeding. There’s some glass stuck in there” She tries to look at it but it’s hard to in the dark
“Let me look at it”
“No! You’re going to hurt it!!”
“No I won't” he sits next to her
“Ha-ha, now YOUR pants are soaked too” She says with a smile. She sticks her foot at him
“Aw, great”
“Sorry” She says; a sarcastic sorry though “Ow! That hurt!”
“Sorry for saving your foot” he says sarcastically annoyed
“Thank you” She says when he puts her foot down
“Yeah, yeah” He helps her up
“Sorry for soaking your pants” she says laughing
“They’ll be fine”
“But will you? Have I traumatized you?” She says spinning again
“No” he says serious
“You’ll never have fun if you’re serious and act old” She stops spinning and looks at him. The rain has soaked him. His hair was damp and down. “I WOULD tell you to act your age but then you’d be dust” She laughs and starts to run away. She runs out of the cul-de-sac, splashing through the puddles. She keeps running down the road. Lighting flashes and thunder roars. She keeps running though. She stops a second, almost to the intersection where cars zoom by and splatter water all over the place. The lights reflect off of the wet ground. Yellow, white, and red lights reflect and stun her. They look so real. They have a sort of hypnotic pull to them.
“Why are you running?” She hears his voice say
“I don’t know” She says in a trance
“What are you doing?” She steps slowly onto the ground, still in the middle of the road. The power is still out at all of the houses. The few street lights that DO work and that are scattered among the intersection, are all out. That’s what makes the lights much more hypnotic. She doesn’t answer “What are you doing?” He says. She’s walking slowly and he walks along side her. He touches her arm. She starts to run. Faster and faster she runs towards the cars. “Wait! Stop!” He yells running after her. The rain starts to pour down harder. Thunder roars after she steps into the middle of the intersection. There was a break in the traffic, but only by a second. She looks around and sees cars speeding towards her. She doesn’t move but not because she’s like a deer caught in headlights. She didn’t want to move. It wasn’t a suicide. It wasn’t anything. She wasn’t stupid but this wasn’t smart. She wouldn’t regret it though, she doesn’t regret. She thinks though, she thinks about it but she doesn’t regret it. She doesn’t regret anything, which to some people, is a bad thing. But if you think about it it’s really not that bad. She sees the cars get closer. The water splits and flies underneath the rubber wheels. The car is old and has a metal bumper, instead of the new and crappy rubber ones. Time seems to slow down as it comes nearer and nearer. She sees the face on the person behind the wheel. It was a terrified face. There was a man and a woman in the car. The women was laughing and feeding him something. It looked like cheese, a very random food. The man’s jaw had dropped and eyes got wide after turning around to see her. The woman had not noticed yet and looked a little confused. She sees a flash and the woman’s face is looking at her. She had not seen the woman’s head turn but now the woman looked like she was screaming. The man was stomping on the break and gripping onto the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles were white. Time slowly started to speed up, a millisecond at a time, that’s all you really need though. The girl wasn’t afraid, not really and truly afraid. She was just unsure of what would happen after. Time stopped completely now, which was weird because it was just speeding up. Time had stopped and nothing moved. She couldn’t move but she saw the whole scene. She took a deep breath. Time had stopped for a whole minute before returning to normal speed. She closed her eyes and held her breath when it did. She heard metal colliding and people screaming. She heard gasps and cries. She saw nothing. She felt nothing. She heard cars screech to a stop but collide anyways. She heard so many things, but that’s all. She didn’t feel, she didn’t breathe, she didn’t even see. She just heard. She could hear their heart beats. She could hear heartbeats skip, stop, slow down, speed up; she even heard some pumping blood throughout their veins. She heard this all. She heard everything. A lady in the distance screams “Someone call an ambulance!” She heard a girl scream and then silence. She was too afraid to open her eyes. She thinks. She’s the reason they’re dead. She’s the reason a family is destroyed. SHE is the reason for pain. She feels a heart beat next to her. Did someone go through the windshield and land by her. No, this one isn’t real. It’s not there. It’s . . . not alive. She hears whimpering. It sounds like a child, a young girl. She realizes it’s her. She’s the one whimpering, she’s the one crying. She feels now, she feels a hand holding hers. She feels pressure against her back. She feels a heartbeat. She feels safe
“Why did you do something so stupid?” She hears him ask her angrily. For a second it sounds like he was worried about her, like he was afraid to lose her. A short period of silence goes by. He is holding her under a cape. The cape is around both of them. He had gone in front of the car and grabbed her before it hit her. The car had hit him. He let the car hit him. He made the car hit him so it wouldn’t hit her. He wasn’t hurt. He could never be hurt by something as pathetic as a car. She replies shakily
“To see if you still loved me”