CHAPTER 5 CORALINE
CORALINE
“Ah!” I let out a piercing shriek.
The seatbelt tightens across my chest as I blink hard. My tires screech as I try to outmaneuver him without crashing into him, but he doesn’t let up—the vehicle slides as I make another turn down the mountain. Somehow, I regain control of the car.
How many freaking turns are there? How tall is this mountain? And why the hell is this guy trying to make us both crash?
“He did not just hit me…” I say aloud, quickly glancing in my rearview mirror as the truck mirrors my every move. My muscles tense as I grow furious.
The engine roars louder as I push on the gas. It’s such a narrow road, there’s barely enough room for two cars. He’s making it impossible to escape.
“Take the exit,” the robotic GPS voice instructs me over my rattled breaths. My chest rises and falls erratically. Shit, I have to turn now.
So I do.
Then my phone pings. Service. Internet. Signal. My lips curve hopefully. I peer at my screen and internally celebrate. I can report this asshole to the Sleepy Coldwater police and look for a hotel.
I have service, holy hell, I—
Unknown:
I told you I would be seeing you soon.
Unknown:
You shouldn’t be driving out in a storm like this. It’s dangerous.
It’s him.
Everything feels like it’s in slow motion. Blood thrums in my ears as I slowly look in the rearview again. I don’t stop driving. My fear triggers autopilot.
Unknown:
It’s perfect, actually. Coraline Rosa loses control of her car while driving in the record storm and dies tragically. They’ll never suspect it was a truck.
Scrunching my nose, I lunge forward and snatch it. Still driving and being chased, I manage to plug 911 into the keypad. An agonizing pause of silence thickens my anxiety before it finds a connection. It rings twice before the call is dropped.
“No! Damn it!” I stare into the rearview mirror and see a silhouette. It looks like a man behind the wheel, but I can’t see any more details. It’s too dark, and his headlights are blinding.
“What the hell do you want from me, you crazy asshole?!” I scream inside the car, not caring if he can hear or see me anymore. My eyes are pinballing from the rearview mirror and the road before me.
The sound of his truck engine roars louder, the head of this car swallowing the view.
Here he comes.
I dodge him by frantically spinning the wheel to my left, my heart in the base of my throat with fear so paralyzing it’s streaming in my blood.
Am I going to die?
Is this how he wants to end me?
When I think I’ve outmaneuvered him, he hits me in the right corner of the car’s bumper harder and more precisely, like he has a goal to get me off the road…
and he’s winning. I’m in a cyclone. I’m trying to keep up, but I’m no match for the winds, the snow, and the maniac.
He won against my desperate efforts. My car spins into circles, and the next thing I know, I’m flying.
Airborne. The top of my head crashes into the roof of the vehicle.
I’m off the road, smashing straight through the metal barrier and rolling down the side of the mountain.
Oh no!
Please, no!
I scream just as I’m being thrown against my will against the side of the car.
My seatbelt cages me inside as my car hits a tree, and then another tree.
I can’t hold myself up. Everything is out of my control.
I feel helpless as I try to hold onto something.
The only thing I can do is register my blood-curdling screams.
Every single window breaks, and pieces of glass fly everywhere.
Shards are exploding, then carving their way into my body.
I’m clawing at everything to make my body stop hitting the inside of the vehicle, but I can’t hook my fingers into anything.
It’s all too much, and it’s all happening too damn fast.
As I continue to roll down the mountain and gain control of the uncontrollable spinning, memories enter my head. My life is literally flashing before my eyes.
Christmas dinners. The beach. The first day I held my first art piece in my hand.
Traveling, Italy…the future that I’ve been so excited about, all of my plans are in my head, blurring together, the ache in my soul growing, and a final blow to my head takes me out, silencing my screams and my pain.
I close my eyes to protect them from the glass and accept my fate.
Everything goes numb and quiet.
Pain and the color black. That’s all that makes sense. There’s a ringing in my ear and warmth trickling down my face like a tear that starts from my hairline.
I can’t move. My limbs don’t feel like they’re my own. Something is lying heavily on my chest, unforgivingly, cementing me to the ground.
Then, the sound of an engine buzzing, the familiar icy, strong winds, and the cold air biting my skin are palpable. I want to scream, but my tongue and lips stay still. A metallic, iron tang fills my throat.
Is this blood?
My chest rises and falls faster.
Where am I? What’s going on? Am I dead? Is this all a nightmare? Am I sleeping? Why does my whole body hurt?
Suddenly, I regain my senses. All of my limbs come alive. I groan, blinking slowly and hard. As soon as I’m able to keep them open, it’s a blurry sky and white orbs that glimmer all around me.
I’m twisted in an uncomfortable position, staring up at the dark sky, but there are no stars or moon in sight—ribbons of thick smoke swirl in front of me. Tears slide out of the corner of my eyes. Shaking, trembling, my finger tips are burning.
Frostbite? How long have I been lying here in the snow?
I turn to my left and see a car that’s been totaled, wrapped around a tree, and it looks unrecognizable—crumpled, broken, torn pieces of machinery litter the ground, sinking into the growing snow.
I've been in an accident.
Fear claws at me. I try to move, but I still can’t feel my legs.
Are they moving? The world spins as exhaustion knocks on my door, tempting me to fall back into sleeping shadows.
My vision blurs trees and the raining snow carousels, until I’m seeing everything in twelve different versions. In my periphery, there’s a truck.
The same all-black truck that struck me.
I’ve got to get out of here now.
“N-no.” My tongue is numb as I struggle to get the one syllable out.
Darkness and trepidation anchor me further, and I close my eyes against my will. But before I succumb to my injuries, I see a masked man dressed in all black. I can’t get any details. He bends his knees, resting his forearms on his legs as he hovers over my face.
My chest tightens as he stares at me. His eyes are as dark as night—obsidian pools void of emotion. I’m as cold as ice when he tucks his gloved fingers underneath his mask and is about to pull it off, but stops.
I tremble all over as the realization dawns on me. This is the same person who wants me dead. I know he’s the one responsible for all the threats.
He towers over me, and just when I try to tell him to get the hell away from me, my heart hammers until my head feels light as a feather, and shadows swallow me.