The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Weeping Streets
by Kim Richards 

Overwhelming, hot pain made it difficult for Nell to open her eyes. Overhead the grey sky wept while the wind waved tree branches like frantic arms. The air smelled of old, wet tar and mud.

Lying on her stomach, her head rested on a wet pavement near a double yellow line running the length of it and off beyond her line of sight. For a moment she thought it originated from beneath her body. Heavy raindrops splattered in the red puddle of her blood all around her, splashing its lukewarm touch on her face. She shivered and tried to move her arms.

She cried out as more pain, intense and overwhelming swept over her limbs. The rain patter drowned out her weak voice. Her head pounded so she dared not lift it to see around herself. However, she could move her eyes so scanned the road ahead and to her left side. There were bits of glass littered among the raindrops.

Where’s my car? she wondered. She couldn’t see it but heard a sick grinding roar (better word) off to her far right. Could be an engine? She wasn’t sure.

Through her fuzzy thoughts, she recalled the sound of squealing tires and the screech of metal twisting. Oh, shit, she thought as she remembered saying those very words aloud when she realized the crash was unavoidable. The semi carrying a bed piled with enormous pine tree trunks barreled down upon her. It was no match for her little yellow Accord and its wet brakes.

Metal screeched against metal; tires squealed; glass shattered and rained down on Nell. The hard, swift jolt slammed her forehead on her right window frame before her air bag deployed with a horrid breathing sound. The force of it banged her head a second time on the window frame. Her brain registered white both searing pain and the plastic surface of the air bag.

With a soft “Oh” passing her lips, her vision went dark.

How did I get from the car and onto the street? she wondered now she was awake.

With extraordinary care, she slowly rolled her head to see to her right side. Twisted yellow painted metal stuck out from beneath the huge logs, now scattered on the road.

The rain and blood running into her eyes mixed with her tears. Her vision blurred. Still, she recognized a pair of hiking boots and Levi covered legs standing near her. She opened her mouth but the mewling sound she made was drowned out by the pounding rain and a man’s voice shouting curses.

“Dammit! Come on. Connect you bastard,” he screamed at his phone.

His pale face came into Nells view as he knelt beside her.

“Lady. Lady. I got no cell service. I have to drive back but the nearest town is an hour and a half away. You’re pinned beneath a log and I can’t lift them without help. I’ll drive like a demon and get someone. I’ll keep trying the phone too.”

He reached out and gingerly touched her arm. “I’m sorry.”

Nell heard the sound of his truck door slam shut and its engine roar over the rain. Suddenly the man appeared next to her again. He opened an umbrella and situated it where it at least kept the rain off her head. She blinked and tried to give him a grimaced smile.

After he drove off, she closed her eyes and never saw him return.

Fiction © Copyright Kim Richards
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com