Long Way Down
Chapter One
Present Day
It was an unusually dark night, the fog was heavy and the rain poured hard. Julie Young, driving her old sedan down a long stretch of lonely road, squinted to see just a few feet ahead. When her best friend had called earlier to go out club-hopping, the conditions hadn’t been this bad. It had been so long since Julie had gone out that she had jumped at the chance. With the next two days off of work, she had been eager to rid herself of some of the job-related stress. If the weather didn’t let up soon, a date with her TV just might be what was in store for her tonight after all.
She squinted again as she hovered over her steering wheel, trying in vain to see as far ahead as she could. Finally, out of frustration, Julie pulled over to the side of the road and flipped her hazard lights on. She knew where she was, she drove down this road every day to go to work. She knew a four way intersection was just a few feet ahead but she couldn’t see it through the fog and that scared her too much to continue driving.
Julie rubbed her forehead and looked down at her white strappy heels, the matching white mini skirt and yellow halter top. Her usually curly red hair had been blown straight and her smokey make-up had been applied with careful precision. She never got to dress up like this and her hair was almost always pulled back... no fuss was her style mantra lately. She was disappointed at all the wasted effort. She finally spends some time on her appearance and no one was going to see it. Julie rested her head against the worn steering wheel and closed her eyes. She would give it ten minutes, she couldn’t sit on the side of the road forever. If the storm didn’t get any better, she’d have to head back home.
She didn’t know how long she sat there. Later she would realize that she must have dozed off... the rain always did have a soothing effect on her. She woke up with a start, her head banging on the steering wheel as she jerked up. She looked around in the dark but couldn’t figure out what had disturbed her. Just as her body was beginning to relax again, her vision was taken over by a sudden bright light. She heard the loud screeching of brakes and a sickening sound of metal crunching against metal. Glass shattered somewhere with a frightening pop that made Julie jump in her seat.
And then, just as suddenly, the night resumed and Julie could hear nothing but the rain. She unclenched one of her fists and rubbed her hand down her face, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Stunned, it took her a moment to realize that the sounds had been at least two vehicles and not far at all from where she was. As the realization hit her, she let out a tiny scream and dove for her cell phone on the passenger seat. She gripped it to her chest and flung open her door, checking quickly for traffic before stepping out. Julie gasped as the rain hit her and soaked her skin and expensive clothes in mere seconds.
She didn’t have time to think about that. Julie knew that the first few minutes of a car accident could be crucial depending on the injuries. And in this weather, she knew that whatever she came across up ahead was very likely to have been fatal. She had to act quickly. She reached down and yanked off her heels, she threw them in her car and then slammed the door shut. And then she ran.
Heading in the direction that the sounds had come from, it didn’t take her long to find the source. She choked back a frightened scream at the sight. There were two cars, one was a red two door with some minor damage to his front end. The driver was out of the car and walking toward the other vehicle. It was the other car that almost brought on a panic attack for Julie. The black car’s driver’s side door had been completely smashed in and the impact had driven the car into a tree on the other side. Julie could see branches violently poking into the car where there had once been windows. She couldn’t help but think that there was no way anyone had survived that, not with it being attacked on both sides like that. She could only hope that the driver had been alone.
With trembling fingers, Julie dialed 911.
“9-1-1, what is your emergency?”
“There’s been a car accident, at the intersection of Piedmont and Monroe. You need to send an ambulance immediately.”
“Please stay on the line and...”
“No, I’m a nurse! I have to help them! Please, just send an ambulance now!”
After shutting her phone off, Julie caught up with the man from the red car. “Sir? Are you hurt?” The man turned around and faced her, seemingly startled by her. She backed up as he stepped closer to her. There was fear deep in his eyes and Julie was almost choked by the smell of alcohol coming from him. “Sir, you need to go back to your car and wait for the paramedics to check you over, I called 911 and they are on their way.”
“You saw what happened?” the man questioned her, slurring his words.
“No, I was--” Julie stopped herself when the man started to walk away. She shrugged and turned to face the black car. She could see now that it was a very expensive BMW. There was a form of what looked like a man in the driver’s seat, hunched over the steering wheel. Julie, in her bare feet, picked her way carefully towards the car. There was broken glass everywhere and she winced when she felt some of it digging into her feet, but she didn’t stop.
A couple of yards away from the BMW, Julie heard a car engine and she whirled around. Her eyes grew wide and she took off running until she was against the broken door of the black car. The red car passed within inches of her at high speed only a few short seconds later. Her breath started to come in rapid bursts and her heart was beating loudly in her ears. She tried to control the panic as she watched the red car speed away into the night. She closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe normally. She didn’t feel her bleeding feet and she momentarily forgot about the driver of the BMW until she heard him moan through his broken window. Her eyes flew back open.
With her shaking hands, she fumbled with the door handle but it wouldn’t budge. The driver had blonde hair, but no other details could be discerned since he was covered in blood. Julie couldn’t see any other passengers which gave her a brief moment of relief before she focused on the driver. She stood up from the window and ran to the other side of the car, but the tree wouldn’t allow anyone to get through that way. She headed back around and tried the back passenger door, and thankfully it opened without hesitation.
The entire interior was covered in glass. All the windows, including the front and rear, had shattered at some point. Julie shuddered but didn’t hesitate to crawl in. Once in the backseat, she crawled towards the front passenger’s seat and reached forward, hoping to find some way to make the seat lay down. At last she found a latch that worked and she quickly scrambled over the now flat seat.
Julie twisted around and faced the driver. She could hear his shallow breathing so she didn’t bother to check for a pulse. She turned the key in the ignition to turn the car off and then reached underneath the man and gingerly loosened the tie he was wearing. She also tried to undo the first buttons of his dress shirt but was unsuccessful without being able to see them.
“Hello, my name is Julie Young and I’m a nurse at Atlanta General Hospital,” she spoke calmly as she searched his injuries with her eyes. She wished for a flashlight so she could see better. “You’ve been in a car accident and an ambulance is on it’s way. I’ll help you out until it gets here.” She didn’t know if he could hear her or not, he appeared to be unconscious but Julie was doing what she had always been trained to do.
There was so much blood, it was covering every inch of his head that she could see. She took a second to look around the vehicle for any sort of cloth but came up empty. In absence of it, she used her hand and pressed it into a wound on the back of his head. She pressed gently, careful of his skull in the case of a fracture. She felt around his neck and spine in the dark with her other hand. She quickly determined that she had to lift his head back, his breathing was coming much too slowly and she had to make sure his airway was clear. She gingerly pushed the man’s head up, using both hands in order to be as careful as possible.
Finally getting a good look at his face, Julie’s mouth fell open in shock.
“...Brian?”
Story Notes:
How does it feel to be a fallen angel?
Your wings are lying on the ground
How does it feel to be a fallen angel?
Forever is a long way down
~*Fallen Angel, Backstreet Boys*~
Your wings are lying on the ground
How does it feel to be a fallen angel?
Forever is a long way down
~*Fallen Angel, Backstreet Boys*~
