The Sound of Rain

This is quite possibly my favorite thing that I've ever wrote. I was feeling down about love and life and this just came out. I felt like I had lost everything I cared about.

Michael blinked his eyes, squinting as if a bright light was shining in his face.  His vision cleared and he realized he was looking into the headlights of his own car.  They shot out through the darkness of the night rain, piercing him and jump-starting his memory.  The only other lights he saw were the reflections of the yellow blinking traffic lights from up above.

 

He had been safe, he knew he had.  How could he let this happen?

 

He tried to sit up but his head spun with a dizziness he had never felt before.  After a couple of minutes, he slowly rolled off his back and onto his side, gingerly pushing himself to his knees and feeling broken glass under his hands.  Nothing was broken; he couldn't believe it.  He sat for a moment, gathering himself.  Bringing his hand to his head, he felt the warmth of blood on his temple and ear.  He couldn't be sure of how bad it was.  He scanned his surroundings.  His car lay on its side, spun around to the other side of the road.  From where he was sitting, he couldn't see where the impact had happened.  He knew it was bad.  The other car was on its roof, the front smashed in almost to the windshield.  It was hard to see much else, the rain was coming down steadily and the cars blocked most of his view from the rest of the road.

 

"Paige?!" Michael called out with a raspy voice.  "Paige, where are you?"  He slowly got to his feet, listening intently for any sound.  He limped over to his car and looked inside.  He could see the spot where he and Paige had been thrown from the car:  right through the windshield.  She wasn't wearing her seatbelt; she had taken it off to reach something in the back seat.  He had been wearing his, but it didn't matter.  The drivers were going so fast that when they hit the passenger side, the seatbelt had failed.  He didn't think that a car could be twisted as much as his car was.

 

Michael walked around his car and spotted one of the passengers of the other car lying face down on the ground.  He rushed over only to find no pulse.  It was a young man; Michael guessed around 20.  He went over to the other car and saw another passenger sitting in the front passenger seat, face down on the dashboard.  He didn't check her pulse; there was no doubt that she was dead.

 

Reaching down to his pocket, Michael felt for his phone.  It wasn't there.  He looked into the car and saw the young girl's phone, but it was in two pieces.  Going back over to the kid on the road, he searched for his phone.  He found it, and sighed with relief as it was still in working order.  He made the 911 call and surprised the operator and himself with how calm he seemed.  As soon as he hung up the phone, it all changed.  Out through the sound of the rain, he heard a faint call.

 

"Paige...Paige?!  Where are you?"  He ran back over to his car and looked into the front window.  He realized that only he had been thrown from the car.  Paige was crumbled and smashed into the space behind the driver's seat, barely able to even make a weak call for help.  "Paige!"  Michael dove into the car and crawled into the back toward Paige.  "Oh my God, oh my God.  Are you okay?"

 

"I don't know."

 

"Okay, let's get you out of here."  Michael folded the driver's seat forward and got his arms around her.  As he started pulling her as carefully as he could out of the car, Paige gasped and winced with pain.  Finally, he freed her from the car and brought her out into the light of the headlights.  She didn't look good.

 

"Paige?"  She looked up at him with a fading look in her eyes.  "Stay with me Paige, baby.  Stay with me.  Help's gonna be here soon.  Just hang on."  He looked down at her, his tears falling onto her bloody sweater.  "Just stay with me, Paige.  Can you hear me?"  She was slowly closing her eyes.  "Paige, stay with me, Paige.  Can you hear me, baby?"  She again looked up at him but still with the same fading look.  "You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay.  The paramedics will be here soon and they'll take care of you.  You'll be okay.  Just hang on a little more, baby.  You're gonna be okay."  Michael was just trying to convince himself now.  He looked up in to the night sky, trying to hold back as many tears as he could.

 

"Michael?"

 

Michael looked down into Paige's eyes, those wonderful blue eyes that had first caught his eyes three years ago.  "Yeah, baby?"

 

"Could you do something for me?"

 

"Anything...anything.  I'll pick up my underwear, I'll put away my dishes.  I'll do anything you want."

 

"Could you-"  Paige pauses, fighting to stay awake.  "Don't let go of me Michael, don't let go."

 

Michael pulled her closer to his body and coughed with pain and tears.  "I won't, I won't...I won't ever let you go, baby.  I'm here for you.  I won't let go."  He looked down at her and already she was losing the color in her face.  "Stay with me, Paige, stay with me!"  He started sobbing uncontrollably.  Between the gasps he continued pleading.  "Oh God, why?  Why?!"  He brushed her hair away from her face, wet with the cold rain.  "Don't you let go!  Don't you let go!  Stay with me, Paige!"  He felt her body grow with a big breath and then exhale and then nothing.  "I won't let go!  I won't let go!"

 

Michael rocked back and forth with Paige's body in his arms, his face buried in her's.  They sat in near silence, the only sound the rain coming down and Michael's soft whispers of promise.

Reviews

[Jamie Fantasy]

Aww... That is so sad. I could tell that you were feeling a sense of loss when you wrote this. The character is so alone. There was obviously no one around and even the stragers died.

This was very well written. You created a great mental picture and connection from the audience to the character. I really like the straight-forward style of your writing. Great job!

[Idioteque]

Wow..... that's amazing. The intro is very well done, man, I could picture every written word. From the awakening to the tragedy, wow. I'm not gonna lie, you know how you get that powerless feeling when you hear about a tragedy that you wish you could change and you chest feels like it could implode, well, yeah.... I got that feeling. Great story, great story.

[RockerChick]

oh my god, you almost made me cry, my eyes definatly got watery.