Chapter 3: When the World Goes Dark
1573 Words
My chest tightened. Breath coming in short gasps that fogged the windows, trapping me in a cocoon of condensation and fear.
I couldn't stay here. The cold was already seeping into my bones, turning my fingers stiff, my lips numb. How long did it take to freeze to death? Hours? Minutes?
Stop. Think.
I grabbed my phone again. Pressed the power button and held it. Pressed it again.
Nothing.
The car charger. I fumbled for it in the dark, hands shaking so badly I could barely grip anything. Found it wedged between the seats. Plugged it in.
Tried the ignition one more time.
Dead.
The charger was useless without power.
Okay. Okay. I just needed to flag down a car. Someone would come. People drove this highway. Truckers. Late night travelers.
Someone would see me.
I peered through the windshield. Snow had already started piling on the hood, covering the glass. The wipers were frozen in place. I couldn't see the road anymore. Couldn't see anything except white and darkness and the vague shapes of trees.
No headlights. No movement.
Just the wind, screaming like something alive.
How long had it been since I'd seen another car? An hour? More?
My teeth chattered. I clenched my jaw to stop it but the shaking spread through my whole body. Uncontrollable. Violent.
I needed to move. Generate heat. Something.
I tried the door. It wouldn't budge. Frozen shut or blocked by snow, I couldn't tell. I threw my shoulder against it. Once. Twice.
Pain shot through my arm but the door didn't move.
The passenger side then.
I crawled over the center console, my dress catching on the gear shift, tearing. I didn't care. Pushed against the passenger door with both hands.
It opened six inches before hitting a wall of snow.
Not enough. Not nearly enough.
I shoved harder. The snow was packed solid, heavy and wet. My hands burned with cold. I couldn't feel my fingers anymore but I kept digging, scooping snow out of the way, creating a gap just wide enough to squeeze through.
The wind hit me like a fist.
I gasped. Stumbled. My bare feet sank into snow up to my ankles and the cold was so sharp it felt like knives cutting into my skin.
Stupid. This was so stupid.
But staying in the car meant freezing. At least out here I could try to find help. Flag down a passing car.
If any cars passed.
I wrapped my arms around myself. My dress was worse than useless. Thin silk that might as well have been paper. The wind cut right through it, stealing what little warmth I had left.
The road. I needed to get to the road.
I took a step. My foot caught on something buried under the snow and I went down hard, hands first. The snow was sharp. Icy. It scraped my palms raw.
Get up. Get up.
I pushed to my feet. Took another step. Another.
The world was just white. White and wind and cold so intense it stopped being a sensation and became the only thing. The entire universe reduced to freezing.
My car was already disappearing behind me. I could barely see it through the snow.
Keep going. Just keep going.
Except I didn't know which way the road was. Everything looked the same. I'd lost all sense of direction in the whiteout.
What if I was walking away from the road? Deeper into the woods?
I turned around. Tried to find my footprints. They were already gone. Filled in by new snow.
Oh God.
The panic squeezed tighter. My lungs wouldn't expand. Couldn't get enough air.
I was going to die out here.
Alone. In the middle of nowhere. Wearing a cocktail dress.
They wouldn't find my body until spring.
No. No, stop it. Stop.
I forced myself to breathe. To think.
The cabin. I'd been close to the turnoff. Maybe two miles? Three?
Three miles in a blizzard. Barefoot. In a dress.
I'd never make it.
A sob built in my throat. I swallowed it down. Crying wouldn't help. Wouldn't change anything.
I just needed to survive until morning. Until the storm passed. Until someone came.
My legs were shaking. Not from cold now but from exhaustion. I'd been driving for hours, running on adrenaline and bad coffee and spite.
It was running out.
I took another step. My knee buckled.
I caught myself. Barely.
Keep moving. Just keep moving.
The wind shifted. For just a second, the snow cleared enough for me to see.
Trees. Darkness. No road. No lights.
Nothing.
The sob escaped this time. Raw and broken and terrified.
I sank to my knees. The snow came up to my chest. I couldn't feel my feet anymore. Couldn't feel my hands. Everything was numb except my chest, which hurt, which ached with a pain that had nothing to do with cold.
This was it. This was how it ended.
Not with a bang. Not with someone who loved me holding my hand. Just alone in the snow because I'd been too stubborn, too broken, too desperate to escape.
Marcus was right. I was impulsive. Reckless.
And it was finally going to kill me.
I closed my eyes. The wind howled. Snow buried me, inch by inch.
Maybe it wouldn't hurt. Maybe I'd just fall asleep and not wake up.
They said freezing was peaceful at the end.
I hoped they were right.
Light cut through my eyelids.
I didn't open them. Hallucinating. Had to be.
An engine rumbled. Close. Too close.
I forced my eyes open.
Headlights. Actual headlights. Cutting through the storm like a miracle.
A truck. Big. Dark. Coming toward me.
I tried to stand. Couldn't. Tried to wave. My arms wouldn't lift.
The truck slowed. Stopped.
A door opened.
Footsteps. Heavy. Crunching through snow.
A shadow. A person. Tall. Broad shouldered.
"Jesus Christ." The voice was deep. Male. Rough with something that might have been anger or shock.
I tried to speak. My teeth were chattering too hard.
He dropped to his knees in front of me. I saw his face for the first time.
Dark hair. Strong jaw. Eyes that were gray even in the darkness. Storm gray.
He was staring at me like I was the last thing he'd expected to find out here.
I stared back. Couldn't look away.
"What the hell are you doing out here?" Not angry. Something else. Concerned? Scared?
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out except a pathetic whimper.
His eyes traveled down. Taking in my dress. My bare feet. The way I was shaking so hard I couldn't control it.
"You're freezing." He shrugged out of his coat. Heavy. Warm. He wrapped it around my shoulders and the heat was so sudden, so intense, I almost cried.
"I need to get you out of here. Can you stand?"
I tried. Failed.
He didn't wait for another answer. Just scooped me up like I weighed nothing, one arm under my knees, the other around my back.
I should have protested. Should have said I was fine, I could walk.
Instead, I buried my face in his chest. He smelled like pine and wood smoke and something clean. Safe.
He carried me to the truck. Opened the passenger door with one hand while holding me with the other. Set me down on the seat with a gentleness that didn't match his rough exterior.
"Don't move." He disappeared around the front of the truck.
I couldn't have moved if I wanted to. Every muscle was locked. Shaking.
He climbed into the driver's seat. Cranked the heat to full blast. Warm air poured from the vents.
"Where's your car?"
I pointed vaguely behind us. At least I tried to point. My hand just sort of flopped.
He cursed under his breath. Put the truck in gear.
We drove in silence. It only took a minute to find my Honda, barely visible under the snow.
He looked at it. Looked at me.
"You drove off the road."
I nodded.
"Phone?"
"Dead."
Another curse. He pulled out his own phone. Frowned at the screen. "No signal out here."
Of course not.
He sat there for a moment. Jaw tight. Hands gripping the steering wheel.
I could see him thinking. Calculating. Making a decision he didn't want to make.
Finally, he turned to me.
"I'm taking you to my cabin. Roads are too dangerous to get you back to town tonight. Storm's supposed to get worse before it gets better."
His cabin. A stranger's cabin.
Every self preservation instinct I had left screamed at me to refuse.
But I was freezing to death. My car was dead. My phone was dead.
I had no choice.
I nodded again.
Something flickered in his eyes. Relief? Resignation?
He turned back to the road. Started driving.
I pulled his coat tighter around me. It smelled like him. Safe.
Even though nothing about this was safe.
"What's your name?" His voice was quieter now. Less rough.
"Ava." It came out as a whisper.
He glanced at me. Those storm gray eyes meeting mine.
"Ethan."
Then he looked away. Back to the road. To the storm.
And I realized with a clarity that cut through the fog in my brain that I'd just put my life in the hands of a complete stranger.
And there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.
- Writer
