"You don't want to be late, Heather"
Heather van Aalderen, a hazel-eyed bright young girl with shoulder length auburn brown hair, shoved her striped case into the front passenger seat of their blue Mini Cooper. She poised herself as she went inside the car with her dad waiting behind the wheel. She smiled at her father who pointed to her right, don't forget your seatbelt. "Dad..." she was still a child to him.
"I don't care, honey, put your seatbelt on"
She pulled the belt from her side and crossed it to the other, clipped it in a small buckle. It won't lock. She turned dramatically and wore a worried look in front of her dad. "It's not going to work on me anymore, Heather. For the last time, put your seatbelt on...properly"
Playfully, she pretended to be mad, crossed her arms in her fake upset mode. She would keep this up until the car moved and the long silence finally got into her father's nerves. "Be careful out there, Heather, I will tell you again, no boys except for Damien, I told him to report to me everything that would be going on with you out there."
"But Dad..!"
"Uh-uh, no buts. Damien is a good kid. And he's kind enough to watch over you for me."
"I know Dad, but he's got a life too. I don't want to cause any trouble. We just knew their family Dad. How many weeks have they moved in here, three weeks? You were just lucky you found some kid that's going to the same university as I am. Dad, I can do this. I'm not gonna let you down, you just have to trust me."
Her daughter spoke with conviction that made him smile. "You're really just like your mother, aren't you? She should have seen her baby go to college." Immediately, he wiped the tears starting to well underneath his eyes.
Seeing her father in this state pinched her heart but a smile stood out from her face. She looked past the window, it's like she can see her mother's sweet face grace the motionless and gloomy sky. 5:02am. It was still a bit dark, but the sun can be seen peeking through the thin clouds. Harmlessly, it illuminated the streets with a sad, white light. From the sky, she saw a white owl flying along their direction; it was strangely beautiful. Its wings need not to flap as it glided in the stream of air with brilliant speed. She felt a harder twist in her heart, something tells her not to go forward. Something so strange, she tightened her grip on the seatbelt strapped to her.
Wings. She wished to fly away from all of the burdens in her life. With much responsibility on her own, she felt, yes, she was still a child wanting to cling onto her father's arms forever. Her father smiled at her. She was his only angel, a gift from the Almighty.
The streets were starting to get busy. Speeding cars passed by inches from them, it would have been a scratch on the side if her dad wasn't defensive. She's going to be late if they don't hurry, her father thought. Stepping harder on the gas, the speed went up a notch, steadily and smoothly. From a distance, Heather could hear a loud horn like that of a giant truck. A scarlet red Bentley drove at the same speed as them, she could see the guy driving it wearing a cocky grin at her. Speeding away from competition, her dad stepped harder only to actually start some mutual race. Turbulence. Running over some obvious little rocks made the ride a bit rough. She could see the mirrors shudder to blur. It was cold. Her grip on the handles of the door tightened. The movement of the tires felt irregular, like they were about to break loose. From afar, they can see the blurry view of an intersection approaching. Red light. It blinked from a few meters and vehicles started to proceed from the east of the crossroad.
Her father tried to slow the car down, but as he stepped on the brake pedal, there was an unusual noise. Something crept under Mr. Van Aalderen's skin starting from the tips of his fingers and his toes. He looked straight into the speeding view that drowned his eyes. It's as if every image flashed before his eyes. Silence whirred into his ears like a suction, he heard the sound of empty space. A voice. It was a faint, faint voice that managed to break the barriers covering his sense of hearing. It was his daughter's cry in fear. He felt her hand grab his. He could feel the trembling in her grasp. They were still moving forward.
The images grew nearer and nearer until it became a passing inscription, which read flammable. Impact. Loud noises pierced its way into the morning atmosphere. Eyes were all gazed toward the inevitable ruin. Metals were scrapped onto one another, beaten as the blue Mini Cooper broke into the tank. Embers flew right in. Glasses broke in an instant as the dreams of a girl plunged right out of the windshield. The seatbelt snapped loose as Heather's hands slipped away from her father's arms. Mid-air, flames burst out to the open air. Boom goes the explosion. Sending a wave of glass shards breaking in circles for everyone near the ear piercing event. Beside the tank was a bus that flipped to its side, burning all the machine beneath it. Some of the smaller cars waiting before the intersection were all pushed backwards as the cars in passing all flew to different directions.
The flames ate up the area as breakfast in haste. People were crawling, limping, and running away from the scene. A great cloud of smoke shrouded the healthy sunshine of daybreak. It was zero-visibility. The smell of burnt tires grew troublesome. The injured pushed themselves out of the smog, coughing in their burnt faces smeared with black powder. The explosions were continuous as the flames reached the overturned cars nearby. Screams and cries were all heard as they echoed on all corners.
White light scattered inside the dark clouds in the middle of the intersection. There was one beautiful melody that rose. It was something unheard of from before with instruments unknown. Heather van Aalderen felt a comforting embrace as she spun mid-air. It's as if all of her worries were taken away from her. It was neither hot nor cold; it was unexplainable. She felt as though everything was light. Light as a feather. She let the winds take her safely down the ground. "Am..I...in heaven?" She asked herself as she tried to open her eyes from the white light that shrouded her view of the sky.
All she could see was a glimpse. A glimpse of an aftermath. Eyes half-opened, she saw a figure before her as white as snow. The figure was that of a man whose face glowed in perfection she cannot comprehend. She tried to reach out to touch his face but the mystery moved away from her weak hand and disappeared in flight like an eagle, swirling the dark clouds out of his way.
"Wait!..." the light swallowed her vision sending her into a deep slumber, a circle of fire kept its distance away from her resting ground.
ns 15.158.61.16da2
