Before I am Buried - First Chapter (WIP)

I am screaming.

‘Save them!’

The world is tilted. My eyes are bulging as blood rushes to my head. The car radio is still on, but it is muffled by the sound of roaring. The weak stench of rotten fish and rosemary.

‘Save them!’

I stare into the backs of my parents’ heads, unfolding like spiders from the web of their seatbelts. My father’s ear is pressed to the roof of the car like he is listening for something.

There is so much blood. It clots my mother’s hair. She is waving. I can’t see her hands, but her body sways with the car.

I already know they are dead.

‘Why aren’t you saving them?’

My voice is leaving me. My words escape my lips in wisps of smoke. The flashing blue lights are forcing my eyes to close. The metallic dirt of coins coats my teeth.

The little boy staring in at the window is crying softly. He has stopped pulling at my seatbelt, stopped shielding my eyes with his fingers. They are here now. He uncrosses his legs and leans in through the broken glass. His lips are at my ear – his knee pressed into my parents’ blood.

‘I can’t.’

Hot sirens. Damp copper. And he is gone.