What you are reading is a long from version of Chapter 1. 
I originally was not aware of the typical post format of this site and originally structured the story in book form.
If you do not wish to read the whole thing at once, I have split this into 3 separate chapters known as 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3.
Otherwise, I hope you enjoy. 
P.S. probably wont be doing the long form chapters going forward, I just don't want to lose the comment and like I have gotten on this.

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I

  Clouds were rapidly overtaking the setting sun, at a pace most couldn’t think observable outside of time lapse footage. Was time moving faster, or did it only seem so? The answer was of little concern to him, the young man watching the clouds. Late October air numbed his face, blew his brown hair around, and chilled his fingertips. He was geared up in hockey equipment from the waist down, and a jersey with a six on the back wtih the name Mitchells covering his upper body. He was standing outside of a hockey rink as people were leaving, among them was a fellow teammate who waved at him. “It was a good game, Chris; you’ll get them next time” he gave a half assed wave back, then went back to watching the clouds.
 

 

  He hadn’t a clue as to why the clouds entranced him. Maybe it was a way to block out the noise of chatter, footsteps and cars driving out of the parking lot, maybe it was a distraction from the recent loss of his game, maybe the clouds represented a deeper conflict within himself, or maybe he just thought they were pretty. Whatever the reason, he kept looking until all the people and noise in the parking lot dissipated into nothing else, but the sounds of crickets, wind, and the occasional car driving by in the distance.
 

  As Chris’s trance deepened, it looked as if the clouds were swallowing the sky whole. Were they swallowing the earth? He did not know how to feel about it, but he did have plenty of thoughts. What would happen? Would it be the end of the world? The start of a new world? Was there an afterlife?......  Nah couldn’t be. Concepts like heaven, hell, spirits, the afterlife and anything else referring to life after death, triggered an instinctual laugh from him.

 

Clink!!!

  Snapping Chris out of his trance was the sound of footsteps traveling side to side, light humming, and the continuous clinking of metal. The sounds came directly from behind, from a young energetic girl, with blond braided hair and wearing faded skinny jeans, a yellow pull over hoodie, and a blue fanny pack. It was his younger sister, Liah, who was pacing back and forth, swinging her key-chain on a lanyard which was hitting the back of the bench he sat on.

 

  Liah seemed blissfully unaware of her surroundings, as she swung the lanyard freely, carelessly. Shaking his head, Chris pulled out a phone and a pair of earbuds from his duffel bag, then blasted 90s grunge tunes. However, this only did so much to drown out Liah, as she got more aggressive with her swinging, and occasionally let out long, frustrated groans. If the clouds made him feel as if time was shifting forward, Liah made him feel it was stretching out increasingly; he just wanted it to end.
 

   Whack!!!!

 

   A sharp metal pain shot into the back of his head, knocking out his earbuds. “What the hell?!” He felt for bumps and gashes.

  “Shit sorry…..., keychain slipped from my hand, totally my bad” Liah had rushed over, clearly flustered and embarrassed at the scenario; however, this didn’t make Chris any less upset.
 

  “My bad, my ass.”
 

  “It was an honest mistake, I swear. You’re not seriously gonna hold this over me, are you?” Liah asked.
 

  "It's always mistake with you, isn't it?" Chris replied.
 

  "Again, I'm sorry. what else do you want me to say?"
 

  “……...whatever, can you please just stop swinging that thing around and sit down, mom should be here soon.”
 

  “Yeah” said Liah, then sat down on the bench next to him. She stared at the ground, letting out a sigh here and there, which eventually turned into groans, then into foot tapping that picked up pace with passing time.
   

  Chris pretended not to notice but he did, out of the corner of his eye. Just ignore her, he thought. He picked up his headphones and went back to his music: still, he could not tune Liah out.
 

  “UUUGGGHHH…... What's taking mom so long?” Liah groaned
 

  “Not sure. Must be busy at work.” Chris replied.
 

  “Well then why didn’t she call us? I mean isn’t that why she got you a phone in the first place.”
 

  “Because she is probably too busy at work!” He was progressively getting more annoyed with her.
 

  “But like, she can’t ask her boss for 2 seconds to make a phone call.”
 

  “First off, that's not how jobs work. Secondly, would it change anything? You’d still just complain that she’s taking too long.”
 

  “Also” continued Liah, as if not hearing his remarks “Why do you get a phone and I don’t."
 

  “Oh, that’s an easy one, because you’d put us out of house and home.”
 

  “Ahh yes, I’m going to rack up millions in phone debt talking to my one friend I hang out with every day. Great logic.” Liah said sarcastically.
 

  “Eh, wouldn’t surprise me.” Chris muttered under his breath. Liah and her friend Anna were practically joined at the hip outside of family obligations.
 
  Liah shrugged, got up, and was about to go back to pacing when she noticed her key-chain was missing. She frantically searched her pockets and the inside of her shirt, she then noticed it, in Chris’s hand. She tried to grab it back, but he swung it in a circle, almost hitting her on the hand.

 

  At first, Liah pouted and sat in silence, as if at once accepting defeat. The fun was quickly running dry, why did she have be like that? He was only giving her a taste of her own medicine. An awkward silence followed, with the occasional glance at each other. Then, with little to no telegraphing, she snatched his phone from his lap and circled around the bench; He was ready to strangle her.
 

  Despite Chris's athletic abilities, he could not keep up. Liah was small and had the agility of a track runner, though she had never competed on a sports team; the hockey gear was not helping him either. At one point, he had briefly got hold of her sweater, but she slid out of it and leaped over the bench. Instinctively, He tried to hop over as well but instead tripped and toppled onto the other side, much to his embarrassment and her amusement.
 

  For several grueling minutes this went on. That was until that trusty old station wagon, the one that picked up Chris from every hockey game since he was 6, pulled up honking its horn at him and Liah, ceasing their game of cat and mouse. Inside the car was a familiar face, their mother, but everyone else of course called her by her name, Evelyn. She was middle-aged, blond and was wearing circular glasses and a light blue cardigan.

  Evelyn leaned over to the passenger side, and rolled down the window. “So, who started it this time?” she asked, giving them both an exaggerated stern look. The two of them drowned each other out, trying to explain their side of events, something she'd let play out for fifteen seconds before honking her horn again. “All right, now… both of you get in the car and we can try this again, minus the shouting over each other part. Ok?”
  

  Both of the teenagers reluctantly agreed and started heading to the car. Upon reaching the doors, Liah handed Chris back his phone. He knelt to put it back into his duffel bag, and when he stood back up, he saw that she was in the front passenger seat, smiling at him, taunting him.
  “Grow up” said Chris, before hopping in the back seat.

  By now, the sky had darkened considerably, and the beginning signs of a storm were all there, from the roaring of thunder, to the gradual but steady buildup of rain. Taking one last look, he saw a sky that had been engulfed by dark clouds.

  

II

 

   It didn’t take long for the moderate rainfall to turn into a full-on storm as they drove through the rural part of town, which was surrounded by open fields of rotting corn and the occasional barn in the distance. Evelyn was mostly focused on the road, head firmly locked in place, tension filling her shoulders. Though her eyes were watching the road, her mind was on her two children. Every now and then she couldn’t help but to glance at the rearview mirror to check on them. Chris was just sitting in the back, his arms crossed, looking down at the floor with a sour look on his face. Liah was leaning her head against the window, using the fog from her breath to draw smiley faces, then erasing them and doing it all again.

  Neither of them seemed willing to talk, this was typical after a fight and like every time before it was up to Evelyn to solve their differences.
“So…. who wants to go first?” No answer, not even a sound outside of maybe a single dry cough from Chris. “Guess I’m picking then?” Still there was no answer. “Let’s start with you Liah, what happened?”
 

  Liah responded with a million words a second, recalling her side of the event, explaining that the whole thing started when Chris stole her key-chain and wouldn’t return it, that she only took the phone as payback. Once Liah was finished, nothing. The silent treatment, of course, Chris wasn’t the type to justify himself or his actions and Evelyn knew that, so once again she broke the silence.

  “Is there anything you wanna say?”  Asked Evelyn. Still silence “Speak now or forever hold your peace” she continued.
 

  “What are you a cop now?” Chris snapped back.
 

  “Hey, so you speak. Now, are you going to tell me your side?”
 

  “What's the point?”
 

  Evelyn sighed, knowing where this was going and not liking it one bit. “Well, when that’s your attitude......”
 

  “Good, glad we got that settled.”
 

  “I would hardly call this settled Chris, but fine be petty” she was beginning to get annoyed. “Last chance Chris..... Well?" 

  “I took the key-chain because she hit me in the back of the head with it.” Said Chris, clearly irritated.
 

  Liah got defensive but before she could get a word in otherwise, she had been cut off by Evelyn. Chris continued to talk about her as she rapidly tapped her foot, looking as if she was about to burst. According to him, he wasn’t just annoyed with her restlessness after the game, but during it as well. She was apparently running around the rink bleachers, disappearing all together at moments and throwing his focus off with obnoxious chants.
 

  Liah spun herself into a flurry trying to defend herself, claimed she never ran around the hockey rink, that the disappearances were bathroom breaks. As for the chanting, Liah was adamant that she was trying to get in the spirit and cheer him on, she was rather sincere about it too.
 

  “You call that cheering?” Chris asked, almost sarcastically.
 

  “I tried, isn’t that what counts?” Liah awkwardly looked at Chris, he stared back with a deadpan expression. “What? Don’t look at me like that” she continued “I didn’t wanna be there in the first place because, and let me be clear about this, hockey is boring!. Blame mom, she made me go.”
  

  “Well hold on, missy '' Evelyn interjected “don’t turn this around on me. I asked if you could go and film the game because there was a good chance I’d be working late tonight, and you agreed.”
 

  “Yeah but that’s when I thought Anna would come with. If I had known she bail I wouldn’t have…”
 

  “No excuses, what have I said?” Evelyn cut Liah off, in a stern tone.
 

  “Take responsibility for your actions.” Liah bowed her head, then went back to leaning against the window.
 

  “Exactly. By the way did you actually film any of it?” Evelyn asked.
 

  “Uhhhhh……” Liah pulled out a digital video camera out of her fanny pack and struggled to playback the files.

  Chris, being impatient, leaned over, grabbed the camera out of her hands and looked through it. “There's only two clips in here.” he said, “One of her brushing her teeth, the other is only 4 seconds long and shows hardly anything.”
  

  Evelyn loved Liah, truly she did, but even she could get annoyed with her absent mindedness at times, and this was one of those times. Taking a few seconds to compose herself, she thought of how she wanted to handle this. She didn’t want to yell at her, it would solve nothing, and she knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of someone's temper over a minor mistake, and she refused to treat anyone like that.   After a deep breath in and a few seconds to feel the air in her lungs, she exhaled in an exacerbated sigh. “You two need to get better at settling your differences, this can’t always fall on me.”

  "But!" Both teens exclaimed at the same time.

  "But nothing, your two are brother and sister, act like it" 

  "isn't it normal for siblings to fight though?" asked Liah.

  "Not to this degree it isn't." Evelyn calmly replied. “Liah, be more careful with your key-chain, and next time you agree to something, commit to it." She gave Liah a second to apologize before continuing "Chris, try to be more patient with her.”
 

  “Yeah... sure whatever.” replied Chris

  "No, not yeah, whatever. It's either yes or no." said Evelyn, aggravated. Chris did not answer her. "Fine, we'll talk about this later then."

  Again, silence. The 3 of them just sat in the car paying little to no mind to each other. Evelyn started dialing through radio channels looking for something to listen to, hoping to break the tension. She flipped through one station after another, not seeming able to land on anything she liked; in the time span of a minute, she dialed through stations playing rock, hard rock, hip hop, dance, electro, pop balladry, and a few talk shows, but none of it kept her interest, even the 80s station she’d typically default to was playing nothing good.

  But then, to Evelyn's dismay, she couldn’t find anything but static and even the channels that worked moments ago were now just white noise. Was it the storm? The static got louder and louder, piercing their ears with mind numbing intensity, creating a fuzziness they felt in the back of their head and, oddly enough, the tips of their tongues. It was painful, Chris and Liah covered their ears while she could only cover one, as she was still driving. Behind the wall of static, she swore she could hear the faint sound of tortured screaming, cries of agony, pleads for mercy; the more she listened the more she was sure that’s what she was hearing, and it made her heart sink into her stomach, so she turned off the radio altogether.
 

  Static rang in Evelyn’s ears, judging by the way Chris and Liah were fiddling with their ears, the same went for them. Her head was aching, eyes throbbing, and she was no longer paying full attention to the road. The radio turned back on, all by itself; the static was somehow more intense this time. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t shut it off.

  Then a sudden frantic shout caught her off guard. “MOM WATCH OUT!” It was Chris. She barely got a good look at the thing that was now right in front of her, on the road. The most she saw was a grey blur, before she flung the steering wheel left, and swerved into a ditch, colliding with a large rock, and knocking the three of them unconscious.

III

 

   Chris woke up from the crash, ears ringing, head pounding harder than any key-chain could do to him. It took a moment for his vision to stop blurring, but once it had he immediately started checking himself for any serious wounds; His arm was cut but it wasn't deep, at least not deep enough for him to be concerned about it. Once making sure he was fine, his mind shifted to his sister. Clumsily, he unbuckled his seat belt and leaned over the passenger side. Liah appeared to be fine albeit still unconscious; He gently shook her awake just to be sure though.
 

  “What happened?” Liah said, still drowsy from the crash, she was unharmed. Evelyn on the other hand, was slumped over on the steering wheel, a steady stream of blood poured down the side of her head; A sight that sent Liah went into a panic. “Mom, wake up!” She shaking her thoughtlessly and violently, not even trying to compose herself.

  Chris grabbed Liah and attempted to comfort her, or at the very least to stop her from shaking their mom so much. He managed to calm her down enough to get her to stop shaking Evelyn, though she was clearly still worked up and for once, he didn't blame her. He took deep breaths in and out, instructing Liah to follow along and kept this up until she was relatively calm; he didn’t know if it would work, it was just something he saw on TV once, couldn’t remember what the show was.
  

  Chris placed his fingers on Evelyn’s pulse. Good news, she was still breathing, with the bad news being everything else. They were stuck in the middle of nowhere, the car was totaled; which was saying a lot because it was barely running to begin with. Not to mention it was now stuck in a ditch. Worried about how he was going to get them to safety, he reached into his duffel bag, pulled out his phone, but couldn’t get it to turn on. He held down the power button, but an empty battery icon flashed on screen; never turned off the music he was playing during his fight with Liah, he tossed the phone back into the bag.
 

  Liah unbuckled her seat-belt and climbed over into the back seat and was searching under them for something. After a few moments she had found what she was looking for, a first aid kit. Chris had forgotten they always kept one under the seat. He knew she had watched a ton of ER shows, but that by no means made her an expert. How much could she actually learn from a show? Apparently, enough to at-least able to clean the wound, and apply a bandage to it. For once, He was impressed with her.

Evelyn started to regain consciousness; before she could reorient herself, Liah gave her a huge hug.
“Uhhhh... Why are we in a ditch?” she muttered; clearly she hadn't fully processed what happened but then again none of them had. She tried to move but Liah wouldn’t let her, demanding she remain seated. The sight of her own blood in the rear-view mirror sent her into a panic but not over concern for herself, but for them. Chris assured her that they were fine, though he wasn’t very sure of that himself.
 

  The rain was still pouring, harder now than ever. Not only was the sound of rainfall so intense it partially drowned out their voices, but it also made seeing anything outside almost impossible. However, through the thick blanket of rain Chris saw a figure. They were off in the distance, hair falling over their face, making distinguishing any facial features impossible. Only thing he could conclude was that it was a woman. The strange woman stood there for a while, staring at the direction of the car, arms hanging loosely by their sides, head slightly tilted; as if watching them. Neither Liah nor Evelyn noticed her, they were still focused on mending Evelyn’s head injury. Should I say something? he thought. He didn't want to worry them more than they already were, nor could he find the words to tell them anyway. Looking at the tattered woman, she hadn’t moved, not in the slightest, she was almost statuesque in that regard. Then, suddenly, the woman collapsed and was no longer in his view.
 

  Evelyn was in no shape to go anywhere, and Liah tethered on the edge of being fine and having a panic attack. If any of them were going to check it out, it had to be him. Without thinking he exited the vehicle.

  “Where are you going?” Liah asked.
 

  “To see if I can hail any passing by drivers for help”. Chris lied.
 

  “Shouldn’t we call someone and wait here?”
 

  “Can’t, phone is dead.”
 

  “You gotta be kidding me” blurted Liah “What about Moms phone? We could use that” She turned to Evelyn and grabbed her purse, pulling out the phone which was thankfully still on, however try as they may, she couldn’t get a proper signal; still she kept trying, dialing 911 a million times out of desperation.

  A moan of pain came from the road, sending shivers down Chris’s back, Liah and Evelyn even heard it. “What was that?” asked Liah, Chris didn’t know but he couldn’t wait by the car anymore, he rushed off before either of them could get another word.
 

  Getting back to the road was more of a hassle than Chris had anticipated on account of the steep incline of the ditch and his hockey gear. Rain made the ground slippery, and his shoes were completely covered in mud by now. It took a few tried to get up, at least twice he slide back down, knees scraping across rocks; something that would have hurt had he not still been wearing his hockey gear.

  Upon reaching the road, there was nothing besides fields surrounding Chris. He could still see the station wagon in the ditch, however, he couldn’t see inside the car because of the rain. Where was the women? He looked right and saw nothing but road. Then he looked left, and there laid the women, motionless; she was far enough from him that he still couldn’t make out any greater details, so he very slowly moved towards her.
 

  At about 5 feet away, Chris finally started to get a good look at the women in a gray dress. They were laying on their side, facing away from him. He called out to her, not sure why, it’s not like he thought they would respond; still he felt compelled to say something. Upon greater observation, the dress was stained with a dark substance that he initially thought was mud but was too dark and thin to be that. The liquid was pitch black and smelled rancid. It was slimy, and when he touched it a burning sensation overcame his fingers and quickly escalated into boiling hot, his fingers felt like they were melting. He wiped it off on the ground, not sure if it would burn through his cloths. The burning stopped shortly after, his fingers were miraculously fine now.
 

  The body wasn’t moving, and Chris couldn’t decide if he should run back to the car or see if his curiosity got him killed. Then, the shoulder twitched, only slightly, but it was enough to catch his attention; it was followed by shallow and raspy breathing. He wrapped his hand inside of the jersey sleeves to avoid contact with the black substance. What he saw when he flipped her over made his stomach curdle.

  The eyes were bloodshot, bruises covered her from head to toe, but worse was the black liquid pouring out from their mouth, eyes and ears almost infinitely. Lastly was their heart, or lack thereof, a hollow hole in it's place with more black ooze poured from it; looking into it felt like staring into the abyss.
 

  In that instance, Chris wanted to run. But to where? In all directions there was nothing other than endless roads and fields. He thought of running to a nearby farm; he knew of one close by, Herrera Farms. Whatever he did, he knew he had to do it quickly, so he got up, intending to head back to the car, but before he could really move, a bright light formed behind him, blinding him as he turned to face it. His heart was beating out his chest. Like the clouds from earlier, he was stuck in a trance of sorts; though this trance froze him in fear, instead of deep thought. A mechanical rumbling came from the light, a silhouette stood behind it.
 

  In a split second, the lights were gone. He could see a car in front of him, a police car to be exact; a standard cruiser with slightly cracked siren lights, mud and rust on the bottom edges of the front bumper. Beside the car stood a female cop wearing a dark blue nylon poncho with the hood up. She was brunette and her hair was tied up into a bun at the back, a messy one at that.

  Another familiar face, Officer Freeland. They were well known around town; some townsfolk even considered her exceptional. What made her exceptional? He hadn’t the slightest clue as to why, nor did he care. He assumed they were simply good at their job, but to Chris, being a good cop, was the equivalent of being a friendly murderer as far as he was concerned. The only thing he found exceptional about them was the frequency in which he’d run into her throughout the past couple of years; if he wasn’t directly running into her, she would be off in the distance somewhere. It seemed like she was always around the corner, especially when his mom was around.
 

  Immediately Officer Freeland rushed over, hands over her gun holster, fingers twitching. “What’s going on here?” she asked.

  Chris began to explain the events up to now, about the drive home, the crash and the body. Officer Freeland was taken back by the sight. Had she ever dealt with anything like this before? She knelt to touch the black substance, but he informed her of the burning sensation, causing her to pause before pulling out a pair of leather gloves, and put them on; they seemed awfully tight. She rubbed the black liquid between her fingers, then she sniffed it, then gagged.
 

  Grasping the radio clipped to her shoulder, Officer Freeland called for help and just as she was finishing, she and Chris heard rustling in the bushes on the side of the road. Without hesitation, she pulled the 9mm pistol from her holster and aimed it in the direction of the sound. “If anyone’s there, show yourselves now.”
 

  The voice of a timid scared Liah responded back, pleading with the officer not to shoot, as she appeared out of the bush with her hands raised up as high as they could go. Officer Freeland lowered her weapon. “Future notice, don’t sneak up on cops. It's a good way to get yourself shot” She holstered her gun.
 

  “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to…. It’s just… Chris ran off, then I saw a light and... And…” Liah continued to try and explain herself but kept fumbling her words, luckily, she hadn’t yet noticed the body.

  “Damn it, why are you out here?!” Chris was not to happy Liah left their mom’s side.
 

  “Cuz mom is getting worried about you; thinks you’re going to get mauled by a bear or something. Wait…. There’s no bears out here, right?” Liah's eye started shifting side to side.
 

  “There's no need for you to be out here.”
 

  “There’s no need for you eith…….”
 

  A loud whistling cut Liah off mid-sentence. It was Officer Freeland. “Knock it off, both of you.” Once she was sure she had both their attention, she continued “Your brothers right, you should go back to the car”
 

  “You can’t be serious right now?” Liah moaned.
 

  “Dead serious. It's not safe out here.”
  

  “What, why not?” asked Liah. It was after that when Liah finally noticed the body; if she wasn’t on edge before that, she was now. “What the fuck is that!?”.
 

  “A person.” Chris responded.
 

  “I can see that but who? Where’d they come from? What happened to them?”
 

  “I don’t know, ask them.” Chris said, pointing to the body. The suggestion didn’t seem to amuse Liah, it for sure didn’t amuse Officer Freeland.

  Liah’s breathing became shallow, she was hyperventilating. Officer Freeland instructed Liah and Chris to go and wait in her car, afterwards, she made her way into the ditch. She didn’t really expect them to sit in her car, right? Then again, what else were they to do?

  Chris and Liah walked towards the police cruiser, but it was locked. Officer Freeland forgot to unlock it before heading into the ditch. "Great move Officer fuckup." Chris exclaimed out loud. They looked at each other, he didn’t know what to do and didn’t expect her to know either. It was back to the ditch with them.

  When they got back to the top of the ditch, they got a better look at the damage; the car’s front bumper and the hood were dented inwards, steady black thick stream of smoke seeped out of the hood. Yup, it was definitely totaled. What Chris didn’t see was the cop. Where’d they go? He slid back down the ditch, scraping his butt on rocks; Liah followed, getting covered in mud on the way down. Their mom was still sitting in the front seat, eyes closed, head leaning back against the seat, no sight of the officer though.

  As Chris approached the car, he saw something poking out from underneath it. It looked like a rat tail, but it was also too veiny and red to be that; it almost like it lacked a layer of skin altogether. Within a second it retreated under the car, out of sight. He reluctantly knelt to see if he could get a better look as to what it was, but whatever it was, it was completely gone. When he got back up, the Officer was standing right beside him, as if appearing out of nowhere.
 

  “Didn’t I tell you two to wait in my car?” Officer Freeland asked.
 

  “It was locked.” Chris bluntly snapped, confidently, sure that his response made her feel stupid.
 

  “I don’t know what your two’s problem is” interjected Liah “I just don’t want to look at the body anymore.” She then ran back into the station wagon with haste.
 

  Chris and Officer Freeland stayed outside, staring at each other, waiting for the other to speak first; like out of some lame western where cowboys used words instead of guns.
 

  “Well, are you getting in or are we having a staring contest.” Asked Officer Freeland.
 

  “Oh, don’t mind me, go about your business.” replied Chris, in a smug voice.
 

  “No really kid, you should go wait in the car.”
 

  “Why? So you can run off again?”
 

  “I was securing the perimeter. Now can you please just get in the car.”
 

  “Not until I know what's going on.”
 

  “I’m trying to figure that out, you are waiting for backup, in the car.”
 

  “And in the meantime?”
 

  “What do you mean?”
 

  “I mean, shouldn’t we try to get my mom out of this ditch?”
 

  “How’d you suppose we do that exactly? Her leg is injured, and that hill is too muddy. Even if we could, then what?”
 

  “Drive her to the hospital.”
 

  “Paramedics will be here in no time, it will only take us longer to drive her there ourselves.”
 

  “How do you know that?”
 

  “I just do! Now for the last time, get in the car!” Shouted Officer Freeland, in a authoritative voice.
 

  Chris stood there for a few seconds. Despite the circumstance, he felt like testing his luck. Officer Freeland placed her hand around her belt, just within reach of her handcuffs but not touching them; still Chris held his ground.

  Suddenly the window of the station wagon rolled down again. “Chris, can you please get back in the car? For my sake” asked Evelyn. After a few seconds, Chris got in the back seat, glaring at Officer Freeland the whole time, but she had stopped looking back at him. Once in the car, he waited in silence, Liah fidgeted in her chair.
 

  Everything that followed happened so fast. A few paramedics came into the ditch to help Evelyn, one of them started checking her wound, and another complimented Liah’s job cleaning and bandaging it; which seemed to calm her down a bit. After making sure Evelyn could move, they pulled her out of the ditch, it was difficult, but they managed to do so.

  The road was swarmed with police who were already placing barriers around the crime scene. Officer Freeland reported to her commanding officer, and started recounting what she saw. Chris and Liah were taken to the ambulance truck and inspected for injuries; both were mostly fine but one of the paramedics gave Chris heck for not bandaging the cut on his arm.

  A male officer approached them, questioned them. Afterwards, a paramedic explained to them that Evelyn had a concussion, and to make sure she got plenty of rest, both physically and mentally, but not too much as some stimuli was needed. They were also told to keep watch over her for the next 48 hours, and to give her Tylenol and Advil.
 

  “That’s it” Chris asked, “We just take her home and have her sleep it off?”
 

  “Yes, there’s not much else that can be done in this situation. If you think her symptoms are getting significantly worse, bring her to the ER, otherwise that’s all that's it.” replied the paramedic.
   

  At this point Officer Freeland had returned, Much to Chris’s dismay. “How about I give you all a lift home?” she asked.
 

  “No thanks.” Chris replied, once again being standoffish.
 

  “So, what then, you’re gonna drive there yourself?”
 

  “Ooh can I drive?” Asked Liah, jovially
 

  “Nah sorry kid, one car crash is enough for tonight.” Freeland replied, also jovially.
 

  “We would love a ride home, thank you Freeland” Evelyn spoke up. Why’d she have to take her help? Regardless, the night was already long enough, and Chris just wanted to get home at this point. Liah jumped in the back with Evelyn this time, leaving the front seat for him; the one time he didn’t want it, of course. They had to wait five minutes for the other officers to clear a way, but once they were able to, they drove.
 

  On the way home, Liah was checking up on Evelyn, who seemed to shift between various states of awareness. Chris was looking out the window, trying to avoid all eye contact. Officer Freeland tried to engage in small talk, but the only thing she could bring herself to ask about was school; a lame subject to be honest, she might as well have asked about the weather.

  It was enough though to get Liah’s attention, so who was Chris to speak? She opened up like a book, talking about her upcoming math and history test, both of which she wasn’t all that excited for. Something that did excite her was art class, she went on and on about an art collage she was working on, it was on this cartoon called Inuyasha that she liked. Lastly, Liah talked about her upcoming excitement for the local county fair happening in a week, and about her and her friends' plan to find and win the biggest prize they could, on top of eating funnel cakes until their stomachs exploded. She rambled on for three more minutes, talking about video games, music and other tv shows, she watched allot of TV, mostly Anime. When she ran out of things to talk about, everything went back to silence.
 

  Chris was still staring out the window, not paying attention to anything else. He was looking up at the sky, again, the rain was starting to slow down a little, but the clouds were still covering the sky, and he could see thunder in the distance.
 

  “You know, my dad was a police officer, like me.” Said Officer Freeland, looking at Chris “One night he responded to a disturbance call, initially thinking it was just some domestic situation. There were quite a few in our hometown but this one had gotten particularly violent. The man in question brutally attacked his wife with a knife. It was the kids who called the authorities. They managed to stay alive until police showed up but by then, the man had locked himself in the house and taken them hostage. Police surrounded the house and for a while it was a standoff. They tried to talk him down, but it wasn’t working; later an autopsy showed he was hopped up on meth. No one quite knows what eventually set him off, whether it was a sudden movement, not that it matters. He opened fire and hit my dad, three times in the chest, one close to his heart.”

  “Oh my god, that’s horrible” exclaimed Liah “What happened next?”

  “He was rushed to the hospital, of course." Officer Freeland continued "He was placed in critical condition and had to be put in a coma; a month and one week to be exact. It was probably the scariest thing I faced in my life, scarier than anything I faced on the job thus far.”
 

  “Scarier than tonight?” asked Evelyn.

  
  “Yes. I was certain I was going to lose him but, thankfully, he pulled through. When he finally woke up, he played the whole thing off as a joke, like it didn’t really happen. The old coot was like that. Always had a way of laughing off life's worst tragedies. Did the same thing when my mom left. Honestly, it pissed me off. Like he had just been shot and I had been crying for weeks and the first thing he said to me when he got up was ‘What a nap, eh?’ I swear I wanted to punch him, even told him so and he laughed that off too. But again, that’s just who he was, his motto was ‘life’s too short to not be happy’ not sure if I agree, even now, but that’s beside the point.”
 

  “Soo” interjected Chris, turning to look at Officer Freeland “What is the point?”
 

  “The point is…." The officer paused for a second. " The point is that if my dad could survive 3 gunshots to the chest, then Eve can make it through this.”
 

  “Eve?” Asked Chris, perplexed.
 

  “I meant your mom.” Officer Freeland replied.
  

   Why’d she call her that? Chris had never heard anyone refer to his mom as Eve, everyone called her Evelyn.

  The story clearly put Liah and Evelyn at ease but not there was still one thing Chris was wondering about “What happened to the family?”. He asked out loud, not evening intending to.

  “They…… you know that part of the story isn’t important.” Said Officer Freeland. Go figures, they probably died in a shootout. Things suddenly got quiet again, as any positive feelings that story gave, ended with that statement.
 

  They had finally reached the house and the rain had let up considerably. Both Officer Freeland and Chris got out of the car to help Evelyn back into the house; He had beaten her there and Evelyn was able to walk enough so her help wasn’t needed; still she followed them back to the front door.

  Liah rushed straight to the house to avoid getting wet, despite how little it was raining at this point. Once at the door, Officer Freeland opened it and gestured to Chris to enter; this motion irritated him but then again what didn’t at this point? Pulling out a notebook, she wrote something down, then handed it to Chris. “Here, my personal number, if you need anything, let me know” she said.
  

  Evelyn, took the piece of paper, then thanked Officer Freeland with a friendly and warm expression. Chris scowled at the officer before shutting the door on her. She stood there for a couple seconds, before she headed back to her car and drove off; Chris watched her the whole time, until he could no longer see her.

 

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If you made it this far, thank you for giving my story a shot.
What did you think so far? Anything you think needs improvement? 
Any and all feedback is welcomed and appreciated. This is my first story, but by no means hold back. I'm literally posting this to learn where I could improve in the future.

Anyways, hope to see you next time.