raise then crash down as the front wheels rose up over something . It seemed a long time before all the motion stopped and then he was just rooted there, a slow terror rising up in him.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god...” The words were looped and just kept repeating.
He span around, checking the road on all sides. His car had come to a halt sideways under the bridge with its headlights blasting onto the wall in front. There was no body anywhere. Uncomfortably, he realised it was most likely directly beneath him.
Chris vomited violently, most of the scorching hot liquid hitting the dash board, spilling over his fists which were still clamped to the wheel and specks hit the window screen. It didn’t matter.
He looked at the front of his car which had crumpled up violently. It was hard to imagine a body could do that to solid metal.
“Oh Jesus, oh fuck, oh god.” A new loop. His voice little more than a viper’s hiss.
He’d been going too fast, going too fast and he’d been drinking. Jesus how was that going to look ?!? The thoughts drenched his head. He was panicking now, wondering if it was maybe better just to drive away. Not leave the poor bastard . God no ! Just ring an ambulance at the first phone he saw . There was a call box on the corner behind him, just a minute’s run away. No, the ‘very next’ phone he saw . Still they were under his car how could he... They were under his fucking car !
“Oh god. I wasn’t drunk. They just ran ... Oh god.”
The engine was still on and the wipers slowly swung like the hands of a clock. Time itself had seemed to have stopped. The city had taken on an eery silence.
“Jesus how is this going to look?” He whispered, finally managing to take his sick coated hands from the wheel. He knew he could lose his license, or they could get him on manslaughter and he’d go to jail. How long for ? He didn’t know. Maybe he should just dump the car and run, no but it was his car. They’d know. Jesus there could be someone dying, dead , under his feet, under his fucking feet!
“Fuck!” He yelled and punched the horn. He had been struggling not to think about who was beneath him.
He had to get out.
Slowly he pushed the door open, looking down. Then stepped out. Despite the storm it seemed very quiet. He was sheltered under the road. A curtain of water spilled down at the edge on either side of him.
“ Hello ?” He managed to say, fighting back the bile that had just pissed hot and sour up into his throat.
A long slow groan escaped from somewhere under the car and he noticed the blood over the jagged metal of his impacted bonnet and the dark brown streaks that were slowly running parallel with the oil that bled from underneath his car. The shrapnel from his shattered headlight glittered across a wide space, lit by the remaining beam. Some of the tiny shards were now coated in blood. His bumper was cracked, half hanging off and part of it lay a few metres back with a piece of his number plate. But it was the metal, the metal which had folded in like cardboard that shocked him the most.
The sheer force that ...
There was a scraping sound followed by a light whimper. The scraping continued as whoever it was began to crawl about beneath the car.
Chris walked around the vehicle and saw a foot twitching, before it was dragged lifelessly out of sight. A sharp grating sound, bare toe nails over the raw road. A bare foot ?
“Look, try to lie still.” He stammered and crouched down to look under his Golf.
It was dark. The shape was uncertain and crawling about,their wet shiny body appeared to be naked. Could that have been caused by the impact ? No, that’s just plain fucking stupid ! Which meant they’d been naked before he’d even hit them. The terror grew. Chris shivered. Something was very wrong here.
“Are you alright? Please god, I... Can you speak ?” He was shaking violently.
The body began to turn quicker, scuttling awkwardly like an insect, their
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