almost picturesque. Everything was all superfluous, and now there was only one thing that still made sense in his existence.
‘It’ll be true that there’s a Heaven and Hell... It’ll be true that each and every one of these people will end up with their soul in one of those places... And I’ll find myself in one of them...”
Someone behind him honked their horn. The light had been green for a few seconds. Whilst everyone else was in a hurry to get to their destination, he was merely driving through the city with no particular aim. And then everything suddenly changed. In the rear-view mirror, all of a sudden he saw his daughter: his very own daughter Laura. She writhed and twisted in the back seat of the car, her face deformed, her tongue sticking out, her eyes completely red and popping out of her skull. He heard her scream, with a voice that only distantly reminded him of Laura’s, as if it had been passed through a macabre synthesizer, to give it a more horrifying tone:
“Daddy, help! It hurts, it really hurts! Help me, Daddy, Help me!”
And before he knew it, he could feel hands around his neck, and his right arm, gripping onto him, making him lose control of the vehicle. Terrified by what he was hearing and seeing through the rear-view mirror, he barely noticed as he crashed into a tree.
XXXII
The doctor observed Carlos attentively, whilst the latter appeared to be recovering consciousness.
“Well... in the end, it’s not been that serious; less so, since the impact was not at high speed...”
Whilst his blurry vision became more clear, Carlos was able to ascertain that the man was not talking to him, but somewhere over to his left, to another person.
“Thank you very much, doctor. This has been a terrible shock...”
Carlos started to gesture, but his dazed state prevented him from completing the motion, and then his voice came out like a sort of light grunt.
“Well, it looks like we’re waking up,” said the doctor, in tones of irony.
“What... what’s happened to me?”
“Don’t you remember? You’ve had a little traffic accident, less than three hours ago.”
“I think... I think so,” he responded, and then those horrifying images came flooding back to his mind.
“You’re wife came immediately.”
Elena bolted upright in her seat, and waved a clumsy and nervous ‘no’ with her hands.
“No, no, doctor. I’m not his wife. I’m simply a close friend.”
“Elena?...” asked Carlos, pleasantly surprised.
“Hey there, champ. They called me because you had my card in your jacket pocket... Your father’s on his way here, but he already knows it’s nothing serious.”
The doctor cleared his throat briefly, to add:
“You’ll have to rest for a couple of days, and go easy on your thorax, in addition to taking care with your neck. If you experience any nausea, or any kind of persistent pain after leaving the hospital, don’t even think twice about it, come straight back here. You only have a minor dislocation caused by the seatbelt, and some cuts on the face as a result of the airbag. Nothing important. Now I’m going to carry on visiting my other patients, so I’ll leave you alone.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Carlos hurried to say.
No sooner had the doctor left, Elena sat down on the bed and ran her hand through Carlos’ hair.
“That was quite a scare you gave me...”
“Thank you so much for coming. You didn’t have to go to any trouble. Telling my father would have been enough.”
“Hey! You’re a walking disaster; how did you managed to have such a ridiculous accident? Something more serious could have happened to you.”
He almost didn’t want to remember, but the awful images were still very present on his retina.
“Something unbelievable happened to me. Elena, I saw my daughter in the back seat of my car, exactly as I dreamed I saw Alicia when they had the accident. She was... so real...”
Elena did not know what to say. This story, in which she
‘It’ll be true that there’s a Heaven and Hell... It’ll be true that each and every one of these people will end up with their soul in one of those places... And I’ll find myself in one of them...”
Someone behind him honked their horn. The light had been green for a few seconds. Whilst everyone else was in a hurry to get to their destination, he was merely driving through the city with no particular aim. And then everything suddenly changed. In the rear-view mirror, all of a sudden he saw his daughter: his very own daughter Laura. She writhed and twisted in the back seat of the car, her face deformed, her tongue sticking out, her eyes completely red and popping out of her skull. He heard her scream, with a voice that only distantly reminded him of Laura’s, as if it had been passed through a macabre synthesizer, to give it a more horrifying tone:
“Daddy, help! It hurts, it really hurts! Help me, Daddy, Help me!”
And before he knew it, he could feel hands around his neck, and his right arm, gripping onto him, making him lose control of the vehicle. Terrified by what he was hearing and seeing through the rear-view mirror, he barely noticed as he crashed into a tree.
XXXII
The doctor observed Carlos attentively, whilst the latter appeared to be recovering consciousness.
“Well... in the end, it’s not been that serious; less so, since the impact was not at high speed...”
Whilst his blurry vision became more clear, Carlos was able to ascertain that the man was not talking to him, but somewhere over to his left, to another person.
“Thank you very much, doctor. This has been a terrible shock...”
Carlos started to gesture, but his dazed state prevented him from completing the motion, and then his voice came out like a sort of light grunt.
“Well, it looks like we’re waking up,” said the doctor, in tones of irony.
“What... what’s happened to me?”
“Don’t you remember? You’ve had a little traffic accident, less than three hours ago.”
“I think... I think so,” he responded, and then those horrifying images came flooding back to his mind.
“You’re wife came immediately.”
Elena bolted upright in her seat, and waved a clumsy and nervous ‘no’ with her hands.
“No, no, doctor. I’m not his wife. I’m simply a close friend.”
“Elena?...” asked Carlos, pleasantly surprised.
“Hey there, champ. They called me because you had my card in your jacket pocket... Your father’s on his way here, but he already knows it’s nothing serious.”
The doctor cleared his throat briefly, to add:
“You’ll have to rest for a couple of days, and go easy on your thorax, in addition to taking care with your neck. If you experience any nausea, or any kind of persistent pain after leaving the hospital, don’t even think twice about it, come straight back here. You only have a minor dislocation caused by the seatbelt, and some cuts on the face as a result of the airbag. Nothing important. Now I’m going to carry on visiting my other patients, so I’ll leave you alone.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Carlos hurried to say.
No sooner had the doctor left, Elena sat down on the bed and ran her hand through Carlos’ hair.
“That was quite a scare you gave me...”
“Thank you so much for coming. You didn’t have to go to any trouble. Telling my father would have been enough.”
“Hey! You’re a walking disaster; how did you managed to have such a ridiculous accident? Something more serious could have happened to you.”
He almost didn’t want to remember, but the awful images were still very present on his retina.
“Something unbelievable happened to me. Elena, I saw my daughter in the back seat of my car, exactly as I dreamed I saw Alicia when they had the accident. She was... so real...”
Elena did not know what to say. This story, in which she
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