Consciously Trapped | Teen Ink

Consciously Trapped

November 20, 2017


The light blue Audi entered a covered bridge, the car slowed, there were no more lights reflecting on the massive forest engulfing the road. There were no more cars behind, no more steady white light to make her feel safe. Driving alone at night on Oak Road was never exciting for Rose, she felt extremely uneasy, flinching at even the slightest shadow in the dark forest. Her car creeped along, she had heard stories of people driving fast and getting killed because of a deer crossing the road. Rose turned on the radio, ‘This will drown out my uneasiness’ she thought to herself. She reached for the AUX cord and plugged it into her phone. Rose looked up from her phone; the chorus of ‘Silence’ slowly making her relaxed. Suddenly a bright light in front of her appeared out of nowhere, Rose slammed on her breaks. The car made a sudden jerk to the right.


Rose woke up with blood running down her chin from her nose, her upper body and arms were straddled over the steering wheel. Her precious blue Audi sat in the ditch, a tree parallel to her car. She could hear pounding in her head, the pulsing making it hard to take account her surroundings. The headlights were still on, she slowly sat up, her body ached the more movement she made. She looked for her phone, tapping her hand into the unknown darkness of the car, the leather seats meeting her finger tips. She felt along the floor of the car, ‘There!’, she thought, Rose grabbed the metallic feeling phone. A shiver went over her body. Rose turned on her phone and dialed 911, but the call wouldn’t go through; again she tried, but again the call would not connect.


“But I had service before.” she spoke to the darkness.


She unbuckled her seatbelt and sighed. Then she got out of the car to see the damage, the front of the car was obliterated, mud and dirt along the front of the vehicle. ‘ I really should get out of this forest, it's dangerous. It shouldn’t be too far to the nearest town, maybe a mile or so.’ she pondered about what action she should take. Rose began to walk, the headlights from her car partially reflecting on the white road lines. As she kept walking the light from her car began to get increasingly faint, her heart began to beat faster. She felt like someone was watching her from all sides, she grabbed her phone, and pointed it into the darkness, she turned on the flashlight, and yet again an object of flashing light appeared. That was the last thing that she could remember.
Rose woke up on the pavement next to a gas station, her knees ached. ‘ I must have tripped.’ she thought frantically. A car glided into the gas station, and immediately stopped when it encountered the sight of Rose on the cement. A man rushed to her side and called 911, and kept repeating the same thing again, and again:
“It’s gonna’ be okay, it’s gonna be okay.”


An ambulance arrived, and Rose was put inside. The next morning Rose woke up in a hospital bed, the cold clammy sheets surrounding her body. A nurse entered the room, with a tray of steaming breakfast. Rose’s mouth began to salivate at the sight and aroma of the food.


“Hunny, the police would like to ask you some questions, no one seems to know how you got to the gas station last night. Here is your breakfast, just holler if you need anything else.” the nurse smiled and walked out of the room, giving Rose little time to give a ‘Thank you’ to the nurse. A few minutes later, after Rose engulfed her food, 2 police officers enter the hospital room, one with a clipboard and pen.


“Hello. We are here to ask you a few questions about the events of last night. Are you able to answer?” the police officer with the clipboard asked.


“Yes, I don’t know much though.” Rose replied timidly.


“Thank you for your cooperation. First: Where were you before you were found at the gas station?” Rose began to tell of the events of the previous night. She told about the dark mysterious road; and the flashing light; how her phone didn’t have service after the accident; and how she couldn’t remember anything else. The police officers were very confused, they couldn’t believe that she had no idea how she had gotten to the gas station.
“I promise I don’t know anything more. My blue Audi must be along Oak Road somewhere, it was really dark outside so I couldn’t see exactly where I was. In order to get the car out of the forest, you may need a tow truck, the front end is really damaged.” Rose said.


“We will send a tow truck and an officer there immediately. You said it was a blue Audi?” the police officer replied.


“Yes it is. Thanks for checking on that.”


A few hours passed, Rose had fallen asleep, she was exhausted from the night before. She moved around trying to get comfortable, she opened her eyes and stared at the monotonous hospital wall. ‘How did this happen?’ she thought, questions kept passing through her brain. She couldn’t understand, the more she thought about it, the more confused, and exhausted she became. She flinched when she heard a knock on the door.


“ Come in.” Rose answered without any emotion. She was tired of answering questions she didn’t even know the answers to herself.


“ Hello Rose,” it was the police officer from earlier that day “we tried to locate your car, but there is no vehicle anywhere along the whole road. Is there anyway that you may have traveled on another road, or could you have called a tow truck?”


“ No there isn’t anyway I could have, I remember passing the covered bridge just before coming onto Oak Road. Were there any tire marks from a sudden stop on the road?” Rose replied confused.


“ We did come across some abrupt car tracks, but again there was no car anywhere near that area. I will leave you to rest right now, and on behalf of the whole police department get better soon.” the police officer left the room and Rose fell asleep once again. She didn’t know that that was the last somewhat normal day of her life.
Instead of waking up to the same monotonous walls of her hospital room, she woke up to the cool air conditioning, and the deadly darkness outside her car. Her hands were glued to the steering wheel, it felt eerily familiar. Then she realized that this was what happened the evening before. The same silence, the same feeling of the car. Rose was conscious that she was reliving the night of the accident.


Rose did the same things; when she saw the flash of light again, the car swerved into the ditch. She woke up again, the same stream of blood running from her nose, the same pain in her chest. Rose got out of the car and started to walk down the road just as she had done before. When she clutched her phone and turned her flashlight on she saw a bright light in front of her. Except this time, she could see a faint outline of someone's legs in the stream of light, ‘What could it have been?’ she thought frantically. The moment was over, and she was at the gas station, and then at the hospital. Rose could not escape this dejavu that she was now living. Yet again, the same thing happened when she woke up from the nap in the hospital. Everytime she came across the bright figure she could see more, and more of the person. Rose would never see the figures identity. Why was she being held captive in these confusing arrange of events?


¨Am I trapped?¨ she asked herself.


 


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