WORD COUNT: 2174

It was hard to see where you were going as the clear liquid drops hit the road. 9 year old Phil was riding in the backseat of (your rover) his parents car, whilst they drove down. “Phillip dear, do you mind handing me my purse?” His mother called back to him. He picked her purse up off from the seat next to him and handed it to her. “Thank you sweetie.”

He smiled and continued to play with his action figures on the car window. He was pretending his figure was trapped in a storm, trying to find his friend, but his friend was always there with him and he just didn’t know.

Suddenly Phil was jerked into the car dar, hitting his head on the window. He looked up at his parents and saw that they had swerved a deer just barely. “I’m sorry sweetie, it’s so hard to see. Just continue playing and don’t worry.” His mother smiled at him. Phil went back to playing with his toys, when a few minutes later he felt another swerve. This time he looked up and all he saw through the front window was fog, with lights in it getting bigger.

Suddenly his father swerved out of the way of a truck, but the truck swerved with him and hit their car over the railing on the road. Both the car and the truck started heading down the high hill. Phil saw the truck get stopped by a tree, but their car kept rolling and flipping.

Suddenly he ripped through his seatbelt and flew forward towards his parents. He looked to his left to see his father suddenly go out the side window. Phil wanted to go save him, but his mother held onto him as tight as she could. The front windshield shattered and Phil felt it cut across his face and his mother letting go. He looked to see half her body in the car as she hung out. He knew the car was about to roll over again and his mother’s body would be smashed, but he was too late to do anything. The car door flew off and she went with it.

Phil screamed as his tears flew back with the car as he was jerked around. Suddenly Phil closed his eyes and held on as best he could, locking his knees in behind the seats. He felt the car give a big jerk as it landed finally upside down on the ground and stilled.

He smelled a strong smell of leaking gas, and remembered his teacher telling him that it meant something was going wrong somewhere. Phil knew it came from the car, and quickly tried getting out. He couldn’t move his right leg, but tried crawling out where his mother's door had flown off, leaving an opening for him.

Quickly crawling out, he stood up, trying to walk away, dealing through the pain shooting through his right leg as he got away from the car. Suddenly he felt warmth on his back. He turned around to see the car had gone up in flames. He fell to the ground, unable to keep himself standing longer.

He couldn't see out his left eye, and felt like something was dripping over it. He saw a piece of the car’s mirror next to him and picked up the shard, cutting his hand as he looked at himself. The whole left side of his face had been sliced off and was hanging over his eye, that’s why he couldn’t see anything. He let out a tear from his right eye, wanting to cry but didn’t have the strength to. He could still faintly hear the car radio, it was playing ‘You Had Me At Hello’. He knew that song, it was by ‘A Day to Remember’, his mother’s favorite band.

Phil listened to the song, as he watched red and blue lights flashing as they came down from the road ahead, getting bigger as they came in closer. Guys jumped out of their cars as they came toward the car, putting out the flames and looking for survivors. One man saw Phil and starting pointing at him and yelling something to the other guys, but Phil couldn’t hear him. All he heard was the song playing. It seemed to be the only thing he could hear at the moment.

A few other guys ran up to Phil, looking to make sure he was okay while Phil was dazed out. They lifted him up and started carrying him away from the car and toward an ambulance that had just arrived. Phil wanted to fight them and go back for his parents, but was to weak.

They lifted him into the truck and shut the huge doors, Phil still holding the shard of glass in his hand as he took another hideous look at himself. The doctors tried laying him down to help him until they reached the hospital. They put a mask over his mouth, telling him something he couldn’t hear. Suddenly he felt sleepy as his eyes slowly shut themselves.

He woke up in what felt like just a few seconds, but obviously wasn’t. He was laying down on a hospital bed, laying in a gown, the mask still over his mouth. He opened his eyes, noticing he could see out both of them once again.

He took a look around, hearing his grandma faintly in the background, talking to a doctor. She had said something about Phil, about his parents still not being found. Phil wanted to cry, but he couldn’t. It was like he ran out while he was asleep.

Suddenly his grandma walked in, taking a look at Phil. She looked like she had been crying all night. Phil wanted to say something, but barely had the strength to keep his eyes open. A doctor walked in with her, seeming surprised Phil was awake. “Well, Phillip Lester, you seem awake finally. It’s been 15 months, just over a year. We were afraid you would never come around, but your grandmother insisted keeping on life support. It’s a good thing we did.”

A year? That can’t be right. That would mean that Phil is already 11? They were heading up for his tenth birthday. How can that be possible? The wreck.

Suddenly everything flashed back to him, as if it was all happening again. Phil didn’t show a reaction, but the machines caught his heart rate rise. The doctors all ran in, trying to help him. Phil had looked okay, no tears or anything.

“Why isn’t he showing any emotion?” His grandma was worried. “I’m afraid Phil is just in a weak state, but he should be able to be back to normal again soon, especially since we’ve made progress seeing as he is awake.” The nurse smiled. “You should be able to take him home once he gets better soon, he’ll be okay.” Phil felt tired again, but didn’t want so much time to pass again. What if this time he doesn’t wake up at all? He was scared, but the fear took him over into sleep. The last thing he heard was his heart monitor freaking out as he shut his eyes.

-

Phil jumped up awake from his nightmare. He ran a hand through his dampened hair. He looked at the time and saw it was about time for him to get up anyway. He knew his grandmother would be upset if he didn’t wake up for his first day of school.

He took his time getting out of bed and heading for the shower. He started it up as he undressed. Looking in the mirror, he stared at his still hideous face. His hand lifted to the huge scar that went down from the top of his head to the bottom, where they stitched his face back together. It went over his eyebrow, over his lips. It made him look like a monster, all the scars he had across his face and arms from the wreck.

He stepped into the shower, letting the warm water run down his back. His mind flashed to when he felt the warmth on his back from the car. He slammed his fist against the shower wall, holding in his anger as he turned the water cold instead.

Stepping out, he dried off and put on his uniform for his new church school. He was kicked from his last one, he remembered it clearly. They chased him down saying he worshipped the devil and betrayed god. For different reasons of course, it wasn’t just the scars. But he didn’t need that problem at the moment. His grandma had to run off to a new town with him. So, here they were.

After dressing, he went downstairs and read a note his grandma left for him. She was off at his aunt's again. She was always there, wasn’t she. He laughed a little to himself before pulling out a pastry and taking a bite. He threw on his shoes and headphones, playing ‘You Had Me at Hello’ as he walked to school. It was his mother’s favorite song.

Headphones on, music playing, as he walked through the cutting rain to this new church school. He didn’t expect people to talk to him, seeing as he looked like a monster.

He made it to the church school finally and saw there were different age groups, unlike his old one where everyone went in the same big room. He found his group and walked in, seeing he was early, as the priest was still setting up. He turned to look at Phil. “Ah, you must be the new kid. Your grandmother came earlier to let me know you would be coming.” He smiled, but the smile dropped as Phil got closer.

“Those scars..what happened?” Phil knew he’s have to explain every time someone asked, but he didn’t feel up for a story in this new town. He just smiled. “Accident, when I was younger. Nothing to worry about though.” The priest just smiled. “Everyone has flaws, this is nothing to worry about. God will fix it all for you. Please, take a seat. The sermon is about to start.”

Flaw. That’s what everyone said. He had agreed with them though. He took a seat in the back, not wanting to draw attention from everyone. Soon, the room filled, everyone near the front. Except one kid, who looked like the priest. Must be his son.

If he was his son, why did he sit way back here? You’d think he’d sit close to his father. Weird. Phil didn’t question it, the kid seemed to be lost in thought anyway. He wouldn’t bother talking to Phil.

The priest started speaking, but Phil didn’t care to listen. They all said the same thing. By now, Phil had the bible memorized. They all looked at Phil though. He probably introduced him since he was a new kid. “Let’s start with our morning prayers. Who will come up to say them?”

Everyone looked back. Phil thought they were looking at him, but instead the kid in the bench next to his. The kid looked up, he seemed scared, but walked up to the podium anyway. Phil admired that he was at least brave. The kid looked out at everyone, including Phil, before looking back down and starting his prayer.

Phil looked down and listened to his prayer. Saying amen with the rest of the students, he looked back up as And walked down from the pedestal. He looked up at Phil again, as if expecting a reaction from him. Phil smirked, as if to say good job.

This kid didn’t seem to take it that way, and lightly blushed instead before rushing to sit in his seat and looked at his lap, messing with the ends of his sleeves. Phil didn’t know what was up with this kid, but he was cute at least. He decided to forget that no kid would talk to him, and chose to give it a try at least.

He stood up and went to sit down next down to this kid. “You were good.” He said to him, hoping to start conversation. Instead, the kid jumped at him, his cheeks grew fairly darker. Was he okay?

“H-Hey, I’m Daniel..” he stammered out. Phil smiled to him. It was cute how he stammered out his sentence. “Hey, I’m Phillip, but just call me Phil.”

Maybe this whole friend thing might work. The kid didn’t seem scared, or to even take notice of his scars. If he did, he hadn’t cared. He just seemed to smile and enjoy Phil’s company. As if he doesn’t have many people talk to him. Either way, he would make the most of this friendship. He was willing to see how far this went, even if it meant something more. Just the thought made his heart beat faster, made him feel like he wasn’t a monster after all.