[Heart Search Blog Tour] – An Excerpt

I climbed back into the car, leaving my door open. Leaning back into my seat I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply before letting my breath trickle slowly from between my parted lips. A picture formed in my mind, hazy at first as if the edges had been attacked by an eraser then solidifying gradually until it appeared like a photograph – a snapshot in time.

Twisted metal littered the tarmac. A car lay on its roof, one of its tyres still spinning. A jack-knifed truck, a fallen and warped-framed motorcycle lying in a pool of red, a brightly signed delivery van with wisps of smoke drifting from the edge of the crinkled bonnet, another car with the boot concertinaed shortening the car by more than a foot, and a further one which was crushed from all sides.

My eyes snapped open and a gasp flew from my lips. I trembled. The image was so vivid – it had a ring of reality as if I was looking at it through the lens of a camera. My nerves sizzled with adrenalin and fear. I could hear my breath panting rapidly as if I’d just completed half an hour of strenuous exercise and I concentrated on slowing it down, counting out the seconds as I inhaled and exhaled. …….. 

I had to wait an additional twenty-five minutes before I was able to start inching forward and another ten before I was able to view the extent of the multi-vehicle pile-up. Three cars, a motorcycle, a brightly painted van and a truck were almost unrecognisable, as their bodywork had been twisted and pulverised with the force of the collision. 

One car was missing its’ roof, two doors and had nearly been carved in half as the rescuers attempted to free the occupants. A large patch of red liquid had pooled beside another of the cars and by the motorcycle and I realised after half a second it was blood. I wasn’t usually squeamish, but my stomach churned and hot bile rose to the back of my throat. An image flashed briefly into my mind and I realised the position of the vehicles was exactly the same as I’d ‘seen’ earlier.