During the Storm

“Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there? Jaylinne?” my brother J’avon peeks through the blinds and squints at the driving rain and the trees that lean precariously as though being crushed underfoot by a giant.

“How long do you plan on staring out that window?” I ask him.

J'avon acts like he didn’t hear me, so I cross my arms on my stiff mattress and wait for him to turn around. Beside me, my friend Angel picks at the teeth of a comb absentmindedly. He mutters under his breath, “I don’t see how it could get any crazier out there. You already can’t see two feet in front of you.”

“And all the power lines went down,” my other friend Giana adds, pushing J'avon slightly to the side so she can peer out the window as well.

We’re stuck in a cabin while a hurricane rages outside. They usually don’t hit us here, but this particular storm cut straight across the Gulf Coast and smothered the mountains of North Georgia in torrents of rain and nasty winds. This had started out as a normal weekend trip - just four teens camping in the mountains - but the storm showed up seemingly out of nowhere and ruined it. J'avon finally steps away from the window and sighs.

“You know what? I think I’m gonna go see if I can get back down the mountain a little further and at least get cell service,” J'avon says.

Of course he wants to go out in this weather.

Angel speaks up, “Hold up, I’m coming, too. My car does better in the rain.”

“Angel… Ugh. Fine,” J’avon sighs. “I guess you’re right. Keys are all in the other cabin, though. But I guess we’re going out anyway.”

“Wait, y’all are just gonna leave the girls here alone?” Giana questions. “That’s dumb. Let me go.”

Knowing Giana’s probably just trying to find an excuse to be alone with my brother, I speak up, “How about since both of you insist on being dumb, we all go?”

J'avon doesn’t seem to like this idea, but Giana grabs her poncho and starts marching toward the door before he can protest.

“Hey, we still gotta get the keys, so slow your roll,” he calls, taking off after her.

That leaves me with Angel. He looks hard at me and says, “You should have just let the two of us go, Jaylinne. Now, if anything goes wrong, we’ll all be in trouble.”

“We’re all in trouble anyway since my idiot brother was so pressed to come this weekend instead of next weekend,” I retort, donning my hoodie and following Giana and J’avon out the door.

In Angel’s 4-Runner, we’re tensely silent. I can feel the wind pushing against the sides of the car, and on this steep and narrow mountain road, I’m beyond scared that we’re going to get thrown off a sheer cliff. It’s pitch black, and the headlights reflecting off the raindrops do nothing for our visibility. I’m in the passenger seat humming to myself to stay calm, but it’s getting on Giana’s nerves.

“Jaylinne, do you mind?” she hisses from the backseat.

“Giana, shut up,” Angel mutters. “And for God’s sake, can you quit whining?”

“Y’all are annoying as hell,” she pouts in response.

J'avon doesn’t say anything. I notice he has his arm around Giana.

“Holy sh--!” Angel’s voice cuts through my thoughts just as the car swerves wildly to the side.

He slams on the breaks, and my seat belt digs into my ribs.

“Oh, my God, Angel! What the hell?!” Giana shrieks.

“What happened?” J'avon demands.

Angel’s breathing hard, but he catches his breath and answers, “I don’t know what the hell I just saw, but I never want to see it again.”

I look at him in confusion, realizing my heart’s drumming so hard that I can hear it in my ears.

“What did you see?” J'avon asks.

“I thought it was a person walking in the middle of the street at first, but it turned and looked at the car, and it did not look human,” Angel answers.

Angel gazes out the windshield at the now empty street. The wind and rain have picked up, and now we’re sitting on the side of the road surrounded by leaning trees. I don’t like this.

“Yo, Angel, let me drive,” J’avon says. “You seem a little… jittery.”

Shaken, Angel hesitates slightly before agreeing, “Yeah. Okay.”

He and Angel switch seats, much to Giana’s annoyance, so I decide to switch seats with her to be nice. When J'avon starts the car, the tires rev, but the car doesn’t move.

“Ugh, what now?” he grumbles.

He gets out of the car to investigate. Giana watches him. I turn my attention back to Angel, who still looks troubled.

“You good?” I ask him.

He barely nods and concentrates on the wild storm outside. Seeing him this worried freaks me out. J'avon leans his head back into the car and announces, “So… both of the right side tires are stuck. I don’t know how deep the mud is.”

“Looks like we’ll have to push the car,” Angel concludes, his voice giving away heavy reluctance.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Giana says.

She’s already opened her door and started sliding out of the car. I get in the driver’s seat, and J'avon shouts for me to press the brake pedal. As I’m following his instructions, I continue to stare at the road. I catch sight of something moving in the dark. The figure ambles into the beam of the headlights, and I grip the steering wheel tightly when my eyes fall on its broken, deformed face.

“Oh, my God!” I squeal.

Angel and Giana rush to my door, and J’avon peeks in through the passenger door.

“What happened?” J'avon demands.

“Are you okay?” Giana asks.

I struggle to explain to them what I saw, which seems to have vaporized. Angel’s terrified.

“She saw it, too,” Angel says. “I’m telling you, this is bad news.”

“Saw what?” Giana asks. “What did you see?”

Angel’s eyes lock on something behind me. Before I can wonder what he’s seeing, Giana shrieks at the top of her lungs. Angel pulls me from the car. In that split second, I glance back and see the figure looming behind my brother outside the passenger door. Then its face becomes his face as the most deafening thunderclap I have ever heard explodes with a flash of bright light in front of me.

I blink and I’m face down on the wet asphalt, and the world is a spinning blur. My ears are ringing. I roll over, dripping wet. I taste blood. I don’t know if the liquid on my body is blood or rain. I can’t find anyone. I want to call my brother, Angel, or someone, but my muscles won’t obey. My jumbled thoughts scream at me, “The car. The car. Find the car! Where is the car?”

I find the 4-Runner. The blaze of its single remaining headlight draws my eyes. It crouches tilted on the side of the road, partially crushed beneath a fallen tree. That can’t be right. I hear sirens howling in the distance as thunder roars in my ears.

It is right. It did happen. I know the car ran off the road. I know a bolt of lightning tore that tree in half. I know the car was crushed beneath its weight. I know the windshield burst and sprayed us with spears of shattered glass. And I know Angel pulled me out of the car just in time to save my life… but it was too late to save my brother’s.