//------------------------------// // Arrival // Story: My little dream girl // by Slick Dash //------------------------------// My head is on fire! The smashed windscreen in front frosts my vision ahead of me. My seat belt cuts into the flesh of my neck as I lay there on top of the dash board. Damned airbags! I’m happy just to be alive but at the same time I curse the workers at my garage that passed this piece of crap’s inspection! I pealed myself away from the plastic interior and leant back into my chair. Immediately my bones and muscles screamed their obvious dislike! I let out a short gasp of pain and clenched my eyes shut. What had happened? A simple visit to the folks, then a 30 minute journey back home, Id taken it a thousand times, so what the hell had happened to me? It had been snowing. The wonderfully unpredictable English weather meant that no one had prepared for the white flakes to fall in the middle of March. Because of the weather, many of the main roads had been closed off, meaning- stupidly- that the only ways to travel were the frozen windy country lanes. I had been going down a stretch of straight road; it hadn’t been too badly frozen. And as id continued down it in the dark night I had seen a set of headlights headed towards me. I slowed to ensure any ice between us didn’t cause any problems. But then those lights never dimmed. My stomach clenches as I recall what had happened in-between throbs of my aching head. The lights had intensified until I couldn’t even see my own hands on the wheel. And as quickly as the light’s had appeared they had vanished. My vision swam back slowly as my burnt eyes adjusted back to the lack of light. With a plummeting feeling I realized the worst thing possible. The car was still moving! I tried to slam my foot on the breaks but it was too late, I looked up just in time to see a huge tree fast approaching. And as my foot made contact with the brake pedal, so did the car bonnet with the trunk of the huge oak. I finally open my eyes, it feels like I’ve just watched the events through a TV, the memories were so vivid, so powerful! I reach for the release button of my belt with much discomfort. My right shoulder hurts beyond all imagining, it was probably dislocated! GREAT! My vision began to swim, and a red haze began to tint everything around me. It’s the pain! It’s starting to effect my mind, I feel my inside’s churning terribly, and I know what’s about to happen. I finally find the release button, I fling open the door and I hurl my guts out over the cold wet grass beneath me. The vomit is almost vibrant against the dark colours of the surroundings, and as I look up from the ground, a sliver of vomit still hanging from my lip I look around. I’m in.... a forest? I turn to look the way I came, and a solid line of tree’s greet me, but no space large enough for a car to pass through, forced or natural. As I look the floor - spattered with sick – I see the tracks my car had made, they suddenly started in the centre of the clearing and followed to the wreckage I now sat inside. I swung my legs out of the open doorway, and careful to avoid the brown puddle I had moments ago with the contents of my stomach I stood up into the cold breezy night air. I couldn’t hear anything, no noises of cars passing by, no voices, not even animals. Then again my accident just now probably just scared the hell out of any living thing near here into hiding. I looked to the sky, it was tinted with orange as -I assumed- the sun was beginning to rise. But that made no sense, I looked at my watch, and surely enough there it was! The digital numbers read “11:42 PM!” so why the hell is the sun rising so early?! I hear something. A twig breaking? Or was it a foot step? I looked into the dark forest to discern what the cause of the sudden noise was. “Hello?” I called out tentatively. And as I looked to the opposite end of the clearing to my totalled car I saw the cause. Was it a deer? Or a horse? I took a step forward, and as I did the creature backed away quickly. Obviously terrified by what it saw. “Hey, it’s alright.” I said soothingly, the sight of a living thing was more beautiful than anything I could have hoped for. Even if it was an animal i didn’t care, i just needed to be close to another living thing after suffering so much pain. I tried to reach out to the small creature with my right arm, completely forgetting the ferocious beating it had received. As i stretched my fingers out, the entire arm felt like it was on fire, the sudden explosion of pain caused me to shout out angrily. The creature jumped, but this time it didn’t retreat. I turned away for a moment and fell to my knees, tears threatened to fall from my brimming eye lids, I quickly brush them away furious with myself and my weakness. I clench my arm, and hold it tight to my chest, I took off my shirt. (I was wearing a T-shirt with a button shirt over the top) and proceeded to wrap it around my arm, I then slung the other half over my shoulder, and finished by tying the two ends together. Making a very rough looking sling for my arm to rest in. “Why don’t you just try to heal it with magic?” asked a very quiet voice from behind me. I whirled around in both fear and excitement! Finally a human being to talk to! No one was there, all that stood there was the small horse like animal. It was beginning to approach me slowly, and as the light of the fast rising sun struck the creature my jaw dropped. It was purple! A dark shade of unmistakable purple! But that wasn’t the strangest thing of all, it gave me a half tentative smile, and even yet that wasn’t the strangest part! The small pony had a horn!