Page 29 of The Secret We Keep
“Why?”
A gut-churning, ear-piercing crash, followed by a high-pitched scream has the three of us up and running towards the door.
When we make it onto the street, the scene before us is carnage.
“Fucking hell!” Danny shouts, running towards the accident.
Two cars are mangled together: smoke and dust polluting the air.
Jake steps around me, looking back over his shoulder. “Call an ambulance!”
Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my phone, my eyes frantically bouncing over the picture before me.
A distressed mother cries out, screaming a pained cry. “No! My boy!”
My heart squeezes painfully. Taking a slow step forward, I watch as she drags herself off the pedestrian crossing, frantically searching for her son. Bystanders rush closer, the noise from their collective shouts for help grow louder with every second that skips by.
“Paddy,” Jake calls, eyes wide. “I’m going to need you!”
Ice scatters across my skin. My shoulders drop. My hand which was holding the phone is no longer steady. Feeling my heart rate run wild, black dots scatter across my vision. The wreckage in front of me pixelates as sweat beads on my temple.
I want to move. But I’m trapped.
The sudden silence suffocating.
The inability to move isolating.
Fear and panic have me wrapped in a death grip; the beast holding me like a prisoner, unwilling to surrender.
“Paddy!”
I hear Jake’s voice like a murmur in my head.
“Paddy! The ambulance!”
It’s only now I realise my eyes are wet around the edges. I blink, my unexpected tears stinging. “What?”
He grabs my shoulders, shaking me. “Paddy, we need a fucking ambulance.”
My lips part, but my limbs are useless as the urgency of his tone registers.
Jake grabs his phone, and all I can do is listen as the noise subsides and my vision begins to clear. “Ambulance, Rowland Street. There’s one fatal that I can see. Two drivers, one seriously injured.” He hangs up and looks me up and down.
The word fatal has me staring at him, seeing him more clearly.
The corner of his lips turn down seeing my reaction. “I need to go and help Danny. He doesn’t know what he’s doing out there. You get out of here, Paddy. Go back to Stoney Grange for a while until you’re over this. I’ll check in with you later, make sure you’re alright.”
I just about manage to nod at his back as he runs with lightning pace to where Danny is standing, holding one of the drivers still, making sure they don’t move.
Fuck.
I shift uncomfortably, knowing he’s right.
Things have got to change.
How's Kevin?
Morgan
