The accident

My breathing became difficult as panic took hold of my throat and darkness encroached on my vision. I let out a sigh of relief only after realizing that my eyelids were closed. Suddenly, they opened on their initiative and looked about the damage, only to realize we had landed facedown.

I could see an orange hue flickering through everything in my field of vision.

I glanced to my left as my mind battled through the haze, suddenly adjusting to what had just happened. A sharp cry from my throat, releasing itself as though it had been shackled to it for a thousand years.

I cried out, fumbling with my seat belt and forgetting that we were upside down. "DAAAADDDDDDYYYYYYY!"

After overcoming tremendous resistance, it finally clicked open, and I fell toward gravity, hitting my head on the roof in agonizing pain. My eyesight went black, then came back to normal; everything was hazy.

"DADDY, WAKE UP!"

Scrambling towards his lifeless body, I took a quick breath and inhaled the entire crushed left side of his body. His contorted limbs within the car door made me sick to my stomach since I could not tell where the flesh ended and the metal began. A merging nightmare of black, and dark red was what it was.

I raced towards my dad, squirming from the rising tickling of heat. By now the whole car was bathed in an odd orange glow that made it look like we were driving through a volcano.

I whirled around, letting out another high-pitched cry. To reach us, flames were licking the car's backseats and creeping down the windows. As they battled their way toward us, their vicious claws devoured the leather seats and destroyed everything in their path.

"DADDY! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!"

I started to scream again, but as I opened my mouth, thick black smoke clung to my lungs, choking me. Severe tears poured down my cheeks, and I angrily brushed them away before bending to remove Daddy's seat belt.

This was not good.

I threw my head back, spat again, and sobbed as his whole left side—including the seat belt—was crushed so deeply into the automobile.

How was I going to free him?

I heard someone say, "SOMEBODY CALL 911!" from outside the vehicle.

The roar of the engine startled me into action, even above the far-off screaming from outside. With a trail of red left behind, I scampered out of the passenger window, cringing as the broken glass embedded itself in my skin. I hardly had time to register the shock of the throng of people observing me, including the inebriated lorry driver whose tummy was bulging out of his beer-stained waistcoat. I was looking around for something sharp. His eyes, which had been widened in terror but were now sober, bulged at the sight of his car with a big dent where it had struck our car.

"Oh my god, she's alive!" exclaimed a woman.

I climbed back into the car, blinded by the clouds of black smoke, and picked up a big shard of broken glass. I was blinded and my eyes were watering scarlet tears as I looked around for Daddy's seat belt and kept jabbing at it with the glass.

Another voice called out from outside, "SHE'S GONE BACK IN! SOMEBODY GET HER OUT!"

Even though the seat belt was still stuck, I made every effort to unfasten it so that I could liberate Daddy. They started to lick his arms, and the heat from the flames made me want to back away from the burning car, but I gripped the glass harder and worked more quickly. As blood poured down my hands, all I could manage to say was a frustrated yell as I attempted to hack through the last few fibers holding the seat belt in place.

I whined again, "Come on, come on, come on," and then I screamed in agony as the flames sprang onto my bare arms and began to dance up and down like a quick waltz.

I sprung, let go of the glass shard in my hand, and moved backward, watching in terror as the flames consumed Daddy, licking every inch of him.

"DADDY! DADDY! NO! PLEASE NO!"

Snowy watched as I slumped into a heap at the foot of the passenger seat, shoving her out of my way. I watched helplessly as my dear father vanished beneath bursts of orange, red, and yellow. I ignored the approaching sirens that screeched to a halt a few feet away while I listened to the crackling flames and shivered whenever the engine groaned explosively.

I kept saying, "Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy," as I tried to reach into the smoldering fire to hold his hand.

I wanted to take care of him, grasp his hand. Even though I knew it wouldn't be okay, I tried to reassure him that everything would be fine.

I lied to myself, thinking he would hear me one last time, and murmured, "Daddy, we're going to Disneyland remember? Please...Please come out!"

By now the flames were creeping out of the windows and along the outside of the car, turning it into a furnace throughout. I flinched from the intense heat, yet I was frozen—locked in time, frozen in a nightmare, frozen in position.

I was being pulled away from the car, the flames, and my father when all of a sudden a hand wrapped around my ankle.

I screamed, "Let me go!" and swung my legs at the firefighter, causing him to tenderly transfer me to a paramedic.

She reassured me, "Shh, don't worry little girl," as her gentle brown eyes came into my view.

"You have to save my Daddy! You have to!"

Racing me to her squad, she started the agonizing trek to the ambulance.

I let out one more agonizing cry, "DADDYYY!" before giving in and allowing them to carry me away from him.

A voice broke through my thoughts as they were lowering me into the ambulance's rear, dispelling the haze that was taking over my thoughts. As she kept repeating herself, I closed my eyes and tried to contain my convulsive tears.

Whispering the same words over and over again, pale blue eyes darted across my consciousness.

"Look after your daddy."

The sirens were blaring overhead as I saw the doors shut in on me, hanging my head in shame. The paramedic held my hand while her colleagues jabbed and prodded at me, causing severe pain that made me cry even harder. I glanced up at her compassionate brown eyes. I let out a heartbreaking cry as I gripped my blood-soaked curls and heard the sirens' unceasing blare overhead.

"Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!"

As the sirens continued to blare, her brown eyes enlarged slightly and burned with profound pity.

I whined in a weak voice, "Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop."

The sirens continued to sound nonstop.

"Please, make it stop."