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ecotone99 · 5 years

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[RF/TH]Personal project turned into a (long-ish) short story

Hello fellow readers and redditors! I have always wanted to write a book for myself as a personal "goal". I started writing my story a couple of days ago ended up going down a tangent and ended up creating an alternate ending. So then I cut some stuff, moved things around, reformatted it and bam, made a short story. It is a bit longer than some of the other submissions ive seen (roughly 10-15 mins). Also The plot is a bit all over since it was orignally written for the book and VERY little editing has been done. Please excuse the useless background information, any redundancy and possibly some minor gramatical errors. Regardless, hope you enjoy the read!

As a weary Thursday night grew to a close, Alex Everson stood in front of the old electric stove, waiting as he stirred the pasta for his dinner in the saucepan full of boiling water. Alex lived a fairly quaint life, he didn't have the time or opportunity to invest in a permanent place, furniture, or nice cars, mostly because he frequently moved because of work. This didn't bother Alex because as far back as he could remember, his family always had to move around the country due to his father's job. Alex's father worked for infrastructure all over the country and would have to move around for his work. His father worked long, grueling hours for poor pay, but it was enough for his family to get by. When Alex was born, his parents decided that it would be better for the family to be moving and together, rather than Alex and his mother be settled but split from his father. Alex could not believe how much his parents had given up just so he could experience a somewhat normal childhood. He could experience having both of his parents, rather than having just his mother and rarely interacting with his father. Alex truly loved his parents, in fact, before his mother died due to illness, him and his parents were extremely close. Alex remembered fond memories with his parents as they traveled around the country, experiencing different towns and cities the country had to offer. Sadly, since the death of his mother four years ago, his father had become distant with reality. This made it extremely difficult for Alex to contact his father even through phone. Hearing about the death of his mother was also a major shock to Alex, he was in college at the time for business marketing and hearing this news caused his academic performance to take a complete down-turn. Alex still graduated with his degree, but had failed to keep up with the requirements for his internship, which would have led to a position in national marketing for the top tech company in the United States.

Alex still did managed to do well for himself. He currently worked for a smaller industrial company as a member of the marketing board for their northwestern division. Although this seems like a fairly high-end job, it wasn't as big as it sounds. He only conducted marketing in a small division consisting of a few regions with his other board members. While the national market directors made the big money since they work within the entire country and give advice to guide the smaller boards. Alex made comfortable money, around 70k a year, sometimes closer to 80k if his boss wasn't an ass and gave him the bonuses that was supposed be awarded to him. Although his job involved lots of moving around, he was comfortable with his job. Since he grew up moving all the time, having to create a life, make new friends, and then leaving and starting over had become normal to him. This made him accustomed to moving on and creating new opportunities in new places of the country. Because of this, Alex always tried to rent his place and had a simpler lifestyle to accommodated for the need to pick up and move at a moments notice. As Alex finished stirring the pot of pasta, he slowly drained off the hot water, then added salt and the tomato sauce he warmed up in the microwave to the spaghetti. Normally, Alex would have put a bit more effort into his dinner, but today had been rather difficult at work because of an upcoming project. He wanted to make something simple since it would be easier than going through the trouble of making his normal cuisine.

As Alex finished putting his dinner together, he turned to walk into the living room. Alex had a house that was on the smaller side, one floor with the kitchen and living room separated by a counter, which had a gap so you could pass into the other room. There was a quick transition from carpet to tile to let you know which room you are currently in, or would be entering. Taking a right before you past the counter led down a hallway where there were three rooms, one of which was the main bedroom, then the laundry room, and finally an extra room that Alex used to store his extra stuff like his dumbbells, suitcases and some other odds-and-ends. Alex used to work-out frequently in college, for his 20th birthday his parents bought him a personal set of dumbbells to use. He held onto them because this was the last gift he got before his mother passed away. occasionally he used them just to maintain his shape he got while in college. Alex plopped down onto the edge of the old off brown couch as he dove into his dinner. It was already 8:10pm, so Alex turned on his favorite show, the 8 o'clock news. Nothing interesting usually happened in town, the news was local and most of it consisted of school activities or events that were going on in the community. A community picnic had been scheduled for this coming weekend, but was rescheduled due to the weather predictions calling for heavy thunderstorms. This combined with the drowning patter of the rain outside and the occasional crack of thunder, Alex knew there was no sign of the rain quitting soon, the event would have to be rescheduled.

As Alex sat there, hypnotically twirling his fork, feeding himself spaghetti with his eyes glazed over while he watched the news and listened to the rhythmic hum of the rain outside, he was suddenly startled by a familiar chime. Alex shook his head while coming back to the present, realizing he was still on his couch. It took him a second to notice that the sudden, familiar sound had filled the room. Alex quickly stood up and started searching in-between the couch cushions, followed by searching under the couch for his phone, only to realize that it was in his pocket. He glanced down at his phone as he removed it from his pocket and immediately noticed the familiar name on his screen, "Jake". Alex wondered what Jake needed at this time of night, it was almost 9:00pm now and was preparing to settle in for the night. He slid his finger along the bottom of the screen then placed the phone against his cheek, *"Hello"* muttered Alex. He could tell this was not going to be good news when Jake took a second to respond with a prolonged *"Heyyyy, Alex."*. Jake had been Alex's roommate in college during the junior and senior year. Jake also majored in business and after Alex lost his opportunity with the tech giant, he got and offer from the industrial company, later finding out Jake had interned with them and had gotten a job with them when he graduated. "*What do you need now*" quipped Alex, knowing this was how Jake asked for favors. Jake took a second to respond before he audibly exhaled, then spoke with a hesitant tone. "*Do you remember that pitch due next Friday for boss.*". "*Dont you dare tell me you havent finished that!*" interrupted Alex.

Alex knew from the following silence that this was exactly what happened, Jake forgot about his half of the project. He knew that Jake was unreliable. He learned this from the amount of times he had to help Jake with assignments during college, but he would never believed that something this important would be neglected. This marketing pitch meant everything to Alex. His entire potential future rested on this opportunity and a good pitch usually equaled a raise. Alex was also looking down the barrel of a possible promotion, and this upcoming pitch could catapult him into a better position. The promotion would allow him to stop and settle even though he was still young. Alex could finally take a break from the constant traveling and find a nice place to call his own, not to mention he could finally get back into the dating scene and find a girl that he could spend time with since he had been single for the past two years. Alex listened closely to the next words Jake would mumble, cause he knew they were going to be complete bullshit. *"It's almost done, I just need a few...uhhh... details, yes! Details, thats all."* Alex was angry but not surprised as Jake responded using such a cliche and fake answer. He had almost expected Jake to blow off his part of the pitch and ask for help. Alex was hesitant to respond. Part of him wanted to deny Jake's request so Jake would butcher his part of the pitch, but this opportunity meant to much for Alex's future for him to do that. *"Fine, I'll help you, but only because this is for MY benefit"*, Alex hissed with a bit of anger. Alex didn't mean to sound so angry, he was exhausted from work and angry at the fact that he was now basically doing the entire pitch and Jake was just riding on his coat-tails. He really liked being friends with Jake though, even though he could be thoughtless and unreliable at times. Alex then had to listen to Jake thanking him insistently for what seems like 10 minutes, until Alex said he was going to head over now to help, then hung up his phone. Alex stood up, turned off the T.V, grabbed his empty pasta bowl, walked into the kitchen, put the empty bowl into the sink, then walked towards the side door to grab his raincoat and keys. As he zipped up his rain-coat and pocketed his keys, Alex expected this was going to be a *LONG* night. With that final thought, Alex walked out the door, closed it and turned the lock, then proceeded to his car parked in the driveway. As Alex approached his car, his could hear his boots sloshing in the puddles of rainwater in his driveway. Alex was grateful he had bought a good pair of boots, otherwise his feet would have been completely soaked. It had been borderline monsoon the entire week and being outside for more than a minute without proper clothing would leave you drenched from head to toe. Alex unlocked the doors and entered, getting in quickly to prevent the rainfall from soaking the interior of his car. With the key turning in the ignition, the engine of his 2013 Nissan Versa turned over. Alex threw in into drive and pulled out of his driveway. His next stop, Jake's house.

Jake and Alex live close by each other. they could make it to the others place in just under ten minutes, but since it was a full downpour, Alex had to drive much safer and expected his ride to be closer to half an hour. Alex tried to pass the time by finding some music on the radio, but as he flicked through the stations, he was welcomed only by static. He knew he was going to be in for a long drive. Alex sat trapped in the still, quiet aura that filled his car, mesmerized by the perfectly timed back-and-forth of the windshield wipers as they swished in perfect rhythm. He watched as the vision of the road became clearly visible, then quickly faded, becoming one continuous blur, until the next pass of the wipers repeated this cycle. His mind became completely focused on the road, only briefly noticing blurry brown lines evenly spaced in his vision as he drove down the two-lane highway. After driving for what felt like an eternity, rain still pouring with the same ferocity as before, Alex's focus was pulled off the road when he noticed a small yellow blur. This blur became more and more visible as it became larger on his windshield as he drove down the road and closer to the source of this light. After the next pass of his wipers, he noticed it was the hazard lights of what seemed to be a heavily contorted vehicle, completely bent in all different directions and angles after it had collided head-on into a power-pole. At the sight of this horrendous accident, Alex slammed on the brakes, his Versa screeching as the tires hydroplaned for a few yards before finally gaining grip and halting the vehicle's movement to a stop. Alex jumped out of his car so fast, he felt like he ripped the door off the hinge. The horrible sight that he saw before him left him in udder shock and disbelief. He could not believe how misshapen and shredded apart the car had been. Alex started to believe the worst, he knew that surviving an accident like this was not going to be likely. Alex started to have flashbacks to the night he almost perished, but he knew he needed to stay focused and search for the driver and potential passengers. After Alex had his near death experience, the immense pain he suffered and realizing that he would likely *die* there, laying on the cold concrete, was not an experience he would wish upon any other person. Alex *knew* that if he could prevent the deaths of the victims of this crash, he would try his hardest.

After Alex called 911, he started to search around the pile of mangled metal in order to see if he could find out exactly where the driver seat had disappeared too. After a quick, frantic search, Alex finally managed to find the steering wheel and the driver seat. He had found the driver, a woman, no older than probably her early to mid twenties, was laying unconscious between the driver and passenger seats. There were many small noticeable cuts and blood stains scattered along her clothes. Her face and arms were also badly cut and bruised. Alex tried to drag the unconscious girl out of the metal labyrinth, but it was to no avail. The dashboard had collapsed in during the wreck and was pinning her legs down against the driver seat, preventing Alex from getting her out. He knew he couldn't give up, he had to try within all of his strength and willpower to save this girl from her inevitable death. Alex sprinted back across the road to his car, opening the trunk looking for *anything* he could use to unpin the girls legs. Luckily, Alex remembered he had a car servicing kit in his trunk. After searching the kit, Alex rushed back across the road with a crowbar in his hands. He returned to the unconscious girl and slipped the crowbar in between the driver seat and dashboard, hoping to create enough of a gap to free the girls legs. After exerting all of his might on the crowbar, Alex had not even moved the vice around her legs one bit. Alex took one last look at the girl as he saw her life fade from her body. As he witnessed this, he tried his hardest to revive the girl but it was to no avail. His mind, his resolve was now broken, grief and sorrow flushed over his entire body. Alex *was* broken, he wanted to prevent the death of such a lovely young woman who had her entire life ahead of her. She was now taken away from her family and the world in such a cruel manner. Alex now wished he would have died that night so he would never have had to experience seeing the life fade from a person. he slowly shuffled lifelessly back across the road and back over to his car, sobbing uncontrollably, as he entered his car, he retrieved a small, heavy device from his glove compartment. It was his handgun. Alex began praying that the girl he was unable to save would forgive him and asks that his family would forgive him for being so selfish. He then remembered how he was on his way to help Jake and how now he would leave Jake helpless, but he believed in Jake. Alex knew Jake was a good guy when it came down to the wire. Alex then rested the gun's barrel against his temple and tightened his grip. A sudden flash and a sharp crack filled the air. Alex's imagination became brightly vivid, his memories of his family, his best friend Jake, and the poor girl he was unable to save filled his mind, but just as quickly and brightly these images appeared, they disappeared just as fast, quickly fading into a darkness that descended upon his mind.

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