A Perfect Day

The lights flashed past, contrasting against the dark blue of the nightsky. At this time of night the motorway was empty - but that was how she liked it. In this world she could imagine it was just the two of them - there was no hatred, no fear for them to return to. No world where they wouldn’t be allowed to be together.

She looked across to Nero, whose hair fell lightly around her ears, her brows furrowed as she concentrated on the road ahead of them. To think that a year ago they had met on a forum discussing suicide pacts - the world seemed so different now. It might not have gotten much better in any other aspect, but to be the one to go on a date and stare at the beauty across from her for the whole afternoon, anything was worth it.

Nero seemed to notice her stares as she looked over, giving her a tight smile. Lily returned the gesture with one of her own, and watched as the dark haired girl’s eyes flick back to the road.

It had been a perfect day - they had gone to the park, had a wonderful picnic in the sun, and had run through the autumn leaves as though they were children again, walking on clouds without a care in the world. She hadn’t wanted it to end - the anniversary of their first meeting. Everything was so different, yet nothing had changed. There was still that same electric spark between them, and her heart still skipped a beat every time she found herself away in the moment.

For the rest of the journey the scenery had blurred together, but now the blue sign signalling her junction was all her mind could fixate on. This had been such a perfect day - she didn’t want it to end.

She dragged her eyes from the outside of the car and instead chose to stare at Nero, who was absentmindedly biting her lip, the light from the lamps reflecting of the silver piercing.

Three words came to mind - three words she had never thought she would ever feel, let alone have someone to say them too. They played on her tongue, rattling through her head.

“Nero-”

She paused in confusion as a pair of white lights quickly becoming one interrupted her field of vision, and her hand flew up to her eyes to shield them. The next thing that she registered was the feeling of her hand smacking against her head and the defeaning sound of a loud explosion. The car was moving erratically and she looked over at Nero but all she could see was a blinding light reflecting off the airbag.

Waves of dizziness and nausea hit her, and then they were still, the white light gone and with it the night vision she had accumulated. She coughed into the darkness and tried to call out her partner’s name, but all she could manage was a dry croak that could have been anything.

Her hands were numb and everything was slow as she tried to move, the seatbelt resisting her attempts to detach it and the airbag getting in the way of everything.

Something sticky flowed down the side of her head and she swallowed, making another attempt to unbuckle the seatbelt. This time it worked and she was battling with the airbag. She caught a faint groan, and something unidentifiable rose in her throat.

Leaning across the centre console she managed to see Nero slumped over the airbag, her neck contorted in a way human’s neck weren’t supposed to be.

She moved her body so she was sitting on the console, and found Nero’s wrist, checking for a pulse. It might have been faint, but there was definitely something there, and she laced their fingers together.

She heard a pained cough and then a groan, and her heart skipped a beat. She was definitely alive

“Hey, don’t disappear now on me, emo girl.” She whispered. “We made a pact, you and I.”

Nero gave a weak chuckle, and Lily took this as a sign to continue. “It’s been an amazing year, and there’s so much I wish I had said before.” She took a shaky breath. “I love you, you know that? I love you so much, and I can’t believe I’ve known you for a year. It’s been crazy, and you have no idea how much you mean to me and what you’ve done to me. I know at the start you warned me that you hated people who chicked out and that the people you chose to complete a pact with had a habit of doing that, and at first I was sorry to join that list, but now I’m not. Meeting you - that’s the best thing that ever happened to me and I know you’re happier too. You might not say it, but I can see it in your actions. You smile more, and you never used to smile. It’s something about you that I love - the way your lips just quirk and your eyes light up whenever you see something funny or look at me and you don’t understand how it feels-”

But Nero’s sounds - the groans and the occasional cough and the hum and the faint chuckle - had all stopped, and she checked her wrist with her heart in her mouth. Sirens were playing in the background, but all she could focus on was how Nero’s heartbeat was getting fainter by the second. She was fading and there was nothing she could do - no God existed in this world that she could pray to for divine intervention, and all she could do was have hope in the paramedics whose faint shouts she could barely make out.

...

They found her a couple of minutes later, tears streaming down her face, unintelligable words of pleading falling out of her mouth as a prayer. They removed the dark haired one first, the other only allowing them to unclasp their hands once they said this was the only way to save her. She clambered out of the car with grace to rival a newborn fawn, just in time to see the paramedic taking her pulse shake her head, and burst into a howling sob that pierced through the air.