My foot slammed down on the gas pedal in my beat up Jeep Grand Cherokee. I was gonna drive just as fast as Edward, there was no hesitancy there. Me driving gave me something to do instead of thinking about the ancient vampire on my tail. For some reason he took one look at me and decided he wanted to play a game- more like a cat and mouse thing than anything else. There was something worse, though. The number of people that surrounded him, spirits, it was impossible to count. My heart beat was louder than any music I had playing from the cassette deck. I heard it pulsing in my ears.
For once it wasn't sheeting rain. It was foggy though, kind of hard to see through. I drove by myself and the boys were in the Wrangler about two miles behind me. It was my choice to be bait, this needed to be over quicker than it started. The streets around Forks were so quiet there was almost no risk in carrying out our plans in the area. It would save time and effort, too. Red and green from the traffic lights carried in the dense fog. I loved it, it almost made me forget about the lethal being wanting me for a snack.
I wasn't sure what I was expecting to happen when a vampire was hit by a car. I never really thought about it. Humans would become pancakes on the freeway being struck by an SUV at 90 miles an hour. Vampires on the other hand, they stood like thick, steel pillars and were indestructible. The roll cage on my Jeep was good but not great. The vehicle rolled over three times before teetering and landing on its side. The glass from all of the windows was shattered, the metal crunched, the SUV was totaled.
My breathing was diminished, it hurt to take a deep breath and when I was breathing I felt like I wasn't getting enough air. Quickly identifiable, a pneumothorax. My lung popped. The question was, what was going to kill me faster? The pneumo or the vampire who wanted to eat me? James came up on my window at a rapid speed. He twirled my hair around his finger and watched with a grin as I gasped for air like a fish out of water. He was being ridiculously gentle with me, his thumb brushed against my cheek lightly and he watched me suffer. Before James could do anything else, he was ripped away from my window and torn into pieces.
Carlisle approached me next and ripped open the door. He assessed me but knew what the issue was. The only way I was making it was an emergency release of pressure and that was going to hurt like a bitch. I knew too much for my own good, this was going to be agony.
"Julia, I have to release the pressure in your chest before you develop a tension pneumothorax," he was gentle.
I nodded, "I know, do it," I couldn't speak much.
He lifted my shirt and took a knife to my skin between two ribs. I groaned at first and tried my hardest not to scream, it got increasingly difficult as he progressed. He pulled out a skinny, plastic tube and inserted it into the incision which hurt more so than the cut. Hot tears streamed down my face as I waited for the tube to be placed into a small amount of liquid. There was nothing in the world that was going to keep this tube perfectly still on the way to the hospital. Carlisle picked me up out of my own seat and placed me in the Wrangler.
Emmett held me in a tight embrace to reduce my anxiety, one of his hands was stabilizing the tube. "You're gonna be okay, Jules, just stay with us," he had a little bit of fear in his voice. It made me wonder if he was picturing his sister as he looked at me, or if he was actually concerned for my wellbeing. I was a cynic tried and true, the thoughts of people not caring about me were never going to leave.
Edward grabbed my hand in between his and rubbed his thumb across the back of mine. I was completely conscious, my chest hurt like shit, though. The pain was unbelievable. Carlisle tried to drive as smoothly as possible but some bumps were unavoidable. The road conditions in small towns were notoriously shit. The hospital wasn't far away, but the time I would spend there would feel like an eternity. I knew I was in for a long haul, between the prophylactic antibiotics and the actual chest tube to be placed, it was going to take quite some time to heal and be allowed to go home.
One thing that was for sure, I hated the hospital, I was not excited to return in any way.
YOU ARE READING
Voices |E. Cullen|
Fanfiction"I don't like the word medium, I think it's a stupid concept." "But you do see dead people." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In which a young woman who sees and hears dead people meets a man who has created a lot of graves. TW: Lots of death...
