Painkiller

1

    "Elena!"

    Her mother's calls woke the sleeping girl, who huffed in reply. She opened her eyes to be met with too-bright lights and a pounding headache. Once again, the girl was suffering from a hangover.

    "Elena! Wake up!" Liz called once again, her patience wearing thin as she received no reply from the teenager. "Come on! Your Dad and I need to get to work! You're going to make us late!"

    Elena groaned as the words leaving her mothers mouth amplified in her ears. "Coming!" She called, attempting to act as normal as possible.

    Minutes later, the 15-year-old had made her way down the wooden stair case in their house and out the front door, each thump on the stair a drum in her ears.

    She swore to herself that she would never touch alcohol again, although, she knew that wasn't true.

    Opening the car door, she was met by her parents, and as the car sped off down the road, they began making small talk.

    "What did you get in your biology exam, Lena?" Her mother questioned.

    Elena's eyes widened. She knew her parents wouldn't be impressed, but she didn't want to lie to them either and give them a fake exam result. "D" she mumbled.

    Andrew Hemmings looked at his daughter in the mirror of the car, still partly concentrating on the road in front of him. "A D? That's not like you Elena."

    It was true, it wasn't like Elena's scores to be so low, she was usually a 'straight A' student.

    "It's just this one time, Dad."

    "You can't start giving up on your grades now."

    "I'm not giving up! It's just this one time! Jesus Christ!" Elena's voice rose as she spoke.

    Elena's mother whipped around to look at her daughter. "Don't you use that tone with your father!"

    "I wasn't doing anything!"

    "Hey!" Andrews eyes left the road ahead of him. His concentration broke.

    "Just fucking leave it!" Elena shouted.

    The car veered off the road, and Andrew desperately grabbed at the wheel in an attempt to bring the vehicle back on course. Liz screamed, and in the back of the car, Elena had frozen with fear.

    Time moved slowly, yet, it also sped up. Elena could feel every bump on their path down the verge, she could hear every noise as branches scratched at their car, clawing like hands. Elena's thoughts were rushing too fast through her head, too fast for her to recognise them, and all she could do was stare at her parents faces as they etched their way in to her mind.

    A crack could be heard as the car crashed headlong into a tree. Liz and Andrews heads snapped forward, both now lying motionless on the card dashboard. Elena's head hit the back of her fathers chair, and blood dripped down her forehead from the new cut that had appeared. Her eyes drooped, and she struggled to keep them open for mere seconds before she lost consciousness like her parents.

    For hours the car stayed there, and time dripped away, as did the chances of survival.