Beautiful Secrets (Cranksepticeye Fanfiction)

~9.11~ Collision

By the time I got to the car, I was soaking wet. The storm had been building all week. There was a weather advisory on every radio station I could get any reception from, which wasn't saying much considering the Beater only got three stations, all AM. The clouds were totally black, and since it was hurricane season, that wasn't something to be taken lightly. But it didn't matter. I needed to clear my head and figure out what was going on, even if I had no idea where I was going.
I had to turn on the headlights to even drive out of the parking lot. I couldn't see more than three feet in front of the car. It wasn't a day to be driving. Lightning sliced through the dark sky ahead of me. I counted, as Anna had taught me years ago - one, two, three. Thunder cracked, which meant the storm wasn't far off - three miles according to Anna's calculations.
I pulled up at the stoplight at Jackson, one of the only three in town. I had no idea what to do. The rain jackhammered down on the Beater. The radio was reduced to static, but I heard something. I cranked up the volume and the song flooded through the crappy speakers.
Sixteen Moons
The song that disappeared from my playlist. The song Jack McLaughlin had been playing on the viola. The song that was driving me crazy.
The light turned green and the Beater lurched into drive. I was on my way, and I had absolutely no idea where I was going.
Lightning ripped across the sky. I counted - one, two. The storm was getting closer. I couldn't even see halfway down the block. Lightning flashed. I counted - one. Thunder rumbled above the roof of the Beater, and the rain turned horizontal. The windshield rattled as if it could give way any second, which, considering the condition of the Beater, it could have.
I wasn't chasing the storm. The storm was chasing me, and it had found me. I could barely keep the wheels on the slick road, and the Beater starred to fishtail, skating erratically back and forth between the two lanes of Route 9.
I couldn't see a thing. I slammed on the brakes, spinning out into the darkness. The headlights flickered, for barely a second, and a pair of huge blue eyes stared back at me from the middle of the road. At first I thought it was a deer, but I was wrong.
There was someone on the road!
I pulled on the wheel with both hands, as hard as I could. My body slammed against the side of the door.
His hand was outstretched. I closed my eyes for the impact, but it never came.
The Beater jerked to a stop, not more than three feet away. The headlights made a pale circle of light in the rain, reflecting off one of those cheap plastic rain ponchos you can buy for three dollars at the drugstore. It was a boy. Slowly, he pulled the hood off his head, letting the rain run down his face. Blue eyes, brown hair.
I couldn't breathe. I knew he had blue eyes; I'd seen them before. But tonight they looked different - different from any eyes I had ever seen. They were huge and unnaturally blue, an electric blue, like the lighting from the storm. Standing in the rain like that, he almost didn't look human.
I stumbled out of the Beater into the rain, leaving the engine running and the door open. Neither one of us said a word, standing in the middle of Route 9 in the kind of downpour you only saw during a hurricane or a nor'easter. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and my muscles were tense, as if my body was still waiting for the crash.
Jack just stood, watching me. I took a step toward him, and it hit me. Wet lemons. Wet like waves crashing over my head. Only this time, when he slipped through my fingers - I could see his face.
Blue eyes and brown hair. I remembered. It was him. He was standing right in front of me.
I had to know for sure. I grabbed his wrist. There they were: the tiny moon-shaped scratches, right where my fingers had reached his wrist in the dream. When I touched him, electricity ran through my body. Lightning struck the tree not ten feet from where we were standing, splitting the trunk neatly in half. It began to smolder.
"Are you crazy? Or just a terrible driver?" He backed away from me, his blue eyes flashing - with anger? With something .
"It's you."
"What were you trying to do, kill me?"
"You're real." The words felt strange in my mouth, like it was full of cotton.
"A real corpse, almost. Thanks to you."
"I'm not crazy. I thought I was, but I'm not. It's you. You're standing right in front of me."
"Not for long." He turned his back on me and started up the road. This wasn't going the was I imagined it.
I ran to catch up with him. "You're the one who just appeared out of nowhere and ran out into the middle of the highway."
He waved his arm dramatically like he was waving away more than just the idea. For the first time, I saw the long black car in the shadows. Th hearse, with its hood up. "Hello? I was looking to help me genius. My uncle's car died. You could have just driven by. You didn't have to try to run me down."
"It was you in the dreams. And the song. The weird son on my iPod."
He whirled around. "What dreams? What song? Are you drunk, or is this some kind of joke?"
"I know it's you. You have the marks on your wrist."
He turned his hand over and looked down, confused. "These? I have a dog. Get over it."
But I knew I wasn't wrong. I could see the face from my dream so clearly now. Was it possible he didn't know?
He pulled up his hood and began the long walk to Ravenwood in the pouring rain. I caught up with him. "Here's a hint. Next time, don't get out of your car in the middle of a storm. Call 911."
He didn't stop walking. "I wasn't about to call the police. I'm no even supposed to be driving. I only have a learner's permit. Anyway, my cell is dead." Clearly he wasn't from around here. The only way you'd get pulled over in this town was if you were driving on the wrong side of the road.
The storm was picking up. I had to shout over the howl of the rain. "Just let me give you a ride home. You shouldn't be out here."
"No thanks. I'll wait for the next guy who almost runs me down."
"There isn't gonna be another guy. It could be hours before anyone else comes by."
He started walking again. "No problem. I'll walk."
I couldn't let him wander around in the pouring rain. My mom had raised me better than that. "I can't let you walk home in this weather." As if on cue, thunder rolled over our heads. His hood blew off. "I'll drive like my grandma. I'll drive like your grandma."
"You wouldn't say that if you knew my gramma." The wind was picking up. Now he was shouting too.
"Come on."
"What?"
"The car. Get in. With me."
He looked at me, and for a second I wasn't sure if he was going to give in. "I guess it's safer than walking. With you on the road, anyway."