Do Not Go Gentle [Open]

[Anna Craven]

It was dark, dark, so dark.

In a dark, dark wood…

That darkness that knows no light. It had swallowed it whole and it had swallowed her. She needed to stay put, though. Someone had told her to stay put, not move. The sun had been high then, dancing through the tops of the trees and she’d been so very good.

“I am very good, aren’t I, Mr. Bear?” She hugged what she knew to be her beloved, although over loved teddy bear to her chest. She shut her eyes tight and she could imagine what he looked like even without any moonlight to see him. He was soft and brown. His little marble-like eyes were the color of her favorite candy, caramels. He’d once had a little red scarf, but now she used a red handkerchief. He knew she had been good. She’d stayed here and played in the green grass under the tree. She’d not moved even as she got hungry.

In a dark, dark wood…

The wind rustled the grass and she pressed against the trunk of the tree. She buried her head into Mr. Bear’s fur. It still smelled of mama’s perfume. She’d not meant to spill it or break the bottle. She seized at just remembering those sharp, clicking heels as Mama had stormed into the room and grabbed her by the wrist. As she marched her out and out and out into the forest behind their house. She’d wailed and apologized and kept apologizing. Her cheeks had turned blotchy and her voice like reeds. Mama didn’t stop, though. She made her walk or yanked her until her legs were so tired!

Her cheek was still sore from where she’d hit her for being bad. Her scalp still hurt from where she’d pulled her hair. Her dress was tattered. But she’d been good like Mama wanted. She’d not moved or even made another sound of crying! She wasn’t scared!

She bolted as a branch cracked above her.

In a dark, dark wood, there was a dark, dark path...

Branches, grasses, bushes...they pulled at her hair and scratched her arms and legs. More cracks came from behind her. They were louder now. She heard breathing!

“Mama! Mama,” she shrieked.

Something was tearing through the forest behind her. It broke the twigs that grabbed at her. It roared! She screamed.

She stumbled.

Do you know what waits in the dark?

Mr. Bear flew out of her hands. She hit the ground.

Anna hit the pavement. The world around her flew wide. She was panting, sweating. She was in her pajamas.

She looked up from the dim road she’d woken in, somewhere in Gotham. Looked right into the blaring lights of a car racing right towards her.

It was too close to dodge, she thought. She closed her eyes and felt her heart drop and the adrenaline crest.

[Carmen Hernández]

It was very, very late and Carmen should have been in bed. But between school, her internship, and a study group that took way longer than expected, she hadn't had time to fit in a workout. And she certainly wasn't going to skip a workout - that was not acceptable - and for safety's sake at this hour that meant going to the gym. So it felt like it was practically the middle of the night by the time she was driving home from the gym, tired and very much ready for sleep.

But not so tired that one could accuse her of not paying attention to the road ahead of her. Actually, if anything, the darkness obscured the details of her surroundings except for directly in front of her and that actually helped her to keep her focus there. The only other thing pulling her attention was the song that was playing, but though she was singing along it wasn't a real distraction. Okay, so maybe she was into it enough to speed just a little since the road was much emptier than she was used to due to the time of night, but not more than anyone else would in that circumstance.

But, far more important than that, she was only human and her reflexes were what they were so when a young woman suddenly stumbled into the road in front of her, she could only slam on her breaks so fast and the breaks on her economy car were only so good. Good enough that she was pretty sure that she'd managed to cut the vast majority of her speed, but not good enough that she didn't feel a small bump before she came to a stop.

"¡Dios mío!" she exclaimed, as her brain was still in Spanish mode thanks to the song she'd been singing, but after she threw off her seat belt and instinctively grabbed her cellphone she jumped out of the car to see what had happened in flicked back over to English as she said, "Please don't be dead, please don't be dead!" Even before she made it around the car far enough to see she was already dialing 911 on her phone, partly because she was simply alarmed enough for that to be her first instinct and partly because she was scared to look. But she was also scared not to look because she wasn't totally useless at first aid so there stood a good chance that there was something she could do.

As she was coming home from the gym, she was wearing a black tracksuit over her workout clothes to protect her a bit from the cold weather.

[Anna Craven]

She knew if she ran, the damage could be worse. It could have resulted in a broken leg, a hit on a far more vulnerable part of her body, really the results were endless and she felt she had no time to dodge anyway. She stared down the bright lights that came closer and closer. It was like time slowed in that moment.

She’d heard similar stories from other people when their lives were endangered, how everything seemed to occur in slow motion. How they had felt hyperaware. She could now empathize. She could smell the warm asphalt and feel it under feet. She could hear the distant sounds of other traffic. She could hear the screech of brakes that would do nothing to stop the impact, but it could soften it.

Maybe this wouldn’t be fatal after all.

That was honestly the last thing she was certain she thought before the car hit her. Carmen would call it a bump, but for Anna it was enough to knock her back. Knock her down. Her feet went out from under her and pain launched from her abdomen all over her body. Then her head hit the road.

That was where things went fuzzy. At least for several moments. She thought it was several moments, but when you’re knocked unconscious, do you really know how long you’re out? All she knew was the thrum of the car engine sounded like the purrs of a giant cat. That reminded her of the dream she’d been having before she’d been hit. She’d been running from a monster. Had it really been a monster or the dark? A child afraid of the unknown and unseen?

Where had that even come from anyway? It held a far more poignant realism than any dream she’d ever had, but dreams could seem so very real. It wasn’t like she truly remembered her past anyway.

That’d always been her little joke to herself. Can’t really be lost if you don’t remember, right?

She groaned as she found herself back conscious again. Her whole body hurt. Her head hurt. There was a sticky wetness at her forehead. Probably blood. She didn’t reach up to touch it, instead she turned her gaze to what the headlights of the car showed.

“Hey,” she croaked up at the woman she saw.

She seemed to be around her own age. “Are you calling 911? That’s probably a good idea. I definitely have a concussion, I think.” She chuckled deliriously. “Also really sorry about running out in front of you.”

[Carmen Hernández]

As she came around the vehicle, Carmen immediately breathed a slight sigh of relief to see the other young woman not directly under her tires or splattered all over the ground like a horror movie. On the other hand, at first glance, the young woman wasn't moving and had blood on her head - not good! With her cellphone ringing in her ear, she ran over and used her other hand to quickly check for a pulse. When she felt it and saw signs of breathing, she breathed a much bigger sigh of relief. Okay, so not dead. Good.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Oh, thank God!" Carmen said with a gasp, "I hit a pedestrian! I'm on Taggert Avenue between - where am I? - 33rd and 34th. We need an ambulance, she's not dead but she's not moving. I don't know what to do! What do I do?" The words came out in a rush, prompting the operator to ask her to repeat the location just to be sure she'd heard it correctly. Fortunately, though Carmen was a little freaked out, she was only a little freaked out and very quick to answer the operator's initial questions accurately.

She was still in the middle of that when the unconscious woman groaned and began to rouse. "She's waking up! Thank God!" Carmen immediately exclaimed, and when Anna first saw her she was kneeling next to her and there was a smile of intense relief on her face. "Hey," she said back quickly, "Yeah, they're on the way. Don't worry about it, I've got you! Shit, hold on..." She abruptly got up and ran over to reach into her car in response to the operator's instructions, and the lights of it began to flash.

But she was right back at Anna's side immediately, kneeling down again and saying, "She wants to know if you're hurt anywhere besides your head. But like, don't move. And stay awake." Whether Anna was in the right state of mind to appreciate it or not, Carmen's mannerisms at the moment were rather scattered because she was still slightly freaked out and unable to hide that but also was attempting at the same time to appear to be on top of things and relaxed for Anna's sake. If anything that made Carmen seem all the more freaked out, but it was also true that she was on top of things so that much at least was reassuring enough. And at least now that Anna was conscious, Carmen could find herself slowly beginning to calm.

But while Carmen had heard Anna's apology, she didn't react to it. Mostly because her mind was very far from the realm of assigning fault at the moment - blame didn't matter to her while she had more important things to do like making sure that Anna was taken care of until proper help could arrive. She also hadn't even looked at the damage to her car yet because that was of much lesser importance, especially because on some subconscious level she remembered that she had insurance so, in theory, it would be okay either way.

[Anna Craven]

The thing about head injuries is you usually don’t remember what you were doing between one moment and the next if you’ve done enough damage, and really? Anna didn’t. One moment she’d been dreaming and now she was lying in the road with the pale headlights of a car beaming over her. If you’d asked her if she knew what happened, she’d say that her memory wasn’t there, but the facts were. She was good at perceiving facts.

So lying on the warm, greasy road, the smell of exhaust and the lights of a car over her? Add that with her head injury and a sharp, radiating pain around her hips and she could construct a fairly accurate picture. She’d been hit by the car and more than that, the woman currently over her, speaking into the phone, had to be the driver. If not, some idiot had left their car and taken off which was stupid: the license plates and registration would lead right back to the owner unless it was stolen.

Millions of thoughts were racing inside her head. This was her way of grounding and trying to distract herself. She was grasping at anything to dull the pain in her head and over her body.

It didn’t seem like it had been a high speed collision. She’d be further away and the injuries much more severe, at least she thought so. She wasn’t really going to look. She’d covered enough of such accidents to know the sorts of injuries she’d assumed she’d feel, though.

She must have seemed spaced out to the woman who knelt over her, but really she was just focusing on breathing, not going into shock, those sort of things. That and listening to her. Her injuries didn’t immediately feel severe, but as she didn’t feel blood anywhere above her head, she couldn’t be sure. Shock was still possible.

“Anywhere else,” she sounded the question. She almost nodded, but no, that wouldn’t be a good idea, would it? “My waist. My hips...that area,” he said and then blinked. “Okay, I won’t move and I’ll try and stay awake.” He gave a painful chuckle. “I’m not sleepy if that helps.” Not anymore at least. The pain was taking care of that and it was escalating more and more.

She knew one thing for sure, though, as looked at Carmen. She wasn’t pressing any charges. She knew enough about herself to know she’d walked in front of the car. The girl was her age too. She didn’t seem the type to have just run someone down.

That was more Anna’s thing, he thought again with a chuckle. She was more likely to do that.