Juncture 1.9

That fucking car. Why was I so terrified of that fucking car?

I was just going insane, right? So I don’t actually know that I’m going to die. I’m just going to finish with my classes, and finish my detention, then I’ll go home.

Unless…

I shifted in my seat. What if all of this weird shit wasn’t just my increasing lack of sanity? What if I was developing some sort of superpower? I could have the ability to see into the future, like a psychic. That would be cool.

But it didn’t make sense. If I really did have some sort of psychic vision, then why didn’t I see or hear Mr. Fetter? I didn’t remember him at all. I remembered going to English class as usual, and dealing with Mr. Hodgkins. Besides, I’d have to be psychotic to think I had superpowers. Superpowers don’t exist. Superheroes don’t exist. I was a normal person, who just happened to be losing his fucking mind.

Ms. Gladly said something to me, and I heard it in that same whispering voice in my head. It shocked me out of my thoughts a little bit, but even before I could gather my wits about me, I was already responding. Or rather, my body was responding. Another weird sensation that I couldn’t do anything about. It was as if my body and my mind were two different entities. My body still had that feeling I had before Mr. Fetter’s class, that can’t-ness, that unwillingness to change from what I remembered.

My mind, however, was free as a bird. By which I mean it was trapped in a cage, but able to do whatever it wanted in there. I couldn’t escape from what was happening, but I could think whatever I wanted about it, and maybe I could use that to my advantage.

Ms. Gladly kept talking, and I responded again, but it had even less of an effect on me this time. I could think almost totally uninterrupted by outside business. My body was on autopilot.

I could use this to my advantage. Assuming I had until the end of the day to figure out this problem, I could use all of that time to find a solution.

…

Several hours and two classes later, I hadn’t come up with a solution. I thought through every different angle I could. But as time passed, things stayed the same as the way I was remembering them. Now it was nearing the end of detention. It was dark outside, clouds had gathered, and I was completely terrified. I had long since come to the conclusion that even if I was going crazy, if things were happening the same way as they did before, I would still experience the car.

I didn’t know what would happen after that, but I knew it wouldn’t be good.

Barbara was sitting opposite me in the classroom, playing classical music from an old laptop as she texted on her phone. It was the same song as last time, and I still didn’t know what it was. It was tense, a lot of fast, short notes building up on top of each other before giving way to long, slower chords.

It wasn’t helping me think, is what I’m getting at.

The room itself was a small corner room with only a few desks and a dusty chalkboard. As far as I knew, it wasn’t used for anything except detentions, which was good because nobody would be able to learn in it.

Barbara’s phone blared an alarm. Detention was over.

“Alright, Marc. Thanks for behaving yourself. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Barbara turned off the alarm, closed her laptop, and put her phone in the purse she had next to her seat. She stood, and said, “Alright, Marc. Thanks for behaving yourself. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She left the room. Shortly after, I stood up, grabbed my bag, and walked out after her, my body exhibiting the tension from anger I remembered feeling. I exited the building.

…

I sighed as I looked at the sheets of rain directly in front of me. I was just under the lip of the school building. I pulled my hood up and began to trudge my way forward. The rain was so heavy I could barely see five feet in front of me. I looked back, and the school was a dim, watery blur, made up almost entirely of the light it was emitting. I turned forward again and kept moving.

No, no, no, no, no

The cold had gotten to me, and my teeth were chattering. I started swearing under my breath to keep them from clacking together.

Please, no, please god no
I kept walking.

The landscape around me became wetter and wetter, with the rain accumulating on the ground and rising higher. It reached a point where it was hitting my ankles and soaking into my shoes. My socks were waterlogged in a matter of seconds.

I kept walking.

Please, no, no, no, this can’t happen
I was repeating the swears over and over like a mantra. In the distance, I heard a soft honk, but it was too far away to make out clearly.

NO!

I kept walking.

The rain got worse the further I walked, as if nature itself was working its very best to ensure that I was miserable.

Nononononononononononono

I kept walking.

It kept raining.

Nopleasegodnonothiscan’thappenIdon’twanttodie

I kept walking. Suddenly, I heard a sloshing noise behind me. I barely managed to turn my head when something slammed into my chest. I flew backward, and heard a sharp crack as my head hit the pavement.

The pain was unbearable. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. Everything was black, and everything was pain. Right before my eyes closed I saw the lights of the car that hit me fade away. My last thought was just a long, drawn out scream.

…

…

…

“Mr. Antony, if I have to ask you one more time to not fall asleep in my class, I’m kicking you out!”

What?

Everything was still dark, but I felt a cool surface underneath my cheek. I lifted my head up and blinked at the sudden brightness.

Oh fuck.

Squinting, I looked around. Students were staring at me, a couple were suppressing smirks.

Oh, fuck.

I was back in Math class.

That was the second time.