The beeping hits your ears first slowly,then all at once as you open your eyes and are met with your messy bedroom. You lift your phone to your eyes and are met with the bright blinding light of your phone screen. It hits you with the light of a thousands suns and within the moment of the deep rays hitting the retinas of your eyes you toss it face down on the small gap of bed between you and the abyss known as the hardwood floor. Its seven a.m and you promise yourself that you’ll spend only ten more minutes in bed,and this day like every other, you end up breaking that promise.

“Shit”



You quickly rise out of bed, rushing yourself to check the millions of thing you need to do before heading off to work. When you’re finally ready you return to your faced down phone and stop its insist beeping that’s been this mornings background music as you’ve gotten yourself ready. Why you didn't turn it off in the first place is beyond even the universes knowledge and it will be a question lost within the void of time itself,but you digress. The beeping stops and you switch over to the bus tracker app, it loads, and it's just as you feared. Your bus is gonna be there in five minutes,the exact amount of time it takes for you to get to the bus stop on the corner of your street.

“Fuck”



You plug in your headphones and rush out the door, gently tapping your pup's head on the way out. Quickly you walk outside and the heat from the actual sun smacks you in the face consuming your body as you break the threshold between your perfectly ac controlled environment to the harsh humid climate known as chicago on a hot wednesday in the middle of summer. You shake your head and continue forward, regretting your choice of wearing pants today with every step to the bus stop. You glare down the street when you see the orange glow of the bus letters peaking out between trees and parked cars. Its close and you are so far away, your legs moving faster, your thighs rubbing against each other with such force combustion may be imminent,but you continue with your strides. The only option is to jaywalk,the most enforced law in the city, but against all better judgement you decide it's the only option in order to catch your bus and make it to work on time. Stepping to the curb you look left, all clear, then right, there's a single car at least a block away.

“Just enough time”



You take a step of faith off the curb onto the street and start your journey to the other side. The bus stop is just within view. You can see its blue and white sign displaying the glorious bus route information and the large black pole that keeps it upright for all to marvel at in its sturdy glory. Your heart is pounding, your sense sharpened, your legs in full motion,everything is a blur for a moment,and before you know it the ten seconds it took to cross the street are over and you're standing at the bus stop with bus card in hand ready and waiting for the moment the dirty black doors open and you can step inside that air conditioned public vehicle of paradise that will take you on your quest to work and out of the elements of nature. You turn your head and see the bus slowly approaching,you get in quickly and take a seat. All is well with the world as you grab your phone and start scrolling through your playlist of the same songs you've always listened too since you were 12 and edgy, with a few new songs mixed in,like sprinkles on a teen angst filled scoop of ice cream.

You're already a few streets down when you finally find a song that fits the scenario that you wanna play out in your head, and as you calmly face towards the window in which you’ll let your mind wonder off into the scenery as it passes you by it hits you, literally. There are sounds of screaming that are painfully mashed in between the scraping of metal and the breaking of glass. This mixture of distressed machinery makes your skin crawl and your body jump with fear before your world goes black. When you finally snap back to reality your face with one harsher than the one you once experienced only moments ago. A reality filled with more pain and blood than you've ever seen or felt before even on your darkest of days. Every nerve ending on the lower half of your body is on overdrive,but in your current state of shock is keeping you calm and collected as you peer down at what at one time was your legs that is now crushed bone and metal. The paramedics all stop and stare at you as you sit up as much as you can, leaning on your elbows surveying the damages.

“What happened…”



An officer’s walks over to the group that was once huddles in hushed voices and they all go eerily quiet. He takes a look at you and your worried eyes before his own eye widen significantly. He nods at the others, walking over to you cautiously as debris grinds beneath his heavy boots with every step. His worlds are blunt,calm, precise, and confident as he relays to you what happened as simply as he can.



“There was a man under the influence of an unknown substance that ran a red light straight into well...you. Honest we don't know how you're alive or even conscious right now, but stay calm. The emts and firefighters are working on getting you out of here. You're going to be…..”



His words start to trail as your visions fades, the world is quiet as you're met with only darkness in was seems like a space where only you and you alone exist. You think of all the things you've ever done,ever will do, and ever wanted to do all at once. Every memory passing you by in what seems like seconds,but feels like hours. Vivid recreations of all the time you've spent on the world living life to the best of your ability before it all came to a crashing stop at the hands of the unknown. And just as you finally come to the final moments of your life, a voice breaks the deafening silence that surrounded you causing you to feel in control of yourself and your thoughts again. A voice filled with familiarity and sorrow.



“ Come little one,its best we be on our way…”