"I just don't understand why you didn't just ask me," my mother sighs, her iron-strong grasp firm on the steering wheel as she drives through the pouring rain.

"Would you have let me go if I had?" I muttered back, and gave her a knowing look.

"No. I wouldn't have. And then you got stranded in this torrential downpour. So I'd say karma's a bitch," she says with a laugh as she glances at my soaked clothes. I glance down as well, shrugging in agreement.

"I'll ask next time mama, I promise," I tell her, and she scoffs.

"Don't you 'mama' me, you're not out of the woods yet little lady."

I stare out the window in a quiet response, only imagining the horrors that was to be my punishment for sneaking out again. We hit a rougher patch of rain and she slows down. I frown at the acclimate weather outside my window.

"Mom, it's getting a little intense. I can't see a thing. Maybe we should stop somewhere and wait it out," I offer, but her grip on the steering wheel tightens and her jaw does as well.

"No. We need to go," she says in a determined yet anxious growl. I raise an eyebrow at her choice of words. We need to go? I glance in the back seat. There are two large bags packed. I gasp.

"Mom, what is going on? Is it Gabe? What has he done now?" I demand, looking for bruises on my mother's frame. If he hurt her again, I'll kill him. I nearly did last time, and it was a miracle my mom managed to pull me off of him in time. I'll never understand why she is with him. He never kicked me out nor tried to hurt me after the last time I busted his ass, I think we have a mutual understanding that if anything goes wrong, the other is dead. So we stay out of each other's way. I stuck around for my mom's sake, she begged me not to leave. Swore that Gabe wouldn't do it again, and he had just had an off day. But I knew he was trouble, so I stayed to keep an eye on my sometimes-younger-than-me mother.

"He has done nothing. He's out of the picture. We just need to get out of town. I'll explain everything once we get out of here," she stammers quickly as she starts to speed up again. My heartbeat starts to beat faster.

"Or you could tell me now," I demand in fear. She opens her mouth to speak, but as we pass through an intersection where our light is green, a large SUV speeds through toward the right side of the car. I open my mouth to scream, to say watch out, to warn my mom, but it's too late. The SUV hits my mom's side of the car with such a force that my head crashes through the passenger side window with a sickening thud. The airbags deploy and send my head backwards again in my seat, and I feel rather than see the car flipping through the air. Tears blind my vision as I feel warm, thick blood flowing down the side of my face. Searing pain rips through my body before we finally come to a complete stop upside down. I immediately look to my mom, to see if she's ok. But her side of the car is smashed all the way in, I don't even see her. I glance around, and through a gap of twisted metal I see her body in the middle of the intersection.

"Mom! Mom! Somebody help! Help me!" I scream as loud as I can. But through the rain, no one can hear me. Someone walks up to my mom, and kneels down. He checks her pulse and nods to the guy beside him. They both stand and walk away. I try to scream once more but my vision begins to go black, and soon I'm swept away into darkness.