Existence 01 - Existence

that’s like ten degrees below freezing so I’d say it’s much colder than a little cold.” Miranda smiled at me for coming to her defense and shot Leif a smug smile. Leif’s arm slipped around me and I let myself pretend for now that my life was normal: that I loved Leif and my heart wasn’t damaged beyond repair because I was in love with someone I couldn’t find and feared I never would again. My best friend’s tinkling laughter and her happiness to be surrounded by friends and shopping seemed so normal. I could pretend I was whole. I could pretend I was happy and I could pretend a lost soul hadn’t just wandered through the wall behind Wyatt searching through the people around him for someone who might have the answer to his problem. No one could help him now. My fake smile was harder to hold in place, but I did because ignoring the supernatural around me was what I’d been doing my entire life.
    * * * *
    “I’m thinking we shouldn’t be going out tonight. I mean, I know it’s not exactly ideal to hang out in a cabin with your parents, Leif, but it’s icy out there.” Miranda was frowning as she looked outside the window on her side of the Hummer that Leif’s parents had rented for us to use while we were here.
    “We’re inside a monster, baby, no worries.” Wyatt leaned over and kissed Miranda’s neck, making her giggle. I gazed back toward the road in front of me and away from the happy couple in the back.
    “Wyatt’s right, Miranda. My parents rented this vehicle so we could get around easily in the icy weather. Besides, the Pancake House is not something you want to miss. Piles of pancakes covered in any topping you can imagine. I’m drooling just thinking about it,” Leif replied, grinning.
    “UGH! I’m going to be like a thousand pounds when we leave here. All we do is eat. If you make me stop at one more of those mountain taffy stores I think I might run screaming the other way.” Miranda pouted in the back seat.
    Wyatt laughed. “Or you’ll go taste test every sample they have.”
    Miranda teasingly punched his arm. “Oh hush. Don’t remind me of my weakness and the damage I’ve done to my hips.”
    “I like your hips just fine.” Wyatt replied in a low husky whisper we could clearly hear up front.
    “Okay, you two, I’m going to make you walk to the restaurant if you don’t cool off back there,” Leif warned, flashing them a smile in the rearview mirror.
    I kept my attention on the road as the falling snow seemed to get heavier. I touched my seat belt and a small stab of pain pierced me as I remembered Dank standing in my hospital room telling me my seat belt had saved my life. Yet, my mom had said I’d been thrown out for not wearing my seat belt and not wearing it had saved my life. I would have been crushed had I been left inside the car. The memory of a heavy weight being on my chest making it hard for me to breathe hit me. I’d been in the car when it’d finally stopped rolling. I’d thought I would suffocate from the heaviness on me. Then I’d been taken from the car and laid down on the grass. The pain had been so intense I couldn’t open my eyes. How had I gotten out of the car? Someone had gotten me out. Someone had unbuckled my seat belt and lifted me out of the crushed car and laid me safely on the grass. I’d never asked him about the seat belt again.
    Now, as I rode along the icy mountain roads it slowly dawned on me. The someone who’d taken me from the accident had to have been the only person who knew I’d been wearing my seat belt. Why had I not asked him again? I’d forgotten about his knowledge I’d been wearing my seat belt. Leif had shown up and I’d let myself forget the wreck and the events leading up to it.
    “You okay?” Leif’s hand slid across my leg and took my hand in his.
    I masked my pain and turned to give him a reassuring smile. “Yes.”
    He nodded toward the snowy evergreens outside my window. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I nodded because he was right, it was, but also because it gave me an excuse to keep staring off into the darkness.
    “LEIF! WATCH OUT!” Wyatt’s voice broke into the soothing quietness of the Hummer like a bullet and Leif jerked the vehicle off the road and skidded up against the side of the mountain before coming to a full stop only feet away from the car that had just hit a patch of ice and flipped right in front of us.
    Leif jerked open his door. “Call 911!” he yelled back at us