Chapter 2: A Shaken World

The world was an unforgiving place. It could chew you up and spit you out whenever it felt like it wanted to. It could rumble your very foundation and quake your thoughts. And it could end it all for you, without a single afterthought.

Diem knew this as he slipped in and out of consciousness. And the blackness that wanted to engulf his vision was very tempting. To just give in, to what seemed like his fate.

No!

He could not leave it like this. However alluring it was, Diem knew he would never know anything other then nothing if he let go. He needed to focus and not dare to even blink. He needed to assess his surrounding, for not only his sake but for his mother's too.

The car had seemed to have flipped itself over after the impact and now the two of them were dangling, still strapped back by their seatbelts.

`If we hadn't, I dread to think what would have happened to us.`

Diem reached out to his seatbelt and after three attempts the strap came off. He plunged onto the inside of the car bonnet. Shards of glass from the broken windscreen impaled into his hands and knees.

Slowly he got up, making sure not to dig any of the glass deeper in, and opened the car door, crawling outside.

The car that had hit them didn't actually take much damage from the collision. Only a headlight was missing. The driver even seemed to be okay, they were just hunched over the steering wheel.

Diem made his way over, limping from shards in his left leg, blood seeping out.

"Help uss..." Diem started but the vehicle was already starting back up.

"I'm so sorry." the driver said. Diem wasn't sure because of the dark night but he was sure he saw tears in their eyes as they sped off.

Diem could only look up into the heavens in despair. It was surely destined to be over for them.

Something pricked in his eyes and he reached out and was shocked to see tears come to his eyes. As far as he could remember, he had never cried. Whenever he got hurt, he just picked himself up and dusted himself down. Whenever he felt down, he just got over it and hid it away. Even when his mother and father got into angry rants with each other, he covered his sister's ears and not once did he flinch from any of the harsh words his once upon a time close parents threw at each other.

To him, tears seemed impractical. They were just a waste of fluid that should be kept within the eyes.

But at this moment, Diem felt defeated and a sliver of his pent up emotions was let to slither out of his eyes.

"Diem..." his mother groaned.

Her voice seemed to bring him back into reality.

`I need to be here for mum.` he said to himself, wiping his eyes and recomposing himself.

He went over to his mum's side and opened up the door.

"Hey, sweetheart." his mum smiled sleepily, blood streaming from her head.

"I'm just going to get you out of here first mum. Just keep speaking."

Carefully, Diem manoeuvred his mother out of her seat. Once accomplishing the feat, he heavily collapsed to the floor.

His breaths were getting shallower by the minute and his body wasn't fully responding to his movements but somehow he managed to get up and sling his mother onto his back.

He dug into his pockets, reaching for his phone but unfortunately it had not survived the crash.

`Great.`

And he slowly trudged along the road's path.

Diem just needed to keep conscious until he reached a busy street where he was sure to get some help.

His mother was constantly slurring her words but she was still speaking which gave him some hope. Until he realised the dampness on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled on his soppy shirt.

"Why are you sorry? It was the driver who crashed into me who's at fault."

"It's all my fault."

"Stop saying such nonsensical things. It's not like you."

He heard her muffled laughs on his shoulder.

"And staying calm in such a situation is exactly how I expected the son I love to act." she sighed.

And then only the footsteps of his feet could be heard on the street. No faint breathing. Just silence. The slow steps turned into a wild frantic dashes. Houses and streetlights turned into a blur. The ground underneath his feet almost swallowing him. The dark almost engulfing him.

Then a light of hope shone from around the corner and Diem screeched to halt in front of the road. Car doors flung open but his vision was already swimming as his legs buckled down onto the hard asphalt ground.

"Please help us."

The last thing he saw was his mum and him being surrounded right before he collapsed.