No Need For Her Salvation

Gritting my teeth against the agony, I collapsed over the steering wheel. When I heard Hannah Amell call out his name, I went rigid.

A deathly chill swept through me. Every broken breath filled my mouth with the taste of blood.

The car’s crumpled frame pinned me in place and left me unable to move.

Even the slightest movement sent a tearing pain through my body.

At the edge of my failing vision, Hannah crouched beside Cedric Trevor. She was trembling as she checked his injuries.

Her tearful pleas reached me. “Cedric, please don’t die. Don’t do this to me. Open your eyes and look at me. It’s Hannah. I’m going to save you. Just say something.”

My vision blurred until blood and tears washed the world away.

Yet none of the physical agony compared to the pain of hearing Hannah call Cedric’s name.

My throat was full of blood. The moment I tried to speak, it came spilling from my mouth.

Beyond the shattered window, Hannah’s figure grew increasingly hazy. I called to her in a broken rasp.

“Hannah, save me…”

She did not hear me.

Or perhaps she did. Perhaps my feeble plea simply did not matter to her.

An ambulance came racing to the scene. Hannah was a doctor. She climbed in with Cedric and left without once looking back.

She had forgotten that I was still trapped behind the wheel, far more seriously injured than he was.

Alone on the rain-lashed overpass, I remained inside the wreckage, with no one even aware that I was there.

Pain and terror closed in around me, but from the depths of my despair, one last spark of defiance flared to life.

Each breath came in a harsh, ragged gasp.

I refused to let the plot push me toward death like this. I refused to die abandoned by the woman I loved.

Clinging to consciousness, I reached beneath the seat to retrieve the phone wedged in the narrow gap below.

Unfortunately, even that felt impossible.

Again and again, my fingers brushed the phone, only for it to slip beyond my reach.

It was mere inches away, yet it might as well have been on the other side of a chasm.

The car reeked of blood. Not even the rain hammering through the shattered windows could wash it away.

I clenched my teeth and growled at myself, “Leon, if you want to live, you have to try harder!”

With one final effort, I summoned every ounce of strength and finally managed to grab the phone.

However, I had reached too far. The movement shifted the twisted metal around my legs and crushed them even tighter as bone-crushing pain tore through me.

Cold sweat broke across my skin. My consciousness began to fade. With trembling fingers, I managed to place an emergency call.

“The beltway… overpass… car crash… Please help…”

I could no longer make out what the dispatcher was saying.

The blood loss and bitter cold left me unable to string together a complete sentence.

My body grew colder by the second. I could feel my life slowly draining away.

Before I passed out, my life flashed before my eyes.

The memories finally came to rest on Hannah walking down the aisle in her wedding gown. Her cheeks had flushed as she said, “I do.”

She had left me behind without a moment’s hesitation and ran straight to the story’s hero.

Had knowing the truth changed nothing? Was she still bound to the role written for her? To live for Cedric?

What did that make me then? What did all the love and devotion we had shared over the years mean?

A warm tear slipped from the corner of my eye as wave after wave of heartbreak swept over me.

I could hold on no longer. At last, my eyes fell shut.