MicroHorror

“Matt? Do you believe in spirits?” Sophie asked.

The car was underwater, still rocking a little as it crept along on the stony bottom after the plunge down the bank. Matt’s ears hurt as he pulled at Sophie’s seatbelt latch. Tony and Fletch had gone out through the front windows.

“Do you?” Sophie asked again.

“What?” he said. Bubbles surged from his mouth and he looked at her face. A blooming rose of blood unfurled in the water around her. The passenger window was shattered.

Crap, he thought, struggling with the jammed buckle. The inertia reel was stuck too. Come on, come on.

“Tessa’s here,” Sophie said. “She says she didn’t mean it to go that way.”

Matt jerked, bumped his head on the car roof, sucked water, twisted, arms flailing, breathed air.

“Sophie!” he screamed. A bubble in the corner of the roof, held in by the back windscreen. He breathed again. He could see light above, sparkling through the small Lake Taupo waves, could see the ends of the snowboards hanging off the roof rack. He had to get out, had to get her out. The car shuddered, moved forward, dropping a little. Water in the air pocket sloshed.

Matt breathed again, turned back into the car. The blood was clearing, thinner, and he could see the cut now, bold, deep, just ahead of her ear, down to the cheekbone. Eyes closed, not breathing.

“She changed her mind,” Sophie said. “She decided not to go, it was a mistake.”

Okay, Sophie, Matt thought, get out of my head and I’m getting you out of here. He pulled her sideways, slipping her breast under the belt, pulling her up and across. The car moved again, tilting a little.

“She’s sorry,” Sophie said. “Tessa’s sorry.”

He saw someone outside through the cracked window. Tony swimming back down to help. He imagined Tony and Fletch arguing about it on the surface, Fletch wanting to go after the boards, Tony cursing Fletch for lousy driving.

Matt was cold, his ears hurt, he needed another breath. Tony was getting close, bright in the darkening water and Matt turned back to the air pocket, breathed in again, the air stale now with his own exhalations. Pulling back to Sophie he wondered if Tony had brought a knife to cut the belt.

“She’s sorry.”

He looked out the window and it wasn’t Tony at all.

“She put her fingers down her throat and spewed them all into the toilet,” Sophie said. “She tried to drink water and milk, but she passed out.”

Tess, Matt thought, reaching through the window. Her face was so still. So still, so light.

“She knew you came, pushed her chest and breathed and she tried to hang on, but there were too many pills. Too many and she had to go.”

Matt watched her sad face turn and drift off and then it was Fletch at the door, yanking it open, grabbing Matt’s arm, pulling him out.

“Thank you for staying,” Sophie said. “Thank you for trying with me too.”

They surfaced and Matt breathed and breathed while Fletch shouted at him. People and parked cars up by the torn Armco. Matt flipped and took himself down towards the slipping car, ears straining, reaching for the door, catching and holding the frame, but the car was rolling away.

“Sophie!” he screamed again. The bubble wobbled against the rear window.

“You did everything you could,” Sophie said. “For us both.”

Matt tried to pull himself back to her body, but the car rolled on deeper and he had to let go.