Night clung to the city in heavy silence as he wound his way past the neon-lit hotel. Streetlights flickered, their glow broken only by the silhouette of a police officer, looming over a battered sedan in the parking lot. A sharp prickle of nerves shot through him; he quickly shoved his weed into the glove compartment, hands trembling, mind racing. Better safe than sorry, he thought, glancing in the rearview mirror as he pulled away.

Relief was short-lived. As his house came into view, a sudden, cold dread washed over him—his keys weren’t in his pocket. A flash of memory: the lanyard dangling from his office desk. He cursed under his breath, spun the car around, and headed back into the night, frustration mounting with each turn of the wheel.

He pressed harder on the gas, his truck groaning as it clawed its way up the steep, winding hill that separated him from his workplace. At the crest, headlights bore down—two cars barreling toward him. His heart pounded. The first was the same police cruiser from the hotel lot. The second is the sedan. They raced side by side, engines roaring, their intent unreadable in the dark.

Everything happened at once—the sedan swerved sharply, tires screeching. He slammed the brakes, but it was too late. Metal crunched, glass shattered. The sedan wedged itself under his elevated truck, pinning him in place. The police car screeched to a halt, lights strobing blue and red. He sat frozen, breathless, the world spinning wildly off its axis. The officer rushed to his window, eyes wide with alarm. “Are you okay?”

Still shaken but physically unharmed, he climbed out of his truck, intent on surveying the scene. He closed his eyes, hesitant and fearful of what he might see below. From the look of things, it seemed there was no possible way the driver and passenger of the car had survived—the space between the car and the truck was nonexistent.

They separated the car and the truck; their heads had been taken off in the accident. He tried to hold everything in while dealing with the situation.

When he got home, he let all his emotions out. He ran into the kitchen nearby and vomited everything he had in him. He grabbed his face and covered his eyes. He was still in disbelief, “Did that just happen?”