Pieces of Me (Midnight Steel Trilogy Book 1) Page 5

  Pulling out an old pair of ratty sweatpants and a soft baggy flannel shirt, Corie was anticipating a long cold night ahead of her. Lastly, she pulled on a pair of thick socks to keep her feet warm. Past experience had taught her how cold the upstairs would get with the heat off so she would be spending the night on the sofa, near the comforting warmth of the fireplace. On her way out of the bedroom, before blowing out the candles she had lit, Corie grabbed a pillow from under her hand-stitched quilt that covered the bed.

  Stopping in the hallway, she carefully juggled a lone candle and pillow, while grabbing a couple more blankets out of the linen closet. She tucked them under her arm and gingerly made her way down the staircase and back to the living room.

  She dropped the pillow and blankets on the sofa. While she was blowing out the candle she still held, she glanced over to the woodpile and was thankful to see that it was still almost full. There was more than enough wood to make it through the rest of the night.

  Corie walked around the room extinguishing the remainder of the flickering flames, leaving the room lit with only the dull glow of the fire. She snuggled herself down under all of the layers of blankets, and within minutes she was fast asleep.

  It was still dark when she awoke with a start, startled from a deep sleep by something unknown. Corie immediately sat up on the sofa completely alert. Her eyes scanned the shadows in the room and saw nothing amiss, except that the fire had burned down to embers. She listened intensely, trying to differentiate between the wind and anything else. Still, she could not figure out what woke her.

  “It’s not like me to be skittish like this,” she said to herself as she got up to add more wood to the fire. It just took a little poking with one of the fireplace irons before it was blazing again. Corie paced the length of living room still wrapped in a blanket. She stopped by one of the windows and moved the curtains aside. Outside was a sea of solid white.

  Through the still falling snow, Corie could just make out the barn. Suddenly she realized that the doors were ajar and snow was blowing inside. “Now I didn’t leave them that way,” she thought back. “Damn, I can’t let them stay open.”

  This did not make her happy. Not at all.

  A quick glance at a clock told her it was going on two o’clock in the morning. With a deep sigh, Corie walked back to the kitchen and pulled on the sweatshirt she kept on a hook by the side door. Then she proceeded to get dressed in her snow attire that consisted of a heavy winter jacket, lined warm boots, a woolen hat with matching scarf, and her thick insulated gloves. Once she was sufficiently bundled up for the raging storm outside, she didn’t hesitate to open the side door and step out into the turbulent night.

  “Oh my God,” she thought as the wind chill whipped right through her. “This is absolutely awful out here.” With her head bowed against the horrendous weather, Corie pushed her way through the heavy snow and found it harder going than she anticipated. The wet snow was almost up to her knees, and the wind was driving the sharp flakes into her already frozen cheeks.

  Relief flowed through her as she made it to the barn. With her gloved fingers, Corie reached for the latch to once again secure the barn door, and here she found the problem. It was a simple wooden piece that fit into the joint on the adjourning door, but one of the screws had fallen out, so it was rotating on the door, instead of holding tight.

  She cursed herself for not bringing a flashlight with her, but she eventually managed to find her tools in the dark barn and grabbed a hammer and nail. It was going to be a quick fix, and once the weather had cleared, she could repair it correctly.

  It took her only a few minutes to get the nail to secure the piece of wood and soon the door was latched. Happy that she could now go back to the house, Corie turned back into the driving snow and took a step, but then stopped.

  Even though the snow was still heavily falling and the wind was whipping everything around her, something caught her eye. It was in the distant direction of the road. How she saw it, she wasn’t sure, but there through the woods and out by what she estimated was the road…was a light. A light where there shouldn’t be one.

  She was confused…and curious.

  So there she stood in the middle of the night, outside in a powerful blizzard wondering what to do. “I’m so cold and so damn tired, I so want to get back inside, but what the hell is that? Who is that?”

  Corie brushed the flakes from her eyelashes as her curiosity won out over rationality. Instead of heading back inside where it was warm and safe, she took a step in the opposite direction. Toward the road.

  She had no idea what it was, but she knew that it certainly didn’t belong there. Her road had no streetlights, nor was there a house in that direction. She actually had no neighboring homes that could be seen from her property at all, but there was a light, and it wasn’t moving. So she started to.

  Against her better judgment, Corie struggled through the deep snow taking long minutes to walk what should have taken seconds. The driveway was filled with uneven drifts making it harder to get through the deeper snow. She hoped deep down that it was a logical explanation and shortly the answer would show itself. But the further she trudged, the less she knew.

  The powerful gusts of wind whipped the snow into tiny tornadoes causing Corie to stop occasionally until they passed. By now her fingers and toes throbbed with the cold, but still, she determinedly moved on. She was halfway down her driveway, and fatigue was setting in. Corie stopped momentarily to catch her breath. “I must be completely crazy to do this. Absolutely crazy!”

  Even though she knew it was the wrong decision to make, Corie pushed onward. For a while, she realized that the snow-covered mountain laurel that grew wild in the woods was blocking the light and she contemplated turning around. However a few more feet ahead she picked up the dim glow and kept moving ahead until she finally reached the end of her driveway. Route 25 was ahead of her, and it was impassable.

  As she turned to her right, Corie realized that mailbox was no longer standing upright. It was completely gone. “Shit!” she said heatedly. “I hate replacing that.”

  In her anger, she almost forgot why she was standing there at the end of her drive in a full-blown blizzard until she saw the light again. It was quite weak, but she could still see it as it was reflecting off of a tree and the white snow.

  Corie had no idea where the light was coming from, as all she saw was a large white mound. She moved closer to it and then all of a sudden, she realized what it was. A car! It was a car that was head-on into a tree.

  “Oh my Lord!” she gasped. Corie was stunned for a just a brief second but then moved as fast as she could to the damaged vehicle. “Please God let them be okay,” she said praying a quick instant before she raised her gloved hand to try to wipe snow away from the covered window.

  Fear flowed through her as she began to clear the window causing her hand to shake as it moved the snow aside. Having no idea what she would find inside scared her to the core.

  Once the snow was gone from the window, she cautiously peered into the dark car. Total blackness engulfed the interior and Corie couldn’t see a thing.

  Then she remembered her keys!

  She had always had a silly fear of locking herself out of the house, so no matter where she went, even if she didn’t lock the house, Corie took her keys with her. And on her keychain was a mini flashlight. “I could’ve used this in the barn,” she mumbled as she tried to get them out of her deep coat pocket.

  Carefully, she removed them, knowing that if she dropped them, they would be lost. She used one hand to hold the keys and the other to flick on the light. It was small, but it would serve its purpose.

  Corie took a deep breath as she flipped on the light and looked into the car once again. There inside the snow-covered car was a person slumped over the steering wheel.

  “Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Please let them be alive! Oh God please! I don’t know what to do if they aren’t alive…I mean dead…oh God, I
’m so nervous!”

  Knowing that she didn’t have a choice, Corie brushed the snow away from the handle of the car to see if she could get it to open. Luck was with her when she felt the door click, and it pulled away from the car a small amount before it got stuck. Thank God it wasn’t locked!

  Now she had to see why it wasn’t opening more. Corie looked through the driving snow and saw that the vehicle was crushed against the tree, but slightly more on the passenger side than the drivers. Her mittened hands then quickly brushed several inches of snow off the car in the area around the door where she stood. Then she scooped handful after handful away from the bottom of the door as that looked like it was the main reason she couldn’t swing it open.

  Even though it was freezing outside, Corie felt herself sweating underneath all of her layers. She wasn’t sure if that was from her nerves or from all the work she had just done, but she knew she couldn’t stop now. Before she had the chance to think and get more anxious, Corie grabbed the handle of the car again, and with only a small amount of groaning from the hinges, the door swung open.

  Now came the hardest part. Was this person alive?

  “Hello? Hello?” Corie shouted at the person. “Can you hear me? Are you okay? You have to help me here. Hello?”

  Whether it was from her voice or it was the blast of cold air that entered the car when she opened the door, but the person moaned slightly.

  “Oh thank God!” she sighed in immense relief.

  Now she took a moment to take a look at the person. They were still slumped over the steering wheel, so she still couldn’t see their face. The clothing looked like that of a male, but the hair was longer than most men wore, besides it was covering his face.

  Corie wanted to touch the person, but she was afraid of what their injuries might be and didn’t want to make a bad situation worse. She laid a hand on his shoulder and tried speaking to the person again.

  “Hello?” she shouted over the screaming wind. “Hello? Please wake up again, oh man please wake up! I can’t do this all alone, Can you hear me?”

  Looking up to the snowy heavens, Corie pleaded silently for guidance. The thick flakes fell on her face stinging her with their coldness. However, her desperate request for help rewarded her with a deep low moan from the injured person. Immediately she brought her attention back to the car.

  “I’m trying to help you, but you need to wake up. Hello, can you hear me?” Corie put a hand on the person’s shoulder. “Are you awake?”

  A soft, pained voice said, “Yes, give me…a second.”

  Corie felt like jumping up and down in excitement. The person was awake! And from the voice she could tell it was a man.

  She watched his left arm rise up very slowly as he attempted to grab the steering wheel, but the semi-deflated airbag was in the way. Instead, he used it as leverage and gradually pushed himself back into the seat.

  Corie got her first real glimpse at this stranger. His longish hair was still covering a bit of his face, so she took off a glove and brushed it away. That was when she noticed the dull red blood that was matted and dried running from his forehead, down the side of his face into his hair. His skin was a chalky white. “I bet he’s in shock,” she thought.

  “Hey, I’m Corie,” she told him. “Are you okay? Can you move? We need to get you out of here.”

  A strong blast of cold wind blew the swirling snow into the car and Corie saw the man cringe. “How can I help you?” she asked again trying to get the man to respond.

  Corie saw his eyelids flutter for a second before they finally opened. The most brilliant blue eyes she had ever seen stared back at her. Eyes that were filled with fear and pain. The impact of them caused her to skip a breath.

  “Help me, please,” he whispered, his voice raw. There was something different about his speech that Corie couldn’t immediately place.

  “What do you want me to do? I’m afraid to hurt you more.” Corie crouched down next to him so he wouldn’t have to look up at her into the falling snow.

  The blue eyes looked at her with a combination of panic and hope. The shock of the accident left him looking drained and pale, but even looking as bad as he did with blood matted both in his hair and on his face, Corie realized that he was a handsome man.

  “We have to get you out of this car and the cold. Can you do that?”

  The man struggled for a moment, before falling back into the seat. His face filled with panic. Once again their eyes met. “I can’t move my legs. Damn it! I can’t move them!”

  Chapter 5

  Corie’s hand flew up to her mouth in shock. “Oh my God,” was all she could say. “Oh my God!”

  “Please help me!” he begged, his eyes filled with terror.

  Corie knew that she had to take control the situation she and this stranger were in, because if either of them panicked it would just make it worse. She played her ice-cold hand on his trembling arm as she spoke.

  “Okay, let’s both take a deep breath and see what going on here. First, tell me your name, and in case you didn’t hear me before I’m Corie.”

  She could see the man relaxing slightly as she began to take charge. He had been through a lot to think really clearly.” My name is…Alek,” he told her in a hesitant whisper.

  “Well Alek, we need to get you out of this car. Let me think here a second what we can do.” Corie knew that if she moved him and he had broken his back, then she would not only be making it worse, but it could put his life in jeopardy. The question was how bad was he injured?

  Then an idea popped into her head. She momentarily forgot that they were outside in the middle of a wild blizzard, as getting Alek out of the totaled car became her primary concern. “Can you feel my hand, Alek?” Corie reached in and gently squeezed his denim-clad calf. She watched his face for a response.

  “Yes, I can!” She saw hope flash back into his eyes, and a small smile emerged.

  “Okay, then let’s try the other leg.” She reached in and squeezed that one and Alek told her that he could feel that too.

  “Hopefully, that means it’s not your back. Thank God!” she said smiling at him.” Why don’t you try to move again?”

  “Alright,” Alek sighed, his fatigue clearly showing on his handsome face. He again struggled to get his legs to move, but something was forbidding that. “Bloody hell, I still can’t do it!”

  “You’re British?” Corie had finally placed his accent.

  “Of course I am! What bloody well…gave it away?” Alek’s frustration was rising at the situation, and Corie’s innocent question drew his anger. He put a hand up to his head as a wave of dizziness overcame him.

  “So much for English manners,” she muttered under her breath. Trying to get back on track, she said to him “Okay, let me see what may be blocking you. Hold on while I check it out.”

  “Not like I can go any place.”

  “Listen, I don’t have to be here,” Corie said her anger rising. “I came out in the middle of a damn blizzard that only a complete idiot would drive in, to save your busted ass. I can certainly go back to my warm house and let you deal with this on your own!” Fire blazed in her deep green eyes. She was cold, tired, and wet. Alek’s attitude had completely pissed her off.

  “You’re right, I’m sorry. I have no excuse except that my head is spinning, my ribs are killing me, and I feel like a popsicle. Please, Corie, I need your help and…I’m sorry.” Alek’s sincere plea and apologetic look easily diminished her anger. “I think maybe something isn’t allowing me to move them. I realize now that it feels more like my legs are stuck.”

  “I know this is not easy on either one of us, Alek.” Turning her concentration back to the major obstacle that stood between his rescue or freezing to death outside, Corie said, “Let’s see what may be holding you in place. With any luck, it could be an easy fix.”

  She squatted down in the snow instantly feeling the frigid, wet cold penetrate her sweatpants. Forcing herself to ignore the n
umbness she felt slowly creeping higher up her legs, Corie used her mini flashlight to search through the darkness under the dashboard. There she saw what was inhibiting him from moving.

  Standing up, she brushed the snow from her pants and out of her face. Corie leaned into the car to block the freezing flakes from hitting Alek. Her ice cold feet throbbed in the wet winter boots as she continued to stand in the deep snow.

  “Okay, first we need to get this airbag out of the way. Alek, help me push this to the right, and we need to get it out of your lap. It’s partially deflated, but it is wedged between you and the under part of the steering wheel.”

  Alek nodded his understanding, as words were starting to become difficult for him. He was getting dizzier by the minute, and it seemed his whole body was completely frozen. Together they started pushing the airbag aside, and once they had that accomplished, it gave them a small amount of extra space, but not enough.

  “Okay, next…”

  “There’s a…next?” Alek asked quietly.

  “Yes, and it’s the harder one. It looks like your right foot is caught under the brake pedal. I’m going to try to get it out from there, but the dashboard has been pushed forward by the impact. So you are kind of very cramped down here.”

  “Anything else…going to go…wrong?”

  “I hope to hell not, but we got to get you out of here. This weather is impossible, and it’s only going to get worse. So, let me see what I can do to free you.” Once again she squatted in the snow and cursed herself for not changing into jeans before she came outside. The sweatpants she wore did nothing to protect her from the cold, wet weather.

  She tried to concentrate on the task ahead of her and not that she was absolutely frozen. Corie attempted to pull and push Alek’s foot free, but it simply wouldn’t budge. It was wedged in there tightly. The dashboard was just too far forward against his broad chest.

  “Any l-l-l-luck?” he asked his teeth chattering.