Nora clenched her jaw as a set of oncoming lights appeared in the distance. The roads were heavily covered in snow, and the falling snowflakes made it almost impossible to see where the road actually was. As the oncoming car passed, she moved over to give it space, and her tires sank into the road’s shoulder. She felt the car pull to the right, and her heart leapt into her throat. Trying to counter the pull, she cranked the steering wheel in the opposite direction, but it was no use. The car’s back end began to fishtail, and she lost control.
Fear gripped her as the car spun out of control and careened off the road, descending down an embankment and toward a frozen lake. The sequence of events unfolded so rapidly that by the time her head struck the steering wheel, knocking her unconscious, she wasn’t even aware that the car had broken through the thin ice of the lake. The vehicle vanished into the icy depths, its headlights piercing the murky darkness until they dimmed and extinguished, leaving no sign that Nora had ever even been there.
Chapter Three
Voice in the Darkness
She woke with a jolt into total darkness. She spun around, trying to get her bearings, when a man emerged from the murky black abyss that surrounded her. He was in his early thirties, dressed in a style reminiscent of the nineteen forties, with slicked-back dark hair and eyes the color of a crystal blue sky. For a moment she thought she knew him but couldn’t place where from. As she searched her mind, trying to remember his face, her head began to feel swimmy, and she became aware of a cold that was seeping into her very core.
Still confused, she sat there, staring at him. He said nothing but offered her a kind smile and extended his hand for her to take, but she hesitated, still trying to place him.
“Go. You must take his hand and go,” a voice rang out, cutting through the darkness. It was her grandmother’s voice.
Nora’s heart raced at the sound of it, and she frantically looked for her, but there was nothing other than the man and the ever-consuming darkness. He bent forward, extending his hand closer to her this time, concern growing in his eyes.
“Nora, my sweet dove,go!” Her grandmother’s voice echoed once again, this time growing in intensity.
The change in tone sent a shock of fear racing through Nora, and she reached up and took the man’s hand. As their palms met, a bright blue glow ignited at their touch, moving up her arm and into her chest. When it reached her center, it felt like a bomb exploding, sending a shockwave of energy surging through her. She wanted to scream, to cry out in pain, but before she could even open her mouth, she passed out.
Distant voices echoed in Nora’s head as her vision pulled in and out of the darkness. As her vision came back, she could make out the headlights of a car cutting through the heavily falling snow. The muted voices quickly turned into deafening shouts and within seconds she felt a cold so harsh it was like fire on her skin. A fear, deep and primal, coursed through her, and her heart raced in confusion.
“Oh, thank God. She’s alive,” she heard a woman’s voice say as she tried to sit up.
Her head pounded, and she felt like she might throw up from the pain.
“Whoa there, take it slow,” a man’s voice said.
Nora looked up, expecting to see the same man whose hand she took. But standing over her was an older gentleman in his sixties with concern etched across his face. A woman similar in age stood beside him, holding onto his arm for balance as her feet sank into the deep snow.
Still feeling disoriented, Nora slowly sat up and lookedaround. The headlights of their car cut through the darkness illuminating her surroundings, and she began to recognize where she was. Long Pond.
All of a sudden everything came rushing back. She had been in a car accident. Her heart raced faster, and she began to breathe heavily.
“You just stay put. We called an ambulance, and they should be here any minute,” the old woman said as she wrapped a jacket around Nora’s wet, shivering body.
Nora looked over her shoulder at the lake and saw a large break in the ice. Had her car gone into the water? Then she began to look around for the man but there were no signs of anyone else there.
“Where is the man who pulled me out?” Nora asked, confused, her eyes still scanning her surroundings for him.
The woman looked at her husband with concern in her eyes and then back down at Nora.
“What man, dear? There was no one here when we arrived but you.”
“Are you sure? Did you pull me out then?” Nora asked, looking up at the old man.
“Quite sure. No, I didn’t. When we came around the corner, my wife saw you lying there on the edge of the lake. For the life of me, I don’t know how she did with the snow coming down so heavily. I could barely see a foot in front of my face,” he told her.
“It was the glow,” his wife said. “There was a blue glow that caught my attention and then I saw you.”
At the mention of a blue glow, Nora’s mind raced back to the moment she took the man’s hand and the blue light that had ignited at their touch, followed by a pain like nothing she had ever felt before.
“It must have been the headlights of your car before they shut down,” the man said.
“Then how did I get out of the car?” Nora asked, her thoughts circling back to the man again. Maybe he had left once he helped her out of the water, or was her mind playing tricks on her? She did hit her head hard enough to be knocked out.
“You didn’t swim out?” he asked her.
She was about to tell him no when their conversation was cut short by distant sounds of sirens. In the distance, the red lights of the ambulance could be seen dancing across the snowflakes.
