Always Darkest for Dawn

'Oh my God,' he thought as he hurried toward the fallen woman, for he could see that was what he'd hit, 'oh my God! Where the hell did she come from? A second earlier there was nothing there. Why Lord, what was she thinking?'

"Call an ambulance, hurry!" he shouted at a couple of men who were standing a bit further down the road and had come to investigate the commotion.

She lay there at the side of the road as he approached and by a twist of fate he saw that though her body was broken by the collision and the subsequent process of her body hitting the asphalt her face was unmarked and still beautiful.

"Don't move Miss, help is on the way," he said as he knelt by her side, "just hang on."

Fighting to maintain a semblance of calm he took her hand as he thought of his wife and daughter back home and he said a silent prayer that they were safe. Her eyes opened and she turned her head to look his way but he felt that she wasn't seeing him at all but rather looking through him to something far beyond.

"Johnny," she gasped in a weak voice, "Johnny I'm so cold. But I told you Johnny, I told you that I would. I'd wait forever if I had to and now..."

Dawn coughed then and some blood oozed past her freshly painted lips onto her pale cheek.

"You came back for me Johnny like you promised," and as she said this she squeezed his hand for an instant then let go.

Her eyes remained open but he knew she was gone. He began to sob as he heard the faint wail of sirens in the distance.

FIN