Anamika kept looking out of the window. A sign board particularly caught her attention;

“Speed thrills…but kills…”

Her mind went blank for a long moment. She couldn’t focus on the area outside. It all felt alien. The cool air from the air conditioner choked her. She opened the window, to let some fresh air seep in.

Varun was ignorant of her state, as he was busy putting on some favourite music track, which he was unable to find. He kept changing the tracks and reading the names on the LED screen. The fragrance which was in the car seemed to have vanished, and taken over by an formidable scent of danger.

Anamika avoided looking at him and went back to the delightful thoughts of reaching home and sleeping peacefully in her room. With her eyes wide open, she couldn’t possible see where she was heading towards.

She missed on his futile efforts at the music player, while speeding up even more. A sudden gush of air made her regain her conciousness. She looked sideways at him, trying to figure out what he was being up to. His face suddenly seemed to have a tinge of wickedness spread over. Cortisol rushed down her body. She felt scared, and was all equipped to give a fight. She created a list of N number of tactics to deal with the situation which she had sensed, was about to come.

Her mind was well prepared to fight of flight in the situation that would come. She kept her mobile phone close to her heart, to make phone calls if necessary. Suddenly it struck her that, the hour of the day must have made most of her well-wishers sleep peacefully. All the gathered courage drained in a fraction of second.

She remembered having checked her watch before stepping out of the hotel, it ticked 11:17PM then. She glanced at the watch again, it was 11:18PM. She was shocked. So many things took place in a minute? She felt she was dreaming onto one of the levels mentioned in her favorite movie, Inception. She thought she was imagining these things.

It was pretty obvious by then, Varun had no control over the car and the growing speed.

Breaking the medley of the music in the car, and Anamika’s thoughts, their car dashed hard into another car.

[…to be continued]