Moving On

This is my attempt at a Halloween themed story. It is a bit slow and takes a while to get to the sex. It contains some gender bending shenanigans also, so you might not want to read it if you are not a fan of such things. For those who do read it, I hope you enjoy!

All characters are 18 or older.

*****

Time. Like a pawn in chess or a shark in water, time can only move forward. Some days we have an abundance of it. We can undertake any task the heart desires and not be rushed. Other days there is not a moment to spare and everything is done in a hurry. The hourglass of our life is filled with a finite amount of sand, every grain a precious gift. Each grain inevitably falls from top to bottom, and it can never go back. Always moving forward, even if it doesn't always feel like it. Despite whether you want it to or not. As our perception of the passing of time changes it can feel as though the sands are pouring down like an avalanche, or it can feel like the sand is falling through molasses. Like the next second will never come. Like every moment is an eternity. Like fifteen minutes will take for-fucking-ever!

"Oh, come on!" I shouted in my head.

It had been fifteen minutes until quitting time for far too long. I was about to conclude that my phone, my watch, and the clock on the wall had all inexplicably broken at the exact same time when they finally registered the passing of another minute. I didn't think I could handle another fourteen. I had finished all of my work, and I had nothing to do but stare at the wall and let my mind wander around in circles. My excitement over the night to come was to blame for time's slow crawl.

"Fourteen is close enough."

I collected my things and made to clock out for the day. Someone may give me shit for it tomorrow, but I didn't care. I just couldn't wait any longer. I had been waiting for tonight too long to delay it any further. Sharon was finally home from her vacation. She left last month for a three week vacation with her family. It was their annual family vacation and one of the things she looked forward to the most every year. We started dating in our freshman year, so this was the third time that I had to part with her while she travelled. She tried to convince me to go with them this time, but I would have felt like I was intruding on a special family tradition. It certainly would have been easier not having to be without her, though. Preparing to go into our senior year of college, our relationship was stronger than ever.

Sharon was around 5'5" tall with long golden blonde hair and a body to die for. She didn't have the biggest breasts or the fullest ass in the world, but what she did have was perfect for her. On top of her killer looks she was a total sweetheart. She rarely spoke a bad word about anyone and did her best to always stay positive. I was crazy about her.

I walked through the automatic front doors and entered the parking lot, hurrying over to my car. My part time job at the local supermarket was a drag, but I needed the money. Scholarships were great and all, but they didn't pay for everything. I lived at home with my folks, so I didn't have to worry about rent or bills. Every college kid has things to pay for, though. Like books, alcohol, or dates. Dates like the one I had planned for that very night.

After the first family vacation we had to endure apart, I threw Sharon a big welcome home party. She loved it, obviously having missed me every bit that I had missed her. The next summer when she got back home I made her favorite meal for dinner, and we spent the night together watching a meteor shower and making love under the stars. It had become my own tradition to welcome her home in style, and I wasn't going to break it this year. I had gathered a collection of her most favorite movies and set up my room for an all-night marathon. All of our favorite junk food was ready and waiting to be stuffed into our faces. I also had a special gift to give her that I knew she would love and would really make the night special. It was the look on her face when she would open it that I was looking forward to the most.

It wasn't really a flashy date by any means, but I knew she would be too exhausted for anything too crazy. She had kept me up to date about all of her activities throughout the entire vacation. They were constantly on the go, being sure not to miss a single sight or attraction. Every minute of every day was planned out with activities, and it was clear from her messages that it had taken its toll. A good relaxing night cuddled up in front of a TV would be a great relief, I was sure.

I got into my car and fished out my phone from inside my jean's front pocket. I quickly typed out a message to Sharon letting her know that I was off of work and heading home. I hit send and fired up my car's engine. My parent's house was about a ten minute drive across town, give or take a few minutes depending on traffic. I exited the parking lot and started my journey home.

My little blue Honda joined the other vehicles on the road and headed towards the first of three stoplights I had to pass on my trip. My car was a gift to me from my parents on my sixteenth birthday. It was getting up there in miles, and it had a few dings here and there, but I loved it. As far as I was concerned, it would be my car until it literally fell to pieces. As I approached the intersection the light turned green.

"Nice," I said. "Maybe I can get the mythical three for three."

I was going to shower and change clothes first thing when I got home. After a quick double and triple check to make sure everything was still ready, I would let Sharon know she could come over. For the thousandth time that day, I formed a picture of her in my mind. She had spent a lot of time on her vacation outdoors, so I knew she would have a dark tan. She always had very pretty skin, but it really got me going every time I saw her tanned from the sun. Sharon always fussed about her tan lines. I secretly loved them. I couldn't quite put my finger on why, but they just looked so damn sexy on her. My mental picture of what she would look like tonight nearly had me drooling all over myself.

Traffic wasn't too bad as I made my way to the second stoplight. The light changed from green to yellow just as I was coming up to it. A quick punch of the accelerator pushed me through the intersection as the cars behind me were forced to stop.

"A close one, but it still counts. Could today really be the day!?" I asked with mock excitement. It was always a fun mini game on the drive home to try and hit all green lights. According to legend, some lucky man actually managed to do it once. Not many believed it was anything more than myth, but I did. I believed!

I continued down the road, changing lanes a couple times, before the last light came into my view. Cars were stopped ahead at a red light. Now it would just be a matter of if it changed before I got there or not. A few moments before I was going to have to decelerate, the traffic light changed from an angry red to that brilliant welcoming green I had hoped for. Bingo! A genuine smile spread over my face. It didn't really matter much, but I actually felt like I had won something. You have to enjoy the little things. My phone buzzed in the cup holder next to me. I picked it up and saw a new text message from Sharon.

"Yay! I can't wait to see you! Let me know when you are ready and I'll come over. Love you <3"

No matter how many times she told me, hearing or reading "Love you" would never get old. It never failed to fill me with warmth, and it always reminded me of how lucky I was to have her. I had made it my personal goal to never leave an I love you unreciprocated. Wouldn't want her to start thinking my love for her had diminished in any way. Like that could ever happen. I used one hand to start typing out my response as my little blue Honda made its triumphant drive through the third and final green light. Maybe if I had waited to respond until I was safely home, I could have avoided it.

A pickup truck on my right hadn't stopped and had blown through the red light and into the flow of cars. Before I even saw it coming, the truck met my little car in the intersection and hit it on the front right. The bigger faster moving truck kept going straight, but my car was turned violently to the left so that I was drifting in both lanes. A car that had been behind me was unable to stop in time and slammed into my side. My car spun and so did my head. Everything was a blur.

The impacts sounded as loud as the most intense thunder. Screeching tires and the shattering of glass came from every direction. Horns blared and at one point I thought I heard a woman scream. The cacophony of loud noises only further disoriented me as all control of my car was lost. Somehow amidst all of the confusion I was able to register one thing. Pain.

My body had been thrown around like a rag doll after each impact. The first hit had caused me to jerk forward and smash my forehead into the steering wheel. The second one had sent a sharp pain through my neck and back. My car kept turning until it hit the ditch and rolled. It flipped a few times before finally coming to rest against a pole by the side of the road. Every knickknack and piece of trash I had in my car was thrown all around me. Everything hurt.

It seemed to take a long time before my head cleared enough for me to realize it was over. I tried to get a handle on my situation, but I could only open one of my eyes. The other eye was swollen shut and useless. What I was able to see did not look good.

The car was totaled. The metal was bent inwards in multiple places, making it feel twisted and ugly. Glass was everywhere. So was my blood. I looked down and saw a rather sizable piece of glass lodged in my midsection with a stain of blood around it. Blood was also running down my face from a wound on my head. My legs and one of my arms definitely felt broken. There was no telling how many other bones were broken, but I suspected a high number. I knew I was in bad shape. I was woozy and tired. It was hard to keep my eye open, and it took everything in me to stay conscious.

I shifted a little on my side to look at my legs. As I was looking them over, I saw my phone sitting by my foot. I could see the message I had typed out still on the cracked screen. It said "I love you too." It was still waiting to be sent. My head throbbed, and the pain of everything was making it very hard to think clearly. But somehow I knew I needed to send that message. It became my world in that moment. Nothing else mattered.

I stretched out my good arm towards the phone, but it couldn't reach it. I let out a frustrated roar and tried to shift my body into a better position. The effort was more than I could handle as I coughed up a frighteningly large amount of blood and a fresh wave of excruciating pain ran through me. I made one last feeble attempt at my phone as my vision began to darken. My fingers were only inches away from being able to hit send, but it might as well have been miles.

"No... I can't..." I moaned weakly. "Not now." Darkness consumed me. My vision faded away, but the pain disappeared along with it. I didn't feel anything anymore. I knew what that meant. I struggled and fought with all I had to not give in to the darkness completely. I couldn't go out like this. I had somewhere to be. I had someone to be with! "Not now," I thought again. It became my mantra. I said it over and over. It was the last thing I thought as my life slipped away for good. Every part of my being had screamed it, but was unable to stop the inevitable. The last grain of sand in my hourglass fell, sealing my fate. My time had run out.

*****

Someone was talking. Somewhere close to me. I could hear a conversation. I couldn't make out the words clearly, but it was there. Two different voices. What were they saying? I tried to concentrate on hearing more. Suddenly more sounds surrounded me. Sirens. So loud and unmistakable. The hum of nearby traffic. More voices. Finally I was able to make out some of what was being said.

"... ran a red light and drove right into traffic. The driver just has a few bruises. Lucky son of a bitch."

Was there an accident?

"The silver car is pretty banged up, but the driver managed to come out of it with just a hit to the head and a broken ankle. The blue car got the worst of it. It got hit twice and rolled over into the ditch. They had a hard time getting to the driver, and they were too late by the time they did. He had too many deep wounds and bled out."

Something terrible had happened apparently. Similar conversations were happening between others around me. Why couldn't I see them? I tried to open my eyes, but nothing changed. There was only darkness. A blank void filled with bodiless voices. It was creepy. I kept trying to look for something, anything but the emptiness that surrounded me. Finally I spotted a speck of light off in the distance. I focused on it, and it suddenly grew larger. I concentrated as hard as I could, trying to expand this little ball of light. It grew and grew, all the while coming closer, until it finally filled the void I was in completely. My eyes took a few seconds to adjust, but when they did, I found I could see the scene around me that I could only hear before.

The two individuals who were closest to me appeared to be police officers. They were standing next to two police cars that were parked in the road with their lights flashing. The officers were directing traffic around the area since one of the lanes had been closed. I could see skid marks in the road and a silver car pulled over on the shoulder. The front of the car was smashed in pretty good.

"Definitely a car crash," I thought.

I looked around and saw a group of people standing behind a police barrier. It looked like they were trying to see what all the commotion was about. I went over to join them. It felt hard to move at first for some reason, but after concentrating like I had with my hearing and seeing I was able to make my way to where I wanted. A middle aged couple was standing towards the front. They were looking at the wrecked cars and talking in hushed tones to one another.

"I heard one of them say someone died," the man said.

"Oh no," the woman gasped.

"Excuse me, did you to see what happened?" I asked them. They didn't respond.

"Hello?" I said waving at them. They still didn't acknowledge me. It was mildly irritating, but some people were just rude like that. I tried asking the person next to them, but I got the same treatment. That set me off.

"What's wrong with you people? Can't someone just answer my question!?" I expected to get some angry glares after practically yelling at them all, but I still got nothing. I swept over the whole crowd and not a one of them seemed to notice me. Was the wreck really that captivating? Finally I met eyes with a tall stocky man at the back of the group. He appeared to be college aged and I guessed that he was probably an athlete of some kind. It looked like he was staring right at me, but he appeared terrified. He was pale, like all the blood had drained from his face, and his mouth was open in a silent scream. I was about to ask him what was going on when he turned around and ran away as fast as he could. I looked behind me at the wreck to try and see what could have spooked him so bad, but there was nothing out of the ordinary from what I could tell.

"What was that about?" I wondered.

"That blue car was torn to shreds," a man next to me said to his friend. I followed his gaze to see what he was talking about, forgetting about the frightened big guy. I had only seen one car so far. Sure enough, sitting in the ditch was a twisted ball of steel. It was hard to believe it was a functioning car at some point. It was hard to tell, but I thought I could just about make out what model of car it was. Something about it seemed familiar. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it kind of looked like...

A terrible thought passed through my mind. I stared at the totaled car and couldn't shake the overwhelming feeling of dread that began to grow within me. I didn't know how, but something in me was telling me that the twisted mass of metal in that ditch was mine. There were certainly similarities to my car, but I couldn't be sure from that distance. I had to know.

I passed the barrier and I began to move towards the ditch. I expected the police officers to stop me at any moment, but they never said a word. I slowly approached the car. I was growing more terrified with each passing second, but I kept moving. I prayed that I was wrong, prayed that this was only a dream. There was no way this was possible. But to my dismay, as I stopped in the ditch, I saw the truth. The parking decals for the college parking lots were there on the part of the back window that was still intact. The mangled license plate showed a familiar number. The inside of the car was cramped and compressed from the wreck, with metal bent awkwardly at all angles, but I could still see some of my things scattered around. I was staring at them in shock when I saw the blood. It was everywhere. The driver's seat was completely covered in it, and it appeared to be partially dry. That was when the memories finally came rushing back.

The drive, the crash, the pain, the phone... I remembered everything. I was broken and bleeding inside my car, I could barely move at all. How did I get out? I reached up to feel my head. I had hit it hard in the wreck. It had been bleeding pretty badly. There was nothing there now, though. And I meant nothing. Not only could I not feel any signs of an injury, but I couldn't feel my head. I panicked and tried to feel the rest of my body. It ended up with the same result. For the first time since I woke up on the street, I looked down and checked myself out.

Everything appeared to be normal. My body parts were all there, and I was even wearing the same clothes I had on from when I was driving. But there was something off. It didn't take long to see what was different. My body was transparent. I brought my hand up in front of my face and looked through it. The hand was there and as detailed as ever, but it also didn't stop me from seeing behind it at all. I tried to clap my hands together and was startled to see them pass right through each other without any resistance at all.

"What is going on!?" I asked. I was beyond scared. I looked around the area in a panic, but everyone was still going about their business without acknowledging me one bit.

I tried to calm down and figure my situation out. I replayed everything that had happened in my head. I was driving. Then there was the accident. I was hurt, badly. Then... I woke up in the street? But nobody would talk to me. They all acted like they couldn't see or hear me. And when I looked at myself I was transparent, see through, kind of like... like a...

"Oh my God."

I turned to the ambulance that was parked nearby and hurried over to it. I noticed for the first time that I wasn't actually walking when I moved. My legs didn't move at all. I just sort of floated to where I wanted to be, moving by the power of my will. The doors of the ambulance were closed. I tentatively reached out my hand towards the door. I was less surprised this time to see my hand effortlessly pass through the solid metal of the ambulance as if it wasn't there. I continued forward into the inside of the vehicle, my whole body passing through without a problem. There was a single unmoving body lying on a gurney in the back. To my horror, it was a very familiar body. Six feet tall, athletic build, with short dark brown hair. It was me. Covered in bruises and blood, but there was no doubt.