It happened in a blink. The darkness was so great, that they didn’t even see the deer until it was too late. It appeared before them like a specter. Its twisted bone spires split the windshield into two distinct halves. His half was mostly untouched, a clear movie screen to watch this horror show. Her half was the horror show. Her half of the glass was a chaotic spider web with bits of glass breaking free. Some of it bit into his cheek, and caught the edge of his left eye, but he didn’t notice. His body shook with the kinetic energy that a car crash starting at 50 mph had to offer. He didn’t know where they were going or where they had ended up. The centripetal force had been disorienting. He felt sideways. The seatbelt carved into him in a way he never experienced before, but it didn’t stop his body from hitting the dashboard or his head from smacking into the headrest. His brain felt like it was rolled around like dice and he just came up with snake eyes. Everything was blurry and fuzzy and faraway and unreal. The car was still jerking. But the dashboard was pinning him to the seat and they had stopped spinning. What was making the car shake? Then he saw it, the deer, still blindly trying buck itself free, clinging onto its last bit of life. Blood was dripping down its black eyes. He saw his girlfriend, limp and wet. It didn’t look like her. And he found himself wondering who this broken stranger was and where was his fearless girlfriend. The antler disappeared in her left shoulder and as the stag jerked helplessly around, so did she. He reached for her, his movements dazed and slow.

Then, in an instant, the deer along with its antlers was ripped away from the car, with the whole of the windshield leaving with it. The whole car quaked with the sheer force of it, as if the deer had gotten sucked into a black hole. One second it was there, the next second, just darkness. The front door on the driver’s side went next, torn clean off. A shadowy hand reached out and pulled out his bleeding girlfriend. He reached for her body feebly before it disappeared from his narrow line of sight. Then his door went flying and someone pushed back the crumpled dashboard that was keeping him pinned to his seat, before dragging him out as well.

He couldn’t see well. There was something wet in his eyes. But he was being carried, that much was true. Though, he didn’t know by who. He couldn’t see their face. Their body was nothing more than a solid shadow. But he couldn’t keep conscious anymore.

The next thing he woke up too was white hospital lights. The first thing he asked was if his girlfriend was alright. Miraculously, she was, and she had only sustained a mild concussion and some bruising. He looked at the doctor, puzzled. “Didn’t she have a cut on her shoulder?”

The doctor looked back, equally puzzled. “No, she didn’t have any puncture wounds. There was a lot of blood on her clothes, but we didn’t find a source.”

“But the deer. The crash.”

“You hit a deer? Well, that might explain the blood, perhaps.” But even she didn’t look convinced.

“How did I get here?”

“I was about to ask you that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, one of my nurses found you both lying in one of the beds here. Scared one of the nurses have to death. Said you two just ‘appeared.’”

“What?”

“Yeah, guess someone was looking after you.”

Or something.