At that point, Cassie's mother secretly looked at her husband, and when the other party nodded his head, she took something under her seat.
"I was going to wait until we get home,"
The other party deliberately trailed off while saying that, then she handed something to her daughter, Cassie.
It was a music box with a little ballerina dancing at its center as the music played.
"Here is your birthday present."
She added and Cassie's dad also greeted her just as when his wife gave the little girl the gift which they both prepared beforehand.
"Happy Birthday, baby!"
"WOW!!!!"
Cassie on the other hand accepted the gift and eyed it with obvious amusement in her eyes.
"Thank you, Mom and Dad."
It was clear for all eyes to see that the little girl was really delighted by what she received. She even hugged them both and kissed each of her parents on their cheek.
"How is our gift to you? Do you like it, honey?"
Her dad asked her and Cassie replied right away.
"Yes, daddy. I love it. You and mom are the best parents in the world!"
She said as she injected as much enthusiasm into her voice.
The car was filled with laughter and joyous air as the family of three drove past the empty street.
However, just when they entered a tunnel everything went dark. At first, they did not mind it as they assumed that it was all but normal.
However, after driving for about ten minutes or so and seeing no sign of light ahead, the mother who was seated at the passenger seat started to feel agitated. But she did not allow her panic to show on her face, because she did not want to scare her daughter.
"I don't recall having a tunnel this long. Is there something wrong, my dear?"
She asked her husband with a forced smile, hoping that Cassie would not notice the anomaly in her words.
Little did she know that her husband's palms were also wet from sweating. As much as he wanted to offer his wife some words of reassurance to calm her nerves, he was just as clueless as she was.
At the same time, somewhere in his gut feeling was telling him that something was indeed off about the road that they were taking; but it did not have anything to do with the absence of light.
Something in the place made them uncomfortable. But neither of them could exactly put a finger at what was making them feel that way.
They continued to drive like that in complete silence until something that resembled a dark shadow appeared out of nowhere and hit the bumper of their car.
The father tried to steer his wheel and avoid it at the last minute, but it was to no avail. His efforts to salvage the situation had gone to naught and they ended up losing control of their car.
Their car rolled off the empty street just as when light returned.
Shards of broken glass littered the street and other than the thick smoke coming from the engine of their car, pretty much nothing else could be seen
"Are they dead?"
"Yes, for sure..."
Cassie heard two voices talking among themselves, yet she was too young at that time to even understand what they were up to.
"Please, help me. My head... It hurts."
She said inside her head as a tear fell from her eye. The poor child had no idea what just happened and all she knew was that all parts of her body were aching.
Her entire muscle felt sore that she could hardly lift a finger, let alone move her lips to say a word.
Cassie's head was still fuzzy due to the impact but she tried her best to look around her.
"Mommy??? Daddy!"
She mumbled in her weakened state, as she saw her mom and dad both dangling on their seat as well. Their seatbelts were still in place and that was the only thing that held them in place.
Both of them were unconscious so she looked outside the window that was next to her. She wanted to crawl outside of it and save herself.
But she was simply too weak to do anything at all. The most that she could do at that point was to pray for someone to arrive at the scene and save her.
Just as when Cassie was losing hope, someone arrived and she saw two pairs of shoes just outside her upside-down window.
Not long after that, the two parties kneeled on the floor and bent down to reveal their faces.
To Cassie's surprise, they had the same face as her parents!