Turning point
An hour later, she entered her office building, sighing at the thought that she had to speed up and bend some traffic rules in order to not be late to the meeting. She hoped she wouldn't receive any fines at home. The queue at the elevators gave her a headache, so she decided to take the stairs. She was working on the fourth floor, so she could make it faster by taking the stairs.
"Good morning, everyone!", she said with a smile on her face, although she was crying inside. She felt sweaty and tired already after the long car ride and running up the stairs.
She hurried to her desk, left her bag and took the documents necessary for the meeting along with her laptop. She rushed to the meeting room, keeping her smile on her face.
The first person she saw in the meeting room was her sleezy ex-boss that made sure he got her attention by coming over her side and lightly touching her arm.
"As if my day wasn't tiring and annoying enough already!", she thought and quickly got away from the man and took her seat near her current boss who was a capable manager and thankfully was a woman. They exchanged a few words before the meeting began.
The meeting went smoothly and the project she was working on was on the right track. Her team even got praises from the management.
"If only those praises transform into bonuses", she told herself as she got to the bathroom to wash her face a little after the meeting. She suddenly became too concious of all the sweat she got from earlier.
The day at work dragged on, and she got so irritated that she even skipped lunch. When she got out of the office building to go home, it was already eight in the evening and she was famished. As she was making her way to her car, she felt a gaze on her back, but after she turned around, she didn't see anyone. She dismissed the thought again, as she was tired and hungry and wanted to get home as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the traffic was lighter at this hour and it only took her 40 minutes to get home.
"Thank God it's Friday!", the phrase passed through her thoughts as she entered her appartement. Her mother had made dinner and this was a blessing for her. As long as her mother stayed with them, she didn't have to worry about cooking. Not that she was any good at it. Even though it was just this little help and the fact that her mother was home when her son came back from school, she was still very grateful. Otherwise, hers and her son's livelihood would be tougher, with him spending a lot of time alone and them both eating a lot of take-out.
She hurried to take a quick shower and changed, and then had a late dinner while checking her son's homework. Her son was getting ready for bed. She found a few mistakes and she explained them to him before he redid the wrong parts. Then she tucked him in bed and bid her mother goodnight. She barely touched the pillow and gone in her dreams she was.
The next morning, she woke up feeling like she dreamt something important, but couldn't remember what. She had already promised her kid a trip to the mountains this weekend, so she hurried to pack a few things for two days and one night. All was ready at around 11 am, and they loaded everything in the car and off they went. It was a two hours' drive until they would reach their destination, and the mother and son put on some music and were happily singing along.
She knew she influenced her son's music taste a lot. She was a rocker in her heart but loved to listen other genres too. Any song that touched her in some way was quickly ingrained in her son's music list. She even made him take piano lessons, although he lost the enthusiasm quickly after getting to the hard parts. Oh, how she wished she had his opportunities... she always dreamed of pursuing music, but things were tough when she was young. Her family scarcely got by.
As these thoughts passed through her head, the road ahead seemed empty. She wasn't expecting so few cars on the road. Then she realized that she didn't even check today's weather forecast to see if the trip would be worth it... such a scatterbrain. She pulled over at a restaurant on the roadside to have lunch with her son and checked the weather. As expected... rain was in the forecast for the whole weekend...
As she told her son the news, Eddie simply chuckled and said " At least we're not home, mom. We will meet new people. It should be fun enough." Then he added in a murmur "Scatterbrain..."
"Hey, I heard that! I am still your mother, you know...", Raina said frowning. They finished their lunch and proceeded to their destination. They were staying at a lovely guesthouse and were greeted by a couple who were the owners. They were pleasantly surprised by the nice and welcoming couple that offered them information about places to visit around.
Sure enough about two hours after they arrived, rain started drizzling. The mother and son couple was already prepared with their raincoats and didn't mind the weather. They were climbing a narrow road in the forest, up the mountain, to find a small waterfall the people talked about. On the way, they met with people who were on their way back, seeking shelter from the rain. They didn't give up though and continued their adventure. At one point, they realized only the water falling on the leaves was heard and, although Raina loved the sound, she was worried that her son might get scared, so she decided it was time for them to find some shelter.
But there was nothing around them except for the narrow road and the trees. At some point, the rain started to fall heavier, but a small cottage appeared in their view. They decided to take shelter in it. As they entered, they realized it was a woodcutter shelter and didn't have anything in it except for a bench, a wooden table and some firewood. Luckily, they packed some snacks and some clothes in their backpacks. The cellphones didn't have any signal around this area, so they were useless. They decided to wait a little for the rain to calm down and then they could go back before darkness would fall upon them. They heard bears were seen in this area and were active at night. They wanted to avoid any dangerous encounter.
As they were waiting, a man came in. He also had a raincoat on and some protection glasses, and Raina couldn't distinguish his features clearly. A deep and elegant voice was heard. "Good afternoon", he politely greeted. He exuded an air of elegance and noblesse around him. Raina felt a little threatened as she sensed that he was quite powerful, but she dismissed the thought, thinking she was becoming paranoid.
"Good afternoon!", Raina and Eddie responded together. And then they returned to their sandwiches, ignoring the man. The man entered the cottage and leaned on a wall, not looking in their direction. After 15 minutes or so, Raina felt a little annoyed by his presence, but chose to be polite and asked him if he wanted some of their snacks. The man refused in his deep and elegant voice, but thanked them for their kindness. Another 15 minutes passed and the rain started to settle down. Raina and Eddie decided it was time to move. They bid farewell to the man and started heading back as it seemed too late to go forward and they were beginning to feel cold.
As they went down, they first saw the man following them from some distance, but they ignored him as it was the only way down. At some point, the man disappeared from behind them and Raina felt a little relieved as she was beginning getting paranoid again.
Finally, they reached the guesthouse. They showered to get warm and changed their clothes. They had dinner in the guesthouse, as the hosts offered dinner in their services. They happily chatted away with the hosts, until Eddie started feeling sleepy, so they returned to their room.
After a good night's sleep, the mother and son prepared for another day, but the rain didn't seem to have stopped all night. The paths in the mountains were now dangerous, so they decided to only walk around in the town below. They had breakfast at the guesthouse. After that, they put their luggage in the car because it seemed a better choice to go by car until the town center, visit it and then leave from there straight home.
They parked the car in a parking lot near the town center and started strolling. There was an old church in the center that had a black roof and undecorated, cream walls. They decided to enter it, but after seeing the interior which was as bare as the exterior with only the naos in the center, they decided to leave. It wasn't a fun experience for a 7 years old boy. They decided to stroll around more, visited some souvenir shops and bought some things from there. When they got tired, they entered a family restaurant and had a hearty lunch and then decided to head back to the car to get back home.
It was still cloudy, but the rain finally stopped. She started the car and prepared for the two hours' drive. She first stopped at a nearby gas station, filled up the tank and bought some snacks for the road. Then off they went. Music was roaming in the car and Raina and Eddie were enjoying singing together.
The road was kind of empty and the rain started drizzling again. Raina slowed down a little to adjust to the wet road ahead. At some point though, something suddenly appeared in front of the car. Raina hit the brakes hard, but the wet road didn't help the car and it drifted toward the opposite side of the highway. In order to avoid impact with a tree at the side of the road, Raina turned the wheel at maximum to turn the car, but the maneuver made the car spin out of control until it went in a ditch near the road and flipped upside down. She looked panicked at her child in the backseat. Luckily, the seatbelt held him tight and he didn't seem to suffer except from dangling upside down and a few scratches.
"Mommy!", Eddie cried with fear in his voice. Raina tried to move, but the wheel was keeping her stuck and she felt some pressure on her ribs. She hissed, but didn't want her son to hear her cries, so she gritted her teeth to keep herself from groaning. After some time, she inhaled as deeply as she could and told her son she was okay. She put her right hand forward to support him and then guided him to unbuckle his seatbelt to descend slowly. The pain started to make her tremble, but she didn't want to scare her son, so she advised him to get out of the car and see if there was anyone around.
She searched her phone to call an ambulance, but the phone was far from her and she couldn't reach it. "F*ck!", she groaned exasperated. She looked at her son's worried face and tried smiling to reassure him, although she was starting to feel dizzy. At that moment, a man appeared behind her son's back. The last thing she could see was a pair of dark blue eyes, looking straight into her dark green ones. After their eyes met, her conciousness slipped away.