Chapter 1: Poor Life Choices
Chapter 1: Poor Life Choices
The quiet hum of a car engine echoed through the empty streets as a black sedan rolled steadily beneath the pale glow of the streetlights, its headlights cutting through the darkness while the city slowly settled into another peaceful night, leaving only a handful of vehicles scattered across the wide roads and the occasional pedestrian making their way home after another long day.
Behind the steering wheel sat a young man who looked no older than twenty-three, his short blonde hair was slightly messy from running his fingers through it countless times throughout the day while his tired blue eyes remained fixed on the road ahead, the dark circles beneath them making it painfully obvious that a full night’s sleep had become a luxury he hadn’t enjoyed in a very long time.
The inside of the car was silent until the loud ringtone of his phone suddenly interrupted the peaceful drive.
His eyes drifted toward the dashboard where the screen displayed a single name.
Boss.
"...Of course."
’ When will that old man let me be...’
Osborne let out a long sigh before pressing the answer button through the steering wheel controls, already knowing the conversation wasn’t going to be pleasant.
"... Evening, Sir."
"What the hell were you thinking?!"
The furious voice that exploded from the speakers made Osborne instinctively pull his head back a little, though he wasn’t surprised in the slightest since this wasn’t the first time his manager had called him after work.
"I... went home, Sir?" Osborne answered calmly, already rubbing his forehead with one hand as though trying to ease the headache forming behind his eyes.
"I know you went home!" his boss barked without giving him a chance to continue. "What I’m asking is why you left before the project was finished."
Osborne tightened his grip on the steering wheel before replying in the calmest voice he could manage.
"I’ve been at the office since early this morning, Sir, and I’ve barely had time to eat anything all day because I’ve been working nonstop, so I was honestly too tired to keep going any longer, but I’ll come in early tomorrow morning and finish everything before lunch."
"You’ll finish it tomorrow?" the man repeated angrily. "Do you think the client cares whether you’re tired or not? They paid us to deliver the project as soon as possible, not whenever you feel like coming back."
"I wasn’t trying to avoid the work," Osborne explained patiently, feeling more exhausted with every passing second. "I just needed some rest because I could barely stay awake, and I honestly thought I’d do a better job after getting some sleep."
"Rest?" his boss scoffed loudly. "You young people always have some excuse ready the moment work becomes difficult, don’t you? You’re always tired, always stressed, always asking for tomorrow, but somehow you never think about the company that’s paying your salary."
Osborne bit the inside of his cheek.
The irony of those words almost made him laugh.
Salary.
If that miserable paycheck could even be called one.
His boss continued without giving him the opportunity to respond.
"I don’t want to hear another excuse, Osborne, so you better show up before everyone else tomorrow morning, and when I say early I mean early, because I expect that project sitting on my desk before noon, otherwise don’t even bother explaining yourself."
"...Understood."
The call ended.
Silence immediately returned to the car.
Osborne stared blankly through the windshield for several seconds before dropping his phone onto the passenger seat, then slowly released a deep sigh that seemed to drain every remaining bit of energy from his body as he continued driving without saying another word, no longer having the strength to even feel angry after hearing the same lecture countless times over the past year.
A red traffic light soon appeared ahead, forcing him to slow down until the car gently rolled to a stop, while the digital countdown beside the traffic light displayed thirty-eight seconds remaining before it would turn green again.
Without thinking much about it, Osborne leaned forward until his forehead rested against the steering wheel, closing his eyes for just a moment as the weight of reality settled heavily on his shoulders.
He had graduated from college only one year ago, believing that the difficult part of life was finally behind him, but reality had quickly shattered those hopeful dreams after months of searching for work without success, eventually forcing him to accept an office job that barely paid minimum wage simply because he couldn’t afford to keep waiting for something better.
The work itself wasn’t difficult because he lacked ability, but because it never seemed to end no matter how hard he worked, with overtime becoming almost mandatory despite never being paid for it, bonuses becoming nothing more than empty promises repeated every few months, and appreciation from management existing only when someone wanted him to take on even more work than before.
Sometimes he genuinely wondered whether he had wasted four years of his life earning a degree just so he could spend every waking hour making someone else richer while struggling to survive himself, because after paying rent, buying groceries, covering utility bills, filling his gas tank and making the monthly payments on the loan for his car, there was barely enough money left for him to enjoy anything resembling a normal life.
"...What a joke," he muttered quietly before lifting his head again as the countdown slowly approached its final few seconds.
Five...
Four...
Three...
Osborne adjusted himself in his seat and rested both hands on the steering wheel, waiting patiently for the light to change when something ahead suddenly caught his attention.
A young woman was crossing the zebra crossing while holding the hand of a little girl who couldn’t have been older than six or seven, the child happily swinging her free arm while looking completely unaware of the dangers around her as her mother smiled warmly down at her.
A small smile appeared on Osborne’s tired face.
At least someone was ending the day with a happy memory.
Then...
His smile froze.
A loud engine roared from the opposite side of the intersection.
His eyes instinctively shifted toward the source of the sound, only to see a large cargo truck charging toward the red light without showing even the slightest sign of slowing down, causing Osborne’s heart to skip a beat as he immediately realized something was terribly wrong.
"No..."
His fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
The truck wasn’t stopping.
If anything, it was speeding up.
The driver must have been impatient after waiting through several traffic lights, because instead of braking he chose to force his way through the intersection before anyone else could move.
Then Osborne noticed something even worse.
From the truck driver’s position, the woman and her daughter were completely hidden behind another vehicle waiting at the intersection.
The truck driver couldn’t see them.
He had absolutely no idea they were crossing the road directly in front of him.
Osborne’s breathing became uneven as his eyes darted between the truck and the oblivious mother and daughter who continued walking across the zebra crossing without noticing the massive vehicle about to race towards them, leaving him only a single second to make a decision.
"Damnit...!"
His voice never reached them.
His body reacted before his mind could.
His foot slammed down on the accelerator.
The sedan shot forward the exact moment the traffic light turned green, its engine roaring loudly as Osborne gritted his teeth and aimed directly toward the speeding truck, knowing full well what would happen the instant they collided yet refusing to hesitate even for a single moment.
The truck driver finally noticed him.
His horrified expression was visible through the windshield, but It was already too late.
BOOOOM!!
A deafening explosion echoed across the intersection as Osborne’s sedan crashed violently into the side of the truck, the impact twisting metal like paper while shattered glass burst through the air in every direction, forcing the truck away from the zebra crossing just enough for it to miss the woman and her daughter by mere meters before finally skidding across the road.
For a brief second...
Everything became completely still.
Then chaos erupted.
"Oh my God!"
"Call 911!"
"Someone help him!"
"The driver’s trapped!"
People from nearby sidewalks immediately rushed toward the destroyed vehicles while others hurriedly pulled out their phones with trembling hands, several bystanders shouting over one another as smoke slowly rose from the front of Osborne’s completely crushed sedan.
Inside the ruined car, Osborne remained slumped against the steering wheel as warm blood trickled down his forehead and into his eyes, turning his already fading vision into a blurry sea of red while every breath sent unbearable pain through his entire body, making it impossible to even tell where the injuries ended and the pain truly began.
"Over here!"
"The door won’t open!"
"Help me pull!"
Several men gathered beside the driver’s side before forcing a metal bar into the damaged frame, grunting together as they desperately pried the twisted door open just enough for someone to reach inside.
"We’ve got him!"
"Careful!"
"Don’t move his neck!"
Together they slowly dragged Osborne from the wreckage before gently laying him on the cold pavement, where he struggled to keep his eyes open as the blurry figures surrounding him faded in and out of focus with every passing second.
Through his clouded vision, he eventually spotted the young mother standing only a short distance away while tightly hugging her daughter against her chest, tears streamed endlessly down her cheeks as she stared at him with trembling lips, the little girl crying loudly as she buried her face against her mother’s shoulder.
Seeing that they were both alive...
The edge of his lips curled upwards ever so slightly.
At the very least, he was glad that they were safe.
That alone made everything worth it.
The young mother quickly knelt beside him before gently holding his hand with both of hers, tears continuing to fall onto his bloodstained sleeve as she desperately tried to keep him awake.
"Please... please stay with us," she begged between sobs. "An ambulance is already coming, so please don’t let go, alright, just hang in there for a moment longer."
Osborne looked at her for several long seconds before letting out the weakest chuckle imaginable, the corners of his lips barely moving as he gathered what little strength remained inside him.
"...I’m afraid this is it for me...." he whispered painfully, "... even if i don’t die here, I’d die of debt... if that happened."
Several people standing nearby fell silent.
Even through her tears, the young mother couldn’t help freezing for a moment before crying even harder.
Osborne slowly turned his eyes toward the night sky one final time, the stars becoming blurrier with every passing second until they slowly disappeared altogether, while the faint smile on his face never left him.
His eyelids gradually closed.
And they never opened again.