Her run-down Toyota Corolla broke down in the middle of the road. As it slowed to a stop, she listened to the hum of the engine seeping away into nothing, becoming overtaken by the constant drumming of rain on the vehicle. She sat and stared at the dashboard, at the monotonous pounding of water on the windshield. The purple sleeves of her hoodie were soft against her palms.
She opened the car door and stepped out into the downpour. Immediately the water soaked her hair and skin, her entire self, her entire body and soul. She stood and allowed the torrent to overtake her until she was cold to the bone, the waterlogged hoodie not helping her now. Her hair, which was usually blonde, lay in tangled mousy strands falling down her shoulders, darkened to a dull brown by the rain. The car had stopped in the city, stranding her in a maze of alleys and backstreets.
She didn't look back at the car as she walked away. She didn't want it. She didn't want anything that this life had given her.
She trudged forward aimlessly, her body soaking wet. Her hair was plastered to her skin as she walked through a dark alleyway and came out on an empty street. The world seemed to be a dull shade of blue, the clouds colored in a shady azure like bruised skin, casting a bluish shadow on the rainy earth and on all of its inhabitants, on all of their despairing hearts.
She sat down on the ground, crossing her legs like she used to when she was a little girl. She felt the rain pounding down on her back and her head, a driving force that tried and tried to break her. It seemed odd that something as strong and powerful as the rain couldn't do it, when everything else could.
Her stomach churned. She felt dizzy and faint suddenly. She closed her eyes and listened to the rain as it washed away the dirt and grime on the streets. It should have washed her away with it. Maybe that was her purpose in life - to be washed away by the rain. It seemed pleasant enough in contrast to everything else that she knew.
She kept her eyes closed as she heard a car drive by, threatening to splash her with a huge torrent of water. The sound faded away, and she returned to her thoughts, nausea overcoming her with brutal suddenness. There was a sound like a familiar click - a car door opening and closing. The sound refracted and stretched in her mind as she struggled not to sink into darkness. She knew she was about to faint. She barely heard the soft pat-pat of footsteps approaching her.
"Are you alright?" asked a warm voice in front of her. She opened her eyes dizzily. There was a man crouching in front of her, watching her with concerned eyes. She stared at him, trying to process what she was seeing. His image spun in front of her. She could make out a blob of dark hair that was curling at the ends and a pair of wide grey eyes, focused on hers. Overall he looked very wet.
"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past. . . ," she murmured incoherently.
The man squinted at her and placed a hand on her forehead. She flinched at his touch, every nerve in her body suddenly charged. She wanted to lash out, but she wasn't feeling right, and in an attempt to shove him away her hand merely twitched in her lap.
"I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought. . . ," she whispered breathlessly, and tipped to the side. Gentle hands caught her before her head hit the rain-soaked pavement, but she was already gone.
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