The Last Trip

     The sound of rock music blasting from the stereo woke Diana from her nap. Diana's dark brown hair covered her green eyes and the rest of her face. Diana laid her head back on the cool window and closed her eyes, attempting to return to her blissful sleep. But the car was too noisy and uncomfortable to get any extra rest.

      Diana and her family had been in their minivan for seven hours. Her family was taking a trip to Michigan to visit their grandparents. But now all they were seeing was snow covered grass and empty mountain road. Diana now understood why her older sister decided not to take their annual trip. At first she thought her sister was missing out on a wonderful opportunity. But now trapped in a car with her mom, dad, and younger brother with the radio up obnoxiously loud, she understood completely.

      “Are we there yet?” her brother Octavian whined.

     When Diana turned her head and pushed the hair out of her face, she saw Octavian slouched down on his seat. He was slouched so low he looked like he was sitting on the floor rather than the leather seat. Octavian was a dwarfish, scrawny kid, whose hair always stuck up in the back. He was annoying, irritating, and a total nerd. His glasses, like his clothes, were bulky. They looked too big for him to hold nevertheless wear. Even with all his faults Diana still loved him.

     “Not yet, maybe a few more hours." their mom replied, attempting to sound like the seemingly never ending car ride wasn't getting on her nerves.

     Diana and Octavian's mom was sitting in the passenger's seat. Her brown hair was in a messy bun in the back of her head and her blue eyes were glued to map in her hands. Their mom was so worried about missing their check in at the hotel, she had lead them in the wrong direction twice.

     Diana's father was driving, yet was paying most of his attention to his phone where he was texting his colleagues from work. Diana's father was an old workaholic who stressed so much over his family and his job, that his once brown hair had now turned gray.

     The path ahead of them was a twisting mass of string on the mountain road. All Diana and her family wanted was to be at the end of it and get closer to their destination. Diana didn't know it then, but she would never reach her goal.

     As the car turned the tires slid on the thin ice that covered their lane. The car spun off the road into the ditch sixty feet below.

     There was a thud, a scream, and a bone chilling crunch before the minivan landed. The car tumbled down the snow covered mountain and landed in a ditch far below the road. The car was dented and battered. The headlights were smashed in and the windows were cracked. The once white paint that covered the car was now stained with mud and grime. The car looked like a smashed soda can, but the people inside had it worse.

     Diana's father had hit his head on the steering wheel and had a shard of glass sticking out of his back. Her mother's neck was broken from the impact. Her brother, Octavian, was strangled by his seatbelt that had somehow gotten wrapped around his neck. Her parents were dead.

     Octavian was dead. Diana laid on the ceiling that has now become the floor. Her body was spread eagle and her arm bent at an unnatural angle. She had a gash on her head that drizzled out blood. Diana's vision was dotted with black spots. Diana was staring at her seat that she had been sitting in only moments before. She turned her head towards Octavian's dead battered body, then towards the ringing phone. For a moment she wondered why her dad didn't answer it, but then Diana remembered that he was dead. She remembered that her family was dead.

     Then Diana lost consciousness.