The Dare

My head begins to ache as I lie back thinking about how I got here, the lumps in this uncomfortable bed dig into my back. I wonder how I can possibly manage to think with these various machines that bleep continuously and kindly faces that keep coming to check my temperature and whatever else they need. They keep asking â€Å"Are you alright, duck?† I mean seriously, do I look like I'm alright? I'm covered in cuts and bruises and from what I've heard the doctors telling my anxious parents they are not going to be able to reattach my severed leg to the chaos of tangled nerves and muscle in the bloody stump just above my left knee. I begin to rock slowly back and forwards in silent reaction to the ache radiating from my stump and the memory of that night comes slowly back to me. ***** It was a fairly inconsequential day in the middle of the long, lingering summer holidays when the accident happened; we were all really bored and could not think of anything remotely interesting to do that we hadn't done at least a hundred times already, finally after about an hour of turning down bad ideas and sitting thinking in a frustrating silence for something that wouldn't be sneered at, someone suggested we play dares. Everyone appeared to be pleased with that idea so that is what we decided to do, but even then I had my doubts because I knew what my friends where like and I don't want to sound boring but I didn't particularly want to put me or others in danger with the kind of dares I knew my friends would come up with. It started off fairly innocently with people being dared to do silly little childish things like knocking on people's doors and running away, flashing your bum out of the window and a range of others like that, you know the sort. Until someone, no doubt thinking they were being grown up and funny, dared Georgia to jump off the balcony. She was obviously smarter than we gave her credit for because she refused blankly, saying that it was dangerous and we'd get ourselves killed, but we all ignored her and told her that if she didn't like what we were doing to shut up and go away. Looking back I wish I had taken her advice and left with her. Anyway our group began to run out of ideas so we decided to walk around looking for inspiration for the next dare which would be mine. We ambled around the nearby areas and came across a bridge over a road that was busy in the rush hour but mostly unused by cars at night and Laura squealed the fatal words â€Å"I've thought of an amazing dare†. My stomach turned as the rest of the group discussed the details of my dare and a little voice in my head repeated Georgia's warning from earlier â€Å"You're going to get yourselves killed†. I know what your thinking, voices in my head I must be clinically insane, but it must have been my conscience or something like that. Whatever it was I should have taken more notice. My friends told me after about five minutes of deciding, what my dare would entail; I was to jump off the bridge when it got dark and in the small likelihood of a vehicle passing under it I was to try and avoid being hit. To them it all seemed so simple; someone would stand underneath to tell me when the road was clear and then I would jump, but the nagging voice in my brain wouldn't cease. Yet I didn't want to voice my concerns and appear a coward, so I just nodded and arranged to meet them there later. I don't know how I managed to talk myself into turning up at the bridge that night or how I forced my self to laugh as I looked down from the ledge I was standing on and prepared to jump but somehow I did. My legs shook as I waited for the signal to jump. I tried to ignore the voice echoing in my brain, but I couldn't back down now. My pride wouldn't let me. My friend called up to me â€Å"It's all clear now. Jump† so I closed my eyes, held my breath and leapt off the ledge. I felt myself falling quickly like a stone for what seemed like ages. I opened my eyes and screamed. Blurred colours flashed past me. Coming towards me I saw a blinding, bright light steadily speeding towards me. The sound of an engine reached my ears. My heart raced as I saw in slow motion what was going to happen to me. It came closer and closer not slowing. â€Å"Can't they see me, can't they stop?† I thought, â€Å"If they don't slow down they're going to hit me†. My life flashed before my eyes and my heart pounded like a thousand drums. The last thing I thought before I felt myself finally hit something was; â€Å"Oh my god I'm going to die† I came around and I was almost blinded by the bright lights that surrounded me and was vaguely aware of what sounded like people screaming. As my eyes slowly came into focus I looked around me and my so called ‘friends' were nowhere to be seen†¦. I suddenly felt an excruciating pain coming from my left thigh. I stared dazed for a moment at the torrent of blood gushing from my leg and the distorted mess ten feet away that used to be the other part of it. I went into shock and passed out. Hours later I awoke in the hospital with my worried family beside me and the doctors filled me in on what had happened; as I had jumped from the bridge a car had been heading towards me from underneath it. Just before I hit the road I bounced off the bonnet of the car and which couldn't stop in time and ran over me causing my leg to get caught up in the wheel of the car and dragged along the road, which caused the bone to snap and break away from my body leaving me lying bleeding on the road behind it. When the ambulances arrived there had been no sign of my ‘friends'. ***** So that's where I am now, sitting in my hospital bed and contemplating what would have happened if I had just listened to myself and not let my pride take over. But that's what happens when you take on stupid dares.