Rail Road Crossing

by Lauren Bennett

There was a dull throb at my temples and a clench in my jaw. I hurled four bodies down the road alongside me. Seventy miles per hour, aiming toward train tracks obscured by a charcoal blur. I stepped on the gas. No sound but tires crumbling asphalt. I ground my teeth down then asked “How much do you all value your lives?” A pair of slow-moving chapped lips answered “Enough.” Enough. One hundred fifteen miles per hour toward those glimmering tracks. Air whipping by punctured with “slow down!’s” On impact, I swear I heard my own neck break.