You and Me Forever

"C'mon, geddup lazy bones, time to go out!"

Pam opened one eye and groaned.  She just wanted to sleep.

"C'mon, I mean it!  Geddup, nooooow!" came the muffled voice again.  It came from within her mind.

Pam managed to open both eyes, but couldn't see anything.  Breathing was difficult and she couldn't feel her legs.  "What time is it?  Where are we, Dafyyd?"  Her voice came out weak and sounded too close.

"You're in the ground baby!" came the inner voice again.  "Looks like a graaaaa-veyard up here.  You gotta dig yourself out.  It's just like gettin' out of bed.  'Cept you've gotta push straight up with your arms, and then... scurry!"  Dafyyd's voice sounded a million miles away as it cracked into laughter.

Pam's body creaked as she tried to move, instinctively trusting her boyfriend's words.  She felt a cold, wooden obstruction above.  Then, she remembered: a rainy day, a dark road, a blind corner.  Sudden headlights up ahead, glass and pain, and then perfect darkness.  Gawd, and now she was buried ... alive or ... dead?

She pushed at the wooden board above her as Dafyyd had said.  Then there was a splintering and a whoosh, and the world fell on top of her.  Sudden crushing horror.  She couldn't help but claw and flail at the falling earth.  Her legs were useless; she could only use her hands.  Then the voice came from above again: "Scurry baby, scurry!  Like a gerbil!"

She obeyed.  The weight above her shifted and yielded, and soon, cold air hit her from all sides.

"Good girl, lookin' good!" Dafyyd said as she emerged from the hole in the ground.

Pam's head jerked one way and the other, then fixed the source of the voice.  "Dafyyyyyd, I can't see!"

"Don't worry babe," came her boyfriend's voice again.  "We had a little accident.  Just a bit banged up, slightly dead.  Get you fixed up in no time.  That prick in the Nova, smashed us up pretty good.  Fuckin' boy racers.  Don't they know its my road?"

Pam's vision started to clear.  All those gravestones and weeping willows, it was depressing.  She could do with a drink.  "Where we going?"  Dafyyd seemed to have lost a lot of weight, and his skin was the colour of ashes.

"Whaddya mean?  It's Valentines Day babe, same place as last year.  McCluskeys, biggest bar in Birmingham."  Dafyyd scanned her with mechanical, grey eyes.  "You better dust yourself off before we go".

"But Dafyyd, we can't, we're -"  She didn't want to say the "d" word.  "We can't go like this."

"Screw it.  Let's party like we always do.  No fatal car crash is going to stop me from having fun.  YOWWWWW!"  He flung his emaciated arms in the air.

* * *

                                                           
Early evening, and McCluskeys was quiet.

A filthy white van with graffiti on one side swerved into the car park.  One door flew open and heavy bass music spilled out.  "Wooo-weeeee!" came the voice of one skinny occupant as he jumped from the cab, and piouretted across the tarmac.  His shredded clothes flew about as he revelled.  Several of the other patrons glanced over then moved away.

Dafyyd called back towards the van.  "C'mon babe, I'm ready for a drink.  Then we'll go for a spin.  Maybe we'll die again, woooo-hoooo!"

A mis-shapen figure tumbled from the other side of the van, hidden from the sight of the other patrons.  It lay still for a moment, then grabbed onto the van and pulled itself up.  It was caught by the lights at the edge of the car park, casting a grotesque, lumbering shadow.

Dafyyd looked back at the twisted thing.  "C'mon Pam, let's go!" he said, skipping like an imbecile.  "Hey, what's this?  Pam, it's that fuckin' Nova!"

* * *

Inside McCluskeys, bright lights shone over pool tables and surly fat guys stood around in polo shirts marked "STAFF".  The carpet was filthy and the music was too loud for the turnout.  Several long-hairs stood at the bar.

Gav's ponytail bobbed as he spoke.  "Nah seriously man, it's true.  It was those old techno clubs in Germany, back in the day.  They'd play the music so loud people's ears would bleed." 

Tom brayed with laughter.  "Fucking no ... way.  Gav, don't be a prick.  You just make shit up all the time."

"No it's true, Richie Hawtin said so.  He was what started it all.  He was there wunnit, all them warehouse parties and running from the police.  Anyway - "

"Gav, Gavin!" Tom stopped him.  "Is that your car alarm?"

They moved to the door and looked out.  Tom spun around.  "Shit the bed Gav, your car's being trashed!" 

Then they burst out into the car park.

* * *

"Weeeeee - help me Pam!"  Dafyyd had torn the exhaust system from the bottom of the car, then used it to decimate the Nova's windscreen.

Pam could only scuttle about like a beetle.  The crash had damaged her far worse than Dafyyd.  Her head lolled to one side, and one leg was twisted at a fearsome angle.

Just as Pam bit into one of the tyres of the Nova, voices came from the direction of the bar.

"Shit man, monsters!"  The ponytailed speaker made an attempt to run towards the Nova, then took a step back.  "Tom, call the police man, call the POLICE, NOW!"

Dafyyd took a neat two-footed jump onto the roof of the car, and brandished the exhaust pipe like an automotive Excalibur.  Then he hurled it towards the two who scattered, screaming and stumbling towards the bar.

"Fuckin' shitheads!  Look what you did to my girlfriend!" he cried from his dais.  Then he looked down at the shambling girl beside the car.  "You and me forever baby!  And I mean forrrr--EVER!  Now let's go and get a drink, then we'll have a dance.  Don't worry, we'll get you straightened out.  We're gonna have some fuuuuun!"

He carried her towards the bar and grinned as the blue flashing lights arrived.