Falling Horizontal by Rose Gill

Odelia was staring out the window, wanting nothing more than to get out of the car. It was all just so tedious; the car, the drive, life, everything.
“Shit, I hate getting stuck behind big trucks,” said Ria. Odelia glanced over at her scowling sister, before going back to looking out the window. Nothing particularly interesting. Maybe an accident would happen, spice up her life a bit. “What’s with those rods, anyways?”
Looking at the truck in front of them, Odelia couldn’t help but feel like something was going to happen. Big trucks always made her feel like that, no matter what they were carrying. They always looked about ready to tip over. As Odelia stared at the truck, she calmly noted to herself that a few of those rods looked about ready to slide off. Why was everything so precarious with big trucks?
“Ria, don’t you think you’re driving a little close to the truck?”
“Whatever Odelia. Maybe he’ll notice and speed up a bit.” There was just no helping it with Ria, Odelia supposed. She went back to watching the truck, in time to see two rods slide off the back, followed by several more. Ria swerved to avoid the flying rods, as one flew straight at their windshield. There was a brief moment of excitement and a racing heart, and then everything went black for Odelia.
The only things Odelia was aware of were the sharp sounds of sirens growing ever closer and of people screaming, hysterical over what they saw, the acrid smells of smoke and burning rubber, and the sight of legs covered in a beautiful ruby red, all blurry. She couldn’t seem to move her head, and look away from those ruby red legs. She closed her eyes, ready for whatever might happen next. With her eyes closed she got the sensation that she was falling away from everything, falling horizontally. She knew she wasn’t flying though, because there was a certain lack of any control. She was hurtling along, as if she were falling vertically, and the earth had just been tipped on its side.
When Odelia opened her eyes everything was clear. She could move her head, and see the people running towards her, crying and yelling. She looked down and saw the ruby red legs again, and she understood that they were her own. She looked at her chest and saw the rod that stuck there, surrounded by a growing, blooming, blood red rose. She smiled at the people running towards her, and she closed her eyes again. She knew she was dying, but she didn’t care. It was a relief in a way. She was finally released from living. She hadn’t really enjoyed it all that much anyways, it was just too much of a bother. She had tried to spend most of her time asleep to begin with. The way Odelia saw it, death was just another sleep, one you just didn’t wake up from until you were reborn. And who knew how long that might take.
“Ahh...It’s time to rest. Bye Ria...‘till next time, yeah?” Odelia couldn’t be sure she’d been heard, but she thought it didn’t really matter anyways, and she closed her eyes and went to sleep for who knows how long.