The stranger by the road

The cold night air brushed against Ye Rin’s face as she stood at the edge of the apartment complex, her suitcase rolling behind her with a quiet squeak. Her heart felt hollow. Her limbs, weak. It was hard to breathe, harder still to believe that the man she had loved for years had so easily replaced her ike she meant nothing.

She turned back one last time, looking up at the window where warm light still spilled through the curtains. She could almost see him there, laughing with that woman as if Ye Rin had never existed. Her throat tightened. A sob escaped, and she quickly covered her mouth.

She had nowhere to go. No family to call. No friends to turn to.

Her phone was dead, and she didn’t even have a power bank. All she had were the clothes on her back, a half-filled suitcase, and a heart that had been shattered into a thousand silent pieces.

The streets were eerily empty, bathed in the pale yellow glow of flickering streetlights. It was already 11:30 PM. Most stores were closed. No buses. No taxis. The city had gone quiet, the kind of stillness that made her skin crawl.

She walked aimlessly, her feet aching and her fingers numb from gripping her suitcase handle. Her mind screamed questions Why did he do this? What did I do wrong? Where do I go now?but there were no answers. Only the sound of her own footsteps echoing down the lonely road.

Then, up ahead, something caught her eye.

A twisted wreck of metal—barely visible from a distance—sat beside the road, half hidden by the trees. The front of the car was completely crushed. Smoke hissed from under the hood, and the windshield was shattered like spiderwebs frozen in time.

Ye Rin stopped in her tracks, her body stiffening with fear.

An accident…?

She looked around—no one in sight. No cars, no pedestrians. Just silence.

Her first instinct was to call for help, but when she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone, the black screen stared back at her. Dead.

Her hands trembled. A chill ran down her spine.

This was the second time in her life she had seen something like this.

Her legs nearly gave way as a memory surged forward—uninvited, sharp, and raw.

Nine years old. Back seat of her parents’ car. Her mother humming softly. Her father smiling at her in the rearview mirror. Then—screeching tires. A blinding flash of light. Metal crushing. Glass flying. Her mother’s scream. Blood. Silence.

She squeezed her eyes shut, her breath coming in short gasps.

“No... not again,” she whispered. “Not again…”

But something pulled her forward—some aching part of her that couldn't walk away. Someone might still be alive.

Carefully, hesitantly, she approached the wreck.

The closer she got, the worse the damage looked. The front was crumpled beyond recognition. One of the tires had rolled off and lay yards away. The smell of burnt rubber and blood lingered in the air.

Peering through the broken driver’s side window, she saw him—a man slumped over the steering wheel. His face was cut, blood trailing down his forehead, staining his collar. He looked unconscious. Maybe dead.

Ye Rin gasped and covered her mouth.

Her whole body began to shake. She hated blood—she always had since the accident. But this time, there was no one else. No help. Just her.

“I-I can’t just leave you…” she whispered.

Her hands trembled as she reached for the car door. It was jammed. She threw her suitcase aside and used both arms to tug it open. The metal groaned, and finally, with a creak, it budged.

She leaned in, coughing at the smell of smoke. “Hey… can you hear me?” she asked, voice barely above a whisper.

The man didn’t move.

She grabbed his arm, trying to lift him. He was heavy—taller and broader than her. Panic rose in her throat as she felt the warm wetness of blood on her fingers.

“Come on… please…” she cried, eyes stinging with tears. “Wake up…”

With all her strength, she pulled him out, dragging his body away from the wreck, her legs buckling under his weight. Her knees scraped against the pavement, and her coat was soaked with blood.

Once she got him to the roadside grass, she collapsed beside him, gasping for breath.

The man lay motionless, pale in the moonlight, his lips slightly parted.

“Please don’t die,” she whispered, pressing her hands over the deepest wound to stop the bleeding.

For the first time since she left that apartment, Ye Rin forgot about her own pain.

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