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It's lonely in here. Winnie's sitting in a chair, in the nearest hospital to the crash. He's a little sore, the few minor wounds and bruises he'd experienced making his body ache.
He'd been trying to hold back the tears in his eyes for a a good while now, trying to focus on the positives. But where are they? What good is there here? Auggie's dead. His best friend is gone. Somehow from the entire crash, Winnie manages to get a few bumps and scrapes. Yet Auggie dies on the spot. Winnie'd been told repeatedly that there was nothing he could have done. That this situation was unavoidable. But in the back of his mind, he knows.
It's his own fault.
Winnie brings his knees to his chest and holds back a sob, his tears freely falling from his face. His mind keeps going back, to that strange wintry landscape. To the monster that had chased and hunted them, and to Auggie. He had been acting strange the entire time, muttering about things Winnie had never said, questioning their friendship, near the end, he was basically silent. Winnie was almost scared of him. He remembers the cliff, how the cold seeped so deep into his bones they didn't have an ounce of strength. Auggie clung onto him for dear life, and Winnie was trying too! He was crying, the wetness of his tears making the cold sting more, Auggie shouting up at him, begging him to stop joking, to pull him up. And despite Winnie swearing he wasn't joking, it didn't change the facts. He wasn't strong enough. When Auggie asked him if he really was his friend, Winnie was too scared to speak, too scared that any amount of energy put anywhere except his arms would cause Auggie to fall. But he did anyway.
Now Winnie can't hold himself back anymore, allowing himself to softly cry into his knees. Maybe the crash never would have happened if he's tried to talk to Auggie. After that cold December night, when he had tripped down the stairs. When he first realized their relationship might be strained. He thought distancing himself would make Auggie feel better. But then, in that car, he could feel it, the hostility. He wanted to just have a relaxing drive, but... when Auggie accused him, he didn't know what to do. So he tried to defend himself, disprove what Auggie was saying. He should have just payed attention to the road. He should have been smarter, safer, maybe more direct with Auggie.
The crash was his fault. He knew it. Despite what people say to him, he knows it is. Now he must live with the consequences.
The worst part for him had been that final moment he had with Auggie. Seeing him stand in his own bedroom, hearing those scary mutterings. Maybe he should have asked what was wrong then. Instead of just walking away. He didn't know what had gone through his friend's mind there, but after a little while, Winnie turns around to see Auggie, trying to shove him to the ground. He stepped away only to watch him trip over himself, drop to the ground. Winnie was horrified, he rushed to help him up, only to be stopped in his tracks, frozen stiff.
Auggie's eyes... they were full of hate, of pure and raw anger. Auggie hated Winnie. His unmoving gaze, the frostbitten skin. It scared him, he stumbled back, couldn't do anything but stare back at him, until darkness took hold of him and he was brought back to reality.
In that upside-down car. With his best friend. Completely and utterly alone.
A few talking voices snap Winnie out of his thoughts. He looks up to see his parents rush into the room, and he forces himself to stand. His mother pulls him into a tight hug, and despite himself, he continues to cry. His mother and father try to ask him what had happened, to comfort him, but Winnie felt frozen once again. He couldn't tell them anything, lest they see him the same way he sees himself. So he just cries into the shoulder of his mother, waiting for the bad feelings to go away.