Afterlife ↠ Argent [1]

09. Trigger

"What was that thing?" I ask as Allison drives down the road, heading towards the gas station. Allison doesn't look over at me as I push her more. "We have to talk about this sometime."

Allison sighs. "If we talk about it, then that means it's our problem to deal with, and I don't know if I can handle it."

"Allison," I start leaning towards her. "It came after you. I'm sorry to say, but you're already dragged into this; whether you like it or not. It's not something you can just ignore."

Allison shakes her head. "Why not? It's not like it hasn't killed anybody?"

I lean back. "What if it has?"

Allison furrows her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

I lick my lips. "What if it wasn't Lydia who killed that ambulance driver the other night? What if it was that lizard creature?"

Allison starts to say something before she pauses, sucking in a breath. She ponders for a moment before nodding her head. "That would actually make sense. They did find claw marks on the body; which were very unwerewolf like."

I nod my head. "See? This thing has killed people. We can't let it kill anyone else either."

Allison nods her head. "Yeah, but we don't even know what we're up against. You saw that thing. How are we supposed to figure out what it is or what it can do?"

I shake my head. "I don't know, but I do know that we need to prevent it from killing anyone else."

Allison is silent for a moment before she glances over at me. "Since we're on this topic, care to explain to me how in the hell you were able to block it when it lunged at me?"

"I don't know that one either," I say, staring at the road. "All I wanted to do was protect you, and I did."

Allison is silent for a moment. "I can protect myself, Corey."

I sigh. "Allison, I know you can, but what happened the other night scared me half to death. All I could think about was you getting hurt and that I wouldn't be able to do anything to help."

"But you did," Allison says. "You distracted it long enough somehow for Scott to come scare it off. I don't know how you did it, but we need to figure it out. What if it's something like a trigger? Like what werewolves have?"

"Huh?" I say, furrowing my eyebrows. "What do you mean like a trigger?"

Allison takes a turn. "I mean, Scott told me that the trigger for werewolves is anger. It makes them stronger; more powerful. What if you're able to do more things when you focus on something like that?"

I shake my head. "Focus on anger?"

"Or something else," she says, thinking for a moment. "Maybe something like fear or courage."

I sigh. "Well, I'll try that next time when you're being attacked."

Allison laughs. "You probably won't have to wait long until then."

Allison pulls into the gas station, which looked a little mysterious to me. There wasn't a single car there and the lights were flickering strangely. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand.

"Where is everyone?" I say as Allison parks the car.

She shrugs. "Who knows. It is getting pretty late."

She starts to get out of the car as I look inside the gas station. "Isn't there at least suppose to be someone inside?"

Allison puts in some money before looking at me. "Calm down, Corey. What do you think is going to happen? I'll get kidnapped?"