Skinwalkers

Chapter Five

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Chapter Five

It was easily the worst storm Zave had seen since he'd moved to this town six months ago. So much rain poured from the sky that his windshield wipers could hardly keep up. Every time they pushed the rain away, he had less than a second of clear vision before the windshield was covered again.

Clueless whined, sitting in the passenger seat beside him. Ever since they'd left the store, she had been acting nervous. The storm must have been bothering her even more than him, he decided.

"It's just thunder, girl," he said, giving her head a pat. "Nothing's going to hurt you."

She looked at him, gave a halfhearted wag of her tail, and then whined again.

He couldn't exactly blame her for being so worked up, Zave reflected. It wasn't even eight in the morning, and it had already been a weird day. He'd almost managed to forget about the strange intruder from earlier. Talking to a cute girl could do that for you, he thought with a smirk. But now that the sky was dark, and the clouds were roaring and spitting fire, the image of that inhuman grin, and those unnatural eyes, loomed in his memory as if the smiling man were sitting in the back seat of his car.

Zave glanced into his rearview mirror just to make sure he wasn't there.

The warning he'd given Zave was echoing in his mind. They didn't know they were looking for him, but they would once they found him. A shiver ran down Zave's spine. In any other situation, he would have brushed it off as the ramblings of a weirdo. But the fact that he had been in Zave's house before vanishing into thin air made Zave—

A shadow darted out into the road.

"Shit!" Zave exclaimed, hitting the brakes. The car swerved on the wet road, spraying water as it spun to face the opposite direction while still careening forward. Without thinking, Zave threw one arm in front of Clueless, and squeezed his eyes shut.

There was a bump as the car left the road—and then a bone wrenching CRASH!

The airbag deployed, and Zave's head rocketed forward to collide with it. Stars erupted in his vision, followed quickly by flaring pain that started in his nose and rippled outward.

Zave wasn't sure how long he sat like that, face buried in his airbag, head spinning and ears ringing. Eventually he was pulled from his stupor by a cold, wet tongue sliding up and down his cheek.

He groaned as he picked himself up, and then groaned again when he saw what was in front of him. His windshield was shattered. It clung stubbornly to its frame for now, but it looked like it would cave in entirely if he sneezed on it. Just beyond the jagged cracks, the front end of his car seemed to have shrunk to half its original size. They had plowed straight into the biggest, sturdiest tree on this side of the road. White steam was billowing out from under the hood.

"Shit!" he said again. There was no salvaging this car—not that he would have had the money for repairs anyway. "Clueless? Are you okay?"

Clueless whined in reply and licked his face again. Zave winced, then reached up to feel his nose. It throbbed, but he didn't think it was broken. When he lowered his hand, though, his fingers were bloody.

"Great. Absolutely perfect," he muttered, killing the engine before it decided to catch fire on top of everything else. "What are we going to do now, girl?"

Clueless cocked her head at the question, then turned around and scratched at the passenger side window.

Zave sighed. "Yeah, that's as good a place to start as any."