Haunted by the Past (Original)

Chapter 24

After all the craziness of leaving Jersey, driving through Pennsylvania was surprisingly uneventful. After the first hundred miles of forest, the adrenaline drained from my system leaving me absolutely wiped and exhausted. Eli had me dig through the bags to find one of his beloved energy drinks. I insisted we should stop somewhere for the night, but he said we needed to put as much distance as possible between us and New York City as possible. The further away we got, the larger the haystack would be and the harder it would be to find us, the needle. Watching him gulp the can down worried me to no end. Surely an hour or two parked at one of the rest stops wouldn't hurt. Just enough for him to get some shut eye.

"How about you sleep for the first few hours and then we swap?" he offered as a compromise.

Something told me that even if we swapped, he still wasn't going to sleep. Yet I still gave in and accepted his offer.

Dozing in and out of sleep for the first few hours, I remember waking briefly to find we had stopped. The bright lights of a gas station sign blinded me. When my eyes finally adjusted, I saw Eli walking back to the car talking his phone. He hadn't even bothered to conceal his face.

"I need that swap as we discussed. How soon can you have it ready?" If I focused, I could just hear him. "That'll have to do. Uh," he paused as he walked around the front of the car and lowered his phone to check something, then raised it back to his ear. "Arches. Send me the address."

Eli hung up abruptly just as he reached the driver's side. As he got back and shoved his phone back into the holder as he sat down. As curious as I was about his phone call, he seemed to be in no mood to tell me. As we pulled away from the pump, his eyes caught mine.

"You're awake again?" his expression softened.

"You weren't afraid people would recognize you?" I mumbled, gesturing to his maskless face.

"It'd be more suspicious if I was wearing a mask while pumping gas in the middle of the night," he pointed out. "I paid at the pump. As long as he gets his money, that's all a gas station attendant is concerned about."

"But I saw you walking from the station," I frowned.

"I had to take leak," he responded defensively. "Nothing I did was out of the ordinary. Nothing to raise suspicions."

"Ok," I sighed and went back to staring out the window.

After a few minutes, Eli spoke up, "You'll find the further west we go the less and less people are actively aware or even care what's happening in New York. It'll be more important be ordinary than trying to conceal our identity."

"Isn't this where we're meant to cut and dye our hair?" I mused, recalling every spy-action movie I had seen.

"I mean it'd help, but I'm not going to force you. What's more important is not standing out. I know that's hard for you," he sighed.

I turned to him and narrowed my eyes, "What do you mean?"

Even in the dark, I could see a gentle rouge across his cheeks, "Y-you know."

"I know what?" I folded my arms. "Enlighten me."

"Don't make me say it," he winced.

"What do I do that makes me stand out, Eli? Tell me!" I pushed.

"You're beautiful, ok!?" he burst out while gripping the steering wheel tight. "No matter how you dress or what you do, you stand out! I-I can't take my eyes off of you!"

I stared at him wide-eyed, then had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing, "That might just be a you-thing."

He ran his fingers through his hair uncomfortably, "I don't know, maybe?"