Saving Scout O'Brian (REMASTERED)

One

Scout

I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, Kodaline's "Brother" singing through the car. My lip curled in a snarl as I eyed the group of guys smoking weed and drinking across the parking lot of the dirty rest stop, my eyes switching between them and the door of the restroom. We had almost eighty more miles to go, and Charlotte had to pee at three in the morning. Sucking in a breath of cigarette, I relished the burn in my throat. Clearing my head with one more inhale, I opened my door and stubbed it onto the ground, my booted foot crunching it into the loose gravel. I glanced at Char to make sure she wasn't paying attention as I reached for the glove box, pulling out my nine millimeter hellcat. I quickly shoved it into the waistband of my boxers beneath my sweats and tugged my sweatshirt over it. I had seen the way these men looked as soon as I drove up, and if there's anything I'm an expert at, it's monsters. The door of my 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass Convertible -I know, you're probably wondering how I could've afforded it- creaked as I stepped out. I gently pulled Char out with me, smiling at her sleepy eyes and the thumb in her mouth.

"Come on baby, we're here."

Her small fingers curled around mine, and I prowled towards the restroom door, every muscle coiled, glaring straight into the eyes of each man, daring them to fuck around and find out. One of them grinned, and he would've been handsome if it weren't for all the meth he'd done back in the day, turning his teeth black. He opened his shit stained mouth and called out, "Hey baby, wanna party?"

I could feel the cold press of the gun against my hip and smiled a feral smile back at him, watching his eyes flicker with a second of doubt. "About as much as I'd love a double mastectomy. Fuck off." I called back, and the rest of his little group oohed and awed, jeering.

Ducking into the doorway, I kept Char in front of me, giving them my back. "Come on Char, don't pay any mind to them."

"Mommy I'm scared." She whimpered, sinking into my side, and I clenched my jaw, my fingers itching to unload a clip of bullets into their smug faces. I had already made the decision to leave and go somewhere else, when the door banged open behind me. Shit stain stood there, along with his two buddies, all with switch blades in their dirty fingers.

I slid a tongue across my bottom lip ring, wetting my dry lips. I dragged Char behind me and she started to cry.

"Come on bitch, empty your pockets." The smallest of the bunch squeaked.

"Leave." I snarled, my body vibrating like a caged tiger, and I knew if I was one, that my tail would've whipped back and forth in fury, my roar shaking the walls.

"Or what baby, you gonna hit me?" They laughed.

My fingers dipped into my waistband and a second later I had a loaded gun pointed straight at his forehead. I smiled as the excitement slowly left their eyes, draining from their face like rainwater in a house gutter. I looked in each of their eyes and willed them to see the monsters that lived in mine, to know that the way this went depended on their next steps. I had no issues with putting a bullet in each other skulls and dumbing them in the forest behind us.

"I suggest you leave, now." Shitstain swallowed hard, glancing at his friends. They all looked very ghoulish, pale skin, arms like twigs and riddled with track marks. A small measure of sympathy went through me. What a miserable fucking life to live.