Evelyn took huge, gasping breaths. She had a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel and tried to will her hands not to shake. Her tears caused all the lights on the road to streak in a kaleidoscope of disorienting colors.
She finally did it.
She left him. Ran away in the night.
She didn't know where to go. She didn't have family, and no longer had any friends.
All she knew was she couldn't stop moving or he would find her.
She stopped at a red light. She was the only car at the intersection.
She couldn't breathe.
An unbelievable weight pressed against her chest.
She left.
She couldn't go back.
But she had nowhere to go.
Turn right
The voice was loud and real enough that she startled and looked around her car.
The light turned green. She looked at the piles of things she had shoved in the car. It was all she had now.
Turn right
The voice was like a friend. Safe and sure.
She sat and breathed as the light turned yellow, then red. She sat there until her breathing slowed and her hands steadied.
Turn right.
She wiped the tears off her face and turned right.
***
She heard the voice again as the hour passed into the new day. Her hysteria had tampered down into numb complacency. She had turned right and stayed on that road as it headed through the city. She stayed on the road as it passed through downtown. The streets that were usually bustling with activity were nearly barren. She passed by people as they slept on benches and sidewalks. She kept driving as downtown bled into an industrial landscape. Dark abandoned buildings loomed in the darkness.
She followed the road out of town. The lights of the city faded until it was just her in the darkness.
She rolled up to a four-way stop. She looked left and right. The night swallowed her headlights.
She suddenly and completely felt suffocated with out the oppressive walls of concrete and lights the city provided.
The city was a known evil with its dirty gutters and graffiti.
This openness. This endless space was terrifying. And new.
Her car was the only light in the vast darkness and the loneliness felt like it would crush her.
Turn left.
The left was an eternity of darkness. Same as the right. Same as the path infront of her.
She turned left.
***
She followed the voice through the early morning. She pulled over as the sky began to lighten. The horizon was streaked with pink and orange. She could see the sunrise in its entirety for the first time since she was a child. It wasn't peaking up over skyscrapers or lost in the all consuming city lights. It was profound. The valley around her stretched out and looked like it kissed the sky.
A mountain loomed in the distance. Its coverage of trees just a green blur in the early morning light.
She watched as the colors faded to crisp blue.
Her body was heavy. The adrenaline had leached out leaving bone deep exhaustion. A sharp stab in her abdomen reminded her of her body's pain.
She turned and looked at the road behind her. She could no longer see the city. She climbed back in her car and drove.
***
Her eyes were heavy. Each blink felt a little longer. She had followed the voice up a mountain. It had been a while since she had passed any sign of civilization. There had been a decent-sized town as she first ascended the hill. It had a touristy rural charm to it. After that, there had been nothing. No other cars. No houses or rolling estates. Not even signs for campgrounds or hikes. Just her and the trees.
And the voice that kept urging her further and further up the mountain.
The exhaustion was heavy she was dazed from it. Her body was hot and sticky from the pain. It had been an eternity since last night.
Her vision darkened around the edges. Her eyes lids were millstones, dragging her down.
She let them close for just a second.
...
...
...
She jerked awake at the sound of tapping on her window. She frantically looked around her car. She had fallen asleep.
She froze.
Her body ached at the added tension.
She was parked in the middle of a street. People stared at her from where they stood on pavement and side walk.
You're here
She looked around in dazed astonishment. She had no recollection of driving here.
Things were blurry. Faces stared at her that didn't make sense.
Someone tapped on her window again. She stared up at blue eyes.
Her fingers were clumsy as she turned off the car and fumbled with her seatbelt.
Her vision whited out as she stood from the car. A man steadied her and she didn't have the energy to flinch.
He was saying something to her. She could see his mouth moving but everything was static because bigfoot was staring at her.
She shook her head but it was still there. It towered over the blue eyes man with its shagging brown hair and its big feet.
She must have drove off a cliff.
Evelyn looked back at the man who was helping hold her up and hoped he could make sense of what she was seeing.
Was he wearing a robe?
Her vision blurred and everything went black.
YOU ARE READING
Mystic Peaks Safe Haven for the Paranormal
FantasyAurelius lived in a community safe from the dangers of the world. Witches, vampires, creatures, and monsters of all kinds find safety at Mystic Peaks until the most vile and wicked of beings shows up uninvited.
