Forty-Four:
The thing that got on my nerves the most was that the little demonic bitch was sitting in my car while Dexter was driving, but what was really annoying was that I was too tired to care.
'Don't let me sleep for more than an hour, OK?' I yawned, struggling to keep my eyes open as I laid out in the backseat. 'This isn't going to work, and I don't want to spend my last day sleeping. I want to shoot some stuff.'
Dexter laughed sadly, but it was choked. 'OK.' He muttered, and my eyes fluttered shut.
But now that I was able to sleep without having the fear of something coming after me within two seconds, I couldn't sleep.
Sitting up, I couldn't make sense of the landscape around us.
'Dex, where are we?' I asked. When I looked at the time on the radio, it was twenty minutes later- we couldn't have travelled this far that far.
'Dexter?' I leant over the seat and tried to see his face. When I did, I fell back in fear.
His eyes were black holes, deathly and fear-inducing like nothing else. Gloria beside him turned to me, her mouth stretching too wide into a creepy, unnatural smile as she revealed jagged fangs.
I shot forward, once again covered in a cold sweat and breathing hard.
'Trix, you OK?' Dexter looked back at me while still trying to keep his eyes on the road.
I moaned quietly and kneaded my eyes.
'Trixie?' He said, louder.
'Yeah.' I muttered.
'You OK Bella?' Gloria looked back at me worriedly, and I swallowed hard. I nodded.
'It'll be the sulphur- maybe it's better if you don't sleep until after we help you.' She said.
'Maybe.' I mumbled, too tired to fight. 'Where're we going?' My throat was hoarse.
'Crossroads.' Dexter said without looking back at me.
I clenched my jaw. 'You can't save me.'
'I can try.'
May 2007
I stood in front of the hotel door, checking my fingernails intently. I REALLY didn't want to be here- after all, I had missed Dexter's last birthday, and couldn't even remember how old he was anymore.
I hadn't been in contact with ANYONE since I was twenty, last year.
I heard someone big move towards the door and look through the peep hole, then all the locks clicking back.
When the door opened, a giant looked down at me.
'Holy mother dude!' I cried, laughing. 'You grew heaps!'
'Hey Bellatrix.' Even though he should've been mad, he still smiled down at me, his voice considerably deeper.
'Happy birthday bro.' I laughed again as he let me in. 'Where's Dad?'
'Out, no surprise. You're a bit late, aren't you?' He regarded me sceptically, a look I recognised from somewhere.
'What do you mean?' I asked, looking around for some birthday cake. Dexter always had the BEST cake ever.
'You're a day late. I turned seventeen yesterday.'
I stopped looking. 'I knew that.'
'Sure you did.'
'I did! I was just...testing you. To make sure you got it right. So congratulations, you passed! Is there any cake left?'
'No.' Dexter cocked his head to the side, giving me the weird look he had abandoned back when he was 13.
'What? You're creeping me out with that look.' I said, sitting on the dirty glass table.
'Are you OK?' He asked randomly.
I shrugged. 'I-I guess. Why?'
'You know how there's something wrong with you?'
I clenched my jaw for a second. 'You have mentioned that before. You can't save me, Dexter.'
'I can try.'
'It's all in vain.'
'And you'd know all about that.' He smirked.
'I'm not vain!' I cried.
December 2013- 6 hours
'So Gloria, you still going to put our intestines on a stick?' I asked.
What can I say? I suck at small talk.
She winced. 'I'm sorry for that. I was way younger then- I wasn't thinking properly.'
'What do you mean?' Dexter asked.
'I got dragged down when I was a child- no matter what it is, whatever you're getting changed into, it should never happen before you're eighteen. It screws you up.'
Dexter pulled to a clean stop at an empty Crossroads, void of any signs of life.
I swallowed hard. 'This doesn't seem right.'
Gloria, having gone all black-eyed on us, was analysing every square inch of the place.
'Something's wrong.' She said eventually.
'Do you have the bone?' Dexter asked.
'MY bone.' I growled in annoyance.
Shooting me a look of apology, Gloria pulled out the long strip of bone. As she did so, the weak sun was covered by clouds and we were plunged into semi-darkness.
