Carrie tugged at the blindfold. "No peeking!" Vanessa yelled. Odessa giggled in the front seat. Suddenly the car braked. Hard. Carrie screeched as she flew forward and then was caught by the seatbelt. "You missed the entrance Ness." Odessa scolded. Carrie felt the car make a U-turn and then the crunch of a gravel driveway. Then she heard barking. It got louder as the door opened. Carrie felt Odessa and Vanessa's hands on her arms, guiding her out of the car. After walking a few steps, Carrie heard the metallic clinking of something hitting a chain link fence. "One, two, three!" Her friends counted in unison. At three they snatched the blindfold off of Carrie's head, fluffing up her long, red hair, also blinding her because the sun had deigned to make an appearance."Puppies!" Carrie exclaimed as she looked down. At her feet were three puppies, each staring at her. There was a big brown one rolling around on the grass, a yellow one lazily holding a toy in its mouth and a tiny black one jumping around with the yellow one. Vanessa scooped up the yellow one." This is Buttercup, mine." She pointed to the brown one." Odessa claimed that guy, Sunny." And finally she pointed at the black one."This is the one we figured you would like." Carrie picked the little puppy up and stared it in the eyes. "Is it a girl or a boy?" She asked Vanessa. "Girl." Vanessa replied, not looking up from Buttercup. Carrie mulled over a couple names in her head. "Ash" Carrie said, decisively. Ash licked her face. For a few more minutes the girls played with the puppies and caught up.
Just then lightning raced across the sky. Soon after was thunder. Rain smattered the ground.The puppies squealed and ran to the girls." Crap. We should go." Odessa muttered. Carrie became uneasy. "Yeah let's go..." She trailed off. In the distance she saw a large figure holding something glinting in the ligtning. Wordlessly she grabbed Odessa's hand and tugged on it. "What?" She looked up and at seeing Carrie staring looked where she was looking.
"Ness! Come on!" Odessa shouted. Carrie grabbed Ash and Sunny while Odessa pulled Vanessa to the car. Carrie glanced at the huge guy slowly walking closer while staring at her. Vanessa got in the car and floored it as soon as everyone was inside. "Why is that guy following us?" Odessa said quickly, panicking. "Calm down, he's probably just coming down the hill to get to his house." Vanessa responded coolly. "No he's not." Carrie said through gritted teeth. Odessa stared at her. Carrie could see her thought process, wondering how weird it was that this was happening right after the weirdness of last night. "He's shown up before." Carrie explained. "First he showed up on my tenth birthday, my mom yelled at him and he went away, then when I was home alone for two days, and then when I graduated from high school." Vanessa and Odessa jaws dropped. "Every time he showed up my mom told me if I saw him to run, or call her, or go to a highly populated area."So he's totally a stalker" Vanessa concluded."Why didn't you call the cops?" Odessa questioned. "I don't know, maybe it had to do with.....you know." Carrie admitted. "What are you guys talking about?" Vanessa asked, confused. "We'll show you later." Odessa cut in.
They just about to turn onto the highway back to Tacoma when a bolt of lightning struck a few feet ahead of the car.
