The Siren's Voice Calls

Chapter 2

Driving through the night, I headed east without stopping for hours. Crossing the border from Idaho into Montana to get as much distance as I could between that monster and myself was my main goal at that point. At the next sunrise, I came upon a small town. Feeling hungry after my adrenaline died down, and noticing the Nova was low on gas, I pulled into the nearest gas station. Thinking back, I was glad I chose to use the ATM for cash back home because I didn't have to worry about using my credit card and risk the chance of it being traced.

As I walked in, the door dinged to announce my arrival to the clerk, who was coming out from the back of the convenience store. "Good morning, miss." "Uh... good morning," I responded, trying to fake a smile. "You look like you've been driving all night." "Yes. Where's the restroom, please?" "Right around there," he said while pointing me in the right direction to my left. "Thank you," I replied as I made my way towards the restroom located in the back corner.

I walked in and saw my horrid look in the mirror and quickly washed my face before fixing my wind blown hair. The night's events had ruined the bun I had my hair up in, so I fixed it. Finding a few twigs from when I was laying on the ground, I pulled them out before combing my hair out with my fingers and putting it back up in a bun. Stepping inside one of the stalls to sit on the toilet, tears formed again and began falling down my cheeks.

I grabbed a handful of toilet paper to dry the saltwater off my face. Then I looked down in the bowl because my eyes caught a glimpse of the color red. Of course, I would be bleeding. After what I just went through, it's no wonder. Jacob was always rough with his kisses, but he never went too far like he did the other night. That was the worst and most terrifying experience of my life. I grabbed a tampon out of my purse to put in and stood up to flush the toilet. As I reached for the handle to flush, all my anxiety caught up to me and I puked everything I ate the night before, so I knelt down until I was finished.

I stood up shortly after, walked out to wash my hands, and went out into the store to buy some snacks, gas, and a travel pack size toothbrush and paste. Before heading out to the car, I went back into the restroom to brush my teeth. Soon after, the car was filled to max and I was back on the highway. My thoughts began to wander over what occurred within the last twenty four hours. "Jacob turned into a giant angry ape.... So, his friends always called him a gorilla, but that was only in jest, wasn't it?" I spoke out loud to myself. "And he killed someone! Actually killed him, a man, Mr. Schmidt, our Senior year English teacher! Oh! God, help me!"

Feeling the panic rise again, I decided to turn the radio on. Flipping through the stations to find one that had music instead of static noise, I came upon 100.1, Rock station. I was okay with that because I love Rock music. The radio host announced the next song as one of his personal favorites. My eyes went wide as I heard the beginning of 'Animal I Have Become' by Three Days Grace. I quickly changed the station, coming across Alternative Christian Rock music. Thinking I won't have any negative impact with this genre, I left it alone.

Two minutes later, one song that was very uplifting ended and then that radio host spoke about a certain band going on tour for the Spring. Listening to him go on and on about checking online for tickets near you at blah blah blah.com, I was starting to get annoyed. Then I got annoyed at myself for being annoyed. "Here's one from Skillet's 2009 album, Awake," he announced. I love the song, 'Awake and Alive', so I continued listening. To my utter dismay, it turned out to be their song, 'Monster'. Bewildered and fed up with the universe's dark humor, I shut the radio off.

Pulling over to a rest stop along I-90, I took a breather for a moment to calm myself down. I stepped out to stretch my legs and took a few sips of water from the water bottle I bought at the gas station. "These have not been the best days of my life, for sure. Everything is falling apart," I spoke, declaring to myself. Sitting back down in the driver seat, I pulled my phone out to listen to some Celtic music on the Google Play Music app I had at the time. Much more at ease, I drove off onto the interstate again. Suddenly, I had the urge to sing along with the lyrics to the beautiful songs. Most of all, number six on the downloaded album called to me to sing, 'The Voice'.

What I felt within me in that moment was flowing energy throughout my body. Never before has that ever happened when I sang. Growing up in a family who loved music, vocal sounds were a passion of mine, whether alone or accompanied with other instruments. I never felt this compelling pull until now, though. It was a strange but good feeling, which I needed for sure. Over the course of a few hours, I had crossed several miles and decided I would need to stop for the night to rest. Hoping to find a place before it got too dark, I finally passed a sign that had advertising displayed for motels and restaurants nearby.

When I finally arrived at the motel, I booked a room and went straight to bed. The next day was full of driving and listening to Classical piano songs on YouTube. One video, alone, was over eight hours long, which was perfect for the time being. I came to another not so fancy motel and researched the web for destinations on my laptop before going to bed.