Chasing Sunrise

Thirty-Two

Darissa took me out the back door of the school, across the sports fields, and to a car parked on one of the residential streets.

A very nice car. A Corvette.

"Don't damage the leather upholstery," she said as she unlocked it with a click of the key fob.

I sat down and buckled myself in, which she found amusing, and we were off. Unsurprisingly, she drove like a maniac. Like an immortal who wasn't bound by small concerns like speeding tickets or having to kill a cop to get out of one.

I gripped the door handle and kept my head down as she sped out of town in a direction I'd never been before. By process of elimination, I surmised we were headed to Taos Ski Valley, since we weren't going to the pueblo, my aunt's subdivision, or Santa Fe. First, though, we raced across the Taos Valley floor, blowing through a little town that went past in a flash.

"So what do you plan to do with eternity?" she asked.

"I figure I'll have some time to decide." My knuckles were going white.

"True."

"I've been accepted at Princeton."

"A good school," she said. "I've studied engineering there. By proxy." She winked at me.

Keeping her eyes on the road was something else she didn't really bother with. At least not until a minute or so later when we started up a steep mountain road.

Once again, all my knowledge came from the internet, but I knew that the ski valley was its own little village up closer to the peaks, at the base of all the chair lifts and such. It was only in business in the winter and was a ghost town in the summer.

Aunt Cassie had also told me of some extreme Earthships that I would be able to see out the left side of the car on the way. "Those are completely off-grid, with radio telephones," she told me, as if I was supposed to know what the heck a radio telephone was. I was feeling too woozy to look out the left side of the car though, as that was where the drop-off was to the valley floor below. I focused on the road and on not thinking about what I was about to do. I hoped she hadn't learned yet how Evan had died. If anyone had gossiped in the bathroom about an explosion out by the Earthships, she would probably figure it out.

Every now and then I glanced at the rearview mirror, wondering if there were headlights behind us. I didn't know whether to hope for them or not. I didn't want Corban to rescue me, but the romantic in me nevertheless wished he'd try. That was foolish, but it was also human, and I was getting to like being human.

Corban was smart enough to play the long game, and his stupid antics that morning would no doubt remind him of the fact. No, I was on my own, which was what I wanted. Really.

Up and up we sped, taking curves so fast that I was developing a bruise on my hip where my seat belt buckle dug in. Well, that would make Darissa happy, seeing that I could bruise.

"So, the nice thing about the urgent care center in the ski valley," said Darissa, conversationally, as if she wasn't driving seventy miles an hour up a winding mountain road, as if our mutual ex-boyfriend hadn't been offed earlier that day, as if we were just two friends on a fun ride. "The nice thing about their urgent care is that it's only open while the lifts are running. It closed at four, and the last patients were out of there by five. I figured you'd appreciate me waiting until the place is empty?" She glanced over at me.

"Sure," I said.

She cackled, which was so stereotypical I almost rolled my eyes. But I didn't want to overplay my hand. I was unique to her, but she was immortal. I still ran the risk of her deciding that I wasn't worth her trouble. It was best to stay meek.