The FernWood Trilogy: Prophecy Twin

Bear's Name - Chapter 10

Dylan foams at the mouth in the back of the truck every few miles as he comes to, each time Argos ushers him back to sleep. Astryd sits up front with me, keeping her head hung forward and her breathing shallow.

"Mom and dad told me to stop hoping, to stop thinking about him," Astryd mutters and I nod, taking one hand off the wheel to hold hers.

"Are you positive it's him?" Sean says, now seated on the opposite side of who we all believed could be Dylan.

In the magically created third row of the truck sat Wila, Fawn, Richard, and Dante, all very silent on the matter. Ethan reaches a hand up from the second row to hold Astryd's hand.

"I swear it. I'm sure of it. Check his left hand, there should be a mole in between his middle and ring finger, right on the webbing." Astryd tells Sean and he checks. He goes silent.

Sean stutters out, "I guess the question to ask is, who is he now? Clearly, he's changed."

Astryd turns around to glare at Sean, regretting her mistake when she catches a glimpse of Dylan. Just like clockwork, Dylan starts to stir. Astryd stares at him with great intensity and I watch the scene unfold for seconds at a time through the rearview mirror.

Argos lets him stir for a moment, looking at Astryd for when he should put him back under.

"Dylan?" Astryd asks and the man groans.

"That's not my name anymore." He grunts and Astryd looks at him.

She asks, "Where did you go?"

"FernWood." He groans, "I graduated last year."

Astryd looks at Sean who shrugs.

"And what do you do now?" Astryd asks and Dylan opens his eyes which we see glow red.

"I serve my purpose." He says, his voice clear and deep with a lilt of anger seething through. "You shan't defeat us, the deities are strong." He declares, then throws an elbow at both Sean and Argos before crawling over them. My eyes go wide as he opens the door, throwing himself out right after shouting, "So long, sis!"

Argos gets a hold on his leg, he's hanging halfway out. I throw on my hazards and move towards the edge of the highway, pulling over. I hear sirens go on as a state trooper sees the commotion. We weren't even out of New Jersey yet.

"Dammit!" I shout, pounding the wheel as Dylan rips out of Argos' grasp and finally makes a run for it. We'd lost him.

"Get out and run." Sean instructs, "Now!"

I nod and exit out of the passenger side door with Astryd, everyone else getting out. The officer gets out of his car, shouting for us to stop as I turn abruptly.

"Lose him on the highway!" I scream as we all turn, running directly into traffic.

Think Frogger, but real life as we dodged cars. Richard scoops Fawn up into his arms, protecting her as best he can. It wasn't my brightest idea as we hopped over the center barrier and ran for the woods on the other side. My heart quickens as more troopers flood in. We'd surely be arrested if we were caught. So we couldn't be caught.

We make it to the forest that runs alongside the highway as cars halt in their tracks, more and more state troopers swerving to the rescue. Dylan was long gone, I prayed that they caught him and put him in jail. There wasn't much elsewhere to run which was why we crossed the highway, on the other side was a thin line of trees before a warehouse of some sort.

I trip and collapse as we make it far enough into the forest, trees passing me in the fading sunlight like nothing more than blurs. I slam against a tree, the barking scraping up my face. Argos stops with me, calling out to the others but they keep running as if their lives depend on it, which they may.