CHAPTER III

 Fuyuko had packed her laptop in its bag when she stood from her workstation and stretched hard. Today had been a bit of a doozy for her, meeting with other IT members on a video call, going over loopholes to certain lines of code, talking about common customer complaints, all in the name of the final letter grade in her IT class at Kipher Community College. Usually; she and a group of other students were to come up with a small business and present answers to problems that the instructors would draft in the meantime. She would take her team out to eat or coffee for such things, but in that instant, the problems were more severe than they had time for just to move from one place to another. It nearly took three hours going through the list of complaints. But now it was done, and she made her way through the hallways toward the parking lot.

        Her phone buzzed, and she answered it. It had to be Julie or Pam or someone from the team. "Hey, girl!" She began bringing the phone to her ear.

        "F-Fuyuko?" Her face went bright red at the voice on the other end; it was Rowan!

        "Oh! Hey! You gotta stop surprising me like this! First you pretend you don't remember what pizza I like and now you just randomly call me? Such a weirdo!"

        "I need your help... I need to go back to Foster Lake. Can you meet me at the pizzeria? We'll go together. Zane won't come with us." He said.

        "Why?"

        "Because..." His side was quiet for a moment. "He just won't. So, will you help me?"

        It was just as Rowan had said; Zane was nowhere to be seen at the pizzeria. When Fuyuko arrived, it was just Rowan, his apron and work uniform exchanged for some regular clothes. The manager was ranting off in the back somewhere when Rowan walked up to her, handed her a container with two slices of Hawaiian. "What's this?"

        "Thanks," Rowan answered as they walked out of the building and toward the Tuscon. They drove to the town's edge, the sunlight escaping them through the cover of the now clouded sky, and with little warning, the rain started falling. The entire way, Fuyuko sat in her seat, fiddling with the strap on her laptop. This was the first time she had been alone with Rowan for a while. Usually, Zane was somewhere close by. Now, though, she felt her heart slamming into her chest. Her cheeks were sizzling. Thank God my skin's this color, she thought, or I'd be too damned obvious right now. Why did she say yes if she was going to think and feel like this? This was Rowan, for God's sake! He was a gentle giant compared to her, so there was no worry about him doing something bad. It wasn't like he was going to spring on her like a ravenous animal. But then, that was the problem; He had been through so much. What if he did? At least Zane had a way of dealing with this sort of thing. Rowan, though? None that she could think of.

        The rain fell harder as the Tuscon slowed to a stop at the side of the road. The blinkers flashed the way ahead, the dense woods now drenched with the waters from heaven. Fuyuko felt herself groan inwardly. Just great. Perfect even! This couldn't get any worse. That was when she turned to Rowan and saw him looking at her, leaving her inwardly screaming.

        "It looks like we can't look into Foster Lake... Unfortunately," he sighed. "I'll drop you off at your place." His voice betrayed the only slightly perturbed look on his face; he sounded completely defeated tonight. Was it something to do with Zane? Did they have a fight? They had to have. There was no other reason that blond dumbass wouldn't be with his brother right now. But if that were the case, Rowan probably didn't want to go back to his apartment now, right?

        "Would you... Like to come back to my place?" The words tumbled out with little thought or concentration. Fuyuko heard her inner voice scream directly into her mind, what the hell are you thinking girl?! "I mean, you don't have to, I just thought maybe you didn't want to see that idiot Zane for a while and-"

        "That sounds good."

        As soon as it had crept up and captured her, that flustering emotion and panic gripped her tighter. Not only did she look like a complete fool, but he even agreed. Maybe this time she would get this whole thing right.

        Something darted across their headlights in the blink of an eye.

        Rowan barely had time to swear as he slammed his foot on the brake, throwing everything forward until inertia finally gave up throwing the vehicle any further. Fuyuko looked at Rowan, and he at her, as they forced their racing hearts to slow. "What the hell was that?!" He asked first.

        Thinking back on it, Fuyuko could only remember one thing in that instantaneous blurb of time; whatever it was, it was green. Anything else past that was nothing more than conjecture. "I think it-"

        The sound of scraping metal assaulted their ears. The noise drilled into their skulls, and covering their ears from it only trapped the sound in their heads. As soon as it had begun, it was quiet once more.

        Both of them had their eyes tight shut, the muscles in the sides of their sockets hurt from their overzealous attempt to block out the noise. Now, with their eyes opened, they saw something looking back into the driver's side, straight at Rowan.

        It was an amber orb with a dark slit down the middle, like a cat's eye, the slit opening wider. Fuyuko fought the urge to scream, Rowan already whimpering as his hands clawed at his pockets. "F**k!" He cursed as he dug his feet into the floorboard, one of which hit the accelerator, and jerked the car forward.

        Whatever was outside gave a shrill screech as they pulled away, the engine roaring, the odometer climbing, their adrenaline pumping away in their heads. "What was that?!" It was Fuyuko's turn to scream. "What was that thing?! There's no way something like that is real!"

        "I don't know!" Rowan glanced at the odometer. 60 miles per hour. 75 miles per hour. To 82 miles per hour, they hurtled down the road. He chanced a look at her, then the color drained from his face.

        Fuyuko, noticing his face drop, followed his gaze.

        Even as fast as the car was going, the creature was keeping pace with them. Its amber orb staring straight inside the car. Lightning erupted through the clouds as the thing shrieked again. They saw a long muzzle and lines of sharp teeth, long arms hanging down from its torso, tipped with dangerous, scalpel-like claws.

        She screamed as the deafening thunder boomed around them.