[untitled]

5

 

 

 

Nothing in life is free, you have to fight for it.

 

 

Ashlynne was right. He would look suspicious. Wife left him with the kids, couldn’t take it anymore, lost control, took it out on the children and it got out of hand. Sounds reasonable. I would believe it.

They couldn’t catch us though, we couldn’t let them. After a while they would have to give up on looking for us. We could change our names, and the way we looked. We could make a whole new life for us, and be happy.

“Hey do you know were we are?”, we have been driving for almost a day and half, we have to have some progress. Austin opened the glove box and pulled out a big complicated looking map.

“Well we picked you up here, and I think we’re here now, so if I’m reading this damn thing right we should be somewhere in Alabama. So we have about 5 more states to go ladies.

“Jesus Christ! That sounds like it’ll take forever! Do you have an estimate on how long till Nevada? Where you guys going exactly?”, Ashlynne impatiently spit the words out like acid, and they knew she didn’t expect an answer. I could tell she was growing restless. So I grabbed her hand and gently traced my finger through her palm; its something my mom used to do when we would get upset. She huffed and puffed but finally gave in and rested her head on my shoulder. Remembering my mom would have made me cry if I had any tears left to give. I stroked her hair, which was tangled, and matted. I soon fell asleep; only to have found myself caught in a nightmare.

At first I could see Ashlynne and I stepping out of the car, to find the beautiful streets of L.A. people were walking down the streets smiling and laughing. The air was cold and crisp, and the sun exploded from behind a few clouds that were scattered across the sky, which was a clear blue. I grabbed Ashlynne’s hand and started walking. Before I knew it things started to twist and turn. The sky was darkened to a lifeless gray; the people started to blend into the background until you couldn’t see them anymore. Then Ashlynne was gone…

“Ashlynne?! Ashlynne! Were are you?!” tears started to blur my eyes as I walked aimlessly down the street. It began to rain, and the air around me became tense. I became frantic to find her, so I burst into a sprint. The rain came thicker and harder.

“Ashlynne! Please! I’m scared!” my screams were drowned out by the rolling cracks of thunder; lightning brightened the sky. I ran to a building only to find it locked. I tried another, and another. All of them were sealed shut.

I crossed the street, and tripped as I was going up the curb. I rolled onto my back and began to sob. I heard footsteps behind me.

“A-“, when I tried to speak my throat tightened and the words stuck. I tried to lift my head only to find that it was extremely heavy, I struggled against the force that was pushing me down. After a while I gave up and fell back to the floor.

There he was standing over me, with a smirk on his face. My dad.

“There you are.”, his words were slathered in emotion and spoken through his teeth. His lips pulled back into a sneer and twisted at the ends. Was he smiling?

“Thought you could run from me? Thought you could hide?!”- His voice rose with his temper, then out of nowhere dropped-“if it weren’t for your friends and loving sister I would have never of found you,” his smile widened but didn’t reach his eyes. His open mouth revealed fangs.

“She, she wouldn’t.” at first my voice was small but then it came out sure and steady. He took a few steps back as someone off to the side giggled. Then there she was. Ashlynne. She looked different though. Not like she used to, the innocent face was now hardened. The once beautiful big eyes, were transformed into empty coal black ones. She skipped over to my dad and smiled. She to had vicious looking fangs.

“Oh I did. You really think I would spend the rest of my life on the streets with you when I could be at home? If so you should probably think again.” She looked happier than ever standing next to him.

“ wha-why? How could you do that?!”, a sudden rage burst through me and I jumped up. Austin and Shane came a few steps closer. They formed a circle around me and started enclosing. I was still staring in shock at Ashlynne and my dad when Shane and Austin grabbed my arms.

“ Oh thank you.” She smiled and kept coming forward. I struggled against their hold but they just twisted my arms tighter behind my back, sending a sharp pain up to my shoulders. Ashlynne slapped me and giggled revealing her fangs.

“Stop it!” I screamed, as tears began to streak down my face. She slapped me again, sending another burning shock up my face.

“Stop it, stop it, stop it.” She mimicked me as she slapped me one last time, and then they were gone.

The sun came back out, and the people were back on the streets smiling and laughing. I crumpled to the ground crying, but nobody seemed to notice me. I stood up and screamed. Still nobody noticed, so I screamed again. That time I woke up mid-scream, with a cold sweat filmed over my whole body. My cheeks were wet from crying and my throat was raw and scratchy, my guess is that I was screaming the whole time.

I looked around to find Shane, Austin, and Ashlynne all staring at me. They had pulled the car over. Ashlynne ran her fingers down my face and I screamed jumping back.

“It’s okay, You’re okay. It was just a nightmare. It wasn’t real. You’re okay. You don’t have to be scared anymore.”, Ashlynne tried to comfort me, but I couldn’t calm down. She tried stroking my hand but instinctively I pulled it back, while I tried squeezing into the corner of the car.

Everyone was so focused on me that we didn’t notice the girl approaching the car. She tapped on the window making us all scream. She looked like she endured a rough trip. Her clothes were ripped, and her face was dirty with thick streaks of mascara running down her cheeks, her hair was knotted and tangled. Her big blue eyes looked frightened beyond belief. She just stood there as we discussed if we should let her in. I figured that if we didn’t help her nobody else would, so I told them to let her in. She thanked us repeatedly and sat in the back with Ashlynne and I.

I noticed that she was staring with curiosity filling her face. I followed her eyes to see what she was looking at, our bag. That wouldn’t have been bad if our gun wasn’t sticking out. I gasped and covered it up. She blushed and looked out the window.

“So what’s your name?” Ashlynne asked as sweet as possible.

“Oh, umm, my names Ava. What’s your guy’s names?”, she still had an innocent look to her smile but I suspected something wrong.

“ Well my names Ashlynne, That’s Austin, and Shane”-she smiled when she said Shane’s name-“and that’s my sister Domino,”. Ava looked at me again, and strangely her eyes darkened, and her mouth twisted into a pout. I looked away.

Shane started the car up again, and we all relaxed. I laid my head once again on Ashlynne’s shoulder and closed my eyes. This time I dreamt of nothing. It wasn’t long till an earsplitting crack filled the tiny space; the car swerved off the road. My eyes shot open and I looked around in a panic. Ashlynne was screaming at Ava. I still didn’t understand what was going on until I looked over to the passenger seat. There he was, Austin, except he had a huge hole in-between his eyes. Shane jumped out of the car screaming, Ashlynne grabbed my arm and ripped me out of the car, and Ava was already standing outside the car staring at the ground wide-eyed, and pulling at her hair.

“What the hell! We give you ride, and you shoot our best friend? What the hell is wrong with you?!”, Ashlynne was screaming at the top of her lungs in Ava’s face.

“I…uhh…I…” Ava couldn’t even get the words out and she fell to her knee’s crying, still staring at the same spot on the ground. Ashlynne raised her hand to slap Ava, but I stopped her.

“What are you doing?!”, Ashlynne screamed while struggling to get out of my grip.

“Let her explain as to why she shot him. Don’t hit her. Don’t be that kind of person Ash.”, she listened to my reasoning and slowly lowered her hand.

“Okay now tell us Ava, why did you do that?”, still holding Ashlynne’s hand I began a conversation with Ava. I sat down in the dirt and began to listen. While Shane was sitting on a rock facing the other way, and Ashlynne got up to go comfort him. So it was just me.

“Well I never got around to telling you where I was coming from or where I’m going so if you don’t mind I’m going to tell you now”-I nodded my head and listened- “well I used to live in Idaho, well I still do but I was kidnapped by a kid from my school. He took me to his mansion somewhere out here and I’ve been there for like two months. I ended up killing him and started walking down a street. I walked for about a day and then found you guys. When Austin”-she flinched at his name-“turned around to talk to me, I could only see the face of my kidnapper over his. So I grabbed the gun”-her voice began shaking as new tears poured from her eyes-“and sho-shot him…”-she looked at me, I’m guessing she was hoping for forgiveness, but I was nowhere near giving it out-“do you understand?”

I couldn’t say anything back to her. All I could bring myself to doing was standing up and walking over to Ashlynne and Shane, I was afraid if I tried to do anything but that I would lose it on her. She didn’t get up to follow me, just sat there staring at the ground with her arms wrapped around her knees rocking herself back and forth. When I told them her story they were silent. All of us just looked at the ground in silence. Then Ashlynne raised her head to speak.

“She’s crazy”-she kept it in a low whisper but every word was filled with acid-“I have a feeling that if we keep her with us, she’ll kill us all, I think we should leave her here and just leave. I don’t know what we should do with the body though…” that’s when Shane decided to join the conversation.

“We cant leave him here, I want him to be buried, and his story told, I know you might not want him in the car with us but I guess the best we can do is put him in the trunk. Which one of you will help me?” his words were dead and his face blank, he was probably drained of emotion.

“I, I can help you…”I spoke up.

“okay, umm what should we do about Ava?”-he looked over at the girl still sitting and rocking herself-“you think if we just get in the car and leave she’ll flip out?” The color had come back to his face at the thought of being able to leave the girl that killed his best friend. We walked back to the car leaving Ashlynne where she was; she has a weak stomach and I think she would probably vomit by seeing it. Shane opened the door, and it sounded like all the air was violently pushed from his lungs. His whole body shuddered and he waved his hand to call me closer to him. He un-buckled his seat belt and pulled his friend from the car. I scurried to his side and grabbed Austin’s feet. I called for Ashlynne to open the trunk, she looked up and lifelessly walked over to the car, opened the trunk and went back to her own little world.

Once we had Austin safely secured in the trunk, we placed our jackets over the chair that was covered in his blood, and took our usual seats. Once we were all comfortable and had the doors shut I took one last glance at Ava. She was on her feet, just staring at us as we drove away. She started walking after us but then stopped. She got smaller and smaller as we got farther away, and then she was finally gone; and for a split second I wondered what would become of her, where she would go, how she would get there, but then she completely vanished from my mind.

The only thing making noise in the car was the sound of our steady breathing and the silent noise of the radio. Nobody spoke for the rest of the day. Once it began to grow dark Shane pulled into the parking lot of a tiny motel. It wasn’t much but at least we could all take a break from the road. Once Ashlynne and Shane were fast asleep I decided to go to the front and ask the location.

The night air was icy as it touched my skin, and it was unbelievably dark. I half ran half walked to the front room. Inside it wasn’t very much warmer, but it had some light. The woman at the desk was short and plump. With fiery red hair, pale white skin, and jade green eyes. She looked quite nice but that didn’t mean I let my guard down.

“Can I help you?” She let loose a smile that seemed to only brighten her eyes.

“Umm yeah…”-I hesitated while wondering if it would be stupid to ask- “umm…could you by any chance tell me the location of this motel?” My voice came out sort of quiet and shaky, but I steadied myself.

“That would be Tulsa, Oklahoma”, once again she let another smile loose.

“Oh, umm thanks.” I tried to give her a smile just as beautiful as hers but I don’t think it reached my eyes.

“Uh-Huh any time” her smile sort of faded towards the end as she went back to working on a fat pile of papers. Okay, I thought to myself, only three more states till Nevada, unless Shane didn’t want to go there anymore. When I reached the door, I placed my hand on the knob and hesitated. I think Ashlynne really likes Shane, and I know for a fact that Shane really likes Ashlynne; I wonder what they’re going to do when it comes time for us to separate. I decided not to think about it until the time came, so I opened the door, plopped on the bed, and fell fast asleep.