~2~

Chapter 2

Cassandra Willford locked the door to the old bookstore at which she worked. The moon lit the heart of the city, illuminating the sidewalk. She made her way down the surprisingly silent path, retrieving her phone from her purse.

“Hello?”

Cass smiled; thankful he actually picked up for once and greeted her without sounding completely drunk. “Jake?”

“Oh, hey Cass, are you off of work?”

“Yeah, I’m on my way home right now.” She answered.

“Do you want to stop and chill over at my place for a bit? I could use some company.”

Cass smiled, “Yeah, yes of course I would. See you around 11:45?”

“Sounds good, see ya babe.”

Cass hung up; as her fingers worked at unzipping her purse, her phone slipped out of her hand and landed on the concrete with a soft thud that seemed rather loud in the silence of the still night. She cursed under her breath and knelt down to pick it up. She frowned as she saw a crack in the screen, “So much for insurance.” She muttered, continuing to walk.

She arrived at her car and fumbled with her phone light, finding her keys. She slipped into the leather seat and started the engine. It sparked to life and Cass was able to ride out onto the main street. She turned on the headlights as rain began to pour. The thunder rolled in the distance. The lightning flashed repeatedly like a strobe light up in the dark clouds that veiled the night’s stars.

The streetlights flickered as the storm tempered with the telephone wires and the city’s electricity.

Cass absent-mindedly counted the seconds between the lightning’s flash and the thunder’s roar; something her parents had taught her to do when she was little. It didn’t seem like much but it was a distraction from the loud crashes of thunder that sounded like monsters and giants 10 years ago.

Now, the thundr sounded like what she would imagine a car crash sounding like- cold, hollow, loud, metal-on-metal, and the asphalt’s friction as the car skidded and flipped before being carried off the road into a ditch... She wondered if that was the last things her parents had heard before they died.

In the time Cass had been thinking, the street lights had continued to flicker and the rain made it nearly impossible to see.

Just as Cass was about to pull over, a shadow appeared up ahead in the middle of the road. She slammed on her brakes and her hands slipped off the steering wheel as the car protested at the sudden command. The wheels veered off the road and the car pivoted on the edge before it finally made its descent down the ravine…

Author's Note

This chapter is even shorter but they will get longer as the story goes on