My first written fanfiction, though God knows I've read enough of them. Please be gentle!
Not Quite What I Was Planning
As Julia Schultz stumbled into the parking lot of the quaint café by the side of the road, she reflected that maybe this trip hadn't been such a good idea. Backpacking aimlessly across the United States had seemed like a good way to utilize the time she had to wait until she could access her inheritance when she turned twenty-one. Just thirteen more months to go, she thought. Then she could go to college! Or open a baked goods store! Or backpack across Europe! The possibilities were endless! But only when she got her hands on the damn money.
Her attention was brought back to her current plight when her stomach groaned and fussed loudly at her. "I know, I know," she murmured, patting her belly as though to soothe the savage beast. She looked longingly at the café, wondering if she should eat now, or if she could wait until dinnertime.
Julia twitched her nose after concluding that it would be prudent to wait until dinnertime to spend more of her precious money. But, she thought, it wouldn't be a bad idea just to sit down and rest a minute. Yep, just a quick sit-down and I'll be ready to keep heading west. Now where to sit? She looked around the porch of tables and chairs in front of the Four Winds Cafe. Full. Curses. Julia paused by an old Chevy Impala, noting the open windows. Who leaves all their windows open like that in this day and age? Why, anyone could come along and steal the car. Actually… Looking quickly around the parking lot, she slipped into the back seat of the car as swiftly as a cat climbing out of water.
Inside, she scrunched her duffel bag between the back of the passenger seat and the front of the back seat before lying down on the seat, making herself small as possible. It smelled like… old-but-well-cared-for car, cologne, and peculiarly enough, salt. There were small chunks of it everywhere; one piece seemed to have even worked itself into her pants. Too tired to care, Julia lay still, breathing in the pleasant odor of the car as she vowed to only rest for a minute, this wasn't completely against the law, if the owners came back before she left, she would explain…
Then she was asleep.
The first thing Julia became aware of was the rumbling of the engine beneath her cheek. Then she realized (too groggily to make sense of it) she could hear men's voices in front of her. Am I dreaming? she asked herself?
"So which are we going to, the women disappearing in Cedar Rapids, or the crop circles in Springfield?" demanded the passenger, a very good-looking short haired man.
"There are a lot of stories about crop circles, but nothing very substantial," said the driver, another good-looking, tall man. "I think we should investigate the vanishing women; all the crop circles I've ever heard of have been bogus…"
Julia very quietly sucked in her breath.
OhmygodIfellasleeptandnowI'mreallyintrouble! she silently shrieked to herself. What the hell am I going to do? And to make matters worse, her stomach chose this minute to utter a high-pitched whine.
"Did your stomach just growl Dean? Because we just ate at the restaurant. I don't see how you could possibly be hungry now." remarked the driver, raising an eyebrow at "Dean."
"What? Dude, you're hearing things, I'm stuffed." replied Dean defensively. "For once," the driver mumbled under his breath before shrugging and returning his gaze to the road.
"So we should be in Cedar Rapids in a couple of hours; what've we got to work with?" asked the driver. The other man pulled a sleek laptop out of the bag at his feet, and all that could be heard for a few minutes was the tapping of the keyboard.
"A total of five women, all between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two, have vanished in the past several months. The one thing they have in common is that they all attend Coe College. College girls, Sammy!" beamed Dean.
"An artsy demon." commented "Sammy" in a pained tone of voice.
I wish I were in college right now, Julia thought. Then I wouldn't be getting myself into such shenanigans. Single shenanigan? Her heart beat like a war drum as she tried to think rationally while chewing her nails down to the quick. Okay, so I'm on the highway ( I'm pretty sure) on the way to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in these guys' car And apparently they're paranormal detectives or something? (Julia was rather a rather liberal-minded individual.) So maybe when we get there, they'll get out of the car to do their investigating, I'll slip out, and I'll be farther west than I was before! See, it all works out for the best.
Then she realized how badly she needed to use the bathroom. And she was still hungry. In fact, her stomach proceeded to voice its displeasure by roaring as loudly as possible. To her horror, the passenger and driver simultaneously whipped around to look. Two sets of amazed green eyes met one set of mortified brown ones. Then all hell broke loose.
In twisting around, Sammy's hands had also twisted the steering wheel around so now, swearing loudly, he turned back around to try and wrestle the car away from the leering trees at the edge of the highway. Dean went fumbling for something in his belt, also cursing, and whipped out a gun. A gun, for crying out loud. Who carries a gun on their person who isn't a redneck or from Texas. Sometimes both. Julia immediately "put 'em up" as the saying goes, in fear of her life, while Sammy, having got control of the car, screeched to a halt.
Turning their attention back to their uninvited guest, Dean and Sammy then demanded in chorus, "Now who the hell are you?
I hope that wasn't too bad.