Chapter Two: On The Road
The group of teens drove down a winding highway, the only landmark being the tall green trees on each side of the road that went on for an eternity. The sky had just turned dark with the sun setting behind them. Jamie turned down the radio, Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" made the night strangely earee, as if it was a warning for them to turn back now while he still had his chance. He glanced up into the rearview mirror, the sun had already faded leaving a pitch black darkness in its place. There wasn't a car or streetlamp for miles, everyone else was asleep from their long car ride. Jamie could no longer see the road in front of him. He chugs the remaining liquid from his flask and stops the car to the side of the road.
Jamie gets out of the car and walks into the woods alone. Jamie gets out of his truck drinking the last bit of alcohol in his flask. He puts his flask back into his inner pocket as he starts to wobble into the woods. The lights from the truck are blinding. He walks a few feet until he could barely see the light behind him. He goes behind a tree and before he could pull down his zipper a wolf howls in the distance. Jamie jumps and turns to face the sound. He walks a few feet looking for the source of the noise. He turns around, throwing up behind a tree and wonders off, the headlights slowly disappearing behind him.
He marches himself in circles going deeper and deeper into the woods. The howling wolves start to change into something unheard of. He can feel someone breathing down his neck. He turns around to see no one is there. He is completely lost. He takes his phone out of his pocket to call his sister Angel but there are no bars. Distorted howling and growling circle him. He throws a rock at the source of the sound but it comes back and hits him in the head knocking him out.
An invisible creature grabs his ankles and drags him down a path knocking his signature leather jacket off his body as it gets caught on a fallen branch, blood dripping down his forehead. The creature howls in delight at the catch of the day. Looking back the creature sees the sleeping teens in the truck a mile away. Sporting its gruesome smile it runs towards the others
The sound of silence woke Angel up. Groggily, she looks around the car for her brother. "Wake up!" she screams turning on the overhead light. Everyone in the back moaning while they hide from the light. "Jamie's gone! We're in the middle of nowhere!" she exclaimed.
The boys laugh at the frantic girl, " He's probably gone into the woods to piss." Edward says matter of factly. "Turn the damn light off." Susan warns, losing her patience. Susan is not the type to mess with when she's tired. Flashbacks of little Jimmy flash in Angel's eyes as she hurriedly obeys this sleeping demon.
Moments later the truck quiets down, Angel sits in her seat, arms crossed, starring out of the window waiting on her brother's return. She checks the time on her phone for the hundredth time. 10:24 burned into her retinas. The screen blackens. "Damn" she mutters under her breath as she searches for the charger. "Who had it last?" She studies the sleeping creatures in the back. Edward sleeping on his arm that is propped on the windowsill. The battery from his bluetooth headphones had died, or it was turned off. Angel has never seen him willingly turn it off before. He is the first suspect. Next to him was Thomas leaning on Susan's shoulder. Angel stares at his brown hair hanging over his beautiful face, twinged with concern and jealousy. She's going to have to switch seats with Susan before they leave again. Finally she looks at Susan, her blonde hair mixing into Thomas' perfect hair as their heads touch. Envy was never Angel's strong suit but she could never get between Susan and Thomas. No matter how much she wanted him, Susan scares her too much. Plus Angel had a plan to make Thomas hers by the end of this trip.
Angel looks down at Susan's journal lying on top was Susan's charging phone. Can she reach it without touching the journal? Could she grab it without waking Susan up? Angel slowly follows the cord long enough to get a good pull. The phone suddenly lights up. "Ha" Angel thinks to herself, "she won't need it now." She tugs on the phone charger a little harder hoping to wiggle it off the phone's charging port. The movement wakes up Susan. Susan turns to Angel to yell at her when the color in her face drains and she lets out a loud scream waking up the boys beside her. Edward jumping up ready to punch whatever caused the scream while Thomas holds on to Susan as a shield. "What the fuck was that Susan!?" Angel asks mildly concern as to what is behind her to make this sleeping demon scared. Susan trying not to scream again quietly yet shakingly points towards the floating face staring at the back of Angel's head hungrily. Angel gets a shiver in her spine. Thomas quickly turns on the nearest camera and points it behind Angel. "Do I have to look?" She squeaked. All three of them shake their head while they slowly unbuckle their seatbelts preparing to run. Angel gulps, slowly turning around. The floating face with glowing red eyes and grey see-through hair excitedly groans in hunger. It had decided this red headed girl in pink looked more appetizing in the front than the back. "Are the doors locked?" She asked the others behind her frozen to her chair.
"I think so." Susan replied.
"Should be Ange." Thomas says trying to be brave for the camera yet holding his arm from shaking.
Edward, the only one brave enough to move checks the doors. "The doors are secured." he says heroically. Angel swallows her fear and slowly reaches for the keys. Turning the car over while she slides into the driver seat. She turns on the windshield wipers hoping that would knock the floating head away. It did nothing. The wipers were sliding through the head. The lights showing nothing attached to the head. "It isn't solid!" Angel yells out. "Drive! Drive! Drive!" the others begged. Angel didn't have to be told twice. She hit the gas turning the car into reverse. Terrified of what would happen if the ghost somehow faded into the car with them had sped off into the opposite direction down the winding road. Thomas turns around in an attempt to film the monster chasing after them. Looking back Thomas sees red and blue lights starting to flash behind them. "Slow down Ange! You're getting pulled over!" The truck speeds up as Angel panics. "Guys…" she begins. "Guys I just remembered…"
"SHE CAN'T DRIVE!" everyone in the back screams grabbing everything they could to cushion them from the likely crash.
"Someone has to stop the car before this turns into a high speed chase!" Edward exclaimed under his Aliens Are Real backpack.
"I think it already has!" Susan yells using her pillow as a shield, looking back at the black and white car speeding up, its siren blaring in the short distance.
Thomas, the only one of them able to move to the front, bravely climbs over to the passenger seat and puts on his seatbelt. Holding on to the edge of his seat he starts to explain how to stop the truck. "OK Ange. I'm going to talk you through it." he grabs the wheel to steady the truck. "We are going too fast you have to SLOWLY take your foot off the pedal." Angel takes her foot off and the truck starts to slow down. "Great! Great! You're doing great!" He starts to aim the truck to the side of the road. "Now slowly put your foot on the pedal beside it." The car slowly stops to a halt, the four of them gasp taking all the air out of the truck. The siren stops as the cop pulls up behind them. "What in tarnation were you thinkin?" The cop announced, when he made it to the window. The teenagers immediately tell the police officer about the monster they had just escaped. "One at a time! One at a time!" He said pointing to Thomas. "Tell me what happened." The cop says clicking his pen.
"Well that's sexist." Thomas began. "We were going on a road trip for the summer when Jamie pulled off the road and disappeared…." Thomas looked shocked as he looked at the others.
"JAMIE!" they all said in unison. Angel begins. "We left my brother with the monster! He could be dead!"
"Monster?" the police officer asked, mildly concerned, glancing at the car tag. "You said ya'll aren't from around here right? Where exactly did you last see him?"
Angel switched seats with Thomas as he led the cop back to the place they saw the red eyed face. The truck's lights shining on a crashed car that would have collided into them if they had stayed.
The police officer gets out of his car and immediately swoops into action. "There's nobody inside!" He shouts out to the kids. "If you have flashlights I could use your help finding the owner of this car. He could be badly hurt so if you see anyone shout. Do not touch!" He walked towards the front of the car shining the light on the ground. The group turned the flash on their phones and joined the search. Susan found red shiny liquid trailing off into the woods. "Guys...I think I found something." Everyone joined her at the edge of the woods. Shining their lights at the trees the police officer goes in first, then Susan and Edward, Thomas in the back filming their trek into the scary woods. Angel stays behind too scared to join them. She looks around at the bloody car crash and runs into the woods after them.
Susan breaks the silence. "Edward please tell me this is one of your jokes so we can go home." Edward stays silent, the flashlight on his phone shakes on the ground. Susan pretends to not notice it as she continues walking ahead. The police officer too far ahead to see anymore. Susan trips over a jacket abandoned on the ground. Edward helps her stand up while Angel and Thomas find their way towards them.
"Are you ok?" Edward asks holding her close. "Yes I'm fine. Let's keep looking." Susan steps on her foot and yelps out in pain. "No no I am not!" she says as she wobbles herself to a nearby stump to take off her boot. Her and Edward shine their phones on her foot showing a huge black bruise on her ankle. Thomas prods the bruise a little bit trying to remember what his mother taught him about breaks. "I don't think it's broken. But it is going to hurt. After this you are going to have to ice it a lot." Susan puts her boot back on and props it on the looks over at Angel who has been awfully quiet this whole time.
"Angel are you alright?" Susan asks concerned. Angel on her knees holding the object that tripped Susan. "It's Jamie's." she says blankly. Everyone gathers around to look at the black leather jacket. "You're right. He does own one but we can't be positive it's his." Thomas says trying to defuse the situation. Suddenly the wolves howl and the temperature suddenly drops. Susan takes her journal out of her bag and frantically flips pages, using her phone as light. "Guys we have to go now!" She gives up finding the page and runs back to the truck limping trying to ignore the pain. Everyone else follows. The lights from the truck grow brighter as they run closer and closer to the edge of the woods. An invisible creature chases after them. Angel trips at the edge and gets dragged back in by invisible hands. Susan jumps in front of Angel holding up her journal as she grabs at the bloody trail and slaps the pages. In a flash of light the creatures leave in a puff of smoke. Everyone panting in an attempt to catch their breath, stare at Susan and her now bloody book.