Dewayne froze, his body stretched across the seat as if he would climb out of my door after me. I closed the passenger door behind me, keeping my eyes and concentration on him as I rounded the car, popped his door open, and reached into his pants pockets.

I grabbed all the money from inside, feeling much more justified in doing it now that I had a bloody nose that proved what type of man he was. There was actually alot, and I decided that he most likely was the type to go out patrolling for hookers and doing drugs.

Pocketing the money, I scorched the wallet and then yanked his frozen form from the car. He landed with a thud on the pavement and I glanced around, making sure there were no cameras in the deserted parking lot.

Even if there were,I was fairly certain that the semis all around us were obscuring the view. After I got in, I rolled the window down. "This car will be at the closest gas station to the interstate." I told him, knowing he could hear me, even if he couldn't move. "Feel free to call the cops and we'll tell them all about me taking your car to get away before you could beat me to death."

With that, I shifted the already-started car into drive, unleashed him from his binding spell, and took off. He jumped up and chased after the car but I got away pretty quickly.

I'd remembered the route back to town, in case he tried to lie and take me somewhere without my knowledge. Pulling into the Chevron near the interstate on-ramp, I parked the car around the side where nobody else was parked. Using the sleeve of my shirt, I covered my hand before pressing the trunk release button.

I put on my hood before getting out of the car, in case there were cameras in the parkinglot.

I dug through the trunk, finding lots of old clothes. Grabbing a few particularly gross shirts, I wiped down the door handles, steering wheel, the ignition and keys, the front seats, and the back door handles after I got my backpack out. Finding a lighter in the glove box, I lit the shirts on fire and sat them in the floorboards all over the car.

Then, before the fire could draw attention, I took off toward a Best Western that I'd seen further down the street. I knew they'd ID though and since I had no ID that I could actually use, I couldn't rent a room, so I followed the street until I found a rinky dink motel that looked shady enough to not ID.

I was right, and within ten minutes, I was showering. After that, I went back to the manager's office and a few minutes of flirting gained me access to the staff laundry room, where I washed and dried my clothes.

While they were drying, I went back to my room, intent on watching some T.V. until they were done, but of course, I fell asleep. I'd only slept for an hour or two when a loud knock came on the door. I stood quickly, hoping to get my clothes without the manager trying to talk his way into my room. I yanked the door open, forcing a smile onto my face. But the manager wasn't smiling back.

The manager wasn't there. Derek was.

Derek's POV

We reached Roanoke after three and a half hours, pulling in at a little before five o'clock. We stopped at the first gas station we saw, and amazingly, I picked up Tori's scent. Shouldn't have been too surprised though, since a flock of cop cars were sealing off part of the parking lot.

Tori's scent pulled two ways, towards the burnt car they were digging through, and down the sidewalk. Unlike Chloe's fake flowery smell, Tori smelled of fabric softener, you know the clean linen smell? And a little of apples. It was wierd, but when I smelled Tori, I always imagined sitting in a backyard, surrounded by apple trees, with bright green grass and a clothesline that blew in the wind.

Stupid, I knew. But it's what I thought of. This time though, I could smell something else. Something familiar but not strong enough to really recognize it. The idea skirted my mind and I couldn't quite put a finger on it.

"You smell her?" Chloe asked. She'd been attempting to talk to me, and I was grateful for it, but too stressed to really talk back.

"Yeah." I said, pointing down the sidewalk. "She went that way. After she did that." I motioned toward the cops. Chloe's eyes widened but then she looked down the street. "Where'd you think she'd go?"

"I don't know." I said truthfully. "But she's on foot. And I'm going to follow on foot to smell better." I looked to my dad. "Follow me." And then I took off in a run down the street. I stopped for a moment, smelling her scent strongly in one spot, standing in front of to Best Western, but then it continued down the road. She must've stopped there for a moment.

Not quite caring why she didn't stay there, I kept down the sidewalk in a full sprint until I was at the door of a cheap little motel. Lorenzo's, it was called. And it looked like the type of places we'd been staying at for the last few weeks. At least she was being smart.

Following her scent into the office, I realized she'd came into the room numerous times and her scent even went behind the counter. My eyes narrowed. What could she possibly be doing back there?

Then a man came out of the back room, holding a small basket of clothes. Not motel towels or linens, but actually girly clothes. Clothes that reeked of Tori's unique scent. He looked as if he was leaving the office until he saw me. He stopped, set the basket down on the counter, and looked at me questioningly.

I took a leap of faith. "Her stuff ready?" I asked.

The man's eyes narrowed. "Huh?"

I glanced down at the sign in sheet, where Tori's handwriting was on the last line, identifying herself as Vicki Souza. Room 6 had been scrawled down in the next column. I was completely stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered and looked up. "Vicki sent me for her things." I told him.

"Oh."he said dully, sliding the basket over. "I wasn't aware there were two guests in that room." He looked disapproving.

"I'm her boyfriend." I lied quickly, wondering where I came up with these things. "But I live in town. She's visiting and didn't want to stay in the house with my mother."

"Mmmm." he said, looking at me as if I was a liar.

"Well, thank you." I said quickly, grabbing her clothes. "You know, for the clothes."

He nodded and I left the room, following Tori's scent down the side of the building. I held up a finger to the van, signaling dad to wait a minute and he nodded. I don't know why he should wait though. It wasn't like Tori was the closest to me. Maybe Chloe should be the one to confront her. But then again, all I could think about was the name she'd assumed. Vicki Souza.

Vicki was obvious. Instead of shortening Victoria to Tori, it was Vicki. But she'd used Souza. That had to mean she really liked me, right?

Finally, I reached the room, knocked hard, and waited. I heard the deep sigh-breathing along with the television, that told me Tori was asleep and I sighed. Unlike Chloe, it seemed that sleeping was when Tori could relax. Instead of bringing back her memories, it was the only time she got away from them. I hated to do it, but I knocked again, harder, and I heard her gasp before a shuffling as she stood and came to the door. It opened quickly and the sleepy smile she had on her tired face dissolved as she processed that it was me.

I almost winced at the clench of my heart but there was something more important to do. And right when I was about to lay into her for being a moron and coward, I finally realized what the odd odor had been. Blood. I could smell blood somewhere and I pushed past her, going straight to the bathroom where I found bloodied toilet paper in the waste basket.

I whirled around to confront her and she was right there, mere feet from me, looking nervous and apologetic and scared and hesitantly hopeful. I stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders. Involuntarily, I growled, "Victoria." in a warning tone, and then crushed my lips to hers.