Thanks for the review! They honestly make my day.
Apologies for the little bit of bouncing back and forth we're doing time-wise here. But hell, if The Witcher can do it, so can I.
At least I'm not flip flopping decades...
(PS, if you haven't watched The Witcher, in this Dark Time of Lucifer Famine, you're missing out ;)
3 hours earlier...
When Chloe made it back to the trailhead, her heart was pounding. Not just from exertion, because she'd really pushed herself hiking out, but from panic.
No Lucifer.
It'd been six hours now and he hadn't returned to the campsite, she hadn't seen him on the trail, and he wasn't in the car, in some vain protest at roughing it.
He was just gone.
This wasn't like him.
Something was wrong, she could feel it, and she had no idea where to start to find out what.
If he'd left for food, then he'd headed to the nearest town. That's where she needed to go.
She pulled her phone up. She'd left the tent, the cooler, and his gear at the campsite, just in case he came back. Of course she'd left his phone too, but she still didn't have any bars on her own phone for him to reach her anyway.
If only he'd taken his cell. If only she hadn't made that stupid deal with him, she could call or track him once she got to town!
But no, she had to make some dumbass deal, for sex, because of course.
Typical Lucifer!
Her fear was making her angry. She hated that.
Shaking her head to it, she stomped the last few yards to her car, briefly taking in the dark, rusted SUV parked next to her own.
It was covered in stickers, and a few made her smile, despite her worries.
There was a white silhouette of a tall shaggy man, with the words 'Gone Squatchin'. A couple of X-Files logos, alien heads, and an emphatic 'I BELIEVE'. A bunch of national and state park passes going back years, NRA membership decals, and another sticker that caught her eye on the side as she dumped her backpack into her own car:
Official Sasquatch Hunting License
She snorted.
God, people were weird.
Starting the car, she eased out of the spot, her eye caught again by the mass of ridiculous stickers.
The license plate below them made her pause.
HNTN4BF
She smirked.
Were they really roaming around the woods with guns trying to hunt Bigfoot?
That was hilarious.
The smirk slowly fell flat.
She'd heard some cracks that might have been gunshots while she'd been hiking. Certainly nothing high powered though - maybe a .22?
Hunting a giant ape guy with a .22?
Wasn't that a little... optimistic?
Chloe frowned, the world narrowing to that license plate as her car idled.
What if... they saw something else instead? Something that defied explanation?
Like... a guy with wings?
Her skin grew cold.
What if... they saw Lucifer flying, and they shot at him?
What if they shot him out of the sky?!
She suddenly felt sick.
Was it reasonable? Did it make sense? Was she being ridiculous?!
She didn't like this 'what if' at all. But he'd been gone too long now, and it wasn't something he would do to her if everything was okay.
She needed help, NOW.
Lifting her hands together, Chloe began to pray.