American Woman: Part 2
The girls enjoyed dinner and spent the evening with Danni getting to know Frankie again as well as getting to know Alexis for the first time. It was a great deal of fun and Alexis had to admit that seeing the smile on Frankie's face again made it seem like maybe some how, life could get back to normal. Finally they finished dinner and dropped the younger girl off then headed back to the apartment. Danni watched her friend drive for a few seconds in silence then commented.
"Okay so tell me what's bothering you?" She demanded
"First off, how did you know something was bothering me?"
"Frankie, don't be dumb. I've been able to tell when something was wrong with you from almost the day that you and I met, now come on out with it? Did some guy out here break your heart? Tell me, I'll go break his kneecaps!"
Frankie broke into a small laugh, "No, I have in fact found a guy out here. NO he didn't break my heart; in fact he's probably the most wonderful guy I've ever met."
"Okay then, so you got a great job, you have a new friend, and you have the guy that you've always wanted," Danni ticked off, "So tell me why you look like someone tore your heart out and stomped on it?"
Frankie sighed, "I wish it were that simple to tell you Danni. I wish that I could spill everything that I've learned in the last couple of weeks to you. The problem is, even IF I told you I don't think you'd believe me."
"Well look, unless your dating Charles Manson or someone, I don't think id find it that hard to believe."
"Well…" Frankie trailed off.
Danni shook her head for a moment and then looked up glancing out in the rear view mirror. What she saw not too far off from them was a set of headlights, the kind you'd see on a very large truck, barreling down on them.
"FRANKIE!" She yelled and pointed.
The girl who was driving took a quick glance into the mirror and then looked back over her shoulder.
"OH SLAG it's HIM!" then preceded to floor board it and took off down the road in her truck.
"YOU KNOW that nut bar back there!" Danni demanded as the other girl tore off out of town.
"Yah I know him. He's …. After me," she told her friend.
Danni suddenly looked at the other girl and took into account how completely and utterly flat her voice had gone right then. It was as if someone took all of the emotion that had been coloring her a few seconds later and pulled it out of her. Her face had gone completely white and something some how had changed about her eyes. Danni watched as she put the truck into another gear and continued trying to get away from the maniac who had decided to chase them down a deserted California highway.
Danni kept hanging on and staring at the strange person her friend had become when the black semi that was after them finally caught them. It was a lot bigger than Frankie's truck, and from the looks of it was going about ten times as fast. So when it smacked into the back bumper and Frankie jerked her wheel in response, her truck went fishtailing into the dusty ground on either side of the road and finally spinning to a complete stop.
Frankie glared in the direction of the thing that had now vanished with a look that said she was ready to kill something. Danni was still holding on to the dashboard trying to guess what had happened and why this person was trying to kill them.
"Danika," She said in a voice that make her friend freeze, "Whatever happens, what ever you see, I want you to stay in this truck do you hear me?"
"What do you mean?" Danni gasped, "Look I know you're a good shot Frankie but you can't…"
"DANNI Just stay in the dammed truck!" She ordered and the proceeded to get out, flip the locks on and wait there in the middle of the dark desert for this thing to come back.
Danni for her part realized that some how the locks were fastened and started pounding on the door, demanding that her friend either get back in the car, or that she let her out.
"DON'T you do this Frankie! You can't fight that person! FRANKIE! HE'LL KILL YOU! PLEASE!" She continued to wail at the other girl through the glass, "FRANKIE PLEASE! Please get back in here!"
"Danni," She turned and looked back at her for a second, "I'm sorry but this time. You can't protect me."
Danni looked up off down that road and saw that the black truck from before was approaching again. It pulled off the road and began barreling straight at her friend, who just kept on standing there with a look on her face that spoke volumes. Something that Danni had never seen a very strange combination of hate, and a desire for revenge. That was enough to shock her out of her hysterics for a moment. In all of the years that Danni had known this girl, she had been the one that never held grudges. Frankie had been the one to more than once, force Danni to let something go. That holding on to any kind of bloodlust, no matter how minor, would only lead to pain and suffering on both sides. Yet there she stood standing in the dust of the desert, looking at this thing that could kill her with one try, wanting nothing more than to see it destroyed.
Danni kept on gaping over that and then she was giving some else entirely to freak over. As she stood there and watched her friend changed some how. It wasn't any thing like she had ever seen any where else, or that she as an artist had ever envisioned. Just one second there stood Fankie, and in the next something else was in her place. Something that looked like her friend but was wholly mechanical. Despite that it was still something that managed to some how make clear the point that it was indeed alive.
She was alive and she had every intention of standing her ground against this thing that was now coming to harm her and her friend. The black truck that had been charging came to a stop about three feet from the thing that her friend was now and then changed. Somehow unfolding and becoming something that was like the being Frankie now was, but different. More… masculine.
"Hello Axis," Danni heard her friend growl "Is there a reason you're following me?"
"You know why I keep following you Ariel," Some how despite his covered face the thing sneered looked down and stared into the truck. "I see you have your friend with you, is she one of you?"
"That's something that you're never going to know. Now leave, unless you want me to kill you."
"Hehe your nothing like the girl I remember Ariel," He laughed softly.
"You saw to that didn't you?" She asked.
"I've seen a great deal of things," His expression changed from mocking her to something else Danni couldn't quite place.
"You are a monster plain and simple, and if you give me a reason to end that miserable excuse for a life you have Axis, don't think I won't."
"I know you'd love to kill me," He folded his arms and turned away from her for a second, "I also know what kind of weakness you have."
With that he turned again and looked down at the truck that was holding Danni. Danni her self had about two seconds to register what was going to happen when something of the black being connected with the truck and it went flying. That last thing Danni heard before her own head smacked into the side of the vehicle was the thing that her friend had become screaming her name.
(AN: Sorry about the flub.. GRRS. CHEEP A word processor!)
