O.O I'm going to go see the Yugioh movie tonight...*screams and foams* Seto Kaiba on the big screen...haaaannnnnngggh
Chapter 8
I woke up with a cry.
"Get out of the water!"
Naru jerked and the car swerved on the road. He swore.
"For Pete's sake, Mai-" Then he slammed on the brakes.
For straight ahead of us, standing tall as a black and cream colored tree, was the slim creature, its mouth-head gaping to its navel.
The wheels lost traction. Water shot up in a wave. One wheel caught asphalt, bringing the car whiplashing around. Naru's arm came out to hold me against the seat.
A thud-crunch that spiked my ears, and we stopped. The car died. Mud had splattered up half the windshield along with a splatter of dead leaves and pine needles.
"It's here!" I shrieked. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god-"
"Mai-"
"Start the car-get out of the water-"
Rather than fight with my hysteria, he turned the keys and pumped the gas. The car hummed and spat, but didn't turn over. As the heavy rain beat back some of the mud, I saw the front of the Toyota crunched around a pine tree.
I started to hyperventilate. Why hadn't the air bags gone off? How come I didn't broken my face on the dashboard, or Naru on the steering wheel? Was this just another bad dream? How would I know?
"Mai Davis, calm down right now. Panicking never does anything."
"Why is it here?" I squeaked, my hands knotted up so tightly under my chin they popped. "From my dreams-the ambulance-Naru-!"
"Breathe!"
He said it with such harsh, loud command, it shocked me into sucking in air more than anything. The spinning screaming in my head dimmed somewhat.
He he pulled out his phone from the cup holders and dialed. Instead of the emergency number, however, he pulled up Lin.
"Lin's too far away-" I started.
"No he isn't. I called him after the fire once someone would lend me a phone." I heard a click and Lin's low voice hmmed from the earpiece. "We've crashed. Something's after us, we just past mile marker twelve-"
A hand slapped on my window. I screamed, staring at the too-long, spindly fingers that nearly spanned the entire glass.
"Hurry!" cried Naru, even as I heard his phone give an unpleasant pop. "Damn it! How long has it been dead?"
Glass cracked. Another hand slapped on the windshield, also on my side of the car. They were knuckle-less, like tentacles, yet still uncannily human.
"It's after me!" I shrieked.
Naru unbuckled my seatbelt and tugged me over the center console even as long arms started bending into our vision. The windshield gave a sharp click and a several cracks appeared.
The glass on the passenger side fell in, fingers shooting towards me.
At the same time, Naru's hand flung out between me and it. The air became too thick to breathe and tense as static.
Glass shot up and out the door, along with the long arms, as though shoved out by a sudden gale of wind. I saw the rest of its long body shoot after its arms, its flesh the same texture and color of something that had died and bloated in the water.
Naru's PK. As if things couldn't get worse.
Naru pulled us out of the car and into the rain. We half ran, half tripped down the muddy slop and just missed crashing into a tree. Instead, a hand still gripped tightly to my wrist, Naru slingshot us around it to continue our fleeing tumble into the woods. I only breathed again when we reached something of even enough ground to run on, and then it was an all out sprint. Naru didn't let go of my wrist, no matter how cumbersome it made our escape. The rain lessened beneath the canopy, and twigs with fingers outstretched like claws snapped and snagged against our yukatas.
I couldn't hear it following over the crashing of our own feet and hearts.
I found myself dreading the moment Naru's heart would give out. He wasn't, under any circumstances, to use his PK. It was just too much for any body to handle, and in the time I had known him it had landed him in the hospital three times, two in which he nearly died as his heart stopped. This time, however, we were nowhere near a hospital and on the run through the woods. How much longer would he go before dropping?
Adrenaline pushed us deeper and deeper into the woods. Ferns and evergreen bushes filled the undergrowth, pushing us into zigzags and thickets of thorns. Only when my lungs felt as though they had simply caught fire and my legs weighed down with stones did Naru come to a stop and pulled me down into an earthy alcove made of the huge roots of a decaying oak. I would have never seen it if it hadn't been for him, as thick bushes covered the entrance and fern leaves draped over it like a curtain.
I heard mushrooms snap as I pressed my back against dirt and wood. Both of us panted heavily, our faces red.
"Do you feel it?" he gasped.
"Since when am I a monster detector?" But I closed my eyes anyways and tried to focus. I fought to quiet my breath, but all I could hear beyond it was the hush of rain on the leaves and my thundering heart. Even if I could, I doubt I could feel anything above my wild fear.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"I'm fine," he hissed. "You?"
"You used your PK! Shouldn't your heart be giving out or something?" I opened my eyes to squint at him through the dim shadows. He gave me an odd look, then stared at something over my shoulder as he turned his attention inward. Then, he broke out in a crazy grin.
"I'm fine."
I scowled. "This isn't the time for your stupid pride-"
"It isn't my stupid pride. I feel just the same as before, albeit terrified and exhausted. There's no pain, no tingling." His eyes widened. "Back in the ambulance, you weren't the one who used PK. It was me."
"How do you not notice yourself using PK? I thought you were trained to, you know."
"That's the thing, it can slip out in situations like that-panic and/or survival mode. I only know because of how it leaves my body afterwards, but it didn't strain my body that time. I didn't feel anything, so I thought it was you." His hands were shaking and he let go of my hand at last to rub his fingers between one another, watching them, eyes bright. "And back in the car, when we crashed, I used my PK again to hold us back, without even thinking. And then again-"
While he was getting excited, I just got more scared. Four times in one day? It must be the adrenaline, it had to be, and the moment it wore out-even if Lin were able to find us by then, would there be any coming back for him?
The mouth beast behind us suddenly seemed like nothing.
Naru was still babbling. I didn't know how much he had said I had failed to register. I reached for him, trembling.
"No. No, you should have...Naru..."
He snapped quiet and looked at me, his excitement clouding over with concern. "It's okay, Mai, I'm not dying. Well, as long as that thing doesn't find us, that is. Didn't you hear me?"
Thick, fat tears bubbled up in my eyes and lost themselves in the rainwater on my face. "I can't-I can't live if you-you can't die, please don't..." My throat twisted to tight for words.
He hushed me, wiping the tears and rain from my cheeks and pulled me to his still heaving chest. I could hear his heart thudding strong and quick.
"Listen this time. My PK became too much for me when my brother died. Because of the psychic bond we have and because we were identical twins there were two bodies to handle the brunt of both of our psychic abilities, though mainly mine, being the most destructive of the two. When he died I lost that buffer and my body couldn't handle it alone. I think-I think we've created a new bond that's allowed some of it to bleed over onto you. I think...I think because you share similar abilities to Gene, and because of...Lord, I think it might be because we had sex."
I jerked back and stared at him. "What?"
"Sex reaches all the levels of a human being-emotional, physical, mental, even psychic. I think because we made that bond-"
"So because we had sex?" I so wasn't sold on this.
"Well, it's a lot more than that, I probably couldn't just have sex with anyone and have it work, and there's no saying how permanent it is," he was growing excited again. "Granted I can't just throw around PK whenever I want because there's not saying what will happen if the bond fades-"
"Like if we don't have sex enough," I said wryly, dead panned.
His express fell into a scowl. "I thought you wanted me to live?"
"Of course I do!" I cried, offended. "But shouldn't we be staying quiet so that thing doesn't find us? Or better yet, figuring out what the hell it is and why it's been trying to kill us?"
Frowning, he leaned back into the earthen wall. I heard more mushrooms crack and though of centipedes crawling down my shirt.
Naru fingered his chin, pulling up a knee into his thinking mode. "You said 'get out of the water' at the hotel too. It wouldn't be a far stretch to think the accident at the water park might have been because of it."
I sighed. "It was. For some reason all the water turned to blood-at least, it did in my eyes. I could even smell it and taste it."
He gave me the look I knew he would once I revealed that I had failed to mention that little detail, but, luckily, he chose to fight with me over it later.
"And the ambulance got into a wreck right next to the river, after passing over it, even. I don't know if you noticed, but we spun off the road when we hit a passing flood of water. As far as I can see, all of the accidents have occurred around bodies of water."
"What about the rain?" I asked hesitantly.
"If it could get us just because of rain it wouldn't have had to wait for the ambulance to pass over the river or for us to hit that floodwater." He leaned forward and peaked his head through the foliage. After a moment, he dropped back down next to me. "I don't hear or see any bodies of water nearby, and even the rain is blocked off somewhat by the trees. It's hardly even damp in here yet. It's possible we're safe, for the time being."
But there was just a few things that didn't mix up.
"What about when we almost hit that guy-I think it was it-on the road to the hotel?"
"We must have been passing over the river."
"Then what about when we got lost in the woods? Unless that's unconnected to this."
Naru went quiet, his chin dimpling with his frown. The quiet between us pressed on, filling with heavy unknowns and doubts. All the while I kept my senses peeled and alert for signs of pursuit. My heart never settled, keeping up its wild dance against my breastbone.
At last, he spoke up.
"The most important question now is whether or not that thing will leave us alone once we get out of these mountains."