CHAPTER 62

Jamie drove slowly through the dark night, his eyes paying careful attention to the road. Even with the sound of the engine cutting through the night, he could still hear his heart beating. His Dad may think that he had bluffed him, but Jamie knew. This was very serious or else his Dad would never have given him the keys to the Jeep.

"Stop it," he told himself as he tried to concentrate on the dirt and gravel road.

Didn't his grandmother always say something about it doesn't do one any good to brood upon something?

"Enough Carl James King," he scolded himself.

Jamie decided right then that he needed something to help him out. He left his foot off the gas and slowed the vehicle down; not that he was going that fast anyhow. Carefully, he reached over and turned the radio on.

Then, he pressed the scan button until it settled on a radio station, which took it a bit to do. Obviously this area of Pennsylvania didn't have much of a selection, not like back home. But, it did find one and stopped, lending the gentle sounds of a country ballad to the eerie black silence around him.

Okay, so it wasn't exactly his first choice but it did beat that jazz station his mom liked to listen to when she insisted she had to relax a little while driving. Besides, this station had that cute frog for a logo and he'd seen the yellow bumper stickers with the little froggy on the backs of many vehicles as they'd gotten closer to the cabin the day they had arrived.

With the music to help settle his nerves, he pressed down on the gas again and began motoring along the lonely dark road.

"I can do this," he told himself.

And he was, fairly well too, until he began rounding the sharp curve.

An eerie glow of bluish green dots appeared in the middle of the road.

It was at that moment that several deer chose to run across the dirt road, right in front of the Jeep.

Their eyes glowed in the beams from the headlights and Jamie reacted on instinct, his foot slamming down on the brake hard.

It all happened so fast that Jamie didn't have time to react any further. In a flash, the Jeep began skidding on the gravel and then collided with one of the deer.

There was a sudden jolt and then it seemed to Jamie as though his world began tilting sideways.

Then, everything went dark.