Chapter 3: Who died?

We drove slowly until we reached Spokane where the truck made a final groaning sound and died.

"Can we please buy a car now?"

I whined. Charlie rolled his eyes and nodded. We decided to actually ditch the vehicle after taking off the plates and walked to a nice, large, expensive looking car dealership.

Dad let his inner car enthusiast go nuts and ended up with a sleek two seater corvette ZR1 in a dark midnight blue color. He refused to even look at the price tag preferring to talk in gibberish, aka the engine, the power etc etc etc.

I chose something that looked less like K.I.T.T., was cuter and just as fast... I think. I chose a Porsce Boxter in a soft baby purple color. Unable to resist the salesman's beating heart I followed him in the dinky bathroom, my eyes never leaving the popping vain on his neck. Hearing my high heels the salesman turned to me and without thinking I pushed him back to the dirty yellow tiles and bitt down on his neck hard.

The man never had time to scream as I gulped the sweet nectar his blood was to me. When I was filled and the ache on my neck was long gone I pushed him away from me.

"oh my god"

I exclaimed and fell on my knees next to the dead salesman. his nametag on his shirt wrote bob.

"I'm sorry Bob, I really am"

I cleaned myself in the sink and threw my blood stained white shirt in the garbage and walked outside again feeling much better. However I was unable to meet Charlie's eyes as I signed the paperwork and got into my brand new car.

We drove till night fell, in our respective cars not talking. when the silence got to me I called Charlie.

"I'm sorry daddy"

"Did you kill him Bells?"

"yeah..."

I mattered a couple tears drying on my cheeks. A few hours later we pulled into a small town called Billing in Montana, had dinner and got a room. I glared at the young guy at the reception who turned the question

"double bed or two twins"

to a dirty thought. It was only when I woke up the next day that I realized I had fallen asleep in my clothes. I made a yuck sound when I had to put on the same dirty clothes and underwear after my shower and shook Charlie hard enough to wake him up.

"what? who? why?"

"Time to wake up. Bella. We need to hit the road and we need clothes"

I replied each question. Charlie nodded rubbing his eyes and shuffled to the bathroom. It took us more than hour to drive in a large mall and buy everything from clothes, to underwear, to toiletries and a stop at an electronics store. After lunch we returned to our cars and didn't stop driving till nightfall when we reached Omaha when we pulled over for gas, and dinner.

"hungry bells?"

dad asked before he ordered every single burger on the menu

"not just for food"

I muttered as my stomach gurgled and the ache in my throat became stronger. I was able to ignore it though once we got out of the diner. In the confines of my car it was easy to ignore it and in the company of Charlie? Well it wasn't as easy but the thought 'do not eat your father' mentally repeating in my head helped a lot.

Next day we were on the road again.

I had woken up early and decided to pass the time by going to get breakfast, a large order of eggs & bacon and a huge cup of coffee for Charlie, just the waitress and coffee for me.

"Bells do you think we can drive it all at once? it should be about fifteen hours"

"we can try"

I joked and we drove ahead. We were outside Lexington when a sily thought came to me and called dad

"does this remind you of top gear too?"

charlie burst laughing. I pushed the gas a bit more and drove to the lane next to his as he replied

"now that you mention it, it does"

He replied and hit the gas making us do a little drag race till the next town when a few police cars made us slow down. This way we arrived in virginia and stopped for dinner and gas in a quaint little town near mystic falls, Charlie's hometown in the Virginia Beach when we saw the Law Enforcement Museum.

Dad's eyes were big as saucers, I couldn't say no to that face, not to mention I couldn't feel my butt from driving so long. We walked inside.

As we followed the tired and bored cop that acted as a tour guide Charlie was running after him with the expression of the cat that just ate the canary. And dragged me along. At one point we were told that the cops in 1929 were riding Harley Davidson, in the idea of Charlie on a Harley sent me to a fit on giggles, at dad disapproving glare I giggled even harder and leaned to tell him I'd never seen him on one and his mouth started to twitch. The moment he was ready to start laughing I reminded him

"We are in a museum Charlie, shush".

"Now that is an intimidating cruiser"

When we saw the first car cruiser in 1949.

"You can walk faster than that dad"

I mocked and soon enough the tour was over. as we walked outside to the fresh crisp air Charlie's phone rang and his face turned sour. a few minutes later he hang up and turned to me.

"Liz's ex-husband just died bells. we need to hurry"

I nodded mutely and got in my car. Liz's ex-husband? He had left aunt Liz about ten years ago after coming clean on being gay and having a boyfriend. I didn't know they were together again.

Coming to think about it there is a lot I don't know about our extended family or mystic falls. Charlie never wanted to talk about it and mom had never been there.

Soon Charlie took a right turn and I followed. We drove past a rather large bridge and we reached the town.