*Continuation of chapter one*

A chill went down my spine. "Los Angeles," she lied, handing over twenty and a ten, trying to keep her hand from shaking. "Going to go live with my boyfriend."
Myrna Lee took her money, but kept her beady eyes fixed on her face.
"How far is the next town, or where I can get something to eat?" she asked the clerk, who finally averted her eyes. She could feel her heart pounding.
"We-ell, let me think." Myrna Lee put her change down on the counter and tapped her chin. "There's Amite, Shiloh, Independence, then Tickfaw, and then Hammond. I reckon it depends on how hungry you are. There are more choices in Hammond, I'd imagine. College town."
"And how far is that?" Don't act too interested in Hammond. Even if she isn't one of them, they could always ask her, and you don't want to give too much away.
"Twenty, thirty minutes maybe. It ain't far."
"And New Orleans?"
"New Orleans? 'Bout another hour past Hammond." Myrna Lee grimaced again. "It ain't the same since the hurricane, though. You just keep taking 55 past Hammond, and then you go east on I-10. You pick it up out in the swamp. I-10'll take you right to New Orleans."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. You have a happy Christmas now."
Sue wished her the same, then picked up the doughnuts and coffee and walked back out to the car. Hooking the nozzle into the tank and setting the latch so she didn't have to hold it, she wolfed down the doughnuts. Then she took another long sip of the coffee. When the gas tank clicked that she was full, she replaced the nozzle back onto the pump and climbed back into the car.
She sat there for a few moments after starting the ignition. It was still raining, and an eighteen-wheeler flew past on I-55, throwing up a huge spray of water.
"Almost there," she said out loud, and then felt panic starting to creep into her brain. What if this was all for nothing? What if there's nothing she can do to help me? What if she's not even there? What if there's nothing anyone can do to help me? I don't even know why I'm going to see Dr. Marshall---but she is an expert, and the girl said she could help me. but this could still all just be a fool's errand, the delusions of a crazy girl, a crazy girl who claims she---
"Stop it," Sue said, pounding the steering wheel with both hands. "This isn't going to help."
Her eyes filled with tears. Sue sat there for a full minute and let the panic sweep over her. Her body began to tremble, ans she put her head down on the steering wheel and let the tears come out. After a few moments, she took a deep breath and regained control of herself. "Okay, that's enough of that," she said aloud.
She glanced out the window. Myrna Lee had come outside and was staring at her, smoking a cigarette. Sue wiped at her face, smiled, and gave Myrna Lee a friendly wave, even though fear was starting to inch its insidious way back into her mind. So much for acting normal, she thought grimly as she slipped the car into gear and rolled out of the parking lot. I need to put some distance between me and this place.
There was no traffic coming, so she sped up as she headed back onto the highway. The eighteen-wheeler was just taillights in the mist far ahead of her. She got the car back up to seventy-one miles an hour and turned the cruise control back on, then allowed herself to relax a little bit. But within a few miles, she was back to glancing in the rearview mirror every minute or so to make sure no one was behind her.
I'm being stupid, Sue reminded herself again. Even if they are coming after me, how would I know it was them behind me? I wouldn't know until it was too late, until they had me---
"Stop it," she said, and turned the radio up louder. Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plain...
She wished so much she had managed to grab her iPod, or at least a handful of CDs. Every muscle, every bone, every joint in her body ached with fatigue. Sue's eyelids began drooping again. The coffee hadn't helped at all, other than churn up more acid in her stomach. She grabbed the pack of Rolaids she's bought a hundred years ago, it seemed, in North Carolina and chewed on two. Rolling the window all the way down in spite of the rain, she took a long deep breath of cold air. Her hair blew back into a mass of tangles and her teeth began to chatter, but it was better than falling asleep again.