Rise of a Queen

Chapter 6

The stars held my attention for the remainder of the night, dusted across an endless black sky like diamonds and pearls, shining and twinkling and dancing while I watched. But it wasn't long before shades of grey invaded and chased away the radiance of those stars, replacing their glow with a tedious amount of light that left the world looking dreary and tired. Much as I felt, no doubt my comrades as well.

    At no point had my eyes closed and yet, I was surprised to see dawn breaching the land. With the growing light came a flood of cars, one by one joining us on the road until they surrounded us on all sides and slowed our previously rapid travel. Throughout the night we traveled along backroads, riding with the wind at a speed none could match. Eventually, those backroads transformed to city roads, which led to highways, and soon to interstates. Which is where we are now, on a six lane road with angry drivers on their morning commute.

    One car beside us carried a woman behind the wheel, talking away on her cellphone while navigating traffic. In the back seat was a young girl, strapped into her carseat while her doll hung hazardously out the window. Lumiere glanced at the mother and shook his head in disapproval.

    When the little girl saw us beside them, she smiled and waved her doll at me. I returned her smile and waved back, holding her attention while we both traveled down the road. She called out wildly to her mother who ignored her and spoke louder into her phone. I frowned at the woman's negligence to her daughter. The girl and I continued a silent conversation with silly faces and random hand gestures a while longer before we pulled ahead of them, and lost them in the traffic.

    I've done everything in my power not to look at my phone during this ride for several reasons, the primary one being that I didn't want to accidentally drop my phone. The second reason was because I didn't want to see a text from Toby telling me that our father has finally cracked and is abusing my brother. Of course that would never happen, because our father worships Toby, but the thought is always lingering in the back of my mind like an itch you can't scratch.

    And lastly, I've been avoiding my phone because I don't want to know what time it is. The passing of night into day was much easier without counting the minutes. But my inquisition got the best of me and with so many people on the road, I could only assume time was creeping into the mid hours of premature morning.

     With a meticulous hold that would require a crowbar to release, I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked the time only to find that it was hours past what I originally thought. Dawn now shifted away from the pastel shades of an early morning and brought with it vibrant colors that promised a lovely, sunny day. It was already ten o'clock in the morning, quick math calculated that we have been driving for nearly eleven hours.

    Although the lullaby of the wind and stars coaxed my sleep, I fought to stay awake and awake I remained. As I guessed, it was a very long night but it was easier to keep myself busy with the light of day. Looking back, it certainly hasn't felt like eleven hours since leaving the compound.

    Then again, I'm sure I couldn't judge passing time properly when my butt went numb within the first hour of our ride.

    In the dark, everything looked the same no matter how many miles we traveled or how hard I analyzed. But in the light, my surroundings were foreign, if not in design then by location alone. Southern California was dry but there were patches of grass which gave color to the otherwise dusty landscape. But here, cracked earth had taken over and swallowed the nutrition any plant might have thirsted for. Besides small bushes along the roadside and the few thick trees which overcame the hardships of this terrain, the rest of the land to my left and to my right was fairly barren.