An aspiring eighteen-year-old author realizes she is a character in an unwritten horror novel and must use her storytelling knowledge to survive.
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Eighteen-year-old romance writer, I...
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"Oh, shit!" Atem shouted as he put the car in drive and hit the gas. The car kicked up dirt and dust as the wheels peeled out, trying to gain traction. We turned to see a pair of bright headlights inches from the bumper.
"Faster!" Zeke shouted. The bright high beams belonged to a truck that lit up the inside of our car like daylight. The roaring of its diesel engine frightened me more than the possibility of being hit by its metal bulk. Zeke's face lit up stark white from the light as he yelled instructions. "Go left, go left! He's gonna hit us."
But it was too late. The truck slammed into us from the rear. Before the jerk sent me forward, the impact of the bumpers startled me. The car headed straight toward the trees on the edge of the dirt road, but Atem expertly maneuvered us back in the center, keeping us from crashing.
The ranger station glowed from the warm yellow porch light as we sped by. We passed the building so fast I could barely make out the dark humanlike figure limply dangling from the large welcome sign. Suspended from a cable, the form eerily swung back and forth, feet above the ground. Only the light from the porch illuminated the figure enough to make it out against the darkness and fog surrounding it.
I wanted to bring attention to the swaying figure, but the car sped up, putting space between us and the vehicle on our tail, bringing my focus back to the immediate danger. As we lost the truck to the fog, only the mist glowed from the bright headlights behind us. The fog grew thicker up ahead as if it were consciously trying to force Atem to slow the car, but he refused, pushing on. I hoped to break through the haze to the highway at any moment. I longed to feel the even and smooth asphalt beneath the car's tires.
"I think you lost him," Zeke said with a sigh. Finally, turning back in his seat to face forward.
"I doubt that." Something told me relief was nowhere in sight. From the ominous fog emerged the noisy engine of the machine before the lights plowed through, illuminating us in its brightness again. The horn blared nonstop, sending a rumble through my body. I covered my ears to save my eardrums from damage. "What are they doing? What do they want?"
"They're trying to kill us!" Felicity screamed.
The vehicle was on our tail, so close I expected the smash to our bumper. However, the driver flashed its headlights off and on, over and over, from high beams to complete darkness, confusing and disorienting me.
I squinted my eyes through the high beams to get a look at the driver whenever he turned the lights off. I memorized the rhythm as the lights blinked. As soon as the lights went out, my eyes focused on the grotesque creature in the driver's seat and its hanging jaw that seemed to stay attached by only a few stretched and gangly strings of flesh. Its eyes were wide and unblinking, and the shape of the head resembled nothing of a human.
The vehicle gained speed, quickly closing the gap between us.
I screamed more from the gruesome sight than the second slam of metal to metal. Each of us shifted to the right as the vehicle hit, and amongst the sound of the loud engine revving up, Felicity's phone blasted a hip-hop song.
