Wind

• • T H R E E • •

I got up from the table, the chair screeching as I pushed it out behind me, and I made for the door.

"Harper, wait!" she called, getting up and going after me. "I'm sorry, can we just talk about this for a second?" She grabbed me by the arm.

"There's nothing to talk about, Lydia. What's there to talk about? We're done." I removed her hand from my arm and headed towards the door.

She called my name again and again, but I ignored her, blinking back tears. As soon as I stepped out of the house, an icy blast of wind shot through me. I rushed to my car, yanked the door open and got in. I could see her coming towards me. Her blonde hair swirled around her head as the wind tore at it. I started the engine and pulled onto the street before she could reach me. The wheels squealed as I pressed down on the gas, and then the car screeched forward.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter and tighter as I drove, listening to the engine rev and roar. The trees on either side of the road closed in around me, like I was driving through a tunnel. They surged in the wind, and the road grew darker and darker, the only light being my headlights cutting through the night.

I took a tight turn, and the car screeched to stay in the lane. It was over. Everything was over. In seconds, my life had slipped away from me. Everything I knew had been turned upside down.

I ground my teeth, staring out the front windshield. The wind screamed past the car, pulling at its frame and dragging me toward the edge. I was driving to the end of the earth. The road would reach a cliff where the woods finally died, and I would fly off into the abyss.

The yellow lines banked towards another turn. I turned the wheel, and the tires screamed.

Suddenly, a dark silhouette leaped out from the woods and into the center of the road. A phantom-halo of fur lit up around its pale body. It turned its head, and two eyes flashed, reflecting white in my headlights.

I screamed. I slammed my foot onto the brake, and the car wheels screeched. I clutched the steering wheel and ground my teeth as the car skidded towards the ghostly form. Twisted spears extruded from its skull, reaching towards the windshield of my car. In a half-breath, I turned the wheel. The car jerked and spun towards the side of the road. Towards the trees.

With a gut-wrenching thud, the wheels leaped off the pavement, and the car crashed to a stop. My body flew forward, and my face slammed into the steering wheel.

For a second, everything went black. Pain pulsed through my head. A high pitched screech rang in my ears.

I opened my eyes.

A tangle of needles and branches clawed at the windshield of the car. I'd been caught by the limbs of an enormous pine. If I had been going just a few miles per hour faster... I shuddered.

I glanced behind me out the rear window as my head pounded. The road was empty. The creature was gone—disappeared off into the forest.

It must have just been a deer.

I let out an icy breath that hung in front of my face like fog.

A deer.

I clenched my hands into fists.

A stupid, stupid deer.

Grinding my teeth, I put the car into reverse and slammed my foot on the gas. The tires spun beneath me, and the engine roared. I pressed the gas harder, and the car dug itself deeper and deeper into the ditch.

"Fuck!" I slammed my hand into the side of the steering wheel. I clenched my fists until my knuckles turned white, and then I punched the steering wheel again.

"Fuck!" I yelled at the dashboard.

I yelled at the wind.

I yelled until my voice was hoarse.

As I panted in exhaustion, my head throbbed. Something wet and warm slithered down the side of my forehead. I wiped blood onto the back of my hand. My eyes burned with tears.

I opened the door to my car and stepped out. Wind surged past me, tearing at my clothes and hair. Shivering, I bent over and looked at the tires. They were suctioned into an inch of mud.

My heart skipped a beat. I wasn't getting the car out.

As I stood up, my vision went dark for a second. My head pulsed as fireflies burst in my mind like tiny fireworks. When my eyes finally cleared and my head stopped spinning, I took my phone out of my pocket and pressed the home button. The low battery light flashed once, and then the screen went completely black.

No.

I breathed heavily. I pressed the home button again and again, but I knew it was useless.

I was stranded. Jeremey's house was five miles away. It was only a mile and a half back to Lydia's, but I was not going there.

Trees moaned and murmured in the woods around me as the freezing wind blasted through them. The dense mint of cold pine trees mixed with the sickening, rubber smell of the overheated car. Dark shapes twisted and turned as they darted through the forest. A chill rushed down my spine, and I shuddered. My head pulsed in pain, and splotches of black danced in the corners of my vision. Another trickle of blood dripped from my hairline. The sound of a tree limb snapping echoed from off in the distance.

Jefferson Road saw almost no traffic at night. The chance that another car would come by within an hour or two was slim to none.

I had only one other option. Crossing my arms tightly in front of myself in an attempt to keep warm, I set out down the road.

It was only a mile to the Cat Shack... the only bar in town.