Chapter 2

Driving from coast to coast is as daunting as it seems. I feel trapped in this car. My skin itches in places I can’t reach. I feel both headstrong and psychotic at the same time. I’ve been driving for four days, sleeping when I can, barely eating or sleeping. I can’t shake the sight of all the blood.

What happened back there?

That wasn’t me. I would never kill anyone. The flashes could be dreams. Just figments of my fucked up imagination. My head hurts, and my eyes feel like sand was thrown in them. I’m exhausted, staring blankly out the window. Wondering what it is I could have done.

I killed a person. An actual human being with a bleeding heart.

What if I’m not human?

Somehow I manage to put that thought out of my mind. There’s a gas station on the side of the highway up ahead. I’ll pull in there. I gotta take a piss, and grab some water. Maybe a bite to eat.

There’s a strange man staring at me in the car next to me. He glances over and raises his eyebrows. Gross. I reverse out of my parking spot, spin a 180 and back into another one around the side of the building.

From behind the counter, the clerk gives me a dirty look. It is what it is. I look like trash that was ran over a few times, I’m sure.

“Where’s your restroom?” I tried to fake a smile. The clerk just pointed to the back corner of the store. No words. That’s fine. I didn’t really feel like having a conversation anyways. There are so many boxes stacked up in the hallway by the bathrooms. I open the door, and see a girl on the toilet. Just my luck. I should have knocked.

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that.” I shut the door. Leaning back against the wall across from the bathroom, I put my foot up against the bathroom door. Not about to let anyone else walk in. I hear the toilet flush, and the sink water run. She turns the handle, and I place my foot back on the ground.

“I’m really sorry.” I say but she checks my shoulder as she blasts right past me. She smells incredible. Her big black boots and tight ripped up jeans catch my eye. She’s got a nice ass. I watch her walk out the door. Maybe I should have said something to her.

The bathroom smells like a dirty mop bucket. Broken tiles on the floor, and of course there’s barely any toilet paper left on the roll. I take a leak, wash my hands, grab a water from the cooler and head to the front of the store. Maybe I should grab some lunch. There’s not much to choose from. Beef jerky, chips, and gum. That should do it for the next leg.

It’s so fucking hot here in the desert. I’ve got about five hours left to get to the California coast. Arizona is beautiful, but I’ve passed so many cacti that I never need to see one again. I walk up to the counter and buy my shit, and leave. My car is so hot to the touch. It’s over a hundred degrees out here. My steering wheel burns my hands.

I throw on my air conditioner and open my glove box. My grandmother’s tarot cards are all I have left of her. She raised me after my mother died when I was young. Learning my Grams was a witch wasn’t exactly what I had expected when I moved into her house. It sure made things interesting.

On her deathbed, she was adamant about me taking these tarot cards. She claimed they are magical. I’m not sure of the validity of that, but she did teach me how to read them. I keep them with me at all times. I’ve never considered myself to be a witch, but she told me it’s in my blood.

She also told me never to look for my father. Grams told me that day that meeting him would only bring me pain, and begged me not to find him. She died holding my hand. I watched her take her last breath. It was odd to me that the last thing she was thinking of was her tarot cards, and my father.

I pull out the deck and shuffle them in my lap. Judgment, and the King of Pentacles both flip upside down. I pull them out of the deck, and take a close look at them. If what I’m going through is a spiritual awakening as the first card suggests, I’m not sure I want it. The second one reminds me to be methodical, and not to rush into anything without a solid plan.

Why do these cards have to be so fucking accurate. It’s annoying. I gotta trust that I’m making the right decision here. Oddly enough I feel that this reading is telling me that if I find the right people, I may find my father. Despite my Grams wishes, that’s what I want. I need answers that only he can give me.

I begin to pull out of my parking spot. Steering with my right hand, and eating a stick of beef jerky with the left. The girl I walked in on in the bathroom was fighting with the creepy dude I moved away from when I got here. Something doesn’t feel right. He has her pinned against the car. She’s trying to wiggle her way out from his grasp. He’s talking to her nose to nose, while holding her wrists with his fat grubby hands.

My dumb ass needs to go make sure she’s okay. I park my car a few spots away. They don’t see me. What the fuck am I thinking? He’s a beast, but I could take him if I had to. I step out of my car, and pop my trunk, reached for my skates and tied them together. Slung them over my shoulder, and I took a few steps towards them. He’s got a hold on her neck. How is nobody seeing this?

My heart beats harder as I close in on them.

He backhands her face, throwing her head down to the side. She see’s me coming out of the corner of her eye. I hold one skate, and the laces in my other hand circling the other one around in the air. My fear is nonexistent. I land a blow to his temple. He steps back, she runs to my side. Fuck, he’s coming right for me. I quickly flip a skate up into his nuts, and clock him in the face with the other. He falls to his knees.

“Are you okay?” I say to her.

“I am now.”

“Aster.” I hold my hand out for her.

“Ava,” She shakes my hand, “Is that your car?” She motions to my ride. I nod. “We gotta get the fuck out of here. Now!”

“AVA!” The big dude stands up. His mouth is bleeding.

“Shit.” Ava says as she climbs into my car. I throw it in drive, and peel the fuck outta the parking lot. “He’s gonna chase us.”

I almost wish I could turn into the monster I was back in Massachusetts.