by Candy Crum
Rain and large hail began to fall as I belted myself in. I could hear the pained screams of the patients and my conscience began to eat at me. Could I really leave them to die? Rachel’s foot didn’t give me the opportunity to decide. The car lurched forward on screeching tires as she began our getaway.
Rachel and I gasped as a large pink Dogwood that stood on the corner of the street spontaneously engulfed in thick orange and blue flames. Before we could even reach the end of the block, the tree broke in half from the intense heat and completely cut off our turn.
The scream of the Cruze’s brakes sounded out once again as Rachel locked them up on the wet pavement, but it was too late. The front tires managed to climb over the thick trunk, but dangled over the other side as the underbelly came to rest too far from the ground for them to reach the pavement.
“She’s not going to let us leave!” I shouted. My breathing was coming in ragged gasps as I began panicking even more. “What are we going to do?”
My biggest worry was the fire burning beneath us. If we didn’t move soon, the car would explode. Rachel was a pillar of strength as I looked into her eyes, watching as she studied our surroundings. She was calm and cool in situations that required it, even in that one. I envied her that.
“I don’t think it’ll be much of an issue,” Rachel said, putting the car in neutral as she looked into the rearview mirror.
I was about to ask what the hell she might be referring to, but my question was answered before I even had a chance to ask. The rear end of the car rose from the ground, and I turned to see Sydney’s tiny form doing all the heavy lifting. She pushed the car forward and over the tree.
“Now!” Sydney yelled over the noise of the heavy rain and hail.
If there’d been any doubt in my mind, it certainly wasn’t there any longer. As soon as Rachel hit the gas, a large gust of wind slammed into us, momentarily lifting the car on the left two wheels and launching Sydney across the street into a large fence. Once all four tires made contact with pavement, Rachel wasted no time hitting the gas and speeding away.
Ignoring the red light and cutting off several people in the process, Rachel made a hard right onto the main highway that lead out of town. I felt her hand on mine, and I realized that I was still gasping to catch my breath. My throat was on fire because it was so dry, and my head was splitting. All things that I failed to notice during our getaway.
“Rach, how did you know?” I asked as tears began streaming down my face. I couldn’t hold it any longer. That was the most terrifying moment of my life.
“I got a random phone call from someone telling me that you were in danger. She said that you didn’t know her yet, but that you would. She said that if I didn’t listen, you’d either be dead or in grave danger within the hour. I was told exactly where to go and how much time I had to be there. It was the craziest thing. She was right about everything.”
Someone that I didn’t know, but would. I wondered if it was the raven-haired Vampire that I’d seen in my dream.
“Why did she call you and not me?”
“She knew you’d be at the hospital. She knew where you worked. She probably knew you wouldn’t exactly be able to take phone calls.”
“Okay. Well, the new doc turned out to be a damn Vampire. So, surely, she could have sent the message through her. None of this makes sense. Did she give you a name?”
“I don’t know why they contacted me. All I knew was that it was serious. They knew too much about you for it to be fake. And yeah. She said her name was Sayen.”
Something about that name seemed very familiar to me.
“Do you recognize the name?” Rachel asked.
I nodded as my memory returned to me. “Yeah, but it’s not possible. When I helped my paternal grandfather and my uncle record the family tree onto their computers, I saw that name. That was the name of my great-great grandmother. She would have to be over a hundred and twenty years old. More than that, even. Did she sound elderly? Wait… impossible. Don’t bother answering.”
“Well, no. Obviously. She sounded no older than you or me, but Kay, are you really going to dismiss her as unreal or impossible? A woman weighing all of a hundred pounds just picked you up by the throat and tossed you like a football. She did that just before lifting and carrying this big ass car a few feet over a damn tree. All that, mind you, to save us from a woman with some crazy nasty power.”
I nodded again. “I suppose you’re right. This is all just a bit too much to deal with. Yesterday, I was a normal girl with a normal hectic life. Today, I’m not even sure I’m human, or at least even half.”
“We’ll figure this out. I promise.”