“Thanks, but we’re good,” I replied, my patience wearing thin.
“Are you sure?” he pressed, stepping closer, his tone shifting. “I know a few spots that might interest you—haunted places, old legends. You’d be surprised what this town has to offer.”
“Look, we just want to get going,” I said, my voice firm, but I could see the way he took a step closer, his demeanor shifting from friendly to predatory.
“Maybe you should reconsider,” he said, a glint in his eye that sent a chill racing down my spine.
I felt Amelia tense beside me, and my instincts kicked in. “Get the fuck away from us,” I snapped, my voice low and dangerous. I stepped in front of Amelia, shielding her body from him.
The mechanic’s smile faded, and I could see the threat in his posture. “You really don’t want to leave just yet. There’s so much more to see,” He reached for something in his tool belt.
Before he could get any closer, I acted. I stepped forward, my fist connecting with his jaw in a swift, decisive motion. He stumbled back, surprise flashing across his face as he hit the ground hard.
“Caiden!” Amelia gasped, her eyes wide with shock.
“Get in the car!” I shouted, adrenaline coursing through me as I hurried to the driver’s seat. I didn’t have time to think about what I’d just done; all I knew was that we needed to leave.
Amelia jumped into the passenger seat, her breath coming in quick gasps. “What the hell just happened?”
“He was going to hurt us.”
I could hear the mechanic groaning behind us as I turned the key in the ignition, the engine roaring to life.
As we sped away from the mechanic’s shop, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we had narrowly escaped something dark, something that had been waiting to ensnare us in its web.
In my rearview mirror, I saw the mechanic rise slowly, his face twisted with rage. Behind him, the shop wavered in the heat-haze, like a nightmare dissolving at dawn.
“Where do we go now?” Amelia asked, glancing nervously out the window.
“We drive past that inn,” I said, my grip tightening on the steering wheel. “We get the hell out of this town.”
I wouldn’t let anything hurt her, not again.
As we approached the inn, I felt my breath catch in my throat.
The building was gone. In its place was a burned-out husk, the walls blackened and crumbling, as if it had never existed at all.
25
AMELIA
Whatever happened back there,I didn’t want to know. The memory of that twisted inn and the strange woman’s eyes lingered in my mind like a fog I couldn’t shake. The crumbling inn had looked like a decaying corpse as we drove past it.
There was no trace of a building at all, just ruins piled upon the ground. A chill ran down my spine as I remembered the way the shadows had seemed to reach out, as if they were alive, hungry for something. Or someone.
I felt as if we had trespassed on forbidden ground, one which we never should have stumbled upon.
Caiden refused to talk about it. He stared straight ahead, focused on driving far away from where we were.
I could sense the tension radiating off him. It mirrored my own feelings. Anxiety coiling in my stomach, reminding me of that night in Colorado when we had been trapped in Blake’s cabin.
The memories flooded back unbidden: the darkness, the feeling of being hunted, the terror that had seeped into my bones.
I glanced at Caiden, his profile illuminated by the dashboard lights, shadowed and brooding.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper, but I knew he wasn’t. I could see it in the way he clenched his jaw, the way his brow furrowed deep in thought.
“Yeah,” he replied. I could sense the panic simmering just beneath the surface, a tempest brewing in his mind.
