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But the car had made me nervous, and I couldn’t stop thinking about my mom. How she’d died on a night like this, driving back from a friend’s house in Providence. On a rainy road, during a storm. She’d lost control of the car and plunged down a bank.
I shuddered. “Don’t think about that,” I said to myself. “Don’t think about it.”
I carried on, but eventually, I came to another fork in the road. This one seemed to follow the river. Should I turn right and go back the way I came? Or go left and run the risk of ending up somewhere even worse than this?
Lightning struck again, this time above the ridge which led down into the ravine. I decided to take my chances and turned left. But then, there was an almighty flash and a crack, and I screamed and jumped out of my seat, terrified.
A burst of lightning ran down, so close I thought it was going to strike me dead. And then, there was a rumble and thunder like nothing I’d ever heard, one I felt in my bones, in the center of my body. And then, I heard something creaking, and before I knew it, something had smashed into my car.
A shockwave ran up my arms, and I shielded my eyes, turning from the shattered glass. When everything was quiet again, and all I could hear was the wind howling and the rain beginning to soak through my skin, I looked up.
The trunk of a tree had fallen on my car. It had taken out the engine and smashed my windshield. Luckily, the glass had held and not broken all over me. But it was a miracle I wasn’t injured—a miracle I wasn’t dead.
I began to sob. I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to be home. I wanted to see Cassie, to tell her I loved her. I wanted to see my dad, wanted to spend time with him. It was a stupid idea to run away, just like the last time.
Was I going to spend my whole life running away from Eric Slade?
I got out of the car, taking my shoes with me. I had some sneakers in my suitcase, but I didn’t even think to take them out. I stumbled over to the side of the road, where I could see the damage done to my car by the falling tree.
There was only one word for it. Disaster! I took my phone out of my pocket and could see a couple of bars of signal. I called my dad.
The phone rang. It rang for what seemed like forever.
Then, it clicked.
“Jamie! Thank God you’re okay, sweetie.”
“Dad,” I said, breathing in relief. “Dad, are you all right?”
“We’re fine, honey. No fireworks on the terrace tonight, but everyone here’s having fun. We’re mostly just holed up in the bar watching the lightning. Where are you?”
“Dad, I … I made a mistake,” I said. “I tried to get home, and then there was the storm, and my car, and I … I …”
I was choked up with fear and worry, sobbing out of sheer need to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.
“Sweetie,” said my dad. “It’s okay honey. Look, I was worried about you. And I didn’t know what to do. But it’s okay. I’ve sent …”
“What?” I said, shaking the phone. Waterlogged and slowly going dark, the call was failing.
“I said I sent …ic. …ent Er … to get—"
Then, the call failed.
Just then, lightning struck the valley again. But this time, the glaring light illuminated a dark shadow standing to my left, up high on the bank where the forest stretched down to meet the road through the ravine.
Chapter Twelve
Eric
“Thereyouare,”Igrowled.
“What are you doing here?” said Jamie. She lowered her hand to her side and put her phone in her pocket.
“Your dad sent me to find you,” I muttered, striding across the road to where she was sheltering under the tree. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“The lightning,” Jamie said, gesturing at her car. The falling tree had completely crushed the hood, and she shivered in the cold, staring at the crushed metal and the flat tires.
“Well, you’re not gonna get it towed until tomorrow,” I said. “Only a crazy person would come out in this.”
