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“Dan’s Mix Tape,” she mumbled to herself as she read aloud, her brow furrowing slightly.
What the hell was a mix tape? She wasn’t a complete idiot. She had heard of cassette tapes and even seen ridiculous memes about them on social media in her youth, but she’d never actually seen one in person. Even her dad’s CDs had seemed outdated to her, and not even cool enough to be retro like vinyl was at that time.
“Okay, Dan, let’s see what you’ve got.”
It took her a minute of trying to jam it in the wrong way before she finally turned it and it slid in with a satisfyingclickand a faint spinning sound just before music flooded through the cab of the truck, its pounding rhythm making her jump. A slow smile stretched across her face as the palm of her right hand tapped against the steering wheel. The lyrics about a highway to hell seemed ironically appropriate as she gunned the motor and threw the truck into gear so that she sped the country highway to unknown horrors that awaited her.
A terrible squeal came from the slot, and MaryAnne’s eyes snapped to it in surprise as suddenly amber colored tape shot out before the tape wentthunkand the player spat out the end with the mess tangled beneath it.
“So much for that,” she sighed in annoyance. “I don’t know how people managed to listen to cassettes without going nuts if that’s going to happen.”
Removing the cassette tape from the player, she tossed it to the floor in disgust. So much for that. Her lips thinned as she resumed staring at the road ahead in silence. It was unsettling at times—that silence. But it was better than the alternative. The voice tended to fill the silence today more than she liked.
As if responding to some cue, the indistinct rumble of a masculine voice returned again. As usual, she couldn’t make out his words, but there was a confident strength to it that she responded to deep inside.
While she wasn’t sure whether the trail that she was following was an intentional lure or simply a magical byproduct of that much magic traveling through the area. At times his voice was distant and almost conversational, but other times it was then as it was now, low and soft with an intimacy that stirred something deep within the pit of her belly. It was like he was whispering seductively into her ear so that it vibrated through her body, awakening parts of her that she’d never taken notice of before. That seduction was dangerous.
It was as if he were calling to her, bidding her to join him. There was a longing that she sensed at times hidden within herself. It was wonderful and terrible all at once. Even as she dreaded his voice, she also yearned to make out his words so that she could understand what he was whispering to her. What was worse, outside of being seductive, it also made her feel safe—and that was probably the most frightening thing of all about it. Other than the doubts it gave her about her own sanity, naturally.
And yet, as much as she was afraid of what the voice was, it was her only companion. When the silence drew on too long and became too oppressive, she found herself waiting for it—searching the silence for it. She couldn’t help but feel a little relieved, even now, as the soft rumble of the voice caressed her as the road stretched on and on before her, the occasional trails of light intersecting the road before shooting into the woods.
Although the faint trails seldom flickered into view and often slipped out of sight deep into the woods, she frowned a little when they suddenly slipped over the road and cut a sharp right into the forest. She pressed on the brake, slowing the truck as she stared back at that point through her mirrors in surprise.
She didn’t see anything now, but she was caught in a moment of uncertainty. Maybe she was worrying about nothing. There were times that the guiding threads had disappeared into the woods before the road caught up with them. It was strange that they would swing off, forking away from the road so abruptly, but it could be nothing at all.
MaryAnne’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as the distance grew between her and that spot in the woods. She was uncertain what she should do. She couldn’t chance taking the truck offroad into the forest. The trees and brush grew too thickly for her to trust that she would be able to get it through. But how did the carnival make it through there? How did so many large wagons make it, all of them much bigger than the truck she was driving?
Should she take her chances with the forest? If she didn’t trust taking the truck through there, she could always go by foot. Her teeth sank into her lip nervously. Even in her youth she never strayed from the roads when wandering. She heard too many bedtime fairytale stories as a kid of bad things that happened when leaving the road behind when she was a kid. Really, it was the last thing she wanted to do. It scared her. The forest was dense and concealed its secrets well. The idea of setting foot into it at all made her feel sick. Even more than she had felt the first several hours after leaving the children’s home.
She panted softly through her unease, and the deep rumble that was murmuring suddenly changed into a sound like a purr. It slowly drained the tension from her muscles, and she swallowed as some of her panic eased back.
She could go a little further. She could always backtrack if necessary. Sure, it would cost her time, but getting lost in the forest when she didn’t need to be would cause her any less time. Her course decided, she continued to follow her gut as she traveled down the highway as it suddenly sloped down a steep mountainside out of nowhere. She pressed on the brake as the heavy weight of the truck seemed determined to fly down the road.
Her eyes frantically bounced over the road as it seemed to plummet and hook around the mountain dangerously. She could feel her chest tightening, capture her breath within her as she struggled to keep the truck under control. She didn’t know what made her glance to her left, but her eyes drifted just momentarily to the woods climbing along the mountains and she gasped as a shadowy male broke from the forest with a huge, easy stride, his dark braid tapping against his back with the swing of his gait. And he appeared to be heading straight for her!
Her foot slammed on the brake as she cried out in panic, certain that she was going to hit the male as the entire truck jerked and skidded violently for a moment before finally slowing to a stop. She sat there in the middle of the road, drawing in deep breaths as she searched for any sign of the male who had been there one minute but was gone the next. Confused, she set the brake and slowly turned in her seat, peering at her surroundings.
Had she simply imagined it?
A nervous little laugh blew past her lips as she scanned her surroundings one last time before releasing the brake and cautiously putting the truck into gear again. As usual, it made a grinding complaint, but this time she didn’t mind it so much. That, at least, seemed normal.
Inching along, the truck slowly straightened before gradually picking up speed once more as it continued down the steep, curving road. There were no more signs of her monster, and his voice had grown quiet, if indeed it actually belonged to him. The silence surrounded her like a void as the road continued to plummet for a while longer, making her unease stretch for what seemed like an eternity. She didn’t even realize that she was unconsciously holding her breath until the slope slowly leveled off as she reached the bottom of the mountain. She blew out a long sigh of relief, grateful that she was no longer faced with having to fight for control of the truck’s descent.
Even more wondrously, those tiny, delicate threads of magic suddenly cut through the air in front of her as the road came around to meet them again. The voice was still gone, but that was okay—she was on the trail again. Her foot pressed down on the gas pedal, giving the engine more fuel, eager to continue, and she tried to miss the absent sound of his voice sliding over reassuringly like a warm touch.
She was searching for it again. She knew she was and couldn’t stop herself. Part of her didn’t want to stop but was desperately clawing through the silence to curl around the sound of that voice again. It was a maddening longing. She didn’t know whether she was relieved or disappointed when the sky turned dark, and she began to look for a place to spend the night.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to look for long. The clear grassy stretch that she came upon was one of the intermittent breaks in the forest that seemed to naturally occur every so often. A tired smile pulled at the corners of her mouth as she pulled off the road and climbed down from the cab of the truck.
Her booted feet hitting the ground, MaryAnne pulled her pack out and scanned the grass for the best place to set up a camp. A warm purr surrounded her, blanketing her until it rushed through her, sinking into her bones as her eyes fell upon the remains of a campfire. She quietly gasped and moved close to it. Was it her imagination, or did it seem a little more recent than the ones she’d come across before?
Clinging to that purr within her mind, she unrolled her bedding and dropped down beside the cold coals. She didn’t bother making a new fire. She was simply too tired, and she didn’t have anything that required cooking.
Pulling out her provisions, she ate a quick, cold meal before wrapping herself in her thick bedding and dropping down to curl up among the flattened grass on the ground. The grass seemed to curve around her in such a way that she imagined that it had been reformed around the bulk of a large male curled up much like she was upon it. She imagined she could feel his warmth as a purr continued to roll through her, serenading her to sleep.
She was getting closer. Maybe then she would discover just how real all of this was. But did she really want to know that answer, or what it could possibly mean?
She worried for her children… and she worried now for herself as well.
