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“Alice…” Hazel said.
“I know,” I said, not looking over at her.
“It just…”
“I know.”
I didn’t want to talk about it.
I sat bolt upright, staring out the front window as if we were suffering from torrential rain and it was difficult to see. Maybe if we ignored it, pretended like we hadn’t seen or heard it and never spoke about it ever again, we could believe it hadn’t happened.
In the back, the music still blared and the girls danced merrily, grinding against the grateful seats. Further in the back, one of the girls was snoring. Probably Victoria.
The rest of the world hadn’t noticed the bizarre goings-on. It was probably just us. It was nothing, I told myself. Nothing but a figment of our imagination.
Then the light blinked on again, this time directly above us. It was even brighter this time, like a hospital’s fluorescents. It exploded across the front and side of the minivan, spreading our shadow over the canvas of the sheer mountain alongside us.
I felt the effect immediately—a gentle but persistent tug on the roof.
I pressed my foot on the gas. The engine roared but we didn’t zip forward. The front lifted, dragged by that incredible light.
Thinking quickly—or perhaps not thinking at all but letting my instincts take over—I shoved the car into reverse and slammed my foot on the pedal.
The rear wheels bit the tarmac and pulled hard. They didn’t pull us backward, and instead shook us left to right and kicked up a thick cloud of smoke.
Hazel screamed. The girls sleeping in the back—previously unaware of what was happening—bolted to attention.
“What in God’s name is going on?” Victoria said.
“We just want to get our beauty sleep for the wedding tomorrow,” Maddy said. “Can’t you be quiet for one minute? Oh.”
They both turned to face the immense light that streamed through the windows and turned the world white.
“What the hell is going on?” Victoria said. “Is a helicopter chasing us?”
Hazel was too scared to answer her. And I was too busy trying to escape.
The smell of burning rubber filled the cab until even Bianca and Sirena noticed it.
Sirena screwed up her face. “Victoria! Will you stop farting for five seconds?”
The minivan rose off the road. There was no doubt in my mind that this thing, whatever it was, was going to take us with it.
Honk!
Honk honk hoooonk!
The light blinked out and we fell the few inches it managed to lift us.
Honk!
The noise grew louder.
In the rearview mirror, the headlights of a large truck raced toward us, growing louder, brighter, and closer.
The engine had stalled. I turned the key in the ignition and muttered a silent prayer as the engine roared back into life.
I slammed my foot on the gas. The minivan bolted forward as if it’d been stung. The cliffside reared up fast. I swung the wheel and worked around the long curve, struggling to keep ahead of the truck behind us.
